HIST 104: World History I
Prof. Lisa Wolverton – University of Oregon – Fall 2009
Section & writing
assignments – Instructors
History 104 is an introduction to human history around the globe from the origins of agriculture to approximately the year 1500 CE. It is, obviously, impossible to cover all the earth’s peoples and regions over several thousand years comprehensively or in detail in only 10 weeks. The topics discussed in this course are necessarily selective, and have been shaped around particular themes. It is meant to be introductory: students are encouraged to pursue their own interests in other courses and departments at the University of Oregon.
Objectives
Structure of the Course
This course consists of three lectures and one discussion section per week. Supplementary readings, mostly primary sources in translation, correspond with each lecture. Students are expected to have read these before class, and to review them before discussion sections. Individual readings also form the basis the short writing assignments due in Section.
Students are strongly advised to attend lectures. If you must miss a class, you should borrow notes from a fellow student as soon as possible. The on-line versions of the instructor’s visual presentations will be made available after each lecture. (The hard copy of your syllabus provides a link.) However, they will not adequately substitute for class attendance and individual note-taking.
Although this is primarily a large lecture course, weekly discussion sections are an integral part of the learning process. They are not review sessions, nor will instructors simply rehash the week’s lectures. Instead, they are an opportunity to engage with the course themes and readings in a small-group environment. Each week in section, students will discuss their writing assignments, analyze the readings, and discuss issues relevant to the week’s lectures.
Requirements and Evaluation
Section attendance is mandatory and students must attend the section for which they have registered. Your section instructor is responsible for your overall course grade, including all written work. The grade distribution is as follows:
All written work must be turned in on time, and no make-up assignments or exams will be given. Unless otherwise specified, written work must be typed, double-spaced, in 12pt font with 1” margins. Papers may not be submitted by email. There is no extra credit.
Readings
(available at UO
bookstore; also
on reserve at Knight Library)
Michael
Carrithers, Buddha: A Very
Short Introduction
Coursepack
(for items with *)
The maps listed for each lecture below are available on-line (again, see your paper syllabus for the link). Two copies of the main atlas are also available on Knight Library Reserve.
Schedule
PART I – EURASIA IN ANCIENT AND “CLASSICAL” TIMES
Week 1
Sep. 30 Introduction
Reference
Map 1
Oct. 2 Domestication and Agriculture
*Jared Diamond
Historical Maps 4 & 5
Section Assignment: What is plagiarism?
Week 2
Oct. 5 Civilization
* “Hymn to the Nile”; *Sumerian hymns
Historical Maps 6, 9, 10 & 11
Oct. 7 Mesopotamian Empires
*Mesopotamian legal documents; *Banquet of Ashurnasirpal
Historical
Maps 7, 8, 12, 14, & 16
Oct. 9 The State in Ancient China
*Oracle bones; *Shi Qiang bronze inscription
Historical Map 13
Section Assignment: Comparison of *Banquet and *Shi Qiang
Oct. 12 Confucius
*Analects
Historical Map 22
Oct. 14 The Buddha
Carrithers, Buddha (entire)
Historical Maps 23 & 24
Oct. 16 Humanism & the Hellenistic World
*Plato
Historical Maps 15 & 17
Section
Assignment: *Mystery Text: Confucian or
Buddhist?
Monday Oct.
19 FIRST MIDTERM EXAM
PART II – NOMADS AND EMPIRES
Week 4
Oct. 21 The Roman Republic and Empire
Historical Map 18
Oct. 23 Christianity
*Romans 1-3, 12-16; *Gospel of Thomas
Section
Assignment: Analysis of study habits
Week
5
Oct. 26 The “Silk Road”
International Dunhuang Project
Historical Map 25
Oct. 28 The Period of Division and Buddhism in China
*Lotus Sutra
Historical
Map 30
Oct. 30 Germanic Peoples and the “Fall” of Rome
*Tacitus; *Procopius
Historical Maps 26 & 27
Section Assignment: Comparison of *Gospel of Thomas
Week
6
Nov. 2 Out of Arabia: Islam
*Qur’an
Historical Map 28
Nov. 4 Tang and early Song China
*Examination anecdotes
Historical Map 31
Nov. 6 The ‘Abbasid Empire
*al-Tabari
Review Historical Map 28
Section
Assignment: Comparison of *Tacitus and
*Procopius
Week 7
Nov. 9 Charlemagne’s “Roman” Empire
*Einhard
Historical Map 29
Wednesday Nov. 11 SECOND MIDTERM EXAM
PART
III – EURASIA AND BEYOND
Nov. 13 The Mongols
*Marco Polo, pp. 92-102
Historical Maps 32 & 33
Section
Assignment: Analysis of study habits and course
performance
Week
8
Nov.
16 Song & Yuan China
and Late Medieval Europe
*Marco
Polo, pp. 128-38,
147-57
Historical Maps 33 & 36
Nov. 18 “Southernization” and the Indian Ocean Trade
*Marco
Polo, pp. 241-67,
287-94
Historical Map 37
Nov.
20 Southeast Asia & Africa
*East
African Coast
Historical
Map 30 and Maps 19, 20, & 34
Section Assignment: Analysis of *Marco Polo
Week 9 – The Eastern Hemisphere
Nov.
23 Eurasia in the 14th and 15th centuries
Nov. 25, 26, 27 Thankgiving holiday
PART IV – THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Week 10 – Empires and Encounters
Nov. 30 Maya Civilization
*Lockhart and Schwartz
Historical Maps 21 & 35
Dec. 1 The Aztec and Inca Empires
*Florentine Codex
Dec. 3 The Columbian encounter
*“1491”
Section Assignment: “Barbarians” in the Florentine Codex