Download History XXX: World History, 1500-Present

History 1011
World History, 1500-Present
Spring 2015
Professor Dane Kennedy
Office: Phillips 312
Phone: 994-6229; email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-3; Thursdays 11-12, and by appointment
Course Themes and Goals:
This course is an introduction to world history over the past half millennium. It will
stress the themes of exchange and integration, tracing the ways in which the various
peoples of the world became increasingly bound together as part of a common system. It
seeks to show how forces such as capitalism and imperialism brought about a global
exchange of peoples, goods, technologies, ideas, institutions, beliefs, customs, plants,
animals, and diseases. The consequences of these exchanges and their implications for
the world we inhabit will be considered.
Learning Objectives: Students who complete this course should be able to identify
important people, events, and themes in world history since 1500; identify the basic
geographical factors that shaped that history; and understand the major economic, social,
political, and cultural forces that transformed the lives of various peoples around the
globe. In addition, students should be able to identify the main arguments of secondary
sources and critically analyze their merits. Lastly, students should be able to synthesize
material from lectures and readings to evaluate historical events; apply critical reading
skills to works of historical scholarship; and write clearly organized and informed
interpretations of their own.
Course Requirements: This is a lecture course with weekly discussion sections run by
graduate teaching assistants. It is important that you attend the lectures and discussion
sections, do the readings, and participate in discussions. Graded work will consist of a
midterm exam (15%), a final exam (20%), exhibit report (5%), two 4-6 page papers (20%
each), and discussion section (20%). I reserve the right, however, to change this
distribution during the course of the semester. Failure to meet deadlines for assigned
work will result in a grade penalty in the absence of documented proof of illness or other
unavoidable personal misfortune. The following formula will determine grades: any
numerical total below .3 (93, 83, etc.) will be a minus (A-, B-, etc.); any numerical total
above .7 (97, 87, etc.) will be a plus (A+, B+, etc.). The exams will consist of essay
questions and short identifications. The two papers will examine themes raised in course
readings. The particulars of each paper assignments and the criteria by which they will
be graded will be announced in writing in the course of the semester. All papers must be
submitted electronically on SafeAssign and in hard copy to your GTA.
Classroom Behavior: As a matter of common courtesy, you should avoid disturbing
other students. This means that you should turn off cell phones when you enter the
classroom, avoid private conversations with your neighbors, and stay in your seat for the
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full class period. If you know that you must leave the classroom before the lecture ends,
be sure that you are seated near an exit.
Academic Integrity: Be sure to familiarize yourself with the Code of Academic
Integrity (http://www.gwu.edu/~ntegrity/code.html). Plagiarism and cheating are serious
violations of university rules that can result in suspension or expulsion. Plagiarism is
borrowing someone else’s words without credit, and it can include close paraphrasing.
Handing in a paper written in whole or part by someone else is cheating. I will
vigorously prosecute any suspected cases. If you are unsure of the rules, speak with me
or your GTA.
Books to be Purchased:
Jerry Bentley & Herbert Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters, vol. 2, sixth ed.
Timothy Brook, Vermeer’s Hat
Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship
Cyrus Veeser, Great Leaps Forward
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia
In addition, documents will be posted as electronic reserves on the Blackboard course
site.
Note: All assigned readings should be completed on Wednesday of the week they are
due.
Dates
Lecture Topics/Reading Assignments
Jan. 13
Jan. 15
Introduction
The Eurasian World Prior to 1500
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 23
Jan. 20
Jan. 22
Other Worlds Prior to 1500
The Roots of European Hegemony
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 22; Brook, Vermeer’s Hat, chs. 1-3
Jan. 27
Jan. 28
Jan. 29
The Columbian Exchange
Exhibit Report Due
The Destruction of Native American Societies
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 24; Brook, Vermeer’s Hat, chs. 4-6
Feb. 3
Feb. 5
Challenge from the East
Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 25, 27; Brook, Vermeer’s Hat, chs. 7-8; Rediker,
Slave Ship, intro, chs. 2-3
Documents: Cortez on City of Mexico; de las Casas, Destruction of Indies
Feb. 10
Feb. 12
Trade, Culture, and Pluralism in the East
Rise of Mercantile Empires
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 26; Rediker, Slave Ship, chs. 4-7
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Documents: Barbot on Slave Trade
Feb. 17
Feb. 19
New World Societies
Fatal Impact: Australasia and the Pacific
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 30; Rediker, Slave Ship, chs. 8-10
Documents: Smith, On Colonies; Banks on South Seas
Feb. 24
Feb. 25
Feb. 26
Read:
Political Revolutions
First Paper Due
Economic Revolutions
Bentley, Traditions, ch. 28-29
Documents: Declaration of Rights of Man; Rights of Women
March 3
March 5
Ideological Revolutions
Midterm Exam
March 10
March 12
Spring Break
Spring Break
March 17
The Age of the Anthropocene
March 19
Societies Under Strain
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 31; Veeser, Great Leaps, intro, ch. 1-2
Documents: Commissioner Lin to Queen Victoria
March 24
Pax Britannica
March 26
Nationalism and the New Imperialism
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 32; Veeser, Great Leaps, ch. 3-4, epilogue
Documents: Ferry, On Colonial Expansion; Mazzini, On Nationality
March 31
The Triple Challenge: Workers, Women, and Wogs
April 2
Europe’s Civil War
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 33, 35; Grandin, part 1
Documents: Gandhi on Swaraj
April 7
April 9
The Global System in Crisis
World War
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 34; Grandin, part 2
Documents: Mussolini on Fascism; USSR Economic Policy
April 14
A Bipolar World
April 16
Decolonization and the New International Order
Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 36-37; Grandin, part 3
April 21
April 22
April 23
Pax Americana
Second Paper Due
Conclusions
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Read: Bentley, Traditions, ch. 38
Due Dates:
Exhibit Report—Jan. 28
First Paper—Feb. 25
Midterm Exam—March 5
Second Paper—April 22
Final Exam (not yet announced)
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