History 102-60: World Civilization Since 1500
Lewis-Clark State College, Spring 2008

Prof. Eric Martin
310 Spalding Hall (Office Hours: TBA)
Phone: (208) 792-2281
Email: elmartin@lcsc.edu Website: www.lcsc.edu/elmartin
For Web Courses: please use the Blackboard course mail function and website.


Course Description

This course will offer a global perspective on the past by introducing students to the study of societies and cultures from approximately the end of the 14th century CE to the present. The underlying assumption of this course is that world history is a necessary conceptual tool for understanding the complexities of our interdependent world. Therefore, we will study a variety of issues that have shaped the development of societies around the globe over the past six centuries. These topics will consider the historical significance of sustained contact between the 'old' and the 'new' worlds, the role of slavery at the global level, and the interaction between the global processes of industrialization and imperialism, the role of technological change, and other issues relevant to the connections and relationships that have shaped civilizations as a result of migration, war, and commerce. Additionally, this course will emphasize the development of an understanding of how history as a discipline is produced by considering conceptual/theoretical issues and practicing some of the analytical and critical thinking skills utilized by historians. These issues include investigating the meanings/implications of terms, determining what is significant enough to be ‘history,' and working with primary and secondary sources.

This course is based on the assumption that you have access to a computer that is connected to the internet and that you are already familiar with basic web browsing software. Although a 56k telephone modem will work, this course will be much more enjoyable through a faster connection.


Purpose/Goals

 By the end of the course, you should have a demonstrable understanding of the World History since 1500. More generally, as a Social Science course, History 102 should help you to do at least some of the following:


Required Readings/Viewings

Optional Readings

Reference/Study Guides

Grading and Evaluation


Online Classroom Participation & Discussion (50% of overall grade)
This course is heavily based on discussion and depends upon your active participation. 50% of your overall grade will be based on your daily participation in our various classroom discussions over the week's assigned presentations, readings and topics. Although this course is online, we still need to maintain a system of deadlines. The discussion boards for the first half of class will be closed at mid term. There is not a "magic number" of postings that you should strive for, just keep in mind that the only tool I have to measure your understanding of the material -- readings. videos,. and websites -- besides our formal essays are your postings. I expect to see something from you every week.

Two Formal Essays (25% of overall grade each, 50% total)
You will write two, four-six page (typed, double spaced) essays. Each will be worth 25% of your overall grade. You will receive a choice of topics for each essay and you will be be expected to integrate the class readings, discussions and your own thoughts into a formal piece of writing on one of the topics. More details below.

Optional Book Analysis (Up to 5% each): Demonstrate that you are a true seeker of historical knowledge, as well as a student deserving an evaluation of "excellent" at the end of the term, by writing a 4 page book analysis (not a report) on an agreed upon book from the bibliography of Traditions and Encounters. [Contact me if you would like a book suggestion.]

First Half of Semester, Due by Feb. 20th
Second Half of Semester, Due by April 23th

Each Analytical essay will be factored into your grade as a maximum of 5% extra credit depending on the quality of your work. Doing the optional assignments give you one more source to use in your formal essays and an option to focus your formal essays on your optional readings.

Academic Honesty: You are on your honor at all times and my presumption is that each of you is honest. However, the College does not tolerate academic dishonesty of any sort. All written work that you hand in -- discussion board postings, essays and examinations -- must be exclusively your work. In addition to receiving a failing grade in this course, expect expulsion proceedings to begin if I have to waste my time gathering the evidence to prove you submitted work that was not yours. Contact me if you are not clear on this point.

 

Schedule

Explanation of terms

Discussion Topic(s): Gives you an idea of what to expect on our discussion boards.

Primary and Secondary Sources: These are the documents you are expected to be able to intelligently describe, explain, analyze, compare and otherwise discuss in all aspects of this course. The documents can all be found in Worlds of History Vol. 2. Our course is centered on these documents. Some of these documents are easier to read than others. Many documents you will need to read at least twice and I strongly suggest you take notes in your book. Give the assigned chapter a quick look and get a sense of what kinds of documents you are being asked to discuss. Then start learning something about the historical context of the documents.

Online Presentation(s): These are the episodes from the series Bridging World History that you are expected to use in all aspects of this course. You should pay attention to them for anything that might help you understand the documents from Worlds of History Vol. 2 and issues from Worlds of History. Bridging World History often provides direct and obvious context for the documents. However, Bridging World History also often introduces new, but related material. You are going to need to connect the dots. I suggest you take notes while viewing the episodes. Additionally, I want you to be on the lookout for anything that gives you insight into the nature of the discipline of history and/or the production of history. Finally, we will have some discussion focused on evaluating Bridging World History as a tool for learning history. So keeps some notes.

Background Readings: These are the chapters in Traditions and Encounters that contain material relevant to understanding the assigned documents from Worlds of History. If you read a document form Worlds of History and did not understand there is a high probability that you don't know enough about the society that created that document. You will dramatically increase you ability to understand the world around you if you take the time to read each of these chapters carefully. However, Traditions and Encounters reads like ... an encyclopedic textbook. Which it is, and it is a good one. At the very least, skim each chapter so you have a sense of the material covered -- doing a good job of this will help you return to the material more easily later. And look up the relevant sections for your assigned documents from Worlds of History. Don't forget about the table of contents and the index. When you have Worlds of History out you should have Traditions and Encounters out as well.

Additional Resources: These resources are additional and purely optional. I took the materials directly from the teaching guides for Worlds of History Vol. 2 and Bridging World History. There are other sources you might be interested in on my world history links web page.

Optional Readings for Discussion: This is where our discussion over the optional reading Lies My Teacher Told Me will take place.


Part One:
[Your class participation/discussion for the first half of class and your first formal essays are due by 2/27. Below is suggested weekly schedule so you can plan your work accordingly. Don't let the flexibility of working on your own time table fool you, we have a lot to cover and you could get behind quickly if you are not diligent.]

Week One Begins 1/14

Discussion Topic(s): Introductions, What is History?, "Maps, Time and World History" and "History and Memory"

Primary and Secondary Sources: None
Online Presentation(s): Bridging World History UNIT 1: Maps, Time and World History ; Bridging World History UNIT 2: History and Memory

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Maps, Time and World History"
Question 1: What kinds of geographical and chronological frameworks do world historians use?
Question 2: What are the units of analysis used by world historians, and how do these differ from those used in other fields of history?
Question 3: Why are so many historians interested in studying world history at this particular moment in our own history?
Question 4: What is the purpose of studying world history?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "History and Memory"
Question 1: What are some of the different ways individuals and groups remember and represent the past?
Question 2: What are some of the causes that prompt professional historians to reinterpret and ask new questions of the past?
Question 3: What are some of the ways twentieth-century world historians have helped to shape collective memories of the past?
Question 4: Why is commemoration of the past a source of conflict, and how do individuals and groups challenge the collective memories of other individuals and groups?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Vol. II: Preface

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Introduction & Ch. 1


Week Two Begins 1/21

Discussion Topic(s): "Overseas Expansion in the Early Modern Period"; "Early Global Commoditites"

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History Vol. II: Ch 1. Overseas Expansion in the Early Modern Period (Read All)
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 15 Bridging World History: "Early Global Commodities"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Early Global Commoditites"
Question 1: What caused the creation of the first truly global network of world trade in the sixteenth century?
Question 2: How can historians reconstruct the past by tracing the exchange of particular commodities (such as silver)?
Question 3: How were early commercial patterns altered by the European discovery of silver in the Americas?
Question 4: How did forces and events that originated outside the West cause the "rise of the West"?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: 23. Transansoceanic and Global Connections, 24 The Transformation of Europe, 25. New Worlds: The Americas and Oceania

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Early Global Commodities" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "Crucibles of Change: Landscapes, Material Culture, and Social Life after 1500," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 620, 627–46, 663.
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "Crucibles of Change: Landscapes, Material Culture, and Social Life after 1500," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 620–27, 646–56, 662–63.
    • Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, "Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century," Journal of World History 13, no. 2 (2002): 391–427.

  • For Worlds of History Vol. II: Ch 1. Overseas Expansion in the Early Modern Period

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch. 2


Week Three Begins 1/28

Discussion Topic(s): "Atlantic World Encounters"; "Land and Labor"; "Food, Demographics, and Culture"

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History Vol. II : Ch. 2, Atlantic World Encounters (Read All)
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 14 Bridging World History: "Land and Labor"; UNIT 16 Bridging World History:"Food, Demographics, and Culture"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Land and Labor"
Question 1: What are some ways that different cultures and times have used land and labor?
Question 2: How did conquest affect systems of land and labor?
Question 3: How and why did labor systems change on a global scale after 1500?
Question 4: How did massive forced labor migrations between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries contribute to globalization?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Food, Demographics, and Culture"
Question 1: How were shifting patterns of food production and consumption related to the process of globalization?
Question 2: What effects did the introduction of new foods have on local and regional environments?
Question 3: What kinds of social and cultural changes resulted from the introduction of new foods to China, West Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Question 4: How does the production of foods influence social organization?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: 26. Africa and the Atlantic World, 27. Tradition and Change in East, Asia 28. The Islamic Empires

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Land and Labor" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "Commerce and Change: The Creation of a Global Economy and the Expansion of Europe," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 491–508.
    • Markus Vink, "The World's Oldest Trade": Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century," Journal of World History 14, no. 2 (2003):131–77.
    • Anand Yang, "Indian Convict Workers in Southeast Asia in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," Journal of World History 14, no. 2 (2003): 179–208.

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Food, Demographics, and Culture" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "Crucibles of Change: Landscapes, Material Culture, and Social Life after 1500," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 656–64.
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "Cultural Creativity and Borrowed Art," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), color photo essay.
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, "My Dinner with Attila the Hun," in In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 341.

  • For Worlds of History Vol. II : Ch. 2, Atlantic World Encounters
    • TBA

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch. 3 and 4

  • How is Loewen's interpretation of history in Ch. 3 and 4 supported or contradicted by the sources from Reilly and/or this week's episodes of Bridging World History?


Week Four Begins 2/4

Discussion Topic(s): "The Scientific Revolution"; "Rethinking the Rise of the West"

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History Ch. 5. The Scientific Revolution
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 18 Bridging World History:"Rethinking the Rise of the West" ;

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Rethinking the Rise of the West"
Question 1: Historians believe that the world was transformed into a global system dominated by Europe between 1500 and 1900. What are some of the different ways historians have tried to explain this "rise of the West"?
Question 2: What is meant by the term "world systems theory," and how do world systems operate?
Question 3: What are the basic issues in the debate between scholars David Landes and Andre Gunder Frank, and what kinds of evidence and arguments do both sides use?
Question 4: In the last twenty-five years, how have historians' changing views of the "rise of the West" illustrated the dynamic nature of the discipline of history?

Background Readings:

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Rethinking the Rise of the West" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in World History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 12, "Commerce and Change: The Creation of a Global Economy and the Expansion of Europe."
    • McNeill, William H., "The Rise of the West after Twenty-Five Years," Journal of World History 1, no. 1 (1990): 1–21.
    • David Buck, "Was It Pluck or Luck that Made the West Grow Rich?" Journal of World History 10, no. 2 (Fall 1999): 413–30.
    • Jack A. Goldstone, "Efflorescences and Economic Growth in World History: Rethinking the "Rise of the West" and the Industrial Revolution," Journal of World History 13, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 323–89.

  • For Worlds of History Ch. 5. The Scientific Revolution

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch 5


Week Five Begins 2/11

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History Ch. 6. Enlightenment and Revolution
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 17 Bridging World History: "Ideas Shape the World"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Ideas Shape the World"
Question 1: How do ideas affect human actions in ways that can change the world?
Question 2: What happens to ideas when people from diverse areas interpret them differently, according to their own cultural settings?
Question 3: What were the historical conditions that made it easy for ideas to spread widely and so quickly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Question 4: What is the relationship between the spread of ideas and charismatic individuals? In other words, is it the message or the messenger that gives ideas their power to effect change?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: 29. Revolutions and National States in the Atlantic World, 31. The Americas in the Age of Independence

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Ideas Shape the World" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 16, "Dual Revolutions: Capitalist Industrialism and the Nation State."
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 13, "Traditions and their Transformations."
    • John K. Thornton, " 'I am the Subject of the King of Congo': African Political Ideology and the Haitian Revolution," Journal of World History 4, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 181–214.

  • For Worlds of History Ch. 6. Enlightenment and Revolution
    • Americanrevolution.org "This site includes original materials as well as over 1,500 links to American Revolution Web sites."
    • Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution " provides an accessible and lively introduction to the French Revolution as well as an extraordinary archive of some of the most important documentary evidence from the Revolution, including 338 texts, 245 images, and a number of maps and songs. Lynn Hunt of UCLA and Jack Censer of George Mason University—both internationally renowned scholars of the Revolution—served as principal authors and editors. The site itself is a collaboration of the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University) and the American Social History Project (City University of New York), supported by grants from the Florence Gould Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities"
    • Toussaint L'Ouverature and the Haitian Revolution
    • Scientific, Political, and Industrial Revolutions from Fordham University's Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Great collection of primary sources.

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch 6.

How is Loewen's interpretation of history in Ch. 6. supported or contradicted by the sources from Reilly and/or this week's episodes of Bridging World History? What are the strongest aspects about Loewen's so far? What are the weakest? Do you think he is doing a good job proving his thesis? Explain.

 

Week Six Begins 2/18

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History Ch. 7 Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 19 Bridging World History. "Global Industrialization"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Global Industrialization"
Question 1: How did the Industrial Revolution affect flows of labor and capital around the world?
Question 2: How did industrialization affect the world's demographic patterns such as migration, population growth, and urbanization? Question 3: What are the some of the social and environmental consequences of industrialization?
Question 4: How did the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution promote increasing global integration and also emphasize differences between peoples?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 30 The Making of Industrial Society; Ch. 32 Societies at Crossroads

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History. "Global Industrialization" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 16, "Dual Revolutions: Capitalist Industrialism and the Nation State;" also pages 912–17.
    • Matthew Pratt Guterl, "After Slavery: Asian Labor, the American South, and the Age of Emancipation," Journal of World History 14, no. 2 (June 2003): 209–41
    • Daniel Headrick, "Botany, Chemistry, and Tropical Development," Journal of World History 7, no. 1 (1996): 1–20.

  • For Worlds of History Ch. 7 Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution

Optional Readings for Discussion:Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch 7

 

Week Seven Begins 2/25 First Take Home Essay Due


Week Eight Begins 3/3

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: Ch. 8. Colonized and Colonizers
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 20 Bridging World History: "Imperial Designs";

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Imperial Designs"
Question 1: What were some of the social, economic, and environmental consequences of imperialism?
Question 2: How did industrial capitalism shape the development of European imperialism in the nineteenth century?
Question 3: How did imperial designs-in the forms of political structure, economic organization, vision, and ideology-change between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries?
Question 4: In what ways could the experience of imperialism shape the identities of both colonizers and colonized peoples?

 

Background Readings:Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 33 The Bulding of Global Empires

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Imperial Designs" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 14, "Boundaries, Encounters, and Frontiers."
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections form chapter 15, "Crucibles of Change: Landscapes, Material Culture, and Social Life after 1500."
    • James Gump, "The Imperialism of Cultural Assimilation: Sir George Grey's Encounter with the Maori and the Xhosa, 1845–1868," Journal of World History 9:1 (Spring 1998): 89-106.

  • For Worlds of History: Ch. 8. Colonized and Colonizers

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch. 8


Week Nine Begins 3/10

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Ch. 9. Nationalism and Westernization
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 21 Bridging World History: "Colonial Identities"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Colonial Identities"
Question 1: In what ways did the colonial experience affect both colonizers and the colonized?
Question 2: How did colonial subjects express new identities through clothing and the body?
Question 3: In what ways were clothing choices related to colonial resistance and to decolonization?
Question 4: How could clothing choices reflect or resist the process of economic globalization?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 36 Nationalism and Political Identities is Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "Colonial Identities" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 17, "The Tentacles of Empire: The New Imperialism and Nationalisms in Asia, Africa, and the Americas."
    • Michelle Maskiell, "Consuming Kashmir: Shawls and Empires, 1500–2000," Journal of World History 13, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 27–65.
    • Mark Francis, "The 'Civilizing' of Indigenous People in Nineteenth-Century Canada," Journal of World History 9, no. 1 (1998): 51–87.
    • Carol Devens, " 'If We Get the Girls, We Get the Race': Missionary Education of Native American Girls," Journal of World History 3:2 (1992): 219–38.

  • For Worlds of History Ch. 9. Nationalism and Westernization

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch. 9


Spring Break Begins 3/17

 

Week Ten Begins 3/ 24

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: Ch. 10. World War and Its Consequences
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 22 Bridging World History: "Global War and Peace"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "Global War and Peace"
Question 1: How did global warfare in the twentieth century differ from previous conflicts?
Question 2: What were some of the global consequences of the twentieth-century World Wars?
Question 3: How did global capitalism and political changes in both Europe and Asia help give rise to global warfare in the twentieth century?
Question 4: How did imperialism help to create the conditions for global war in the twentieth century, and what effects did those wars have on empires and colonies in both the short and long terms?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 34 The Great War: The World In Upheaval; Ch. 35. An Age Of Anxiety

Additional Resources:


Week Eleven Begins 3/31

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: Ch. 11. Fascism, World War II, and Genocide
Online Presentation(s): None

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch.37. New Conflagrations: World War II;

Additional Resources:

Optional Readings for Discussion: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Ch.10

 

Week Twelve Begins 4/7

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: Ch. 12 Religon and Politics
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 23 Bridging World History: "People Shape the World"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER for "People Shape the World"
Question 1: Can the actions of individuals shape the course of world history?
Question 2: How are the actions of individuals shaped by the historical times in which they live?
Question 3: What roles have individuals played in modern revolutions and resistance movements?
Question 4: Which has played a greater role in determining the shape of history-ideas or individuals?

Background Readings: Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 38. The Bipolar World; Ch. 39 The End of Empire

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "People Shape the World" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 19, "Resistance, Revolution, and New Global Order/Disorder," pp. 842–44, 87–77.
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in Global History (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 19, "Resistance, Revolution, and New Global Order/Disorder," pp. 869–72.
    • Beatrice Forbes Manz, "Tamerlane's Career and Its Uses," Journal of World History 13, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 1–25

  • For Worlds of History: Ch. 12 Religon and Politics


Week Thirteen Begins 4/14

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: Ch. 14. Globalization and Planetary Health
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 24 Bridging World History: "Globalization and Economics"; UNIT 25 Bridging World History: "Global Popular Culture"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER for "Globalization and Economics"
Question 1: How did technological changes in the twentieth century aid the process of globalization?
Question 2: What are some of the economic, political and environmental effects globalization can have on individuals and local communities?
Question 3: In what ways have political, social, and economic inequities been both reduced and reinforced by the forces of globalization?
Question 4: What is the relationship between the economic and cultural effects of globalization?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER for "Global Popular Culture"
Question 1: In what ways can athletic games reflect tensions between national and global identities?
Question 2: How have peoples in different times and places adapted popular cultural forms to reflect their cultural needs?
Question 3: How did twentieth-century technological advances in communication and transportation shape the pace and nature of globalization?
Question 4: How did twentieth-century technological advances in communication and transportation shape the pace and nature of globalization?

Background Readings:Traditions and Encounters Volume II: Ch. 40: A World Without Borders

Additional Resources:


Week Fourteen Begins 4/21

Discussion Topic(s):

Primary and Secondary Sources: Worlds of History: 13 Women's World
Online Presentation(s): UNIT 26 Bridging World History: "World History and Identity"

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER from "World History and Identity"
Question 1: Globalization refers to the process by which the peoples of the world become increasingly integrated-socially, economically, and culturally-into a larger world community. How does globalization shape and redefine identities, whether individual, ethnic, or national?
Question 2: How is it possible that globalization can both increase the integration of the Earth's people and sharpen the differences between them?
Question 3: The process of globalization is at least five hundred years old. Despite the fact that globalization is not a new phenomenon, in what ways does the globalization of the last one hundred years differ from globalization in earlier periods?
Question 4: In what ways is the study of world history itself a product of globalization?

Background Readings: None

Additional Resources:

  • Readings to accompany Bridging World History "World History and Identity" in PDF form
    • Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin, and Linda Walton, In the Balance: Themes in World History (Boston: Mc-Graw-Hill, 1998). Selections from chapter 20, "The Crossroads of History: Culture, Identity, and Global Community."
    • Adam McKeown, "Global Migration, 1846–1970," Journal of World History 15, no. 2 (June 2004) 155–89.
    • Robert Strayer, "Decolonization, Democratization, and Communist Reform: The Soviet Collapse in Comparative Perspective," Journal of World History 12, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 375–406.

  • For Worlds of History: 13 Women's World
    • Feminist.com "We serve as the Internet’s definitive hub for resources and information dedicated to women's equality, justice, wellness and safety. Like a "feminist Google," Feminist.com facilitates connections between women and the many, varied organizations serving their needs and interests worldwide."


Week Fifteen Begins 4/28 Second Formal Essay Due. 4/30

 

Week Sixteen Begins 5/5 (TBA)