GLOBAL HISTORY II SUMMER ASSIGNMENT, Professor Tiede
As you prepare for the second half of your Global History course sequence, Global History 10, you will
be thinking about the interaction of geography, natural resources, and history. As one looks at the human
story, it is clear that human existence is shaped by nature and that humans have manipulated the natural
resources available in their environment in many ways to build the amazing civilizations, technology, and
world we live in today. Humans have done this throughout time, impacting all seven continents. The reading
below will help kick off our studies for 2015-2016 as we seek to understand why and how this development
occurred as it did, where it did, when it did, and how interactions between cultures in various times and places
eventually lead to the modern world that exists in the present.
STEP 1
Purchase the below book:
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1999. Print.
STEP 2
1. Closely read the following pages/chapters in Guns, Germs, and Steel:
Preface and Prologue: 9-31
Chapters 1-12 pages 32-238
***You will be assigned to read much of the Rest of the Book during the year, so feel free to read more
as your time permits!
1. As you read, create a vocabulary list of terms you don’t understand and look up the definitions.
Here’s one to start: Eurasia—the combined landmass of Europe and Asia.
2. Write down the main idea of the chapter and summarize key points as it pertains to history. Support
what you are writing with details and evidence, or examples taken from that chapter.
3. Write down any questions you have about the chapter.
4. Consider Jared Diamond’s premises and compare to what you have learned and studied so far in Global
History, then answer the question that follows in #5.
a. History before the emergence of writing around 3,000 B.C. also receives brief treatment in most
world history classes, although it constitutes 99.9 % of the five million year history of the human
species.
b. Focusing on only the history of literate people of Eurasian and North African societies, and often
mostly Western Eurasia rather than China, India, Japan, tropical Southeast Asia, and other eastern
Eurasian society. This slights the majority and some of the most powerful economies and cultures
from these other places in Eurasia and sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Island Southeast Asia,
Australia, New Guinea, the Pacific Islands.
c. A history limited to developments since the emergence of writing around 3,000 B.C. cannot provide
deep understanding.
d. A history focused on western Eurasian societies completely bypasses the obvious big question: Why
were those societies the ones that became disproportionately powerful and innovative? Why did all
the ingredients of conquest arise in western Eurasia, and arise elsewhere only to a lesser degree or not
at all?
5. To what extent do you agree with his premises, argument, and evidence provided up to Chapter 12?
Evaluate Diamond’s argument and evidence provided and explain and discuss your analysis thoroughly.
6. Think of 3 other BIG QUESTIONS (maybe OBVIOUS ones too!) you have about the world and history that
you’d like to explore or better understand next year. Think about the progression of history from the material
you’ve studied thus far in 9th grade (Origins of humans up to Columbian Exchange) to events you may know
occurred/and are occurring from 1492-present.
Use this link to further your understanding:
http://www.jareddiamond.org/Jared_Diamond/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel.html
DUE: September 11, 2015