Fall 2004 Office: Benicia 1011
Dr. Martin Secker Office hours: TTh 11:00-12:00 a.m.
Class hours: TTh
Email: mdsec@lycos.com
Course website: http://mdsec.tripod.com The weekly reading schedule, links to online readings and websites, and handouts will all be posted on the website. You will need to check it continually.
Course Texts:
Stavrianos, Leften. Lifelines From Our Past, revised edition.
Pomeranz,
Kenneth, and Topak, Steven. The
World That Trade Created.
Marx, Karl, and Engels,
McNeill, William.
A World History, 4th edition.
In addition, we will read a few other articles or primary sources off the internet.
This course is designed to provide an overview of the nature and course of human history. Along the way, the student will have the opportunity to acquire a superficial familiarity with most of the major civilizations of the world. At the same time, the course will suggest some of the factors that have affected and continue to affect the way societies work and people live. By the end of the course it is hoped that each student will have gained some sense of the cultural and historical roots of contemporary human societies as well as an appreciation of the universal character of human history.
Upon completion of the course students will be able to demonstrate an
understanding of:
Ř The transformations of European civilization that were to have enormous consequences for the rest of the world. (cause and effect relationships)
Ř The impact of Western civilization on other cultures since the sixteenth century.
Ř The concepts of Westernization, cultural accommodation, and cultural resistance.
Ř The complex interplay of value systems, social structure, geography and ecology, technology, economics, and political institutions in human societies.
Ř How societies and civilizations have confronted issues of diversity and cultural differences within their populations.
Ř The increasingly global nature of civilization today
Ř The nature of political, environmental, social, economic, and cultural issues facing the world today.
Students will also be able to demonstrate:
Ř University-level methods of historical inquiry, text interpretation, analytical writing, and critical thinking.
Ř The ability to reflect upon their own lives in the light of world history.
Attendance is required. You are allowed four absences without penalty. Each absence beyond that will result in a one-grade reduction in your course grade. With eight absences you automatically fail this course.
Class preparation and participation (5%) Although not a major portion of your calculated grade, I expect students to come to class each day having read thoroughly all materials assigned for that day and ready to discuss the topics covered that day. Consistent, thorough preparation will greatly enhance your grasp of the sometimes complex subject matter of this class, and will improve the chemistry within the classroom making the class itself a better learning experience. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be mentally “into” this course.
Exam 1 (10 %)- Exam 1 will cover Lifelines From Our Past.
Exam 2 (15%) – Exam 2 will cover all materials from Week 5 to Week 10.
Exam 3 (30 %)- The Final Exam will be cumulative but will focus on later
material
Journal (30 %) – see assignment sheet.
Essay on Pomeranz (5%)- see assignment sheet
Identification List (5%)- Fully identify terms listed on term sheet.
Please note: new assignments can be made at any time. Students are
responsible for all assignments. I reserve the right to make changes or
adjustments in the syllabus at any time. Students are responsible for keeping
up with any such adjustments.
Written work is due at the beginning of class on the due date. Late work is accepted, but a one-grade penalty is applied for each day (not each class period) it is late, beginning at the end of class.
Course grades are determined on a 1000-point scale. Weight is given to assignments according to the above percentages.
900-1000=A 600-699 =D
800-899 =B Less than 600=F
700-799 =C
Resources on the
Web
Writing Guides: Brown
University; Carney; Bowdoin
College
History texts: Internet History Sourcebook Project; world civilizations;
Online textbook: http://fsmitha.com/index.html
Course Handouts: Journal Assignment; Terms; Synopsis of Stavrianos, Parts I and II; Notes from McNeill; Notes from Pomeranz; The Early Islamic World; Overview of the Ottoman Empire; Early Modern China; Overview of Tokugawa Japan; Overview of the Mughal Empire; Tradition and Authority In Early Modern Europe; Politics in Early Modern Europe; The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment; Industrial Revolution; The Old Regime; The French Revolution; Overview of Intellectual Developments; The "New Imperialism"; Imperialism in Asia ; American Imperialism to 1914; Imperialism in the Near East; The Russian Revolution; China, 1898-1940; Turkey and the Arab World to World War II; India to World War II; Japan to World War II; The Rise of Totalitarianism; The World Since 1945
Weekly Schedule
Part I. Constructing a Framework
Week 1
8/31 People Without A History
9/2 “Mr. Order Meets Mr. Chaos”
Required readings: Stavrianos, pp. 3-43
"Mr. Order Meets Mr. Chaos"
Week 2 9/7 Kings, Priests and Peasants- the Tributary
Basis of Civilization Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
peruse 43-89 9/9 Explorers, Pirates, or Merchants? The Faces of Early Commercial
Capitalism Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
90-105 Pomeranz,
Intro and pp. 3-9, 44-51, and 5.4, 5.5, 7.1 Week 3 9/14 Aztecs and Africans.
The Destuctive Side of Commercial
Capitalism. Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
105-111 Pomeranz, 1.6;
3.1, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.10, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 7.2 9/16 Steam Engines, New Cities, and Revolution Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
111-126 Pomeranz-pt.
6, and 4.2, 4.5-4.7, 6.2-6.6, 6.8, 6.12, 7.12 Week 4 9/21 War, Evil and Transformation: A Century of
Crisis Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
126-153 9/23 Gender Relations and the
Environment in a Capitalist Age. Required readings: Stavrianos, pp.
153-187 Week 5 9/28 First
Exam Exam #1 Preparation; Stages of Capitalism
Part II. A Look at the Sources 9/30 Sultans, Ulema,
and Veiled Women: the Islamic World to 1800 Required readings: RWC, pp. 1-10 Week 6 10/5 Scholar-Gentlemen and Heavenly Mandates: the
Confucian World to 1800 Required readings: RWC, pp.46-52 Pomeranz,
1.1-1.3, 2.1, 3.2, 4.9, 10/7 Geishas and Samurai: the Confucian World to
1800 Required readings: RWC, 109-111 Week 7 10/12 Moghul Required readings: RWC, pp. 27-30 Pomeranz, 1.4 , 1.11, 10/14 Tradition and Change in Required readings: RWC, pp. 136-152 Week 8 10/19 Tradition and Change in Required readings: RWC, 153-173 Pomeranz, 3.1,
3.2, 3.6, 3.7. 10/21 Dickens’s Required readings: RWC, pp. 174-187 Pomeranz, 6.12 Week 9 10/26 Required readings: RWC, pp. 188-193; Marx, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 8-31 10/28 We Rejoin the Animal Kingdom and Lose Our
Reason: Darwin and Freud. Required readings: RWC,194-201, 214-236 Week 10 11/2
Veni, Vidi, Vici or Just the
Survival of the Fittest? Required readings: RWC, 202-213 Pomeranz,
1.13, 7.3, 5.5, 5.4, 2.7-2.8, 2.9, 4.2, 4.778 11/4 Lenin, Hitler, and the Fall
of Western Civilization Required readings: RWC, pp. 237-254 Week 11 11/9 Total War, Cold War, and the Rise of Required readings: RWC, pp. 255-256 Exam #2 due 11/11 Napoleon, a Canal, and the Destruction of
the Ottomans Required readings: RWC, 11-22 Pomeranz, 2.7-2.8 Week 12 11/16 Oil, Zionists, and Mandates Required readings: RWC, pp. 23-26 11/18
Tea, Opium and Gun Boats. Required readings: RWC, pp. 53-61 Pomeranz, 3.9,
6.8, 7.3 Week 13 11/23 Sun Yat-Sen, Mao Tse-Tung, Deng Xiaping and Ho Chi
Minh: Missionaries of Westernization? Required readings: RWC, pp. 62-71 11/25 Thankgiving Week 14 11/30 The Raj and the
Knife of Sugar Required readings: RWC, pp. 27-39 Pomeranz,
1.13, 2.9, 3.2, 6.4 12/2
Non-Violence, Religious Division,
and the Search for True Required readings: RWC, pp. 39-45 Week 15 12/7 Required readings: RWC, pp. 72-108 12/9 Gender Relations, the Environment and Coming Anarchy? Required readings: Stavrianos, 189-251 “The Coming Anarchy”