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HIST 151 World History to 1500
(FGA Focus)
MW 1030-1120a Kelley, Liam
TR 1030-1120a Henriksen, Mimi
TR 0800-0850a Bentley, Jerry
CONTENT: This course analyzes the historical development of human societies and their cultural traditions in all parts of the world, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, up to 1500 C.E. Lectures and readings offer integrated analyses of the political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of human societies, as well as processes of cross-cultural interaction and exchange. In small weekly discussion groups, students engage in the study of writings, narratives, artifacts, or cultural practices of different peoples and societies. Overall, the course provides students with an intellectual foundation for responsible citizenship in the complex, interdependent, globalizing world of contemporary times.
REQUIREMENTS: To be announced in class.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Please inquire at History Office, Sakam A203/956-8486.
HIST 152 World History Since 1500
(FGB Focus)
WF 0930-1020a Hoffenberg, Peter
CONTENT: History 152 explores the dynamic relationships within and between representative modern societies, nations, states and cultures—with an emphasis on societies. We focus on two historical periods since around 1750 and the ways in which they were marked by contact and collision between, among, and within societies to help explain the modern human condition. The textbook authors define those two periods as: “An Age of Revolution, Industry, and Empire, 1750-1914” and “Contemporary Global Realignments, 1914 to the Present.” The lectures, labs, readings, assignments, and exams are generally organized according to those two epochs.
We will study the development of major societies in Western and Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, sub-Southern Africa, North and Latin America, and the Islamic world. We will also chart the many ways those societies interacted, since no society is truly an island unto itself. As we know, societies develop internal and external political, economic, cultural and other contacts and connections. Ideas cross borders and groups, whether those are within or between societies, as do economic goods and people themselves. We will discuss how what we have come to call “the modern world” was created by such interactions and the responses to them.
Readings, lectures, labs, essays and exams consider political, economic, intellectual, cultural, and social changes and continuities as each society and state confronted internal and external challenges since around 1750. Among those challenges were trade and industry, capitalism, revolution, war, nationalism, migration, colonialism, religious revivals, and the rise of secular thought and action. Our study balances historical changes within these societies and the various dynamic connections across the frontiers seemingly separating and isolating them.
The textbook uses cultural encounters as a focal point to consider societies and their connections. We will complement that cultural understanding and focus with a social one, known as “the social question,” and the political problems of authority and war. How did men and women around the world in specific contexts of time and place articulate, ask and answer fundamental social questions about the relations between the rich and poor, the powerful and weak? How did men and women respond to questions about political authority and war & peace?
Students are encouraged to use a variety of historical sources, including literature, painting, poetry, speeches and documentary film, as well as more traditional historical writing. For example, we will screen several documentaries, each of which will be accompanied by introductory readings. The diversity of our historical sources challenges us to think about how to properly use each one, as well as how they reveal the various ways by which the past is understood, represented, and continues to shape the present and future. That is, the development of “a sense of the past” in the modern world and our engagement with it. What roles did that sense of the past in history and memory play in asking and answering key social and political questions? How is “the past” used today to explain and justify policies and identities?
Please note, I: Labs begin the first week of instruction and are mandatory. Please ensure that you are enrolled in and regularly attend one of the scheduled lab meetings.
Please note, II: There will be no lectures, office hours or labs on official U. H. holidays.
REQUIREMENTS: Lab assignments; “Historical Definitions”; newspaper or periodical article assignment; two exams, three short essays.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Bentley and Ziegler, Traditions & Encounters, Volume C: 1750 to the Present; Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto; McPherson, What They Fought For, 1861-1865; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Ninh, The Sorrow of War
HIST 161A World Cultures in Perspective
(FGA Focus)
MWF 0230-0320p Farris, Wayne
CONTENT: This course offers students a large-scale analysis of human development and cultural traditions from all parts of the world, emphasizing Eurasia, but including Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, from prehistory to 1500 C.E. The course enables students to understand the contemporary world in deeper historical context by examining important ideas and forces shaping the modern world in such areas as politics, philosophy, society, economy, literature, and the arts. Class sessions combine lecture and discussion in a dialogue approach, all based upon the assigned readings. Overall, the course provides an intellectual foundation for responsible citizenship in the complex, interdependent world we all live in today.
REQUIREMENTS: A mid-term and comprehensive final, all essay in form. Study questions will be distributed in advance. There will also be an out-of-class essay based on the various readings for the course. Three quizzes on discussion books will also take place. A student’s participation may affect his/her grade by as much as half a letter-grade.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Bentley and Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters, Vol. 1, 3rd ed.; Esposito, Islam, the Straight Path; Gottfried, The Black Death; Waley, Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China