Hist
200: Section 04 Honors
The West in Global
Perspective
TR
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Contact Information
Professor: Dr.
Barry Robinson
Office Hrs: Monday/Wednesday
mornings, Tuesday/Thursday
Office: DBH 314
Office Phone: 726-4318
Home
Phone: 414-9654 (Anytime before
E-mail: bmrobins@samford.edu
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Course Description and Objectives
An examination of the development of Western
Civilization in its global setting since 1500 through its political, social,
economic and scientific evolution.
History 200.04 will explore this “global setting”
through five case studies from different world regions, including Latin
America, Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. Course lectures outlining key themes in the
transformation of Western Civilization will be counterposed with readings and
discussion of the historical development of these regions and their interaction
with the West. Our principal objective
will be to explain the interaction of Europeans and their cultural descendants
with non-western societies around the world during the last five
centuries. Students should develop a
general knowledge of some basic historical patterns of the modern world, as
well as some intellectual tools for understanding parts of it in detail.
A number of class sessions will focus on the
sources of European colonialism and nationalism, moving chronologically from
1500 to the present. Many class days
will also be spent covering the history in microcosm of one of our five
regional case studies. We will approach
these case studies through a “great roads” theme – that is, sampling the history of a region by studying who and what
went up and down one major transportation corridor. This lets an instructor talk about important
institutional developments (for example, the hacienda in Mexico) while still
keeping things at a human scale (descriptions of two specific haciendas, for
example, one owned by Santa Anna and one by an ill-fated British-American
couple). The five regional roads, each
with its accompanying book, are listed in the next section.
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I. LATIN AMERICA (
II. EAST ASIA (
[ISBN:
0824808185]
III. SOUTH ASIA (the Grand Trunk Road from
IV. AFRICA (
V. THE MIDDLE EAST (network of roads from
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Assignments and Grading
15% Daily
5% Poverty
Simulation / Museum Assignment
10% Participation
(In-class and WebCT discussions)
20% Research
Project (Paper and GIS Presentation)
50% Exams (15% - First Exam, 15% - Second Exam, 20% -
Final)
I.
There is no general textbook for
the course. However, the five regional
readings are crucial to success in the class, and students are expected to
complete all assigned readings by the day listed in the schedule. Quizzes will be administered in both an
individual and group format, with the 2 lowest grades for each student dropped
at the end of the semester. (~20
Quizzes, with 2 lowest grades dropped).
II. Poverty
Simulation / Museum Assignment (5%)
All students are required to
choose between:
·
Option A)
Participate in the Poverty Simulation experience on March 27th
(Details in class)
·
Option B) Travel
to and spend at least one hour on the third floor of the Birmingham Museum of
Art, perusing the international exhibits.
The instructor will give specific instructions and help arrange
transportation of those without closer to time.
III. Participation
in Class Discussions and WebCT forums (10%)
I expect you to think deeply and critically about the
issues we’ll be covering, and to participate actively in the discussions we’ll
be having on WebCT
III. Research
Project: Paper and GIS Presentation, details provided in class (25%)
IV. Exams. All exams will contain essay, ID, and mapping
components (50%)
15% First
Exam
15% Second
Exam
20% Final
(Partially Cumulative)
*Extra Credit
Rushton Lecture address by Stanford Professor Larry Diamond,
a prominent figure in academic and policy circles. The topic will draw on Dr. Diamond's experiences
with democratrization.
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Grading Scale
A 93.0 - 100%
A- 90.0 - 92.9%
B+ 87.0 - 89.9%
B 83.0 - 86.9%
B- 80.0 - 82.9%
C+ 77.0 - 79.9%
C 70.0 - 72.9%
C- 73.0 - 76.9%
D+ 67.0 - 69.9%
D 63.0 - 66.9%
D- 60.0 - 62.9%
F 00.0 - 59.9%
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The GIS Approach
This
semester, History 200 will include a Geographic Information System (GIS)
approach, since the instructors are currently working with some other Samford faculty members on a National Science Foundation
sponsored grant to spread such “information literacy” through the general
education curriculum. GIS translates
(loosely) as computerized mapping, though it is really a data management scheme
organized by location. Think about how computer hardware and software has
transformed the actual writing of history (word processing programs) as well as
the researching of history (internet searches; databases such as JSTOR that you
can query; internet chat rooms on specialized topics of research). In just as radical a fashion computers are
transforming the way maps are used in the study and teaching of history. Traditional maps have been 2-D paper maps
hung on a wall or printed on a page in a book – to a fixed scale, voiceless,
static. Now with computers and
increasingly sophisticated software (such as the ArcGIS
recently installed in most computer labs on campus) you can interactively
navigate around in them, change scale on the fly by zooming in or out, query
individual features as to name or other attributes, turn on, off, colorize,
etc., whole layers of features such as roads, railroads, rivers, urban areas,
and much more. None of this high-tech mapping
will ever replace traditional historical training in the use of proof, the
construction of historical argument, the drive to get to primary sources, and
so on – but just as with word processing, electronic databases and the
internet, it promises to transform the way history is written and taught. Plus, you can apply these GIS mapping skills
widely to other fields than history, another reason that it seems appropriate
to add to a general education class. To
make a long story short, built into this semester are some GIS mapping sessions
involving visualizing our international “great roads” along which modern
history moved. The first of these will
be of the
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Schedule*
* Reading assignments should be completed by the
class day for which they are listed.
Schedule subject to adjustment during the semester.
Date
1/26
NONE Introduction,
Global Convergence and 2 ‘Isms
1/31 Victors
& Vanquished Part 1 New
Worlds In and Out of
(pp. 245-246, 1-15, and 29-34)
2/2 Victors
& Vanquished Part 2 Case study #1: The West from the Mexican
Perspective (pp. 40-43, 49, 79-80, 100-126)
Mexico Map / Pre-Colombian
Mesoamerica – Colonial Mexico
– 1848
2/7 Victors
& Vanquished pp. 127-181
2/9 Victors & Vanquished pp. 182-229 GIS lab / Age of Revolutions
2/14 Statler endsheeets, chpts. 1-2,4 Enlightenment/Age
of Revolutions / The West from the
Japanese Perspective
2/16 Statler chpts. 5-7
2/21
Statler chpts. 10, 13-14 Industrial
Revolution/Liberalism & Positivism / Exam Review
2/23 NONE FIRST
EXAMINATION
2/28 NONE Cultural
Nationalism-19th-20thc
Colonialism / WWI
3/2
Kipling map, chpts.
1-4 The West from the Indian/Pakistani
Perspective
3/7
Kipling chpts.
5-8 Indian
Subcontinent cont.
3/9 Kipling chpts.
9-12 Indian
Subcontinent cont.
3/14 Kipling
13-15 GIS
lab / Socialism
3/16 NONE WWII in Global
Perspective
[SPRING BREAK March 20-24, no
classes]
3/28 NONE Exam
Review
3/30 NONE SECOND
EXAMINATION
4/4 Mandela
map, chpts. 1-8 The West from the South African Perspective
4/6 Mandela
chpts. 9-12
4/11 Mandela 13-17
4/13 Mandela
chpts. 18-26 Nationalism
simulation/game
4/18 Rifa’i Part 1 Cold
War and Since
4/20 Rifa’i Part 2 West from the Middle Eastern Perspective
*Extra Credit
4/25 Rifa’i Part 3
4/27 Rifa’i Part 4
5/2 NONE Case
Studies Conclusion / GIS lab
5/4 NONE GIS
research presentations:
5/9 NONE GIS
research presentations:
Other important semester
dates:
Jan. 26 -
Jan. 31 - last day to
Drop/Add without financial penalty
Mar. 13 - last day to
withdraw without academic penalty
April. 25 - last day to
completely withdraw from semester without academic penalty
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Attendance Policy:
Students
are expected to attend every class session.
As you are only able to drop the lowest two daily readings quiz scores,
excessive absences will hurt your grade.
Additionally, more than 5 total absences will result in a grade of
FA. Exceptions will only be made in the
event of a serious illness or emergency in which the student provides
documentation from the Dean’s office requesting an exception to the policy. Unless prior arrangements are made with the
professor, it will be the student's responsibility to determine what was missed
during their absence and to arrange for any necessary remediation.
Academic Integrity:
The
Samford Honor Code governs all work done in this
course, written or otherwise. In all
cases students are expected to present original work, or to properly
acknowledge the source of information gathered from other sources. Please refer to your copy of the Student
Handbook for a more complete discussion of the importance of academic
integrity. If in doubt about a
particular issue, consult the professor.
Disabilities: