PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of History
History 201
A History of the World since 1300
Professor Jeremy Adelman
Fall 2014
Description: This course explores the history of the modern world since Chinggis Khan
and the Mongol Empire. It will not travel around the different parts of the world to
introduce you to this or that “great civilization.” There are surveys of European, East
Asian, Latin American, regions and societies. Rather, this course examines the relations
between the cultures and regions that made and make up the world. These relations
bring the world together, but they also create new global divisions. The dynamics
creating these new combinations and divisions are many: spiritual, economic,
ideological, and political. Nowadays, we call this process “globalization.” That term has
tended to emphasize the drive to worldwide integration; the view of globalization taken
in this course emphasizes disintegration as well as integration, breakdowns as well as
breakthroughs. Our story of globalization pays as much attention to the fragile and
discontinuous aspects of the global past as it does to the forces that create
interdependency.
We pose and explore thematic questions: What explains European global expansion in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? How do we explain the staggering wealth of
China in the centuries up to 1750, as well as China’s recent ascent? Where did the
United States come from, and where is it headed? What are the significances and
legacies of empire in the world? What is the past and future of Islam? How have world
wars and revolutions shaped the international system over time? What exactly is
globalization, and how does today’s globalization compare with past globalizations?
How has the relationship between humans and nature changed over the centuries?
Tackling these questions means learning about the past in an integrative way, that
connects parts of the world together. It also means developing analytical tools to make
sense of complex patterns. You will refine these tools by applying them in historical
case studies, analyzed in teams, with your work written and feedback curated in online
Forum entries. (See below under Team Projects).
Course format: This course is among the few that Princeton supports on a (relatively)
new online platform called NovoEd. All Princeton students will be expected to enroll,
view lectures, and post their written lab results on this platform. To enroll, log on to:
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https://novoed.com/Global-History-Lab
You must use your Princeton email address to enroll.
Your course homepage will become:
https://novoed.com/Global-History-Lab/home
Going digital allows us to go global. This is the world’s first global history course
in which the world is inside the course. One of the big breakthroughs in online learning
is the creation of interactive sites where students can debate among themselves what
they have learned (and even what they have not) in the course. These have been
vibrant sites for students to learn global history globally, talking with each other from
the Ukraine, Israel, Nigeria, China – and Princeton NJ! When you take this course, you
are not just part of a Princeton course; you are part of a global course.
Lectures: All lectures are online. Two weekly lectures will be posted every
Sunday morning at 6:00 AM on the NovoEd platform. You must watch these lectures
BEFORE your precept. These online lectures take the place of traditional “live” lectures.
Each lecture is about an hour long.
Global Dialogues: As a supplement to the lectures, I have created eight
conversations with Princeton faculty, students, and guests about different perspectives
on global history. These were recorded in the fall of 2012 and are available to you
during the entire period of the course.
We will also meet as a group once a week on Wednesday at 10:00 am. These are
occasions to practice what are called Narrative Mapping exercises. You will find these
instrumental both for the skills you will need in precept and for the challenges you will
face in the mid-term and final examination.
Precepts: We have replaced the traditional precept with a new format: collaborative
learning through case study analysis. See Page 6.
Readings: The readings consist of a textbook (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 4th
edition, volume 2) as well as weekly assigned primary documents. These materials are
posted free online on the NovoEd site at the same time as the weekly lectures.
Grading: A map test (5%), in-class mid term exam (15%), in-class final exam (35%),
precept/team participation (45%).
Map test. You need to learn the major geographic place names of the world, its
rivers, desserts, mountain chains, and cities. Study from the following maps in Worlds
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Together, Worlds Apart: 12.1 and 12.2 (for cities), and 10.2, 10.7, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5 (for
physical locations – mountains, rivers, deserts. I will post two things on Blackboard
(because NovoEd students do not do the map test): a blank map and a list of place
names for you to use to study/practice on. During the 2nd week of classes (Sept 24nd),
in class you will be handed a blank map of the world and asked to identify 20 locations
on it; all will be chosen from the posted list. One piece of advice: you don’t need to
learn the arrows and graphics on the maps, though they will really help you remember
the place names.
WEEKLY LECTURES (starting Sunday):
Week 1: September 14
Lecture 1: Peoples and Plunderers
Lecture 2: Warfare and Motion
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 11
First Precept to discuss teamwork and case studies.
Week 2: September 21
Lecture 3: Clashing Worlds
Lecture 4: Atlantic Worlds
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 12
Map test 10 AM September 24.
Week 3: September 28
Lecture 5: Indian Ocean Worlds
Lecture 6: The Worlds that Merchants Made
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 13
Week 4: October 5
Lecture 7: East Asian Dynamism and the Seventeenth-Century Global Crisis
Lecture 8: Empire and Enlightenment
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 14
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Week 5: October 12
Lecture 9: The World in Revolution
Lecture 10: States and Nations
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 15
Week 6: October 19
Lecture 11: Global Frontiers
Lecture 12: Empires and Nations
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 16
In-class mid term exam on October 22.
FALL BREAK
Week 7: November 2
Lecture 13: Worlds in Motion
Lecture 14: Empire Redux
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 17
Week 8: November 9
Lecture 15: Retreat of the Elephants
Lecture 16: The World, 1914
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 17
Week 9: November 16
Lecture 17: Civilization and its Discontents
Lecture 18: Worlds at War
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Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 18
Week 10: November 23
Lecture 19: Atrocities
Lecture 20: Aftermaths
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 19
Week 11: November 31
Lecture 21: Recoveries
Lecture 22: Inventing the Third World
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 20
Week 12: December 7
Lecture 23: Crisis and Globalization
Lecture 24: The Cunning of History
Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, chap. 21
Final Exam in examination period
Case Studies in Global History
A vital part of this course is collaborative teamwork on historical case studies,
which we are calling labs. Each precept section will constitute a “team” – whose goal is
to work through primary documents, conduct Narrative Mapping exercises, and then
produce team posts on the NovoEd site. The goals are:
1. To enable teams to learn history better by learning together. Global history is
complicated; more minds at work will make better work.
2. To open up channels of communication between you and students in the rest of
the world taking the same course on the NovoEd platform; global history can
thereby be learned globally.
3. To allow you to be the creators of historical knowledge – interpreting events in a
way that engages other readers. Where does it say that university education
means that students have to work on papers that only their professors read?
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The semester is divided into five lab themes. Each lab theme lasts for 2 weeks
and tackles a particular problem and time period.
Each team reads its own Lab materials posted free on NovoEd. All team
members must read all documents for their lab only. You must also watch the online
lectures before the team meetings. Shirking your preparations will handicap your team!
Each week consists therefore of two lectures, one chapter of the textbook, and a few
primary documents.
So, each precept time will be devoted to collaborative work on a case study and
will culminate in team-authored short entries on NovoEd. Each team will have its own
forum site. You can even name your team. Each week, you will be required to post a
1,000 word entry that represents the team’s efforts.