World Civilizations from 1453 to the First World War:
Revolution, the State, and the Good Society
Core 133: Scarboro / Spring 2015
A detail from the silk scroll 'The Mission of Commodore Perry to Japan' (1854)
Section F |
MWF 9:00 (Hafey-Marian 303) |
Office |
Hafey-Marian 306 |
E-mail |
|
Website |
|
Phone |
(570) 208-5900 ext. 5637 |
Office Hours |
TTh 9:30-12:00 |
Moodle Site |
I. Description:
While contact between cultures and civilizations is as old as recorded history,
in the 15th century the world became knitted together through trade
and conquest as never before. This course traces the development of this
interconnectivity between and among cultures and civilizations from the
mid-fifteenth century to the present in order to better understand the history
and meaning of globalization, its horrors and triumphs, perils and
possibilities. Central to understanding these processes is the
relationship between the growing role of the state and the lives of its would-be
subjects or citizens. This period—the era of modernity—was most importantly
characterized by ever more powerful attempts to create ideal subjects and
societies (understood, among other things, in terms of empire, nation, religion
and economic model). Our discussion of the last 500 years will focus on the
manner in which societies sought to order, control and transform the world,
communities and individuals around them according to their own understanding of
the correct relationship between people, the state and ideology.
II. Purpose:
A. Mission Statement:
As listed in the King's College Catalog 2014-2015, the goals of the Core
Curriculum at King's are as follows:
All of these goals are developed through a series of Core courses in several
categories. The civilizations CART contributes most to "a critical understanding
of history, civilization, art, and literature," but also to nearly all of the
other goals on the list.
B. CART Goals
The Civilizations category of the Core develops critical thinking skills in an
historical context, helps students reflect on their own heritage, and constructs
the cultural knowledge that unites many other areas of the Core.
C.
Student Learning Outcomes
III. General Requirements
A. Course Readings:
Ansary,
Tamim, Destiny Disrupted: A History of
the World through Islamic Eyes, Public Affairs, 2010.
Hobsbawm, Eric, The Age of Revolutions:
1789-1848, Vintage, 1996.
Hobsbawm, Eric, The Age of Capital:
1848-1875, Vintage, 1996.
Hobsbawm, Eric, The Age of Empire:
1875-1914, Vintage, 1996.
B.
Course Readings, Primary Sources:
Each week you will also be expected to examine a series of primary sources
consisting of texts, visual art and/or short video clips. These sources
will either be websites (links are provided in the syllabus) or files found on
the course moodle site:
Moodle Site: <<http://kings.mrooms2.net/course/view.php?id=624>>
These primary sources are to supplement the readings in the textbook and place
you in dialogue with another time and place. The primary sources in the
course sharepoint site will be filed under the "shared documents" folder. You
will need to examine these sources as a historian. What can they tell us
about the past and the worldview of past cultures? How do they help us
understand the historical theme of the week and the class as a whole?
Further, these documents will be the source upon which you will base your
microthemes and paper for the class.
C. Written Assignment:
Your larger writing assignment of 8-10 pages is due in its final form on
April 29th . This paper
is intended to familiarize you with the basic mechanics of historical
scholarship and writing: locating and interpreting primary and secondary
sources—placing them into conversation with one another in order to frame a
historical problem.
Roughly speaking your paper should consist of two sections—the first (the
historiographical section) reviewing the historical scholarship on your topic,
and the second placing your own interpretation of the primary sources within
this discussion.
This paper is to take place in several stages to facilitate the development and
integration of these two parts of your paper:
1)
Chose a topic that you are interested in exploring and then begin
thinking about the sources that you will need to utilize to answer these
questions. You will need to turn in a topic sentence on
January 19th.
2)
On January 26th you will
need to list three historical questions associated with your topic that
you are
interested in researching. Note
these questions should be questions of historical interpretation—detailing not what
happened but rather how we should
interpret and understand what
happened. These are questions
that historians and scholars disagree over.
Your paper is designed
to place your own research within these historical conversations.
3) On
February 9th you will
turn in your first annotated bibliography investigating your topic
within the secondary literature. This bibliography should include at
least 5 secondary sources on the topic and should not include internet sources (not including those
peer-reviewed sources accessed from on-line databases, i.e. JStor and EBSCO Host). Your
annotations should include the major thesis of each of the works and indicate how they relate to
your three historical questions.
See the online form for annotated
bibliographies on the course moodle site
4)
On February 23rd
you will turn in a draft of your historiographical section of your paper (4-5
pages). You will
flesh out your annotated bibliography to outline the way in which each historian
approaches your historical questions.
Where do they agree?
Disagree? What sources do they
use to buttress their arguments?
How are they speaking to one another?
Please remember this section is the first draft of your final paper due at the end of the
semester. This assignment will
be turned in both through the
appropriate turnitin link on the course moodle page and in
paper
form in class.
5)
On March 9th you will
turn in your second annotated bibliography outlining the primary sources
you will be using in paper. You will need at least 5 primary sources and
your annotations of the sources will indicate how these sources will fit within the secondary
literature and the argument
that you are developing. These sources will be the subject base for your
paper and for the five microthemes that you will be writing over the course of the semester (see
below).
See the online form for
annotated bibliographies on the course moodle site
6)
Five times during this semester you will be responsible for writing a 1-2
page microtheme on the assigned primary source material that you have chosen for
your larger paper (the sources outlined in your annotated bibliography of primary sources). Each microtheme
should answer three
questions: 1) what is the thesis of the work (what claims is the author making
about how we should understand the
world); 2) how is this claim reflect of the time and place in which it was
created; and 3) how
does it reflect the historical questions you have outlined?
See the online
form for microthemes on the course moodle site
You are responsible for the primary sources you will be using. I will be
happy to meet with you
to talk through search strategies and starting points. To begin with,
you will want to follow up and trace down documents mentioned in your secondary sources readings
(bibliographies and
footnotes in these works are a good place to start). Another good place
to start is Fordham University’s “Internet Modern History Sourcebook”
<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.asp>
Due dates for Microthemes:
First Microtheme |
March 16th |
Second Microtheme |
March 23rd |
Third Microtheme |
March 30th |
Fourth Microtheme |
April 8th |
Fifth Microtheme |
April 15th |
7)
On April 15th you
will turn in your thesis statement explaining the central argument of your
paper. This statement
should not be a statement of fact but rather of historical interpretation—explaining how we should understand your topic in dialogue with your
secondary and primary sources.
8)
On April 20th you
will turn in your complete rough draft demonstrating a synthesis of your
historiographical section with your own interpretation of a set of
primary sources. This draft will
have to be accompanied by a stamp demonstrating that you have visited the
King’s College Writing Center before turning it in. This assignment will be turned
in through the appropriate turnitin link on the course moodle page and in paper form in
class.
9)
The final draft of your paper (8-10 pages) is due on
April 29th. This
assignment will be turned in through the appropriate turnitin link on the course moodle page
and in paper form in
class.
D. Exams:
There will be three exams in this class: two midterms: the fist due on
February 16th at 11:59 p.m. and
the second due March 23rd at
11:59 p.m. and a final given during finals week. All exams will be
taken on the course moodle site. The exams will cover material from class
lectures, readings and discussions.
The exams will consist of three parts: 1) questions from the syllabus dealing
with lectures covered during the course of class meetings (these are listed on
the syllabus and will be randomly chosen for the exam) 2) questions from the
syllabus dealing with readings covered during the course of class meetings
(these are listed on the syllabus and will be randomly chosen for the exam), and
3) source interpretation—you will be asked to interpret (place in time and
assign a historical meaning to) a source (written or visual) that we have
discussed in class.
E. Class Discussion and Participation
As well as providing you with the methodological and analytical tools for
engaging in historical thinking, this class will ask you to actively take part
in a larger conversation of historical issues within the class. I expect
this class to allow us to delve deeply into the historical topics of each week’s
readings. To that end you need to make sure that you arrive to class on
time ready to discuss the weekly readings, having carefully read and thought
over the material. You must take an active role in the class discussions.
Thus a portion of your grade will depend on your in-class performance and
presence.
In a class of this nature it goes without saying that a classroom environment in
which everyone feels comfortable is essential. You should treat your
fellow classmates with respect, listen carefully to their comments and respond
to them in a polite manner.
F. Grading:
It is your responsibility to understand why you have achieved a certain grade,
and what steps you can take to maintain or improve your grade. You should
consult with the instructor during office hours or by appointment before and
after exams and written assignments. Your final grade will be based on the
following percentages
100-95 |
A |
94-92 |
A- |
91-85 |
B+ |
88-85 |
B |
84-83 |
B- |
82-80 |
C+ |
79-77 |
C |
78-75 |
C- |
74-70 |
D |
69< |
F |
Your grade distribution for class assignments is as follows:
First Midterm |
15% |
Second Midterm |
15% |
Final Exam |
15% |
Microthemes |
10% |
First Bibliography |
5% |
Second Bibliography |
5% |
Thesis |
5% |
Historiography |
5% |
Synthesis Draft |
5% |
Final Paper |
10% |
Class Participation |
10% |
G. Academic Integrity:
The Department of History adheres to guidelines on academic integrity outlined
in the Student Conduct Code in the Student Handbook:
http://www.kings.edu/student_handbook/studentregulations_rights/conductcode.htm
Cheating and plagiarism will be penalized in accord with the penalties and
procedures indicated in that source. All students are responsible for
familiarizing themselves with the definition of these infractions of academic
honesty.
H. Absences:
I will regularly take attendance in this class. Absences due to college
activities, emergency or extended illness may be excused by the appropriate
college official. You should consult with the professor about making up missed
work in advance or as soon as possible after your return. Other absences
are unexcused and will lower the class participation portion of your grade.
After any absence, you are responsible for requesting hand-outs and already
returned assignments from me or borrowing notes from other students. If you miss
an exam, contact me as possible. You may take a missed exam only at the
discretion of the instructor.
I. Disabilities:
King’s College and I will make every effort to accommodate students with a
bona-fide disability that impacts on their ability to learn the course material.
Please meet with me privately so that appropriate arrangements can be made to
help in the learning process.
IV. Course Schedule
IV. Schedule
Introduction: Sources and History
Monday, January 12th
|
Modernity, Revolution and Ideology
Wednesday, January 14th
Question: What do we mean
by modernity? How is it
related to new and revolutionary ways of understanding the world and
building national, imperial and religious communities? |
Growth of the Global / Growth of the Local—Exploration, Conquest, and
Trade
Friday, January 16th
Question:
Why did Europeans become the leaders in 15th century overseas
exploration, conquest and discovery?
What models of colonization did they establish? |
New Worlds, Old Worlds
Monday, January 19th
Question: How and why did
the Spaniards conquer the Aztec Empire?
How is this conquest emblematic of other European conquests of
the non-European world? How did the Spaniards and Portuguese seek to
remake America? How did
this conquest transform American Societies?
***Topic Sentence*** |
Discussion:
Revelation, Codification and the Problem of the State: The Birth of
Islam
Wednesday, January 21st
Question: How does Ansary understand Islam as a political project?
What are its ends?
Implications? How does this
play out in the period prior to the “arrival of the Turks?”
**Readings: Ansary, 1-117 |
Epistemological Revolutions: Scientific Revolution, Protestant
Reformation and the Enlightenment
Friday, January 23rd
Question: How did the
Protestant Reformation and the Wars of Religion remake Europe?
What was the impact of the Scientific Revolution in transforming the
worldview of those in Europe? How did the Enlightenment challenge
traditional societal organization? How did it change the way in
which people understood their place in the world? |
Absolutism: The Growth of the Modern State
Monday, January 26th
Question: How was Absolutism an answer to the chaos of the
European 16th Century? How did it lead to the development of the
European state system? How did it seek to arrange the word around
it?
**Readings: Hobsbawn, The Age of
Revolution, 1-27
***Historical Questions due in class*** |
Discussion:
Bougainville’s Voyage: Enlightenment and “the Other”
Wednesday, January 28th
Question: How is Diderot’s text reflective of the Enlightenment project?
How does it understand the good society?
How does it presage and challenge colonial understandings of
order?
**Reading: Diderot, “Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville” (moodle) |
Modernization and Centralization in East Asia
Friday, January 30th
Question: What elements undergird the processes of state building in
early modern China and Japan?
|
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Monday, February 2nd
Question: How did the Ottoman Empire organize its society?
How was difference understood? What role did religion play? What
was the role of nationalism?
Reading: Ansary, 117-159 |
Mughal India and the Coming of the British East India Company
Wednesday, February 4th
Question: What accounts for the success of the Mughal Empire under
Akbar? What factors account for its decline? Why were the
British successful in colonizing the Indian subcontinent? |
Black Atlantic
Friday, February 6th
Question: How did racial slavery develop in contact between Africans and
Europeans? What were its
effects on the Atlantic World?
|
Discussion:
Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, part I
Monday, February 9th
Question: How does Baptist explain the relationship between slavery and
American capitalism? How
does this challenge traditional understandings of American history?
**Reading: Baptist, 1-145
***Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Sources due in class*** |
Catherine the Great and the Bronze Horseman
Wednesday, February 11th
Question: What does Catherine the Great tell us about the ambiguities of
modernity? The Role of the
State? The relationship
between state and society?
Rebellion? |
Revolution, Part I: France
Friday, February 13th
Outline: What were the
causes of the French Revolution?
What were the three phases of the Revolution?
How did each phase differ in its vision of the “good society?”
What was the role of Napoleon? |
Discussion:
The French Revolution
Monday, February 16th
Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the impact of the French
Revolution? Why, according
to Hobsbawm, did it happen?
How does he periodize it?
Interpret its results?
**Reading: Hobsbawn, The Age of
Revolution, 53-77
***First Midterm Exam due 11:59 p.m. |
Revolution, Part II: Haiti and the Revolution of the Criollos
Wednesday, February 18th
Question: Whose Revolutions were the Haitian and American Creole
Revolutions? What were its causes and effects? What role did
new social classes have to play in its development? How did they
each seek to organize their newly revolutionary societies? What role did
nationalism play? |
Revolution, Part III: Industrial Revolution
Friday, February 20th
Question:
How did the Industrial Revolution remake European Society?
How did it change the place of Europe in the World? |
Discussion:
The Industrial Revolution
Monday, February 23rd
Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the impact of the Industrial
Revolution? Why, according
to Hobsbawm, did it happen?
How does he periodize it?
Interpret its results?
**Reading: Hobsbawn, The Age of Revolution, 27-53
***Historiographical Essay due in class*** |
Discussion:
War, Revolution, Nationalism
Question: What are the impacts of the wars emerging from the French
Revolution? The Peace?
The Revolutions of 1830?
Wednesday, February 25th
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Revolution, 77-149 |
19th Century Nationalism
Friday, February 27th
Question: What factors contributed to the development of European
nationalism? What forms did
it take? What was its
impact on the traditional European state system?
How did Europe and then the world become divided politically into
nation states? What were
the difficulties in defining the nation? |
19th Century Brazil
Question: How does the Brazilian national experience relate to the
revolution of the criollos earlier in the century?
How is it a modern experience?
What role does slavery play?
Monday, March 9th |
Discussion:
Revolutionary Society / Industrial World
Wednesday, March 11th
Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the transformation of the
European world in the era of revolution and industry?
Where is he pointing when he points “towards 1848”?
How does this frame his narrative of revolution?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Revolution, 149-309 |
Discussion:
The Great Boom
Friday, March 13th
Question: What is the “Age of Capital?” How does Hobsbawm understand the
conflicts underlying the revolutions of 1848?
How was the world unified?
What were the consequences?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Capital, 1-82 |
Discussion:
Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, part II
Monday, March 16th
Question: How does Baptist explain the relationship between slavery and
American capitalism? How
does this challenge traditional understandings of American history? How
does Baptist interrogate historical silences?
How does he recover slave voices?
To what effect?
**Reading: Baptist, 145-261
***First Microtheme due*** |
Middle Class Societies and its Discontents
Wednesday, March 18th
Question: How did the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat seek to reorganize
the world around them in the 19th Century?
What were the results of these processes?
|
Discussion:
Nations and Democracy, part I: Winners and Losers
Friday, March 20th
Question: According to
Hobsbawm, who were the winners and losers of the process of
nation-building?
Democratization? How do
these processes unfold?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Capital, 82-173 |
Discussion:
Slavery and American the Making of American Capitalism, part III
Monday, March 23rd
Question:
Question: How does Baptist explain the relationship between slavery and
American capitalism? How
does this challenge traditional understandings of American history? How
does Baptist explain emancipation?
How is the past, past? What does it mean for the present?
What sense should we make of the Economist’s review of Baptist’s
work (what is the difference between “history” and “advocacy”)?
**Reading: Baptist, 261-421 and the
Economist’s review of Baptist
(moodle)
***Second Microthem due in class***
***Second Midterm Exam due 11:59 p.m.*** |
19th Century Japan
Wednesday, March 25th
Question: How does the Japanese experience of nation-building in the 19th
century compare to other similar (and dissimilar) processes underway
simultaneously in Asia?
|
Discussion:
American Exceptionalism
Friday, March 27th
Question: How does Turner explain the development of the American nation
(how is that different than the American state—what difference does this
make)?
**Reading: Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Frontier in American History”
(moodle) |
Discussion:
Havoc Rebirth and the Coming of “the West”
Monday, March 30th
Question: What does Ansary
mean by “havoc?” How does this relate to his project of understanding
history read from an Islamic perspective as the conflict between “two
impulses: changing our notion of ‘civilized’ to align with the flow of
history or fighting the flow of history to realign it with our notion of
‘civilized’”?
**Reading: Ansary, 133-247
***Third Microtheme due in class*** |
The Chinese 19th Century
Wednesday, April 1st
Question: How does the Chinese experience of nation-building in the 19th
century compare to other similar (and dissimilar) processes underway
simultaneously in Asia? |
India
Wednesday, April 8th
Question: How does the Indian experience of nation-building in the 19th
century compare to other similar (and dissimilar) processes underway
simultaneously in Asia?
***Fourth Microtheme
due in class*** |
Discussion:
Age of Empire!
Friday, April 10th
Question: What are the contradictions “penetrating” and “dominating” the
age of empire? What are its
most important results?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Empire, 1-84 |
European Imperialism: Scramble for Africa
Monday April 13th
Question: Explain the motivations for European imperialism in the 19th
century? What role did imperialism, racism and nationalism have to play?
What did European imperialism look like on the ground in Africa? |
Discussion:
Nations and Democracy, part II: Bourgeois Anxieties
Wednesday, April 15th
Question: Why does Hobsbawm understand the age of empire to be a period
of bourgeois anxieties?
What are the implications?
Where is his narrative leading (where is the terminus)?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Empire, 84-192
***Fifth Microtheme due in class***
***Thesis due in class*** |
Gauguin and the Ambivalence of Colonial Desire
Friday, April 17th
Question: How does Gauguin
illustrate the ambivalence of colonial desire?
What is the colonial administrator?
Tourist? |
Discussion:
Rise of Secular Modernism / The Crisis of Modernity
Monday, April 20th
Question: How does Ansary interpret the transformations put in place in
Europe by the Protestant Reformation?
Does he see analogous movements in the Islamic world?
To what effect? What
does he mean by the crisis of modernity?
**Reading: Ansary, 247-349
***Synthesis due in class*** |
No Class: “The Pleasures of Backwardness Conference,” University of
California, Berkeley
Wednesday, April 22nd |
No Class: “The Pleasures of Backwardness Conference,” University of
California, Berkeley
Friday, April 24th
|
Discussion:
New Uncertainties: New Worlds / Old Worlds
Monday, April 27th
Question: How is the late imperial world one of uncertainties?
How do they relate to Hobsbawm’s “contradictions of the era?”
How are they reflected culturally?
**Reading: Hobsbawm, The Age of
Empire, 192-341 |
World War I: Glitter and Doom
Wednesday, April 29th
Question: How did World War
I complete the 19th Century process of creating European
nation-states? What was the
war’s impact on the culture of the interwar years?
What was the war’s impact on interwar politics?
***Final Draft due in class*** |