Download HIS 112 Fall 2007 Syllabus

HIS 112: WORLD HISTORY TO 1500 - Sec. 068508
Fall 2007
Mon. & Wed., 10:30-11:45 a.m.; AD 119
Professor Linda Bregstein Scherr
Office: LA 121
Office Hours: Mon., Tues., Wed., Thurs., 1:30-3 p.m.
Office Phone: 609-570-3839
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Welcome to HIS 112! This course surveys World History from prehistory to 1500
examining the development of ancient societies in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and
Oceania. The course will chart the development of individual societies focusing on
interactions between peoples of different societies including ancient Egypt and Nubia, India,
classical Greece and Rome, the Islamic states, Han China, early Korea and Japan and
Andean and Mesoamerican societies.
How does World History differ from Western Civilization? This course will give
you a strong sense of the history of human communities throughout the globe, following a
particular trajectory: from sparse and disconnected communities reacting creatively to their
individual circumstances; through ever more intensive states of contact, cultural expansion
and amalgamation; to a 21st century world situation in which people increasingly visualize a
single global community. The course will chart the development of individual societies in
Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania and examines the widely varying forms of
political, social, and economic organization adopted by human communities of the past and
their diverse cultural, religious, and philosophical legacies. To help bring order to the entire
human past, an enormous subject, the course will focus attention on some of the most
important features of human experience, including the development of technology,
humanity’s relation to the environment, the creation and dissemination of cultural traditions,
and interactions that link individual societies to their neighbors and the larger world.
In more specific terms, by the end of the course, students will be able to:
 read primary and secondary historical sources critically, with an understanding of
their validity, perspective bias, audience, and context.
 identify the significant contributions of major personalities of world history.
 describe and analyze the context of major movements, trends, and developments of
world history.
 discuss with authority, either in writing or verbally, the historical forces (e.g.,
religion, economics, politics, social stratification, gender, individual actors,
technology, nature, intellectual and aesthetic thought, etc.) behind the major
movements, trends, and developments of world history.
 use information technologies in acquiring new knowledge and perspective.
 construct an historical essay that presents a clear thesis, a persuasive argument, and
well-researched supporting data.
 analyze other time periods and cultures with little or no ethnocentrism or
modernism, thus displaying a sense of informed perspective and a deeper
appreciation of the common threads of human nature.
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The course counts in the General Education curriculum as either
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE or DIVERSITY and Global Perspective.
REQUIRED TEXT:
Bentley, Jerry, and Herb Ziegler, Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective
on the Past. Vol. I: From the Beginning to 1500. 3rd Edition. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
ISBN 007-299827-X
The book comes with a CD inside, Primary Source Investigator (abbreviated PSI).
The CD contains useful materials for the course, including over 100 primary source
documents, images, videos, interactive maps, and an interactive glossary with pronunciation
guide. The CD requires that you have Macromedia Flash Player 7. If you do not have access
to a computer at home, you can use a computer in a campus computer lab.
There is also a textbook website, the Online Learning Center, available at
www.mhhe.com/bentley3. A card inside the textbook gives directions for how to access the
online resources and provides the password you will need. Do not lose this information as
you will want to access the website and PowerWeb resources during the course.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Students will be evaluated through:
 two non-cumulative 50-minute exams (each is 20% of the final grade)
 five 2-4 page writing assignments (each of which will be 5% of the final grade)
o two of these writing assignments will be the basis of short group presentations
 a semi-cumulative final exam (20% of the final grade)
 attendance and active participation in discussion and in-class projects (15%)
TESTS and FINAL EXAM
The two 50-minute tests will consist of identifications and short essays. Students will
get study guides for each chapter that list the terms for identification and study questions to
help prepare for the tests. Full credit identifications for study terms should include 3
components:
 Definition: basic information about what the person did or what the event involved
or what the term means;
 Context: what country or region, what time period does this fit into? What else is
happening around this term that is important to know? What other people or events
or concepts play a role?
 Significance: why is this an important person or event or concept? What does this
change about the world, and what comes after this that couldn’t have happened
without it?
The well-organized essays should be 1-3 paragraphs in length. You will be required to
answer 2 out of a choice of 5-6 essays. Short study guides for the exams will be handed out
in class.
Test 1 covers the lectures and readings from weeks 1-5. Test 2 covers the lectures
and readings from weeks 6 - 10. The final exam is a semi-cumulative, two hour exam
consisting of identifications and essays.
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Exams 1 and 2 will each be available in the Testing Center for 6 days (Monday
through Saturday). You must take the exam during the specified period (see the schedule
below). If you are unable to take any of the exams as scheduled, you must contact me before
the exam deadline passes. In certain cases, I will allow you to take the exam late, but I will
deduct 10 points (the equivalent of 1 letter grade) from your exam grade.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
The best way to study history is to read about it, write about it, talk about it and do it.
Thus you will have five (2-3 page) writing assignments. Two assignments will have a written
and group presentation component. The writing assignments will be essays based on the primary
source documents in the photocopied reader that I will hand out in the first week of class. Due
dates for all assignments are noted on the schedule below in bold face. Any writing assignments
submitted late will be accepted, but grades will be lowered by one full letter grade.
Students must complete all the assignments in the class (writing projects, tests, and a
final exam) in order to receive a final grade.
CHEATING and PLAGIARISM
As stated in the College Policy, cheating or plagiarism will result in failure for the course.
If you are unsure whether something is plagiarism, you are responsible for asking your professor.
All quotations must be set off by quotation marks, with the source listed. Downloading and
copying passages without attribution from the Internet is plagiarism. You are encouraged to use
the Internet as a tool, but all Internet information must be properly cited according to MLA or
APA rules, with web page and date of access listed.
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HIS 112 Schedule of Topics and Assignments*:
*subject to change
All assigned readings should be completed before class
PLEASE BRING YOUR Bentley & Ziegler TEXTBOOK TO CLASS EVERYDAY
DATES
Aug. 27
TOPICS
Introduction: The Study of the
Global Past; Before History
– the First 4 Million Years
Aug. 29
Origins and Prehistory
Sept. 3
Labor day – No Classes
Sept. 5
Mesopotamian Civilization
Sept. 10
Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews; IndoEuropean Migrations
Sept. 12
Early African Societies; Egypt
Sept. 17
Egypt, continued; Complex
Societies; Bantu Migrations and
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sept. 19
Harrapan Civilization
Sept. 24
Early Aryan India: Society and
Religion
Sept. 26
Early China
Oct. 1
Chinese Civilization in the
Shang and Zhou periods
Oct. 3
The Unification of China in the
Qin and Han Periods; Chinese
Political Thought
Oct. 8
Oct. 10
READINGS
ASSIGNMENTS
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 1, pp. 528
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 2,
pp. 31-45
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 2,
pp. 45-56
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 3,
pp. 59-69
Document Reader: Section
I, The Ancient Near East
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 3,
pp. 69-84
First Writing
Assignment Due on
Ancient Near East
Documents
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 4,
pp. 87-93
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 4,
pp. 93-105
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 5,
pp. 109-118
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 5, pp.
119-130
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 8, pp.
181-189
Second Writing
Assignment Due:
Confucianism, Daoism,
Legalism
Exam 1 must be taken in the Testing Center between October 8-13
Confucianism, Daoism, and
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 8,
Group Presentations
Legalism; The Qin and Han
pp. 189-203
based on writing
assignment
Dynasties of China
Early Societies in the Americas
– the Olmecs and Maya
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 6,
pp. 133-145
Page 5
Oct. 15
Early Societies of South
America and Oceania
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 6,
pp. 145-154
Oct. 17
Ancient Persia
Oct. 22
Greek Civilization – The
Bronze and Early Iron Ages
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 7, pp.
156-178
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 10, pp.
231-237
Oct. 24
Greek Civilization –Classical
Greece: History and Culture
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 10, pp.
237-245
Oct. 29
Greek Civilization, continued;
The Hellenistic Age
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 10, pp.
245-255
Oct. 31
Early Rome – From Monarchy
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 11, pp.
to Republic
259-267
Exam 2 must be taken in the Testing Center between November 5-10
The Roman Empire; Roman
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 11, pp.
Civilization; Christianity
267-283
Nov. 5
Third Writing Assignment
Due on ancient Greek
documents
Nov. 7
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 12, pp.
302-310
Nov. 12
The Fall of the Roman and Han
Chinese Empires: Roman and
Chinese Parallels
India in the Age of Empires
Nov. 14
Indian Culture and Religion
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 9, pp.
217-228
Nov. 19
Indian Culture and Religion,
continued
Nov. 21
No Class (yes, this is a
Wednesday, but it counts as an
instructional Friday)
Cross-Cultural Exchanges on
the Silk Road
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 12, pp.
287-302
Byzantine Civilization;
Muhammad and Islam
The Expansion of Islam;
Islamic Society and Culture
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 13,
pp. 314-341
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 14, pp.
345-370
Dec. 5
Europe, 800-1200; Nomadic
Empires of Eurasia; States and
Societies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Dec. 10
Early Japan; the Indian Ocean
Basin; Southeast Asia
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 17, pp.
433-455 Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter
18, pp. 458-480
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 19,
pp. 483-505
(skim)
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 15, pp.
397-400;
Nov. 26
Nov. 28
Dec. 3
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 9, pp.
207-217
Fourth Writing
Assignment Due on
ancient Indian documents
Group Presentation on
ancient Indian culture and
religion
Fifth Writing
Assignment Due on
Islam documents
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Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 16, pp.
405-429 (skim)
Dec. 12
The Restored Empire in China;
Chinese Society and Economy
TBA
FINAL EXAM
Bentley/Ziegler, Chapter 15, pp.
375-397