HISTORY 114A - INTRODUCTION TO GLOBAL HISTORY, I HUMAN ORIGINS THROUGH 1550

JAMES KRIPPNER, MW 12:30-2:00, SHRP 412

DESCRIPTION

This first semester of a two-semester survey of global history spans the millennia from the origins of human societies through the sustained linking of the Americas with Eurasia and Africa in the sixteenth century. The course proceeds chronologically and thematically, exploring change over time along with issues of special interest to historians. Topics to be considered include early urbanization and empire; the origin and spread of world religious traditions, including Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the relationship between human beings and the environment; the diffusion of technology and scientific knowledge, and the historically varied construction of markers of identity such as gender, class, ethnicity, race, and sexuality. Historiography--or the writing of history--will also be considered, as we discuss and debate why and how historians have thought about “global history” over the centuries. In this and the second semester (which focuses on how the processes set in motion during this earlier period are played out in the modern world), we rely on primary and secondary sources and aim to teach the skills required by historians: to read critically, think analytically, and write clearly and precisely.

REQUIREMENTS

This course requires your alert and timely class participation (15% of the final grade), including attendance in class and the completion of 1 pg. weekly responses to questions on the readings; an in-class mid-term exam and two intermediate length (5-7 pgs.) papers (each worth 20 % of the final grade); and a comprehensive final exam (25% of the final grade). An explanation of the assignments and course requirements follows the schedule below.

REQUIRED TEXTS

The following books have been placed on reserve and are available for purchase at the Haverford College Bookstore. They are listed in the order that they will be used.

• Bentley, Jerry and Herbert Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters. Second Edition. McGraw Hill: Boston, 2002.
• Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Volume One: To 1550. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
  
• Tacitus. The Agricola and the Germania. London, Penguin Books, 1970.
  
• Hamdun, Said and Noel King. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1975.
  
• Niane, D.T. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Essex, England: Longman, 1965.

In addition, the following out of print book, articles and book chapters have been placed on reserve. With the exception of Rorex and Fong, they will also be accessible through electronic reserve.

• Kennedy, Kenneth A.R. God-Apes and Fossil Men: Paleoanthropology in South Asia, 290-325, 358-380. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2001.
  
• Keightly, David N. “The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty.” In Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, comp., Sources of Chinese Tradition, 1-23. Volume One, Second Edition. New York and Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 1999.
  
• Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, 11-66. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
  
• Dandamayev, M.A. “Media and Achaemenid Iran.” In János Harmatta, ed. History of Civilizations of Central Asia, 35-65. Volume Two. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1994.
  
• Rorex, Robert A. and Wen Fong, trans. Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: The Story of Lady Wen-Chi: A Fourteenth-Century Handscroll in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1974.
  
• Stuard, Susan Mosher. “The Dominion of Gender or How Women Fared in the High Middle Ages.” In Becoming Visible: Women in European History, 129-150. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
  
• Wilks, Ivor. “The History of the Sunjata Epic: A Review of the Evidence.” In Ralph A. Austen, ed. In Search of Sundiata: The Mande Oral Epic as History, Literature and Performance, 25-55. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
  
• Johnson, John William. “”Introduction: The Lion of the Manden.” In The Epic of Son-Jara: A West African Tradition, 4-7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

UNIT I: HUMAN ORIGINS THROUGH EARLY URBANIZATION

• WEEK 1 (M 9/2-W 9/4) INTRODUCTIONS AND ORIGINS.
  1. Introduction. “ Why Study Global History.”
  2. “Human Origins.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Preface, Chapt. 1. Reilly. Chapt. 1, 1-22.
  
• WEEK 2 (M 9/9-W 9/11) WOMEN, MEN AND THE FIRST SOCIETIES.
  3. “Settlement in River Valleys: Mesopotamian Societies.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 2. Reilly, Chapter 3, 47-83.
  4. “Patriarchy, Migration and Settlement: African Examples.” Reading:
  Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 3. Reilly, Chapt. 2, 23-46.
  
• WEEK 3 (M 9/16-W 9/19) URBANIZATION IN SOUTH AND EAST ASIA.
  5. “The Challenge of Harrapan Society.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 4. Kennedy, 290-325, 358-380.
  6. ‘State and Society in Ancient China.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 5. Keightly, 3-23.
  
• WEEK 4 (M 9/24-W 9/26) AUTONOMOUS URBANIZATION AND EARLY EMPIRES
  7. “The Americas and Oceania.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 6. Diamond, 11-66.
  8. “Classical Persia.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 7. Dandamayev, 35-65.

UNIT II: EARLY “EMPIRES” AND “CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS”

• WEEK 5 (M 9/31-W 10/2) CULTURE AND EMPIRE, #1: CHINA AND INDIA.
  9. “State, Society and Culture in China: Qin through Han.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 8. Reilly, Chapt. 5, 123-140.
  10. “India: State, Society and the Quest For Salvation.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 9. Reilly, Chapt. 4, 85-102.
  FILM: Students are required to view the film “Asoka” (Santosh Sivan, 2001) prior to class 23. The film will be on reserve in Magill Library, and a group showing will be scheduled on Tuesday, 10/1.
  
• WEEK 6 (M 10/7-W 10/9) CULTURE AND EMPIRE, #2: GREECE AND ROME.
  11. “The Greeks in a Mediterranean World.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt 10. Reilly, Chapt. 4, 103-122.
  12. “Rome: Kingdom, Republic and Empire.” Reading: Entire Class--Bentley and Ziegler, Chapter 11, Reilly Chapt. 5, 140-162. 1/2 Class—Tacitus, The Agricola. Other 1/2 class—Tacitus, The Germania.
  The First 5-7 pg. paper is due at the first class meeting following your return from Fall Break!!!!!
  
• WEEK 7 FALL BREAK!!!!!
  
• WEEK 8 (M 10/21-W 10/23) Review and Assessment.
  13. First paper due! “The Silk Roads.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 12. In-Class Review For Mid-Term Exam.
  14. In Class Mid-Term Exam.

UNIT III: THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

• WEEK 9 (M 10/28-W 10/30) MEDIEVAL RELIGION, I: LOCAL AND TRANS-REGIONAL
  15. “Judaism and Christianity.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 13. Reilly, Chapt. 6, 163-164, 176-190. Chapt. 7, 194-213.
  16. “Islam: Emergence and Expansion.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 14. Reilly, Chapt. 8, 244-261. Hamdun and King, Ibn Battuta.
  
• WEEK 10 (M 11/4-W 11/6) MEDIEVAL RELIGION, II: TRANS-REGIONAL AND LOCAL
  17. “Re-consolidation in China: Sui through Song Dynasties.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 15. Reilly, Chapt. 8, 261-273. Chapt. 7, 215-223. Rorex and Fong, “Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute.”
  18. “Hinduism, Buddhism and the Indian Ocean World.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapter 16. Reilly, Chapt. 6, 164-176. Chapt 7, 192-193, 224-232.
  
• WEEK 11 (M 11/11-W 11/13) MEDIEVAL EUROPE: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE.
  19. “Feudalism in Europe.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapter 17. Reilly, Chapter 8, 233-244.
  20. “Gender, Sex, Love and Marriage.” Readings: Reilly, Chapt. 9, 275-310. Stuard, “The
  Dominion of Gender or How Women Fared in the High Middle Ages,” 129-150.
  
• WEEK 12 (M 11/18-W 11/20). SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND EMPIRE.
  21. “Technology, Ecology and Science in the Medieval World.” Reading: Reilly, Chapt. 11, 347-385.
  22. “The Mongols.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapter 18. Reilly, Chapt. 12, 386-431.
  
• WEEK 13 (M11/25-W 11/27) PERSPECTIVES, DEBATES AND DECISIONS.
  23. “History and Histories.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 19. Niane, Sundiata. Wilks, 25-57. Johnson, 3-7.
  24. “The Crusades.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 20. Reilly, Chapt. 10, 311-346.
  FILM: Students are required to view the film “Keita! The Voice of the Griot” (Kouyate, 1994) prior to class 23. The film will be on reserve in Magill Library, and a group showing will be scheduled on Sunday, 11/24.
  The Second 5-7 pg. paper is due at the first class meeting following your return from Thanksgiving Break!!!!! (Note “Mercy Day,” Class #25).

UNIT IV: THE FIRST “GLOBAL WORLD”

• WEEK 14 (M 12/2-W 12/4) REGIONAL NETWORKS AND TRANS-REGIONAL STIRRINGS
  25. “Mercy Day.” The second paper is due tomorrow, Tuesday, December 3 by 4 p.m. in Hall 101! Class today is optional. It will consist of a discussion of papers in progress and the professor will devote the class to answering any questions you may have about writing your second paper.
  26. “Worlds Apart: The Americas and Oceania.” Reading: Bentley and
  Ziegler, Chapt. 21.
  
• WEEK 15 (M 12/9-F 12/11) TOWARDS AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD.
  27. “Eurasian Cities and Trans-Regional Trade.” Reading: Bentley and Ziegler, Chapt. 22. Reilly, Chapt. 13, 432-474.
  28. “The First Phase of ‘Globalism’: The Americas and Iberian Expansion.” Reading: Reilly, Chapt. 14, 475-519.

Explanation of Assignments and Course Requirements

Your final grade will be based on class participation (15% of the final grade); an in-class mid-term exam and two intermediate length (5-7 pgs.) papers (each worth 20 % of the final grade); and a comprehensive final exam (25% of the final grade).

Class participation includes the timely completion of all course requirements as well as lending your presence and voice to classroom discussion. A substantial part of your class participation grade will be based on your written answers to weekly discussion questions. These questions will be handed out at our first class meeting of the week, and your answers (not to exceed one pg.) will be turned in prior to the week’s second meeting. There will not be discussion questions for weeks 1, 7 (fall break), 8, 14 and 15. Your answers to discussion questions must be typed or computer printed with standard fonts and margins.

The mid-term exam will consist of an identification section and an essay question. All of the materials assigned up to that point and all classroom discussions are appropriate subject matter for the mid-term exam.

The intermediate length (5-7 pgs) papers will not require outside research, but rather the careful consideration of assigned readings. These papers must be typed or computer printed, with standard fonts and margins. They also require standard citation format (footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography or “works cited” page). It is your responsibility to make a hard copy (printed or photocopied) of all your papers in case your work is lost, misplaced or dissolves into cyberspace!!!

The comprehensive final exam will consist of an identification section and two essay questions. The identification section and the first essay question will be comprehensive, testing your knowledge of materials from the entire semester. The second essay question will focus on the second half of the semester.

Late work will receive a one full grade penalty (thus a 4.0 becomes a 3.0, and so on). In rare instances extensions may be granted, but they will be short and must be negotiated with the instructor in advance.