Schedule and Readings
Students are expected to read the assigned readings ahead of class. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LIST INCLUDED IN THIS SYLLABUS IS INDICATIVE OF THE READINGS WE WILL DO OVER THE COURSE OF THE SEMESTER. STUDENTS WILL READ ONLY THOSE READINGS THAT WILL BE LABELED AS REQUIRED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER. All readings will be available on the course website. All materials including list of topics for projects, and new readings will become available on the course website as we go along in the semester.
SESSIONS
1: Introduction and overview of the course
2 – 3:
Globalization in historical perspectives
Themes, driving forces, effects, interpretations
Identity and Heritage in relation to Globalization
The role of sources
Selected readings from:
-The Oxford handbook of world history (2011). Edited by Jerry H. Bentley. (Ed.). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
-Jürgen Osterhammel and Niels P. Peterson, (2005). Globalization: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-Bayly, C. A. (. (2004). The birth of the modern world, 1780-1914: Global connections and comparisons. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
-Morillo, S. (2013). Frameworks of world history. New York: Oxford University Press.
4: Viewing and discussion of the movie, Guns, Germ, and Steel
5 – 6:
Institutions
Selected readings from:
-Acemoglu, D. (2012). Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. New York: Crown Publishers.
- The rise of merchant empires: Long-distance trade in the early modern world, 1350-1750. Edited by Tracy, J. D. and University of Minnesota. Center for Early Modern History. (Eds.), Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Commodities and Trade
Selected readings from:
-Pomeranz, K. In Topik S. (Ed.), The world that trade created: Society, culture, and the world economy, 1400-the present. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c1999.
-The spinning world: A global history of cotton textiles, 1200-1850. In Parthasarathi P., Pasold Research Fund Ltd. and Riello G. (Eds.), Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
-Roland Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke, Power and Plenty: trade, war, and the world economy in the second millennium (Princeton, 2007).
Empires
Selected readings from:
-Burbank, J. In Cooper F. (Ed.), Empires in world history: Power and the politics of difference. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2010.
-Elliott, J. H. (Ed.), Empires of the Atlantic world: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, c2006.
-Osterhammel, J. (2014). The transformation of the world: A global history of the nineteenth century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
7: Connections: The Mediterranean World and the Global Renaissance
Selected readings from:
-Jardine, L. In Brotton J. (Ed.), Global interests: Renaissance art between east and west. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000.
-Brotton, Jerry. The renaissance bazaar: From the silk road to Michelangelo. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
8 -9: Connections: Asian networks; East-West connections; the Silk Road
Selected readings from:
-China and Europe: Images and influences in sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Edited by Thomas H.C. Lee., Lee T. H. C. (Eds.), Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1991.
-Liu, X. The silk road in world history. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
-Millar, A. E. (2007). The Jesuits as knowledge brokers between Europe and China (1582-1773): Shaping European views of the middle kingdom.
-Pomeranz, K. (2000). The great divergence: Europe, china, and the making of the modern world economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
-Rubiés, J. P. Travel and ethnology in the renaissance: South India through European eyes, 1250-1625. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
-Simpfendorfer, B. The new silk road: How a rising Arab world is turning away from the west and rediscovering China. Basingstoke; New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
10: Connections: The Atlantic World
Silver goes around; Slavery
Selected readings from:
-Benjamin, Thomas (2009). The Atlantic world: Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400-1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.
-Games, A. (2006). AHR forum: Atlantic history: Definitions, challenges, and opportunities. The American Historical Review
- Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2003). Return to Hispaniola: Reassessing a Demographic Catastrophe. Hispanic American Historical Review 83:1
- Selected articles in Sakai
-The Atlantic in global history, 1500-2000. Cañizares-Esguerra J. and Seeman E. R. (Eds.), Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson Prentice Hall, c2007.
11: Connections: Africa; networks; colonialism; post-colonialism; contemporary issues
Selected readings from:
-Thornton, J. K. (Ed.), Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
-Lydon, Ghislaine. On Trans-Saharan Trails. Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
-Larson, Pier M. “African Slave Trades in Global Perspective” in The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History, Edited by Richard Reid and John Parker (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press), 56-76.
- Globalization and transnational migrations: Africa and Africans in the contemporary global system. In Adesina O. C. (Ed.), Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
12: Connections: The Pacific; the evolution of networks across the pacific
Selected readings from:
-Matsuda, M. K. (2006). AHR forum: The Pacific. The American Historical Review
-Clossey, Luke (2006). Merchants, migrants, missionaries, and globalization in the early-modern Pacific. Journal of Global History 1, 41–58.
13: New perspectives on Globalization
A reappraisal of the concept of Identity and Heritage
The debate about inequality
Selected readings from:
-Globalization in historical perspective (2003). Edited by Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor, and Jeffrey G.Williamson. National Bureau of Economic Research. (Eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
-Morillo, S. (2013). Frameworks of world history. New York: Oxford University Press.
-Various articles.
There are five graded elements in this course:
1) Class attendance (10%): Class attendance is mandatory. Repeated late arrivals will impact your attendance grade.
2) Class participation (20%): Active participation is essential. Be prepared to answer questions and discuss assigned readings as well as material used in the classroom as well as to provide feedback on other students’ projects. I will monitor discussions and give credit to active participants.
3) Mid-term examination (20%): There will be one in-class exam. It will be based on assigned readings and material covered in class up to the exam. Format will be discussed in class. Taking the exam is mandatory.
Final Paper: Topics will be selected in accordance with the instructor. Students will have the option of working alone or with another student.
4) Class Presentations (15%): Each student will present the key findings of his or her final paper towards the end of the semester.
5) Final Paper (35%): The final paper (13-15 pages per student – not including charts and references) should be submitted by the end of the semester. Date and specific guidelines will be announced at the beginning of the course.