History 131 World History to 1500 Fall 2010

History 131—World History to 1500—Fall 2017

M/W 10:00-10:50 Physics 135

Prof. Merry Wiesner-Hanks

Office: Holton 316 Office Hours: M 11:00-1:00 and by appointment

e-mail:

Required Books:

Craig Lockard, World, Vol. 1 (Wadsworth-Cengage, 2010)

Wiesner/Wheeler/Doeringer/Curtis, Discovering the Global Past: A Look at the Evidence, 4th edition, vol. 1 (Wadsworth-Cengage, 2012)

(These are available as a package at the UWM on-line bookstore, or feel free to shop other on-line vendors. They are also available on 2-hour reserve in the UWM library.)

There are many different definitions of history, and many ways of approaching the past. The approach we will take in this course is that history is not simply something one learns about, but something one does, in the same way that one does physics or astronomy. We will learn about people and societies from the far distant past by examining and analyzing the traces they have left, that is, by using historical sources to answer questions about the past. Thus the central book for the course will be Discovering the Global Past, with the textbook, World, providing context for the questions we will be addressing along with further information. For each week, we will focus on a particular theme based on the chapter in Discovering, with additional material brought in as necessary.

Almost every week your reading assignment includes one of the chapters from Discovering the Global Past, a book that includes original sources, both written and visual, along with information placing these sources into their historical context and suggestions about how to use these sources to answer questions about the past. Each chapter is organized around a central question or group of questions, found at the end of the section labeled “The Problem.” These questions will be those that you will address in your written assignments for the course, and will be part of the material for your weekly discussion section. Therefore it is extremely important, if you wish to do well in this course, that you keep up with the reading assignments,and that you have a copy of the week’s chapter of Discovering the Global Past with you in discussion section.

As you will see, one of the authors of Discovering the Global Past is me. I joined the author team because this is the way I want to teach history, but I also receive royalties for each new copy, which makes my assigning this as a course book financially advantageous to me. I thus donate these royalties to the UWM Foundation, split between the Friends of History and the Friends of Women’s Studies, both organizations that support undergraduate scholarships. If you would prefer to have these royalties as a personal refund, I would be happy to do so. Just let your TA know. My share of the royalties is $2.17. If you buy books used, either at a bookstore or through an on-line vendor, I do not receive royalties.

Course Requirements:

• Participation in discussion section and attendance at lecture. Worth 25% of the grade.

Three of the following four, worth 25% each: (You may do all four, and we will take your highest three grades, or you may do three of the four and be graded on these.)

• Mid-term essay examination (Wednesday, October 26)
• Final essay examination (Wednesday, December 20)

• Two 5-10 page papers based on chapters that we discuss in classfrom Discovering the Global Past. These papers are due in hard copy in lecture on the due date (Oct. 11 and Dec. 13) The first of these should be about Chapters 1, 2, 3 or 4; the second should be about Chapters 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 or 13. Late papers will be graded down one step per 24 hours (e.g. A- to B+, C+ to C)Early papers are happily accepted.

If you need special accommodations to meet any of these requirements, please see me privately or contact me by e-mail.

Course Learning Goals:

You will:

• Gain familiarity with world history over a broad sweep of time, including issues of periodization, key themes, world regions, and processes of continuity and change.

• Examine important written and visual primary sources on a variety of topics from many cultures.
• Analyze those sources to write intellectually engaged, coherent, well-organized, accurate, and clear analytical papers.
• Use information gained from lectures and readings in order to understand the varieties and complexities of the human experience throughout time and around the world.
• Synthesize information on world history from lectures, readings, and discussions into coherent and thoughtful written analyses in examinations.

Policies and Technology: UWM policies can be found at:

Cellphones and I-Pods need to be turned off and put away in lecture and discussion, and headphones removed. Computers are fine for note-taking, not for doing e-mail or Facebook updates during class. If you can’t avoid that temptation when you have a screen in front of you, use paper to take notes. If we find you are doing lots of off-task computer use during class, you will be required to use ancient technology from that point on, in other words a hand holding a writing implement.

Course Organization:

World history is obviously an enormous topic, and there are many different ways to organize it. We will be following two of these ways in this course, time and themes.

Time

How to divide up time, an issue termed periodization, is an issue of debate in world history more than in the history of one country or one region. Turning points for some areas are not turning points for others. Similar processes occurred at different times in different regions. Even what to call certain periods is contested. For this course, we will use the periods that Lockard does in the textbook, as these work well for many societies.

Ancient: to ca. 600 BCE

Classical: ca. 600 BCE- ca. 600 CE

Intermediate (Medieval, Post-Classical): ca. 600-1500

This course will examine change and continuity across these periods as well as within them. Change and continuity is, of course, the heart of history.

Themes

It would be easy to get bogged down in a mass of details if we tried to cover everything to the level that might be possible in a course in United States history or the history of any other single country. Thus we will highlighting four themes as we move through the course, with certain of these receiving more attention in some weeks and others in other weeks.

1. Technology: The interaction of humans with their environment through the development of technology, including production systems as well as tools and machines.

2. Culture: The creation of intellectual systems such as religion, philosophy, and law, and of cultural products such as literature, art, and music that helped people make sense of their world.

3. Society: The creation of social and gender structures such as families, clans, castes, and social classes that established hierarchies of wealth and power, and the impact these developments had on individuals.

4. Politics: The establishment of various forms of political organizations, including villages, cities, states, and empires.

All of these themes relate to one another, and changes in one sphere of life—technology, the economy, political systems, religion, family structures—always bring change in others. Thus we will also explore the ways in which these themes intersect with one another, particularly within the context of regional and global interaction and contact among societies.

Geography

A third way of dividing world history material is geographically. This is the way Lockard organizes much of his textbook, and a few times in the semester we will also look at certain regions separately. World regions that are important for you to know include:

Asia: East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea),West Asia (the Middle East), South Asia (the Indian subcontinent), Central Asia, Southeast Asia

Africa: East Africa, West Africa, North Africa

Americas: North America, South America, Mesoamerica

Ocean-based regions: Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Pacific

Weekly Topics and Reading Assignments:

Ancient Era (to ca. 600 BCE)

Week One: Wed. Sept. 6 Course Introduction and the Earliest Human Societies

Readings: World, pp. 1-25

Week Two: Sept. 11 and 13 Technology: Agriculture

Readings:World, pp. 26-32, 48-58, 70-75, 80-87

Discovering, Ch. 1

Week Three: Sept. 18 and 20 Culture: Writing, Philosophy, and Religion

Readings: World, pp. 33-41, 63-69, 75-80

Discovering, Ch. 2

Week Four: Sept. 25 and 27 Society: Social Structures and the Individual

Readings: World, pp. 41-47, 58-63, 131-138; section summary pp. 91-101

Discovering, Ch. 3

Classical Era (ca. 600 BCE-600 CE)

Week Five: October 2 and 4 Politics: Classical Empires

Readings: World, pp. 102-115, 124-131, 138-147, 170-187

Discovering Ch. 4

Week Six: Oct. 9 and 11 Culture: Global Religions

Readings: World, pp. 116-123, 148-160, 187-190, 230-237

Discovering Ch. 5

First paper due October 11: hard copy, handed in at lecture

Week Seven: Oct. 16 and 18 Technology: Trade

Readings: World, pp. 160-169, 190-210.

No Discovering chapter for this week; sections will go over papers

Week Eight: Monday, October 23: Technology: Deserts and Seas

Readings: World, pp. 210-218, 335; section summary, pp. 218-227.

No Discovering chapter for this week; sections will review for exam

Midterm Exam, Wednesday October 25

Intermediate Era,ca. 600-1500

Week Nine: Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 Politics, Society, Culture: The Muslim World and Africa

Readings: World, pp. 237-255, 280-293

Discovering, Ch. 7

Week Ten: Nov. 6 and 8 Politics, Society, Culture: China and the Mongols

Readings: World, pp. 256-279

Discovering, Ch. 9

Week Eleven: Nov. 13 and 15 Politic, Society,Culture: East Asia and Europe

Readings: World, pp. 273-279, 331-347

Discovering, Ch. 12

Week Twelve: Nov. 20: Technology: Machines and Weapons

No readings or discussion sections this week; Thanksgiving break

Week Thirteen: Nov. 27 and 29: Politics, Society, Culture: South and Southeast Asia

Readings: World, pp. 306-329

Discovering, Ch. 11

Week Fourteen: Dec. 4 and 6 Social Hierarchies and Epidemic Diseases

Readings: World, pp. 330-339, 350-357

Discovering, Ch. 13

Week Fifteen: Dec. 11 and 13: Politics, Society, Culture: the Americas, and course wrap-up

Readings: World, pp. 293-305; section summary pp. 358-368

No Discovering chapter this week; discussion will review for final exam.

Second paper due December 13, hard copy, in lecture

Final exam 12:30-2:30, Wednesday December 20

Instructions for Papers Based on Discovering the Global Past

Course requirements include two 5-10 page papers based on chapters in Discovering the Global Past, due in hard copy in lecture on the due date.The first of these should be about Chapters 1, 2, 3 or 4; the second should be about Chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, 12 or 13.

Each chapter in Discovering the Global Past is divided into six parts: The Problem, Background, the Method, the Evidence, Questions to Consider, and Epilogue. The section called “The Problem” sets out the central question or issues explored in the chapter. “Background” presents the general historical background and context for the evidence offered. The section titled “the Method” provides information about the sources and suggests ways for you to study and analyze this primary evidence. It also discusses how previous historians have evaluated such sources and mentions any major disputes about methodology or interpretation. “The Evidence” forms the core of each chapter, presenting a variety of original sources for you to use in answering the question(s) posed in the chapter. In “Questions to Consider,” suggestions are offered about connections among the sources and further issues you may wish to consider in developing your analysis. The final section, “Epilogue,” traces both the immediate effects of the issue under discussion and its impact on later developments.

For each of thetwo papers assigned for the course, you will need to choose one chapter. Once you have made your choice, identify the central question(s) or issue(s) for the chapter, which is always at the end of the section labeled “The Problem.” (Thus the central problem in Chapter One, for example, may be found near the bottom of page 2: “How did the need for a steady supply of water affect the technological, economic, political, and legal development of ancient societies?” and the central problem in Chapter Two in the middle of page 21: “Using your historical imagination, show what each creation account tells us about the people who thought it critical enough to write it down—their value system, their view of history, their relationship to the universe as well as to a god or gods.”)

Your job for these papers is to use the sources in the chapter to answer the central questions or tasks set out in the chapter. This means, above all, that you must read or look at the sources carefully, ask questions about them in lecture or discussion section, and think about the material which puts them in context, which may be found in both Discovering and your textbook. You do not need to do any additional outside reading to write an effective paper, but your paper will be improved by an inclusion of issues brought up in class discussion. Your paper also needs to make specific references to the sources; you do not need to include formal footnotes, but may simply list the page number in parentheses after the quotation or reference. If you decide to use additional outside materials for your paper, you will need to bring them to your T.A. when you turn in your paper.

Grading Standards for these Papers:

The “A” Range: Your work is superior, well above an average level of competence for an introductory class. This means:

1. You show a high level of intellectual engagement with the issue discussed, and an ability to analyze the sources and to make your analysis seem interesting and important. You avoid summarizing or repeating what is already contained in the other sections of each chapter (‘The Problem” or “The Method”) or digressing into a discussion of personal philosophy or extraneous issues.
2. Your essay is coherent and well-organized. It is governed by a clearly formulated argument that the reader can follow throughout, and makes effective use of the sources to provide examples and points of emphasis in your argument. At the same time, it is not repetitive, but addresses some of the complexities of the central question(s) in the chapter, including both those suggested in “Questions to Consider” and those that come from your own analysis of the sources.
3. Your use of the sources is accurate, showing careful reading and understanding of the material they contain. Points of comparison and contrast among them are noted.
4. Your writing is compelling, active, clear, and direct, and you do not resort to dense phrases that obscure your meaning, or overly colloquial language inappropriate in an academic paper.
5. The mechanics of your writing, i.e., your sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, etc., are both accurate and effective.

The “B” Range: Your work is good, above average, which means:

1. Your essay shows you have thought about the question(s). Generally speaking, you avoid summary and narrative to focus on analysis of the sources themselves.
2. Your essay contains a clearly formulated argument that determines its shape and makes some reference to the sources themselves. It brings in some reference to complexities in the issues involved.
3. Your use of the sources is largely accurate and you have made some comparisons.
4. You have made an effort to achieve clarity and fluidity in expression and develop your ideas adequately.
5. The mechanics of your writing are largely correct, and you have made an effort to use them to good effect.

The “C” Range: Your work suggests competence, but problems as well, which means:

1. You may not have thought sufficiently about the question(s) or read the sources carefully. Your essay may repeat or summarize information given in the chapter itself and not develop an independent analysis.
2. Your argument is not expressed clearly and is difficult to follow. Logical connections between the paragraphs may be weak or absent so that the essay does not hang together and it may be difficult for the reader to understand your points.
3. Your use of the sources is faulty or incomplete, and you have made little effort to compare them.
4. Your style is not clear or is overly colloquial.
5. Your grasp of the mechanics of writing may not be strong enough to allow you to say what you mean.

The “D” and “F” Range: Your work has a number of serious problems, ignores the directions, is completely off-topic, or has other major issues.

All of the above assumes, of course, that the work you turn in is yours. If there are any questions about this, you will be asked to discuss the analysis in your paper orally with me and the course teaching assistant. Papers that turn out to be the work of someone other than you are graded “F,” and other sanctions for academic misconduct may be invoked.

If you have any questions about these standards or the papers themselves, please ask me.

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