World History 1500 to the Present

Dr. Ruth S. Hertzberg

COURSE: Welcome to World History, the course where you learn more, more, more than you ever learned befoe and more than you ever though your brain could possibly hold at one time! This course covers World History from approximately the Age of Exploration (1500) to the present time. The last subject of the course will be the Cold War, which ended in 1990. We are presently in its "aftermath".

You will be able to recognize, discuss and explain in writing the major events of World History that have shaped our world today. The first half of the course will focus on both Western and non-Western history from the 16th through the 19th centuries, while the second half will focus on events on the 20th century.It is my intention to be ready for the 20th century after the spring break. By the end of the semester, we will review US policy in Bosnia.

TEXTBOOKS:     Upshur et.al. World History, Second Edition, Volume II Since 1500.

J. Kelly Sowards, editor, Makers of World History, Volume 2.

GRADING: You will take three exams worth 30% of the total grade. The final will be worth 20% and will be comprehensive. Written biographies of six important persons from the Sowards volume will be worth 50 points, while an occasional in class essay will add extra ponts to your grade as will class participation and answers to questions. If you do not speak up in class< I will only know you through your work, so I encourage you to participate.

FIELD TRIP: A field trip to the US Holocaust Museum is scheduled for April 5th. Plan ahead.

CLASSWORK: Classes will consist of lectures, questions, answers (hopefully), and discussions, reading of original source materials, and unannounced in class essays. You shoud keep an accurate, up-to-date notebook in which you record what happens in each class. Occasionally there will be brief plays in which students and the professor will both participate. Most students enjoy this activity very much and learn from it. We have questions from these plays on exams. Slides and videotapes will be utilized where appropriate and available. Moreover we will utilize nightly television news programs and identify items which are in the news that are related to what we are studying in World History.

READING ASSIGNMENTS: These are very specific and are of a length that you can easily manage. Come to class prepared so that you can answer questions, which you will be asked. You will receive credit for your responses. All of the reading assignments are in Upshur. Specific outlines of important material in each chapter will be provided. There may be parts that we will skip, or that we will do out of the order of the text. The general questions for the course are . . . . . .Why do we study history? Why World History?

For the week beginning

January 17th: Introduction-Why is history required? Slide Show Review.

January 19th: The Age of Exploration-pp. 390-391, pp. xxviii-xxix, and pp 430-437.

January 22nd: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires, The Renaissance in Europe, and The ProtestantReformation- Ch.9,pp.391-420.

January 29th: African Kingdoms and the Slave Trade-pp.421-429, The Moghul Dynasty in India and the Ming Dynasty in China.

February 5th: The Qing Dynasty (China) and Feudal Japan-Exam 1-Map and Short Answer questions.

February 12th: The West: Absolutism and Constitutionalism-Examples-Chapter 11; The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment-p. 532.

February 19th: Autocracy in Russia, and Revolution in North America

February 26th: The French Revolution, Napoleonic Era, Results in Latin America-Chapter 12. Exam 2-Map and Short Answer questions.

March 4th: the Industrial Revolution and Marxism-European Nations and Intellectuals

Spring Break

March 18th: The Race for Empire (Neo-Imperialism), the Meiji Reform (Japan) and World War I

March 25th: Russian Revolutions, Lenin, Trotski, and Stalin, and the Results of World War I in West Asia-Chapter 14.

April 1: World War II and the Holocaust, the Holocaust Museum April 5th

April 10th: Results of World War II, All of the "Holocausts"-Exam III.

April 15th: 20th Century Revolutions, Mexico and China, Indian Independence-Mao Zedong and Mohandas K. Gandhi.

April 22nd: The Cold War, 1946-1990-Part I (through the Cuban Missile crisis)

April 29th: The Cold War, Part II (The Vietnam War through to the opening of the Berlin Wall. Change in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Events inother areas, China, Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Specific assignments will be given out for each of the weeks work with a part assigned to you. Be prepared. Directions for biographical studies (worth 50 points) will be assigned.

World History Association roupp@csn.net in partnership with:
Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in History lpt@www.woodrow.org
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation webmaster@woodrow.org
CN 5281, Princeton NJ 08543-5281 Tel:(609)452-7007 Fax:(609)452-0066