98958 - GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: A LONG-TERM HISTORY

Learning outcomes

The course provides students with the conceptual framework for understanding major global transformations over the long term, in the belief that historical perspective offers important insights into present issues. At the end of the course, students will be able to understand and evaluate representative political, philosophical, and economic concepts that help illuminate the major characteristics of specific historical periods and how political, social, and economic structures have changed through time from a global perspective. Students will also be able to analyze key concepts such as the formation of the modern state; the emergence of capitalism; the roots and historical development of nationalism; the rise and crisis of the welfare state; international economic relations, protectionism and free trade; the politics of power in a multipolar and a bipolar world; the relationship between individuals and political and economic institutions.

Course contents

The course will offer an introductory survey of the history of human societies from the so-called Columbian Exchange to the beginning of the Twenty-first century. We will discuss how human societies built, or failed to build, connections regionally and globally, and how people, commodities, ideas, religious beliefs, technologies, and pathogens travelled from one region to another.

Every week, you will be expected to study a specific chapter of the textbook.

Class lectures will be devoted to an in-depth analysis of two major issues, namely (i) the historical expansion of empires in the modern era, and their military, economic, cultural, and biological dimensions, and (ii) the dynamics of inequality and globalization.

Non-attending students will be examined on this part just like attending students. If you plan not to attend class lectures, you will have to rely on your colleagues' notes and/or the books that are listed as SUGGESTED READINGS in the Readings/Bibliography section below.

When appropriate, external guests will be invited to discuss specific topics in the syllabus.

By the end of the course, you will have developed an understanding of the basic dynamics of world history. A knowledge of history in the long term is a necessary component of a well-rounded education.

Course outline:

WEEK 1

Introduction

The concept of scarcity in human history

The discovery of the Oceans, 1400 to 1800

Biological Globalization, 1400 to 1800

WEEK 2

World Regions in the Global Web

Religious and Intellectual Movements, 1500 to 1750

WEEK 3

Empires and Power, 1450 to 1800

WEEK 4

The First Global Economy

Atlantic Revolutions, 1600 to 1900

WEEK 5

The First Industrial Revolution

The Abolition of Slavery and Serfdom

WEEK 6

Nationalism and Nation-States

Midterm wrap-up

WEEK 7

Imperialism

Confronting Industrialization, Nationalism, and Imperialism

WEEK 8

The Armenian Diaspora

World War I and Interwar Deglobalization

WEEK 9

World War II and the Cold War

WEEK 10

Decolonization

WEEK 11

Anthropocene

WEEK 12

Population since 1950

Wrap-up

Readings/Bibliography

MANDATORY READINGS

1) John R. McNeill, The Webs of Humankind. A World History, W. W. Norton, First Ed., VOLUME 2

2) M. Alacevich and A. Soci, Inequality. A Short History, Washington, DC: Brookings Press, 2018 (the UK and Italian editions can also be used, respectively, M. Alacevich and A. Soci, A Short History of Inequality, London: Agenda, 2018; M. Alacevich and A. Soci, Breve storia della disuguaglianza, Roma, Laterza 2018)

YOU MUST OBTAIN COPIES OF THE BOOKS IN ADVANCE OF THE FIRST CLASS MEETING.

also

YOU MUST HAVE ACCESS TO McNEILL'S ONLINE LEARNING TOOLS AND INQUIZITIVE.

The print copy of McNeill's book comes with full access to the eBook and online resources, including InQuizitive.

The only digital copy allowed is the one called INTERACTIVE EBOOK AND NORTON LEARNING TOOLS. Please note that it expires after one year.

You are also responsible for all of the information contained in the following tutorial on plagiarism:

https://lib.usm.edu/plagiarism_tutorial/whatis_plagiarism.html

You must complete the tutorial and successfully pass the quizzes and final test in the tutorial. The tutorial's contents may appear on the final exam.

SUGGESTED READINGS:

On Scarcity:

Carl Wennerlind and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Scarcity. A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2023

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On Empires:

Carlo M. Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700, New York: Pantheon Books, 1965

Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological imperialism. The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Eric Jones, The European Miracle, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003

Anthony Padgen, Peoples and Empires: A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece to the Present, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Prasannan Parthasarathi, Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not. GLobal Economic Divergence, 1600-1850, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Andrew Phillips and J.C. Sharman, Outsourcing Empire. How Company-States Made the Modern World, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020

Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence. China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000

Priya Satia, Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018

J.C. Sharman, Empires of the Weak. The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019

E.A. Wrigley, Continuity, Chance and Change. The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988

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On Armenian history:

Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.), The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

or

Gabriella Uluhogian, Gli Armeni, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2015

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The syllabus and additional material will be available on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

Lectures and class discussion.

Assessment methods

Grades will be assigned on the basis of a written exam or an oral exam. The exam will evaluate your ability to explain and discuss critically the facts and analytical questions examined during the class lectures and in the bibliographic references.

Any academic misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, cheating, the use of unauthorized notes, the use of material prepared by others, etc.) will result in a grade penalty, a failing grade, and referral to the University Committee on Academic Misconduct, which may result in severe sanctions (e.g., suspension for one year).

Office hours

See the website of Michele Alacevich