Oliver Wendell Holmes and Business Careers High Schools
AP World History
Welcome
The entire Social Studies Department wishes to extend to you our warmest
welcome and best wishes for a successful sophomore year at Holmes or Business
Careers High School. We hope to make this coming school year a challenging and
exciting adventure as we examine humanity’s shared past and bring historical
context to today’s world.
Requirements
Students are required to complete the following assignment outside of class.
1. Students must read: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared M. Diamond. Complete the attached activities (see pages that follow) and
be prepared to turn in your work and to take a quiz on the first day of school.
AP World History
History Summer Assignment
Obtain the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. You could get the
book at any major bookstore or Amazon.com. It is available in paperback. (It was a
national bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, so it’s not very difficult to find.)
If you do not want to purchase the book, check your local libraries.
You MUST read the following chapters in the book:
• Prologue: Yali’s Question
• Ch. 1: Up to the Starting Line
• Ch. 2: A Natural Experiment of History
• Ch. 4: Farmer Power
• Ch. 6: To Farm or Not to Farm
• Ch. 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle
• Ch. 10: Spacious Skies and Title Axes
• Ch. 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
• Ch. 12: Blueprints and Borrowed Letters
• Ch. 13: Necessity’s Mother
• Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
Feel free to read the rest of the book if you would like, but you are not required to
do summaries for those extra chapters.
Time Management Plan
Take your time reading the book. Do not wait until the end of the summer. I
suggest you read one or two chapters at a time. It is probably best to create a
schedule for your readings that will allow you to finish the book in time for school to
start. Also, reading it too early in the summer tends to wipe things from our minds
at warp speed, so you shouldn’t rush through it either.
Written Reflections
Buy a spiral notebook, composition notebook, or sketchbook to record your
reflections for this assignment.
Pre-Reading Assignment
Before reading the book, record your answers to the following questions.
1. What is your definition of world history?
2. What interests you about studying world history? What does not?
3. Look at the major themes for the course (last page). Explain how historical
evidence you learned in ninth grade geography or from earlier study
addresses these themes. Be as specific as you can. List form is acceptable.
The purpose is to show you how much you already know about world history.
(In other words, brainstorm a list for each theme things you remember
learning in previous history classes.)
Reading Assignment
The concept of AP World History is to focus on the big ideas, concepts, themes, and
trends of history. Instead of focusing on minor events and occurrences, we will
focus on the big ideas that have shaped world history and our world today. To get
your mind thinking in this direction, as you read Guns, Germs, and Steel you will
create a written and illustrated summary of the “Big Ideas” in your journal.
Format for “Big Ideas”
For each assigned chapter, including prologue and epilogue, summarize AND
illustrate the big ideas. One page summary and one page of illustrations per
chapter is sufficient. Make sure the words are exclusively your own. Any evidence of
plagiarism will result in a grade of zero for this project.
Focus on the big ideas and do not get bogged down in the science, unless you are
really interested in that aspect of it. One way to practice getting the main idea is to
verbally explain the main idea to someone after you have read each chapter. If you
have made it easy for them to understand, then you have successfully identified the
main idea.
You can use your own artwork for the illustrations if you are artistic or use a
collage-type method with cutouts or computer printouts if you choose to. Feel free
to be creative and do what you feel most comfortable doing.
Post-Reading Assignment
After reading the book, answer the following questions in your journal.
1. What question is Jared Diamond trying to answer?
2. What is his thesis (main idea)?
3. Is he successful in supporting his thesis? Why or why not? To what extent?
Are particular chapters stronger than others? Are any chapters particularly
problematic?
4. Do you agree with his theory? Why or why not?
5. Is Guns, Germs, and Steel the best title for this book? What title would you
give to this book? Explain your answer.
6. Share any other reactions, thoughts, or questions you have.
Summer Reading Assignment Rubric
I. Before reading the book entry (17points)
__________
1. What is your definition of world history?
2. What interests you about studying world history? What does not?
3. Look at the major themes for the course (page three). Explain how historical evidence you learned in
ninth grade geography or from earlier study addresses these themes. Be as specific as you can. List
form is acceptable. The purpose is to show you how much you already know about world history. (In
other words, brainstorm a list for each theme things you remember learning in previous history
classes.)
II. Assignment for the Reading (66 points)
For each chapter, including prologue, summarize AND illustrate the big ideas. (6 points each chapter). Each
summary should be at least a page long (double spaced if typed) and each illustration should be one page.
All writing must be original and of your own creation. Illustrations can be hand created, computer
generated, or cut from magazines.
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Prologue: Yali’s Question
Ch. 1: Up to the Starting Line
Ch. 2: A Natural Experiment of History
Ch. 4: Farmer Power
Ch. 6: To Farm or Not to Farm
Ch. 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, & the Karenina Principle
Ch.10: Spacious Skies and Title Axes
Ch. 11: Lethal Gift of Livestock
Ch. 12: Blueprints and Borrowed Letters
Ch. 13: Necessity’s Mother
Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
__________
II. Post reading Assignment (17 Points)
__________
1. What question is Jared Diamond trying to answer?
2. What is his thesis?
3. Is he successful in supporting his thesis? Why or why not? To what extent?
Are particular chapters stronger than others? Are any chapters particularly problematic?
4. Do you agree with his theory? Why or why not?
5. Is Guns, Germs, and Steel the best title for this book? What title would you give to this book? Explain
your answer.
6. Share any other reactions, thoughts, or questions you have.
Total Grade of 100 points
Turned in on time
___________
___________
World History Themes
1.
Interaction between humans and the environment
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Demography and disease
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Migration
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Patterns of settlement
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Technology
2.
Development and interaction of cultures
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Religions
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Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
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Science and technology
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The arts and architecture
3.
State-building, expansion, and conflict
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Political structures and forms of governance
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Empires
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Nations and nationalism
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Revolts and revolutions
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Regional, trans-regional, and global structures and organizations
4.
Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
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Agricultural and pastoral production
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Trade and commerce
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Labor systems
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Industrialization
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Capitalism and socialism
5.
Development and transformation of social structures
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Gender roles and relations
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Family and kinship
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Racial and ethnic constructions
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Social and economic classes