WORLD HISTORY
Prof. Dr. PHAM QUANG MINH
VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities
email: minhpq@ussh.edu.vn
tel. 0904696062
face book: Minh Pham
Can we?
CONTENT
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WHAT IS HISTORY?
WHY HISTORY?
HOW TO STUDY HISTORY?
THE CONTENT OF THE COURSE
TOPICS FOR GROUPS PRESENTATION
1. WHAT IS HISTORY?
• What is history? History is the past
• What is the past? From cosmic history to Human
history.
• Timescale: 13.7 billion years.
• WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BEGINNING?
> HOLY PEOPLE? A hollow reed.
> ANCIENT GREEKS? original Cosmic Egg
> HEBREWS? God
> HISTORIANS?
• Big Bang: 13.7 billions years ago
• Solar system: 4.7 billions years ago
• Earth: 4.5 billions years ago
• Life: 4 billions years ago
• First agriculture: 12.000 years ago
The History of the Universe as a cosmic calendar
A preview of history
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History of our species: 250,000 years
Three major phases:
Paleolithic age
Agricultural revolution: 12,000 years
ago
• Industrial Revolution: 1750s
2. WHY WORLD HISTORY?
• Before 1945: world history was organized in
terms of civilizations and nations
• After 1945 - "world history movement":
➢interdependence of world's people and their
unequal positions;
➢requirement of equivalent treatment of third
world
➢global issues
➢Global present seemed to call for a global
past
➢Global understanding of the human past
Global vs. World
• GLOBAL
➢ historical analysis pertaining to the whole of the
world, not an aggregation of 'national" histories
➢ identifying issues, trends,
tendencies, trajectories, what have you, that
impact the whole of humanity.
➢ History from outer space.
• WORLD
➢ more limited, a region (eg the Atlantic, the Indian
ocean) but less than the globe;
➢ the world is often smaller than the globe.
3. HOW TO STUDY WORLD HISTORY
• The Three Cs: Comparison, connections,
changes
• Comparison: identify similarities and
differences
• Connection: interaction, encounters
among different and often distant people
• Change: What changes, what persists and
why?
• Change and comparison in particular help to
counteract essentialism or stereotyping.
Content
• Introduction
1. First Things First: Beginning in History (to
500 B.C.E)
2. The Classical Era in World History (500
B.C.E - 500 C.E.)
3. An Age of Accelerating Connections (5001500
4. Early Modern World (1450-1750)
5. The European Moment in World History
(1750-1914)
6. The Most Recent Century (1914- today)
Suggested topics to be chosen for group
presentation
• The first civilizations (Life of Pharaoh; the death
of Cleopatra…)
• The First Empires (the philosophy of Greeks,
Julius Caesar, Christianity, the Crusade,
Confucianism…)
• The Silk Roads
• The Tributary System of China
• European Christendom
• The World of Islam
• The Mongol Empire
• The activities of East India Companies
Topics to be chosen and prepared
• The Protestant Reformation (1517)
• Nation and Nationalism (1750)
• European Industrial Revolution (Europe and
Britain)
• Japanese Meiji (1868)
• European Colonialism
• The First World War
• The Second World War
• The World Communism
• Globalization and Interaction
Evaluation
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Attendance (10%)
Group presentation (30%)
Final exam: multiple - choice (60%)
Active participation (+)
SCHEDULE
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10 and 12 April
17 April
24 and 26 April
3 May
8 and 10 May
22 and 24 May