HS 111 World Civilization to 1650
Textbook Information Methodology and Assignments Links for Global History APUS login
This course is a survey of the history of the human community from the dawn of civilization to around 1650. I teach the 8 week version of the course. Starting in December of 2007, it has been significantly re-designed.
I am currently working on ideas to improve the design of the course to have more emphasis on "global history" as opposed to "world histories" and other ideas.
Textbooks
Duiker, William J.; Spielvogel, Jackson J.: World History. 4th Edition, 2003.
Methodology and Assignments
I have recently re-designed this course to involve less rote memorization and more discussion. The amount of writing has remained about the same, but with fewer total assignments.
The major assignments are
- a short term paper on a subject of the student's choice. The topic will be centered on some historical person, event or development outside the western (Mediterranean and European) tradition. As in all my classes, there is a special discussion forum in the online classroom for helping students get through this assignment. See also my policies and advice on writing and research.
- a short paper. The form this takes varies from term to term. It might require the discussion and analysis of a primary source from history, the comparison of two scholarly articles on the same theme, or the critical discussion of an online history webpage.
- weekly discussions of primary sources from the textbook. The textbook is full of short excerpts from interesting and colorful primary sources. Every week we discuss several of them in the online classroom. The students and I discuss these sources against the broader background of the textbook chapters on the major world civilizations.
- a final exam. The exam is no longer proctored! This is a take-home, open book, essay exam. The questions are broad and require the students to mine the textbook and other sources for evidence and ideas.
Global History Links
The first sections list online collections of primary sources and general resources for the study of world history. Then there are more specific links provided for each week of the HIST 112 class. Some of these links are mentioned in class, some are required. Others are listed here as possible references depending on student research and interest. The weekly links emphasize the topics discussed in class over the broad sweep of issues covered in the textbook.
Primary Sources
- The Global History Sourcebook by Paul Falsall at Fordham University is a great resource for primary documents from the histories of all the worlds regions and civilizations. There, you will find links to collections on African, Indian, East Asian, Islamic and other histories.
- World Civilizations Student Resource Center at Houghton Mifflon http://college.hmco.com/history/world/resources/students/primary/index.html
- World Civilization Anthology of Readings at Washington State University http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/WORLD.HTM
- The World Civilization Virtual Library by Dr. Vess http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/hist110.htm
- Links from Reading About the World by Paul Brians http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/contents_vol_1.html
The Field of World and Global History
- H-World is the world and global history place for discussions and resources on world history. This is a great place to subscribe to if you want a first impression of the kinds of things that world historians argue about.
- The World History Connected webpage has articles on teaching and studying global history. The November 2004 issue has some interesting articles on integrating Africa, which is often neglected, into global history.
- Read Samual P. Huntington's famous essay on the Clash of Civilizations.
- Wang Hui: Reclaiming Asia from the West: Rethinking Global History http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=226
Week 1 - Absolutism and the Atlantic Trade
Week 2 - Islamic world powers, liberalism and revolution
- Diagram about the difference between medieval feudalism and modern capitalist nation states (pdf file)
- Primary sources on 18th century European liberalism
Week 3 - Industrial revolution, western nationalism and imperialism
Week 4 - Asia in the 18th-early 20th centuries, World War One
- Introductory information on the Taiping Rebellion
- Another summary of the Taiping Rebellion
- "The Land System of the Heavently Kingdom" (1853)
- Here's a movie scene supposedly depicting a battle from the Taiping Rebellion. I take it the guys with the gun powder are the imperial army: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5aRqCFik78. According to one of the commentaries, however, the movie depicts it the other way around and the Taiping are the men with cannon.
- The Russo-Japanese-War Research Society has resources on that war. The page is based almost exclusively on Japanese source material, however, and has little information on the Russian side.
Week 5 - Asian nationalism, totalitarianism, World War Two
- U.S. Holocaust Museum
- The Newseum exhibition The Commissar Vanishes
- Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution
Week 6 - Absolutism and the Atlantic Trade
- "Compilation - Modern Islamic World"
- http://www.overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/ - Michigan State University's rich webpage on Apartheid history
Week 7 - Absolutism and the Atlantic Trade
Week 8 - Absolutism and the Atlantic Trade
