WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
FALL 2011
KNAUSS 3502
MW 3:30-4:45 PM
HISTORY 3030
WORLD HISTORY SINCE
1500
SYLLABUS
DR. ELI RUBIN, PHD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents................................................................................................1
Contact Information...........................................................................................2
Course Objectives...............................................................................................3
Required Readings.............................................................................................4
Grading Policy....................................................................................................5
Other Policies and Disclaimers.........................................................................6
Schedule of Lectures and Assignments..............................................................7
1
CONTACT INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Eli Rubin
Office: Friedmann Hall 4418
Office Phone: (269)387-4646
Email: eli.rubin@wmich.edu
Office Hours: Mondays & Tuesdays, 12-1 pm
Teaching Assistant: Yoon-Rim Kim
Office: Friedmann Hall 4409
Office Phone: (269)387-4620
Email: yoon-rim.kim@wmich.edu
Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:30 pm / by appointment
Note: Friedmann Hall is the building connected to
Knauss (where your classroom is). The history
department is on the fourth floor of Friedmann
Hall.
2
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Welcome to History 3030, World History since 1500.
This course is designed to give you tools to understand an increasingly interconnected world.
The feedback that Western Michigan University gets from most employers—from the auto
industry to the paper industry to the state public school system—is that they want WMU grads
to have more of a global awareness and understanding of the big issues and themes of the
history of global interaction. This course is structured with these employers in mind.
This course will focus specifically on the interaction of cultures from around the world, with an
emphasis on empires, trading networks, and other cross-cultural experiences, and the things
that connected cultures. This includes slaves, coffee, opium, gin, clothes, viruses, pigs, and
religion.
This course will also focus on one very particular question—why is there such a massive
disparity in wealth and standard of living between the first world (US, Western Europe, Japan
etc.) and the developing world (Africa, India, central Asia etc.)? Is it racial superiority?
Colonial oppression? Bad luck?
Course Objectives:
1. To understand the way that cultures around the world have interacted with each other
since approximately the year 1500.
2. To understand the way in which non-Western cultures have influenced, and been
influenced by, Western culture.
3. To understand why Europeans and their descendants have risen to a status of economic
and political dominance over other cultures during the last 500 years, and what the
ramifications of that are.
4. To identify certain issues and debates such as agency versus determinism, or negative
versus positive freedom, that lay at the core of major world historical events and also
remain highly relevant in our own lives and own world.
5. To be able to see the ways in which major trends of world history have impacted and
shaped your daily life and will shape your life as an adult in the 21st century.
3
REQUIRED READING
There are two required readings for this course:
1. Robert Strayer: Ways of the World: A Brief Global History With Sources. Volume 2: Since 1500.
!
(Boston & New York: Bedford St. Martin’s Press, 2011). ISBN-13: 978-0-312-48918-2
Ways of the World is your textbook. You have required readings from it every week. You will
have chapter quizzes on the week’s reading at the end of each week. The quizzes are on this
course’s e-learning site.
Your textbook, Ways of the World also contains primary source documents in addition to the
secondary source text. You will need to use these documents for your writing assignments.
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GRADING POLICY
1. Midterm and Final= 100 points each. The midterm and final exams will be written, using a
blue book that you yourself must provide. They will consist of two short essay questions and
one long essay question, and you will have a choice of questions to answer. They are based on
the lectures. Anything in the lectures is fair game, but they are more thematically organized
than factual. Both the midterm and the final will be worth 100 points each.
2. Written Assignments=100 points each. The two writing assignments will be five and eight
pages, respectively. There will be time devoted in lecture to helping you to prepare for the
writing assignments. Both assignments will be worth 100 points each. They will involve use of
the textbook and the primary source accompaniment, but are also based on themes in the
lecture. No electronic submissions of assignments. I reserve the right to decline to accept
papers that are extremely late or which do not allow me enough time to grade them before
the grade submission deadline at the end of the semester.
3. E-learning quizzes=100 points total. You are assigned twelve chapters from your textbook to
read, and there is an online quiz for each of the chapters. This quiz is accessible on the
courses e-learning page, accessible through GoWMU. You have until midnight on Friday of
the week that the reading is assigned. Each quiz consists of ten questions from the reading.
The quiz is open-book and you have five hours to complete it. You are allowed one do-over
per quiz. There are twelve ten-point quizzes—you may do as many as you like. You will be
awarded as many correct answers as you get from all the quizzes together. If your total goes
over 100, then this is considered extra credit and still counts towards your overall course
grade.
There are therefore a maximum of 500 points available in the class. Your final grade is determined by
taking your total points and doubling them, and then converting that to the Western Michigan
University scale for grading, available on the registrar’s website:
100-93 = A
92-88 = BA
87-83 = B
82-78 = CB
77-73 = C
72-68 = DC
67-60 = D
Under 60 = E (Failing)
So for example if your total grade was a 450, you would have a 900, or, a 90, which equals a BA as a
final grade.
5
OTHER POLICIES AND DISCLAIMERS
Make Up tests
You must have a documented, valid reason for missing an exam in order to make it up. There is one
day provided by the University, the last final exam day. This is the make up exam day for the whole
semester.
Late Assignments
Each day that an assignment is late without a valid, documented excuse, it loses one letter grade.
However, at the end of the semester, the TA and the Professor reserve the right to refuse to accept
any late papers that do not have a valid documented excuse.
Classroom Demeanor
You (or your parents) paid for this education—if you choose to neglect it, that is your choice.
However, you may not in any way distract or interrupt others in the class who want to access the
education for which they and/or their family have paid.
So, anything which is a distraction in the lecture hall at all is strictly prohibited. This means talking,
goofing off, or doing anything wireless. NO LAPTOPS, NO CELL PHONES, NO CAMERA
PHONES, TEXT-MESSAGING, NO iPHONES/BLACKBERRIES/GOOGLE PHONES OR
ANYTHING ELSE. No coming and going during the class, unless you have some prior
authorization.
Plagiarism
DO NOT COPY OUT OF THE BOOK WITHOUT QUOTING AND CITING. DO NOT
COPY TEXT FROM A WEBSITE AND PASTE IT INSTEAD OF WRITING A PAPER. THIS
WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE FAILURE AND PROSECUTION THROUGH OFFICE OF
STUDENT CONDUCT.
Official WMU Disclaimer: You are responsible for making yourself aware of and understanding the policies and
procedures in the Undergraduate Catalog (pp. 274-275) that pertain to Academic Integrity. These policies include cheating,
fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple submission, plagiarism, complicity and computer misuse. If there is reason
to believe you have been involved in academic dishonesty, you will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. You will
be given the opportunity to review the charge(s). If you believe you are not responsible, you will have the opportunity for
a hearing. You should consult with me if you are uncertain about an issue of academic honesty prior to the submission of
an assignment or test.
Electronic Mail:
E-mails that are not sent from official WMU e-mails will not be read. E-mails that contain no subject
line, or which are not phrased respectfully, may take longer to receive a reply. At times, e-mails may
be sent to the entire class. It is your responsibility to check your WMU address regularly to receive
these e-mails.
Official WMU Disclaimer: The only email address that should be used for communication between WMU students and
WMU faculty and staff is the email address associated with a BroncoNet ID. This email address typically takes the form
"firstname.middleinitial.lastname@wmich.edu." An example is buster.h.bronco@wmich.edu. Students cannot
automatically forward email from this address to other addresses. Students can access this email account or get
6
instructions for obtaining a BroncoNet ID at GoWMU.wmich.edu.
Schedule of Lectures and Assignments
Note on classes and lectures:
Because this is a summer course, class is twice as long as normal, lasting from 12-2:30. It will
contain essentially two normal class periods, meaning two lectures, with a ten minute break in
between. Therefore, there will be a first lecture from 12-1:10, and a second from 1:20-2:30.
Though we do not take attendance, it is highly important in this class to attend lecture, and to
pay attention and take notes during lecture. The midterm and final exams are based exclusively
on lecture. In addition, assignments will be handed out first in class, and only later placed on the
e-learning site. Finally, I will often give very helpful tips and hints for how to do well on the
papers and exams (i.e., I will tell you exactly how what we are looking for) in class.
If you miss a lecture, we encourage you to seek out a classmate and ask them to copy their notes.
If that does not work, and you have a valid, documentable excuse, we will arrange for you to get
a copy of either the TA notes or the power point slides or both.
Once again, laptops are not allowed (see above, page 6). If you have special need of one for
taking notes, however, you may speak with us. We encourage you to sit in such a way that your
screen is not visible for other students in such a case.
WEEK ONE
Wednesday, September 7th
Course Intro, the Mongols, Islam, and Marco Polo
WEEK TWO
Monday, September 12th
The Black Death and the Ming Dynasty
Wednesday, September 14th
Columbus: God or Monster?
Weekly Reading: Strayer, Chapter 13
Chapter 13 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Sept. 16th at midnight
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WEEK THREE
Monday, September 19th
Slavery from India to Brazil and Beyond
Wednesday, September 21st
Three Empires: The French, The Ottomans, and the Mughals
Receive First Writing Assignment
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 14
Chapter 14 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Sept. 23rd at midnight
WEEK FOUR
Monday, September 26th
The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
Wednesday, September 28th
Drugs and the New World Economy
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 15
Chapter 15 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Sept. 30th at midnight
WEEK FIVE
Monday, October 3rd
The French Revolution
Wednesday, October 5th
Napoleon Bonaparte and Toussaint L’Overture
First writing assignment due at end of class
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 16
Chapter 16 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Oct. 7th at midnight
WEEK SIX
Monday, October 10th
The Industrial Revolution
Wednesday, October 12th
The Second Imperialism
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 17
Chapter 17 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Oct. 13th at midnight
8
WEEK SEVEN
Monday, October 17th
The American Empire/study session for midterm
Wednesday, October 19th
Midterm Exam in-class
Receive final writing assignment in class
No reading or quizzes this week
WEEK EIGHT
Monday, October 24th
World War One
Wednesday, October 26th
Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Mussolini: the rise of Communism and Fascism
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 18
Chapter 18 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Oct. 28th at midnight
WEEK NINE
Monday, October 31st
World War Two, pt. one
Wednesday, November 2nd
Lecture Two: World War Two, pt. two
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 19
Chapter 19 quiz on e-learning due Friday, November 4th at midnight
WEEK TEN
Monday, November 7th
The Cold War pt. one: From Berlin to Tehran
Wednesday, November 9th
Asia, Inc: Japan, China and Korea
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 20
Chapter 20 quiz on e-learning due Friday, November 11th at midnight
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WEEK ELEVEN
Monday, November 14th
The Cold War pt. two: Congo, Cuba and Afghanistan
Wednesday, November 16th
Aliyah and Intifada (Israel and Palestine)
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 21
Chapter 21 quiz on e-learning due Friday, November 18th at midnight
WEEK TWELVE
Monday, November 21st
The Fall of the Wall
Wednesday, November 23rd
No class: Thanksgiving holiday
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 22
Chapter 22 quiz on e-learning due Sunday, November 27th at midnight
WEEK THIRTEEN
Monday, November 28th
Rwanda and Congo
Wednesday, November 30th
From Belfast to Baluchistan: Global terrorism in the 20th century
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 23
Chapter 23 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Dec. 1st at midnight
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WEEK FOURTEEN
Monday, December 5th
The Arab Spring
Wednesday, December 7th
Open date/final exam study session
Final writing assignment due at end of class
Reading: Strayer, Chapter 24
Chapter 24 quiz on e-learning due Friday, Dec. 9th at midnight
FINAL EXAM MONDAY DECEMBER 12TH 12:30-2:30 PM IN REGULAR
CLASSROOM