HIS 121: MILLENNIUM -- WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1000 AD
North Island College, Winter 2011
Meeting Times: Tues. 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Meeting Place: 205 Tyee Hall, Comox Valley Campus.
Instructor: Dan Hinman-Smith
Office: Village G6
Office Hours: Tues. Noon - 2:30 pm (or by appointment)
Office Phone: 334-5000, Extension 4024
Home Phone: 336-0238 (Do not hesitate to call with course-related questions).
Web-Site: http://www.misterdann.com/contentsmillennium.htm
E-Mail: dan.hinmansmith@nic.bc.ca
Course Description
This course surveys world history from the early Medieval period to contemporary times. The focus will be upon identifying broad themes, issues and patterns in world history, and upon accounting for political, social, cultural, intellectual, religious and economic change. The approach will combine sweeping analytical overviews with recurrent intensive investigation of selected societies and topics. Class time will be divided between lecture and slide presentation, video documentaries, and discussion based upon common course readings and a series of student research exercises.
Tentative Class Schedule
Week 1
Tuesday, January 4
a) Course Introduction
b) Video: "Holy Warriors: Richard The Lionheart And Saladin" [2005] (110 minutes)
Week 2
Tuesday, January 11
a) Discussion: The Crusades
b) Lecture: "God Wills It!" -- The Crusades
c) [If Time] Video: "The Awakening" [Islam: Empire Of Faith, 50 minutes]
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in
Listening
Assignment:
"The Crescent And The Cross, Part Two,"
[The Third Crusade]
BBC World Service, November 16, 2009.
Paul Freedman, "Medieval Crusades And Today," Yale University I-Tunes Lecture, January 7, 2008.
Week 3
Tuesday, January 18
a) Discussion: Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan And The Making Of The Modern World
b) Lecture: Storm From The East -- The Mongols
c) [If Time]: Video Clips: Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan segments from "The Thirteenth Century: Century Of The Stirrup" [Millennium Series, 20 mins.]
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in Genghis Khan And The Mongols Discussion Topic.
Listening
Assignment:
"Genghis Khan,"
In Our Time, BBC Radio 4,
February 1, 2007.
Week 4
Tuesday, January 25
a) Discussion: Travelers -- Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta And Zheng He
b) Lecture: Travelers
c) Possible Video Clip on Zheng He from "The Fifteenth Century: Century Of The Sail" [Millennium Series, 10 mins.]
d) Video: "Lost Kingdoms Of Africa"
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in
Week 5
Tuesday, February 1
a) Lecture: The Aztec And Inca Empires
b) Video: "When Worlds Collide" [2010, 87 minutes] or "All The World Is Human" [Conquistadors, 60 mins]
Listening
Assignment:
"The
Aztecs,"
In Our Time, BBC Radio 4,
February 27, 2003.
Week 6
Tuesday, February 8
a) Discussion: Eduardo Galeano, Memory Of Fire, Part I -- Genesis
b) Lecture: Conquest Of The Americas
c) [If Time] Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade And The Making Of The Americas
d) [If Time] Video Clip: "The Seventeenth Century -- Century Of The Telescope" (Slavery And Brazil Segment)
Reading Assignment:
READING BREAK: February 14-18
Week 7
Tuesday, February 22
***FIRST PORTFOLIO DUE
a) Discussion: Slavery
b) Lecture: The World Circa 1492
c) Video: "India" [Story Of India, Michael Wood, 60 minutes]
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in Slavery Discussion Topic.
Listening Assignment
:Listen to
"Free At Last, Part One: How The Slave Trade Worked,"
BBC Documentary Archive, March 6, 2007.
"Free At Last, Part Two: The Road To Emancipation,"
BBC Documentary Archive, March 19, 2007.
"Free At Last, Part Three: Cultural DNA,"
BBC Documentary Archive, March 26, 2007.
Week 8
Tuesday, March 1
a) Discussion: Ayodhya
b) Lecture: India -- From The Mughals To Midnight
c) Possible Video Clip: Britain And India From "The Eighteenth Century -- Century Of The Furnace" [Millennium, 1999]
d) Discussion: The Indian Mutiny
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in Indian History (I): Ayodhya Discussion Topic.
Browse extensively in Indian History (II): The Indian Mutiny Discussion Topic.
Week 9
Tuesday, March 8
a) Video: "Japan -- Memoirs Of A Secret Empire" [2004, 160 minutes]
b) Lecture: Among Samurai And Shoguns -- Japan, 1000-1868 AD
Week 10
Tuesday, March 15
a) Discussion: The Opium Wars And Taiping Rebellion
b) Video: "Horror In The East" [2000, 98 minutes]
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in
Listening
Assignment:
"Opium Wars,"
In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, April
12, 2007.
"The
Taiping Rebellion,"
In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, February
24, 2011.
Week 11
Tuesday, March 22
a) World War II In Global Perspective
b) Video: "Egalite For All: Toussaint Louverture And The Haitian Revolution" [2009 -- 60 minutes]
Week 12
Tuesday, March 29
a) Discussion Topic: World War II In The News
b) Lecture: China -- From Ming To Mao
c) Possible Video Clip on Jesuits, China in the 18th Century and/or The Opium Wars [Millennium, 1999]
Reading Assignment:
Browse extensively in World War II In The News Discussion Topic .
Week 13
Tuesday, April 5
a) Discussion: Primo Levi, Drowned And The Saved
b) Genocide In Comparative Perspective: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia And Rwanda As Case Studies
Reading Assignment:
Week 14
Tuesday, April 12
a) Discussion: You Say You Want A Revolution
Week 15: **SECOND HALF PORTFOLIO DUE: Tuesday, April 19
Texts
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan And The Making Of the Modern World (New York: Three Rivers, 2004).
Eduardo Galeano, Memory Of Fire: Part I -- Genesis (London: Quartet, 1985).
Primo Levi, Drowned And The Saved (New York: Vintage, 1989).
My Assumptions About This Course
That you are interested in world history and eager to learn as much about it as possible in this course.
That it will be impossible to learn all that you would like to learn given the massive amount of relevant material and the time constraints involved.
That history should involve not merely the struggle to understand past events but also to find meaning from those events.
That my job as instructor is to strike an appropriate balance between providing a common core curriculum and setting up structures that also allow you to study materials of personal interest.
That this course should help to set you up for future formal or informal study of world history rather than being a survey that teaches you "all that you need to know" about the ancient past.
Evaluation
Letter of Introduction 1%
First-Half Portfolio 30%
Second-Half Portfolio 30%
Textbook Assignment 24%
Class Participation 15%
a) Letter of Introduction (1%)
Who are you? Where are you from? What are your interests? Why are you taking this course? Do you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions as we start the course? Write two or three informal paragraphs for the second class of the semester to introduce yourself to me.
b) First-Half Portfolio (30%)
The First-Half Portfolio will include the Millennium Bubblegum Cards (70%) and 2 Discussion Topic Commentaries (30%). There is a bonus option of completing up to 3 extra Discussion Topic Commentaries or Audio Responses (worth up to 2% each added to your First-Half Portfolio grade).
c) Second-Half Portfolio (30%)
The Second-Half Portfolio will include the You Say You Want A Revolution Comparison Grid (65%) and a book review of one of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World , Memory of Fire: Genesis or Drowned and the Saved (35%). There is a bonus option of completing up to 3 extra Discussion Topic or Audio Response Commentaries (worth up to 2% each added to your Second-Half Portfolio grade).
d) Textbook Assignment (24%)
There are 13 volumes from Time Life Time Frames series on Reserve in the NIC Library that cover world history from 1000 AD to contemporary times. There are corresponding fill-in-the-blank worksheets on the Assignments page of the web-site. You will be required to complete several of these worksheets during the semester. Your completed worksheets should be handed in with your first-half and/or second-half portfolio. I expect you to fill these out with care but, instead of each answer being marked, you will be graded on the following scale:
C= 3 worksheets completed
C+= 4 worksheets completed
B= 5 worksheets completed
B+= 6 worksheets completed
A-= 7 worksheets completed
A= 8 worksheets completed
A+= 11+ worksheets completed
Note that there are also Time Frames volumes on Reserve for HIS 120 (World History To 1000 AD). Those books are not intended for this assignment.
The relevant volumes for HIS 121 are those that are chronologically situated between 1000 AD and the Present. These include:
Light In The East: Time Frame AD 1000-1100
Divine Campaigns: Time Frame AD 1100-1200
Mongol Conquests: Time Frame AD 1200-1300
Age Of Calamity: Time Frame AD 1300-1400
Voyages Of Discovery: Time Frame AD 1400-1500
European Emergence: Time Frame AD 1500-1600
Powers Of The Crown: Time Frame AD 1600-1700
Winds Of Revolution: Time Frame AD 1700-1800
Pulse Of Enterprise: Time Frame AD 1800-1850
Colonial Overlords: Time Frame AD 1850-1900
World In Arms: Time Frame AD 1900-1925
Shadow Of The Dictators: Time Frame 1925-1950
Nuclear Age: Time Frame AD 1950-1990
e) Class Participation (15%)
The class participation grade will be based upon attendance; pre-class preparation; and the willingness to contribute thoughtfully to full-class and small-group discussion. Although attendance is not required, I will take roll, and those who are not in class regularly will receive a poor grade for this component of the course. I would like to encourage a classroom environment in which all are eager to share their ideas and in which lectures are accompanied by thoughtful dialogue.
Assigning class participation grades can be quite arbitrary. When I assign participation grades at the end of the semester, I place each student in one of three following categories:
1) Regular class attendance and excellent class participation.
2) Regular class attendance and fully satisfactory class participation.
3) Irregular class attendance and preparation.
Those in Category 1 receive top participation grades. Those in Category 3 receive poor participation grades. Those in Category 2 are most likely to receive no specific participation grade but rather have the 90% total for their written work pro-rated to a 100% scale (in some cases the participation component may help a Category 2 student's final grade but in no instance will it lower the final grade). Thus, shy students are not penalized for class participation so long that they attend faithfully and I need only to distinguish between strong, satisfactory and weak participation rather than attempt to make fine distinctions.
A Note On Plagiarism
Everything that you hand in should be your original work unless otherwise indicated. Violations of this policy may result in failing an assignment or the course in its entirety. Please talk to me if you have any uncertainty about what is permitted here.
WELCOME TO THE COURSE
