Readings should be completed prior to the class period
for which they are assigned. Students are responsible for
any and all changes made to the syllabus during the semester.
Additional readings will be added.
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15
Part I. The Rise of Agriculture and Agricultural Civilizations
Week 1
9/2 What is World History?
9/4 People Without a History?
Readings:
- Stavrianos, Introduction, ch. 1; Stearns, Preface IX-XI, pp. 1-13
Primary Sources:
Week 2
9/9 Elites and the Masses: Tributary Societies and the Origins
of Civilization
Readings:
- Stavrianos, ch. 2; Stearns, pp. 13-16
9/11 Disease, Climate and Resources: Geography and Climate
in History
Readings:
- Perry, 39-42; Iliad and Odyssey
Week 3
9/16 Ziggurats and Pyramids: River Valley Civilizations in the
Middle East
Readings:
Primary Sources:
9/18 Aryans, Oracles Bones, Myth and Mystery: River Valley
Civilizations on the Indus River and the
Yellow (Hwang He) River
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Part II. The Classical Period, 1000 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Week 4
9/23 Sons of Heaven and Filial Piety: Social Order and Cultural
Integration in Classical China
Readings:
Primary Sources:
9/25 Harmony, Humaneness, and the Dao
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Week 5
9/30 Brahmans and Sudras: Order and Integration in Classical India
Readings:
Primary Sources:
10/2 Karma, Dharma, Enlightenment, and Illusion
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Week 6
10/7 Helots, Heterai, and Useless Questions
Readings:
Primary Sources:
10/9 Civic Duty and Personal Allegiances
Primary Sources:
Week 7
10/14 World Religions and the Axial Age
Readings:
Primary Sources:
10/16 Mid Term Exam
Part III. Postclassical Period
Week 8
10/21 Islam
Readings:
Primary Sources:
10/23 Veils, Shari'a, the Millet system, and ijtihad
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Week 9 The Spread of Islam
10/28 India and S.E. Asia under the impact of Islam
Readings:
Primary Sources:
10/30 Swahili cities and Saharan Caravans
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Week 10
11/4 The World of Eastern Orthodoxy: Byzantium and Russia
Readings:
Primary Sources:
11/6 The First European Civilization
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 10, pp. 199-218
Primary Sources:
Week 11
11/11 Kings, Saints, and Clerics
Readings:
Primary Sources:
11/13 The Harvest of the Middle Ages
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Week 12
11/18 Aztecs, Anasazi, and Cahokia
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 12, pp. 236-246
Primary Sources:
11/20 Gunpowder, printing, and poetry
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 11, pp. 219-228
Primary Sources:
Week 13
11/25 Neo-Confucianism, Li-Po and the Chinese Golden Age
Readings:
Primary Sources:
11/27 Thanksgiving
Week 14
12/2 Samurai, Ikebana, and the Sound of One Hand Clapping
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 11, pp. 229-235
Primary Sources:
12/4 The Last of the Great Steppe Conquerors
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 13, pp. 247-251
Primary Sources:
Week 15
12/9 The World in Transition
Readings:
- Stearns, ch. 13, pp. 252-256
Primary Sources:
12/11 Rise of Capitalism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
