Download ADM 1324 - History of Civilizations

Middle East Technical University
Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences
Department of Political Science and Public Administration
ADM 1324
History of Civilizations
Spring Semester 2016
Mondays 9:40-12:30 F109
E. Attila AYTEKİN
Office: A311
Office hours: Tuesdays 14:00-16:00
E-mail: [email protected]
Course Description: For most of human history, humans lived in small groups who hunted and
gathered their food, but around 8,000 B.C., things changed. Humans developed agriculture, settled
in urban communities and eventually built huge empires, created religious institutions and explored
the planet. In many areas of life, civilization brought about striking improvements and innovations.
On the other hand, oppression, exploitation, and massive human suffering accompanied
civilizations.
The goal of this course is to provide you with a foundation for understanding the world in which
we live, keeping in mind humanity’s accomplishments as well as failures. Learning about history
is not just memorizing a sequence of events, or a bunch of facts and dates; the point is to critically
examine continuity and change over time. The large scope of this course will encourage more
synthesis of ideas and integration of knowledge than thorough information on particular topics.
The course is arranged so as to avoid two common pitfalls of teaching and learning about
civilizations. First, it will be stressed that the global dominance of Europe is a phenomenon that
occurred only after c. 1500 and it is a mistake to project it backwards and read the whole world
history from the perspective of European hegemony. Secondly, historians of civilizations usually
tell the stories of glorious empires, states, armies, monuments, wars, treaties, great men, etc. and
tend to ignore women, the poor, peasants, slaves, and so on. In this course, we will put special
emphasis on how important historical developments influenced those social groups who have
traditionally been written off of history.
Course Requirements: Given the very large chronological and spatial scope of the course material
and since the lectures and the weekly reading assignments complement each other, it is absolutely
crucial that the students complete the weekly reading assignments.
Attendance will be monitored. The students are expected to show up at class sessions on time and
keep basic classroom etiquette.
Paper: The students will write a 6-7 page-long paper, based on an analysis of a historical document
they will choose from a list. The specifics of the written assignment will be announced later in the
semester.
Grading: The grades will be based on the following:
Mid-term exam: 25 %
Paper: 30 %
Final exam: 40 %
Attendance and participation: 5 %
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1 - INTRODUCTION
Introduction to the course
The evolution of humans
Week 2 - FROM FORAGING TO THE ‘AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION’
The very long history of hunting and gathering
The ‘agricultural’ revolution
Sigfried J. De Laet, “From the Beginnings of Food Production to the First States” in idem (ed.),
History of Humanity vol.I: Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilizations, Paris and London:
UNESCO and Routledge, 1994, pp. 366-376.
2
Week 3 - FIRST CITIES, FIRST STATES: THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION
The Neolithic in Anatolia and Mesopotamia
First cities on earth
Ancient Mesopotamia
Barbara S. Tinsley, “Middlemen: The Civilizations of Mesopotamia” in Reconstructing Western
Civilization, Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press.
Week 4 - BITTER FRUITS OF CIVILIZATION: CLASS AND PATRIARCHY
Class divisions and struggles in the first civilizations
The beginnings of patriarchy
Gerda Lerner, “Origins” in idem, The Creation of Patriarchy, New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1986, pp.15-35.
Week 5 – STILL ON THE MOVE: THE NOMADIC PEOPLES OF THE EARTH
Determinants of the nomadic lifestyle
Tensions between nomads and sedentary peoples
The Mongol Empire
Reading material TBA
Week 6 - ANCIENT GREECE: THE CRADLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION?
Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations
The ‘Dark Ages’
The Polis
Hellenistic period
Afroasiatic roots of Greek civilization: The Black Athena debate
Rosalind Thomas, “The classical city” in Robin Osborne (ed.), Classical Greece, 500-323 BC,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 52-80.
3
Week 7 - ROMAN EMPIRE AND ‘BYZANTIUM’
The Republic
The Empire
Slavery in the Roman Empire
The Eastern Empire
The legacy of ‘Byzantium’
J.M. Roberts, “Rome” and “The Roman Achievement” in History of the World, London: Penguin
Books, 1990, pp. 226-254.
Week 8 - THE BIRTH AND SPREAD OF MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS
The end of the cult of mother goddess
Monotheism
Hebrews and Judaism
The birth and institutionalization of Christianity
William H. McNeill, “The Rise of Monotheism” in A World History, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999, pp.66-75.
Week 9 - THE RISE OF ISLAM
The early state
The classic period of Caliphate
The Umayyad Empire
The Abbasid Empire
Impact and legacy
William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel, “The Rise of Islam”, “The Arab Empire and Its
Successors” and “Islamic Civilization” in World History, Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004,
pp. 183-201.
Week 10 - CHINA: EARLY AND LATER EMPIRES
Ancient China
Unification and Qin Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The rebirth and the golden age of Chinese civilization
William H. McNeill, “The Definition of Chinese Civilization” in A World History, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999, pp.102-112.
4
Week 11 - THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE
What was feudalism?
The ‘Black Death’
The ‘Renaissance’
The Reformation
J.M. Roberts, in “A New Kind of Society: Early Modern Europe”, History of the World, London:
Penguin Books, 1990, pp.511-530.
Week 12 - BEFORE AND AFTER 1492: CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS
The Americas before 1492
The conquest of ‘New Spain’
Slavery and Atlantic economy
William Duiker and Jackson Spielvogel, “The New World” in World History, Belmont: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2004, pp.156-180.
Week 13 - CIVILIZATION: CONTEMPORARY DEBATES
Eurocentrism debate
Is there such a thing as ‘civilization’?
James Blaut, “Eurocentric History” in Eight Eurocentric Historians, New York: The Gilford
Press, 2000, pp.1-18.
Samuel Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations?”, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, pp. 22-49.
5