The Ethics of World History

World historians have developed an impressive body of criticism regarding the traditional Western civilization curriculum. They have disregarded the ethical pretensions of Western civilization, however, as well as the question of the ethics of world history itself. The relationship between ethics, politics, and education has been the subject of strenuous discussion and posturing in the United States since the rise of the "neoconservative" movement in the 1980s. Neoconservative commentators have praised the ethical virtues of Western civilization and condemned world history as relativist and amoral. This development warrants the serious attention of world historians. This article argues that the question of the ethics of world history is a serious and interesting intellectual problem with large implications for the field.