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Global History Course Guide Social Studies Department Mercer Island High School Topics of Study Early Man and Early Civilizations Ancient Greece Ancient Roman Republic and Empire World Religions Intensified Hemispheric Interactions 1000-1300 CE Early Man and Early Civilizations Central Focus/Essential Questions: How did the Agricultural Revolution fundamentally change life for human beings? What have been the advantages and disadvantages of that shift? How did the Agricultural Revolution lead to Civilization? How can civilization be defined? What comparisons can be made between various early civilizations, both eastern and western? Themes: Culture Cultural Relativism Civilization Civilized and Uncivilized Religion Early Government Social Stratification Gender Inequality Possible Topics: Hunting and Gathering Agricultural Revolution Geography—the River Valley Development of writing Hammurabi’s Code Egypt China India Mesopotamia/Ancient Middle East Confucianism Daoism Legalism Reading Assignments: Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapters 1-4 Possible Secondary Source Selections: Hunting and Gathering and the Emergence of Agriculture (reading) Of Headhunters and Soldiers, Rosaldo Ilongot Headhunting, Olivariez Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights, Fleur-Lobban Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond (selections) Mummification (National Geographic) A Thoroughly Modern Process (Archeology Magazine) Foot-binding (article) Civil Service Exams in China (article) Possible Primary Source Document Selections: Hammurabi’s Code Gilgamesh Possible Media Resource Selections: The God’s Must Be Crazy (motion picture) Lascaux Cave website Evolution (Walter Cronkite) Mesopotamia (time life) Secrets of the Pharos (National Geographic) Ancient China (Time Life) Pyramids (PBS) Ancient Greece Central Focus/Essential Questions: Why is Ancient Greece widely regarded as the Cradle of Western Civilization? What have been Greece’s greatest legacies? Themes: Art and Architecture—the search for the perfect form Greek Geography and the Polis Philosophy From Monarchy to Democracy, governmental evolution Free Speech Greek Myth Possible Topics: Socrates Plato Aristotle The Parthenon Oedipus Rex Homer Iliad Odyssey The Polis Athens vs. Sparta Peloponnesian War Trojan War Reading Assignments: Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapter 5 Possible Secondary Source Selections: The Polis, Kitto When Free Speech Was First Condemned, Stone Greek vs. Greek The Socratic Method The Peloponnesian War Possible Primary Source Document Selections: Oedipus Rex (selections) The Iliad (selections) The Odyssey (selections) Pericles Funeral Oration Allegory of the Cave, Plato The Death of Socrates, Plato Possible Media Resource Selections: Crucible of Civilization (PBS) Greek Thought (The Western Tradition) Ancient Roman Republic and Empire Central Focus/Essential Questions: What various factors led to the transformation of Rome from a Republic to an Empire? What were the various factors that led to the decline and fall of Roman Empire? To what extent can these factors be applied to other empires, past and present? What was the nature of Roman Rule? Themes: Roman Culture and Values Roman compared to the United States Republican government Roman Achievements Possible Topics: Gladiatorial Contests “Bread and Circuses” Julius Caesar Roman Law Roman Cities and Infrastructure Pax Romana Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Punic Wars Roman Trade and Economy Rise of Christianity Reading Assignments: Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapter 6 Possible Secondary Source Selections: Gladiatorial Contests and Roman Culture Law in the Roman Empire Possible Primary Source Document Selections: Of Romulus and Remus: How Rome First Came to be Built Of Horatius: How He Kept the Bridge Lucius (Titus) Quinctius Cincinnatus The Aeneid, Virgil The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Plutarch Possible Media Resource Selections: Gladiator (motion picture) Roman City (PBS) The Decline of the Roman Emipre (Western Tradition) The Fall of the Roman Emipre (Western Tradition) World Religions Central Focus/Essential Questions: What are the similarities and differences of the various religions that emerge in the ancient and early medieval world, both in terms of doctrine and their historical development? How have the various faiths interacted in the past and today? What effect has religion had on social, political, and economic developments? Themes: The role of ideas and beliefs in shaping people’s approach to the world Possible Topics: Hebrew civilizations/Judaism Rise of Christianity Rise of Islam Rise of Hinduism Rise of Buddhism Basic tenets of the various faiths Reading Assignments: Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapters 2, 3, 4. 6, 11 (selections) Secondary Source Selections: Sunni and Shi’a, David Kremer Primary Source Document Selections: Selections from various original religious texts (Bible, Koran, etc.) Media Resource Selections: Empire of Faith (PBS) Hajj (Nightline) Pillars of Faith (Kramer) Western Tradition (Eugene Weber) Intensified Hemispheric Interactions 1000-1300 CE Central Focus/Essential Questions: To what extent were the Middle Ages a period of backwardness and lack of human progress? How was the period a time of technological germination and subtle but important changes? Themes: The maturing of an interregional system of communication, trade, and cultural exchange in an era of Chinese economic power and Islamic expansion. The redefining of European society and culture, 1000-1300 CE The rise of the Mongol empire and its consequences for Eurasian peoples, 1200-1350 The growth of states, towns, and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa between the 11th and 15th centuries Possible Topics: Feudalism, manorialism “The Age of Faith” Crusades Cathedrals The Black Death Agricultural Changes Revival of Towns and Trade in Europe Growth of interregional trade and communication Magna Charta and political developments in Europe Rise of the Islamic Empires Growth of empires and trade in sub-Saharan Africa Urbanization and commercial expansion in China Mongol conquests and “Pax Mongolica” Reading Assignments: Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler Secondary Source Selections: The Crusades, Harold Lamb (selections) A World Lit Only By Fire, William Manchester (selections) Technology and Invention in the Middle-Ages, Gies and Gies (selections) The Black Death, Mark Damen Material Civilization: Crisis and Recovery, Peters The Manor System Rise of Towns and Trade Primary Source Document Selections: Town Charter of Lorris Magna Carta Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) Media Resource Selections: The Crusades (History Channel) History’s Turning Points: The Black Death Cathedral, David Macaulay (PBS) Castle, David Macaulay (PBS) The Western Tradition