Matthew Sanger Class – Tuesdays 2-4:50pm msanger@pratt.edu
Manhattan Campus – Room 312
Office Hours – Monday 12-2pm, DeKalb Hall 221 worldhistorypratt.weebly.com
WORLD CIVILIZATIONS I
FALL 2013
CH 300-30
History is a subject matter based on stories about the past, manufactured in the present, which act to guide our futures. The making of history is therefore a subjective process yet remarkably powerful in determining how we live our lives. Within this class we strive to highlight both the constructed nature of history as well as its continuing influence hundreds, if not thousands, of years after events are thought to take place.
Our focus will be on the centuries between 1200 and circa 1800 AD, with particular interest in moving away from the European histories that many of us are already familiar. Instead, our survey will focus on texts, oral histories, material remains, and other sources of information used to reconstruct past events occurring in the Americas, north and western Africa, and major portions of Asia, including India, China, Japan, and Korea. These histories will strive to build narratives from local points of view rather than the classic stories told by Europeans.
Our principle learning objective is for each student to develop their own critical understanding and lifelong engagement with the questions and themes of modern World History. Students will be asked to reflect on how stories about the past are created, the power involved in this process, and the ways in which history has been, and continues to be, deployed to advance particular social and political agendas. History will be presented not as a static story about the past, but rather as a dynamic tool of the present.
Course Objectives
-To develop student understandings of our period of study and the historical foundations of the contemporary world.
-To increase student abilities to critically examine historical contexts; including abilities to consider evidence and formulate historical questions, comparisons, contrasts and connections.
-To foster student strengths at tracing historical trajectories, locating events and sources in historical context, as well as determining the interrelationship among themes, regions, and periodization.
-To introduce students to working with primary source documents and the evaluation of the reliability and usefulness of different forms of historical evidence.
-To enhance student abilities to explain the significance of different kinds of historical change, as well as abilities to recognize and apply different historical approaches.
-To reinforce student skills in constructing an historical argument grounded in evidence from primary and/or secondary sources.
-To improve student abilities to represent their understandings, both orally and in writing.
Course Materials
Purchase – Paul Brians et al. Reading About the World, Volume 1.
Any Edition.

Course Requirements
Full attendance to all class sessions is essential to mastering the material covered in the course and is therefore mandatory. As per Pratt policy, three unexcused absences may constitute failure of the class. Students are responsible for all assigned materials and required work. All assignments and all information regarding access to all course materials will be announced and explained during class meetings and/or via Pratt’s
LMS. The breakdown of coursework for our class can be divided into five components:
I. Participation: In-class discussions and on-line reflections (15% of Final Grade)
Students are encouraged to take an active role in making their voice heard within class discussions by asking questions, taking part in debates, and otherwise participating. Not all students are comfortable with this venue of self-expression however, and are instead more inclined to reflect and offer their thoughts in written form. In order to welcome both means of expression, both in-class participation and on-line postings will be considered participation and together will count for 15% of the Final Grade. Grading will be assessed on a weekly basis so that each week a student’s participation, on-line and in class, will contribute to 1% of the Final Grade.
IIa. Presentation: Lecture (20% of Final Grade)
Beginning in Week 4, students (likely in groups of 2-3) will offer a 20-30 minute lecture and will lead class discussion based on the theme of that week. Grading will be based on how well the presentation offers insights into the readings and addresses the week’s thematic questions.
IIb. Presentation: Website expansion (20% of Final Grade)
Also beginning in Week 4, students will provide a short expansion of the class website based on the topic of the week. This expansion will be based on a direct engagement with a historic document. Students are encouraged to be creative in this engagement; as historical fiction, expounding on poetry, or a historic analysis of a work of art are all acceptable forms of expansion.
IIIa. Research: Outline of research project (10% of Final Grade)
Due Beginning of Class: Week 9
Students will provide a 1-2 page outline of their proposed paper or website addition. This outline will highlight the historic question that will be researched and a short (2-4 sources) bibliography (no websites).
IIIb. Research: Final Paper (35% of Final Grade)
Due Beginning of Class: Week 16
A research project of at least 8 pages or the creation of a significant expansion of the class website. Further details will be given in class.

Course Calendar
Week 1 (8.27) Introductions: Course Orientation and Expectations
Week 2 (9.3) Making history within a Western and a world-view
Readings
Anthony Pagden (2000). Facing each other. Introduction.
Jerry Bentley (1996). Cross-cultural interaction and periodization in world history. The
American Historical Review, 101(3): 749-770.
Other recommended readings
Sam Wineburg (1999). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts. The Phi Delta
Kappan.
Week 3 (9.10) American fluorescence: Shooting stars, urban novas
Readings
Steve Lekson (2009). A history of the Ancient Southwest. Chapters 1 and 8.
Timothy Pauketat (2009). Cahokia: ancient America’s great city on the Mississippi.
Chapters 1-3 .
**************Students must be signed up for a presentation and website expansion week by the start of class*********
Discussion of presentation and website guidelines
Week 4 (9.17) Blood in the lives of Aztec peoples
Readings
Caroline Dodds Pennock. Bonds of blood: Gender, lifestyle and sacrifice in Aztec culture. Chapters 1, 2, 6, and Conclusion.
Unknown (1600s?). The Popol Vuh.
Screening : The fifth sun (1996). Patricia Amlin.
Week 5 (9.24) The modern world formed on horseback
Readings
Jack Weatherford (2004). Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world. Chapters
4-6.
Paul Khan (1984). The secret history of the Mongols (excerpts).
Ibn al-Athir (circa 1230). On the Tatars (excerpts).
Kuyuk Khan (1243). A letter to the Pope.

Week 6 (10.1) Writing History
Readings
Jim Cullen (2009). Essaying the past. 8-14.
Patrick Rael (2005). What happened and why? Helping students read and write like historians. The History Teacher.
Week 7 (10.8) Islam under attack: Crusades and Mongols
Readings
Speech of Urban II (1095)
Usmah Ibn Munqidh (circa 1150). Autobigraphy (excerpts)
Al-Makrisi (circa 1250). Account of the Crusade of St. Louis (excerpts)
Amin Maalouf (1984). The crusades through Arab eyes. Chapters 1-2, 13-14, Epilogue.
Week 8 (10.15) MIDTERM BREAK – NO CLASS
Week 9 (10.22) Bacteria and the remaking of Eurasia
Readings
John Kelly (2005). The great mortality. Chapters 2-4.
David Herlihy (1997). The black death and the transformation of the west. Chapters 3-
4.
******Outline of Paper or Website Expansion Due Beginning of Class************
Week 10 (10.29) Medieval science, the makings of Gunpowder Empires, and the fall of
Constantinople
Readings
Muzaffar Iqbal (2007). Science and Islam. Chapters 1-3.
Jack Kelly (2004). Gunpowder: Alchemy, bombards, and pyrotechnics. Chapters 1-3.
Week 11 (11.5) European exploration and expansion into the New World
Readings
Anthony Pagden (1995). Lords of all the world. Chapters 2 and 3
Michel de Montaigne (1580). On Cannibals
Week 12 (11.12) Long-term impacts of the Columbian Exchange
Readings
Christopher Columbus (1493). Letter to the King concerning his first voyage.

Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian (2010). The Columbian Exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas. The Journal of Economic Perspectives 24(2): 163-188.
Noble David Cook (1998). Born to die: Disease and New World conquest, 1492-1650.
Introduction and Chapter 2.
Week 13 (11.19) Slavery in Old and New Worlds
Readings
--Michael Gomez (2005). Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora. Chapters 3-
5
--Eric Wolf (1982) Europe and the People Without History. Chapter 7.
- Unknown (1500 circa). A slave market in Africa.
--Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) Letters to the King of Portugal 1526.
Screening: Africans in America : Part One: The Terrible Transformation (1995)
Week 14 (11.26) The rise of science
Readings
Steven Shapin (1996). The scientific revolution. Chapters 1-2.
Rene Descartes (1637). Discourse on method (excerpt).
Week 15 (12.3) Shrinking world: Mercantile ships and the commercial elite
Readings
Timothy Brook (2008). Vermeer's hat: the seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world. Chapters 2-5.
Week 16 (12.10) Revolution! New World
Readings
The Haitian Constitution excerpt
Jeremy Popkin (2010). You are all free: The Haitian Revolution and the abolition of slavery. Introduction and Chapter 1.
*****FINAL RESEARCH ESSAYS or WEBSITE EXPANSION DUE (8+ pages ) *********
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(DRC) to discuss these accommodations. The DRC is located in Room 117, Willoughby Hall.
Students with disabilities who have registered with the DRC are encouraged to speak to the professor about accommodations they may need to produce an accessible learning environment