History 002-01
Spring 2006
Aviel Roshwald (ICC 606/Tel. 7-6089)
Of. hrs. Tues. 1:00-2:00/Thurs. 2:30-3:00
Chase Gummer
(ICC 606; of. hrs. Thurs. 3:15-4:30)
Bjoern Hofmeister (bh62@georgetown.edu)
(ICC 606; of. hrs. Wed. 1:45-3:00)
WORLD HISTORY II: THE POWER OF IDENTITY
(since 1500)
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the second half of the two-semester World History survey. Our thematic emphasis
in this section of the course is on the role of ethnic, religious, and national identities, as well as
ideological systems, in shaping the evolution of human societies and the interactions among
them over the course of the last five centuries.
The class will ordinarily meet as one group for lectures on Tuesdays. Please feel free to raise
questions during lecture—or simply to ask me to slow down or go over a point that remains
unclear. On most Thursdays (there are a few exceptions, so please check the schedule below),
we will break up into discussion sections to discuss the weekly reading assignments. You will be
graded on your participation. Failure to show up in section will result in zero credit, so be sure to
attend. Active participation involves doing the reading and being prepared to discuss it. It doesn’t
mean you have to be full of brilliant insights every week. Raising a question about something in
the assigned text can often be a more useful contribution than having all the answers!
Paper Assignment
Apart from the in-class midterm and final examinations, you will also have a 7-10 page paper to
write, to be submitted in class on Tuesday, 25 April. The paper is NOT to be a research paper.
Rather, it is to be a critical, comparative review of a scholarly debate or controversy about a
specific issue in world history between 1500 and the present. A good way to start is to find a
scholarly book (published by a university press or a scholarly trade press) on a topic that interests
you and then to read some of the other publications on the topic that the author cites in the
footnotes and bibliography. You can also find reviews of the book in historical journals and then
locate books or articles that the reviewers have published in the same area of study. The bottom
line is that you need to use at least three scholarly publications (books and/or journal articles,
not counting book reviews and not counting any of the books already assigned in the course) that
address the same issue or topic from different perspectives and/or that reach diverse conclusions
about their common subject. Once again, your paper will focus on the debate about a given
topic, rather than on the topic itself.
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PLEASE NOTE that on-line sources are not acceptable unless they are simply the on-line
versions of articles published in scholarly journals. Encyclopedia entries and textbooks (such as
the Bentley & Ziegler textbook we’re using in this class) are also not acceptable.
We will be discussing how to go about this in greater detail in the course of the semester. We
will also be happy to discuss your projects with you on an individual basis and will gladly give
you feedback on rough drafts of your papers submitted at any point until Tuesday, April 11. We
will not accept any drafts after that date. Again, final submissions are due in class on Tuesday,
25 April.
A one-page prospectus of your paper is due no later than Tuesday, 21 March, in class. The
prospectus should identify the major publications that will form the focus of your paper, describe
the key issues that these books and/or articles address, and give some preliminary indication of
how their approaches to those issues appear to differ.
PLEASE NOTE: The prospectus will not receive a letter grade, but failure to submit it on time
will lower the grade on your final submission. Also, late papers will be docked a notch a day
(from an A to an A-, from an A- to a B+, etc.) unless documentation of a medical or family
emergency is provided in a timely manner.
Course grades will be calculated according to the following formula:
Class participation: 20%
Midterm: 25%
Paper (including prospectus): 25%
Final exam: 30%
Failure to complete any one of the above components will result in a failing grade for the course
as a whole.
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT BRING FOOD INTO THE CLASSROOM
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SCHEDULE
Week 1 (12 Jan.): Introduction
Week 2 (17/19 Jan.): Gunpowder Empires
The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (excerpts on reserve at Lauinger Library);
Bentley & Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters (henceforth B&Z), chaps. 27-28.
Week 3 (24/26 Jan.): Exploration and Conquest of the Americas
Bartolomé de Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Introduction and pp. 336, 42-56, 65-79, 86-94, 96-101, 107-115, 125-130); B&Z, chap. 25.
Week 4 (31 Jan./2 Feb.): Colonialism, Slavery, and the Global Economy
George M. Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History; B&Z, chap. 26.
Week 5 (7/9 Feb.): The Age of Quasi-Democratic Revolutions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Intro., Books I-II, pages 136-154 and 176-187);
B&Z, chap. 29 (except for pp. 805-813).
Week 6 (14/16 Feb.): The Industrial Revolution
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (pp. ix-xiii, 1-42, 67-87, 104127); B&Z, chap. 30.
Week 7 (21/23 Feb.): European Nationalism
Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation?” (on electronic reserve at Lauinger Library); B&Z, pp. 805813.
Week 8 (28 Feb./2 March)
Tuesday, 28 Feb.: Midterm examination
Thursday, 2 March: Film in regular lecture hall.
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SPRING BREAK
Week 9 (14/16 March): Imperialism in Asia and Africa
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; B&Z chaps. 32-33.
Week 10 (21/23 March): The First World War as Historical Watershed (One-page
prospectuses due in class Tuesday, 21 March)
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia (pages 1-23, 41112, 331-382, 835-845, 897-917, 1073-1128); B&Z, chap. 34.
Week 11 (28/30 March): The Global Spread of Nationalism
The Penguin Gandhi Reader (Introduction and pp. 3-66, 73-75, 125-130, 142-144, 157-160, 194197, 215-224, 259-261); B&Z, chap. 36.
Week 12 (4/6 April): Communism as Global Movement
Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress; B&Z, chap. 35 and pp. 1079-1081 and
1113-1114.
Week 13 (11 April): Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Tuesday, 11
April, is last day to submit rough drafts)
Classes don’t meet Thursday, 13 April. B&Z, chap. 37.
Week 14 (18/20 April): Decolonization
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth; B&Z, chap. 39.
Week 15 (25/27 April): The Cold War as Global Struggle
Tuesday, 25 April)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American; B&Z, chap 38.
(Term papers due in class,
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Books to be Purchased
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Anchor, 1994, ISBN 0385474547).
Jerry Bentley and Herbert Ziegler, Traditions and Encounters, Vol. 2, 3rd edition (McGraw Hill,
2006, ISBN 0073195685).
Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Anchor, 2002, ISBN 0385722206).
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove, 2005, ISBN 0802141323).
George M. Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN
0691116520).
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (Penguin, 2004, ISBN 0143039024).
Bartolomé de Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Penguin, 1999, ISBN
0140445625).
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, ed., The Penguin Gandhi Reader (Penguin, 1996, ISBN 0140236864).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Penguin, 1968, ISBN 0140442014).
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Penguin, 2002, ISBN
0140439218).
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia (Penguin, 1995,
ISBN 0140188479).