History 101: World Civilizations
Section 033
Office: 389 Holloway Hall
E-mail: mllewis@salisbury.edu
Phone: (410) 677-5020
Office Hours: M/W 1:00-2:50, F: 12:00-1:00
Course Text: Brummett, et al, Civilization: Past and Present
Numerous on-line readings are listed in this syllabus, and an on-line version of the syllabus (with embedded links) can be found on my webpage at:
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/
Course Description and Objectives: This course traces the development of world civilizations from prehistory to 1500. The key issues of this course are central to our shared humanity – what does it mean to be civilized? To govern ourselves? To worship? Through an investigation of how ancient individuals and societies answered these questions, we will hopefully come to understand our own lives better. Our global approach offers us the opportunity to learn about the geographical and chronological diversity of human social life, and understand the historical convergences, divergences, and interrelations among peoples. We are, each of us, products of this history, and in this course we will critically reflect on the meaning of our shared global heritage, both for us as individuals, as well as for the larger society and times in which we live.
How this Course will Work:
Each week there will be assigned readings from the textbook. These readings should be completed by the first day of that week. The textbook material represents the baseline of our shared factual basis for understanding world history. Each Monday I will lecture about the week’s material, bringing in supplemental material not available in the book, or explaining more thoroughly some of the concepts or ideas that the textbook has introduced. Then, on Wednesday and Friday you will have some more topical readings allowing us to focus in more carefully on specific elements of the week’s material and discuss them in more depth.
There are two absolutely essential keys to success in this course: you must attend every class meeting that you can, and you must do the readings. There is material in the readings that we will never mention in class, but which I will expect you to know. And there will be material discussed in class that is not found in any of your readings. Please treat my course like a job – if you cannot make it, call or e-mail in advance and let me know.
Please note that many weeks you will have an assigned essay question to answer – this should be typed, double-spaced, and ready to turn in at the start of class. There is no set page limit for these assignments. I care about quality of thought, not length. Some are obviously briefer than others – you should strive to answer the question well, without filler or repetition. For these writings, I expect you to cite any sources that you use with parenthetical notation (Lewis, p. 32), but otherwise the writing style may be informal (with personal pronouns but not cover pages, for instance). These are not formal papers.
There are eight essays assigned. You must complete six of them, on the due date required. It is your choice which two essays you skip, with the exception that EVERYBODY must do the very first essay assigned, due September 2. You cannot go back and do an essay after the deadline has passed, and late papers will not be accepted.
Grading Structure:
Participation/Attendance: 10% of the total grade
Grading Scale:
A 90-100%
B 80%-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F 59% and below
Week One: Prehistory and the question of “civilization” (pp. 2-10; 224-231)
(read by August 31)
August 29 Introduction, Syllabus
August 31 Lecture: Before there was History
September 2 Lecture: The Birth of Civilizations, and Essay #1: Regardless of current precedent among historians and archaeologists, what do you think would be the most useful way of defining “civilization,” with its attendant notions of “the uncivilized,” or “barbarians?”
Week Two: Mesopotamia, Egypt (pp. 10-33)
(Read by Wednesday, September 7)
September 7 Reading the following three Mesopotamian documents, what can you tell about daily life and the cultural values of these societies? Note that the documents come from three different groups – the Sumerians, the Babylonians, and the Akkadians. Do you see cultural continuities that justify lumping them together, or is this assignment asking you to compare apples and oranges?
Sumer Proverbs:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/2000sumer-proverbs.html
Hammurabi’s code (note: this link will take you straight to the primary source text itself. Preceding that is a lot of explanatory prose. That reading is optional - you are NOT required to do it. Be careful of hitting "print" or "select all.")
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html#text
Advise of an Akkadian father to his son:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/2200akkad-father.html
September 9 Essay #2: Using these documents, in what ways can you point to continuity, but also to radical breaks, in the Mesopotamian and Hebrew cosmologies? (think particularly about the relationship between humanity and the gods)
Excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh – the Flood Story
http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/073.html
Babylonian creation story (the Enuma Elish)
http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/055.html
Judaic creation and flood stories (please read chapters 1-3 and 6-8)
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/RsvGene.html
Saturday, September 10th, Field Trip to Washington DC
Week Three: India, China (pp. 38-52; 64-72)
September 12 Lecture: The “other two” River Valley Civilizations
September 14 Essay #3: Based on your readings from the following three
websites, make your best guess about the Indus River Valley civilization’s social and political structure. Does the relative lack of monumental architecture, palaces, luxury items, etc., point to a repressed totalitarian society, or a broadly egalitarian one? Why or why not? (Use the material artifacts to make your point.)
http://sify.com/itihaas/fullstory.php?id=13224496
http://www.harappa.com/har/har0.html
http://pubweb.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp/indus/english/index.html
September 16 The politics of history: China’s attempt to find a useful past (reserve reading). Also, read these two creation stories, one a Chinese folk-tale, the other from the Hindu sacred text, the Rig Veda
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/World-Civ/Chinese.htm
http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/056.html
Week Four: Americas and Collapse (pp. 322-343)
September 19 Lecture: New World Civilizations
September 21 Lecture: The End of the Word as They Knew It
September 23 Comparative discussion on the growth and decline of early civilizations. Review your notes and readings, looking for commonalities and differences.
Week Five: The Greeks (pp. 96-120; 33-37)
September 28 Lecture: The rise of the Greeks
September 30 Athens and Democracy: Consider democracy as it emerged in Athens – what were its strengths and weaknesses? Consider what the following documents, all produced by (or about) Athenians, might tell us about how Athenians themselves saw their democracies strengths and weaknesses.
Aristotle’s Politics
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/aristotle-politics1.html
Herodutus: The Persians reject democracy
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/herodotus-persdemo.html
Pericles’ Funeral Oration
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html
A summary of Plato’s thought in The Republic
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/PLATO.HTM
Plato: The Apology of Socrates
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/APOLOGY.HTM
Week Six: Greeks and Alexander the Great (pp. 120-129)
October 3 Lecture: From Athens to Alexander
October 5 Essay #4: If forced to live in Athens or Sparta, at either’s respective height, where would you – assuming your present gender and approximate parental occupation and social class – have preferred to live? Consider that almost all we know about Sparta was written by Athenians – think about Aristotle’s writings (below) in that light …
Secondary source on Sparta:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/SPARTA.HTM
Aristotle’s Politics: On the Spartan Constitution:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/aristotle-sparta.html
Aristotle’s Oikonomikos : On the good wife
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/greek-wives.html
Xenophon: On Men and Women
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/xenophon-genderroles.html
Secondary source from Indiana University:
http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/2002/lysistrata/women.html
October 7 How did Athenian foreign policy relate to Alexander’s career?
The Melian Dialogue (Thucydides)
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/melian.htm
The Mytilean Debate (Thucydides)
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/mmarkowski/212/3/myt.htm
Week Seven: Indian and Chinese Empires (pp. 72-93; 52-63)
October 10 Lecture: State Consolidation and State religion in India and China. Essay #5 due: How do you respond to the historical figure, Alexander? Be self-aware – what are the sources of your reactions, in your own life and culture?
October 12 Buddhism and the Ashokan Empire: In what ways did Ashoka’s reign reflect the conflicting values of Buddhism and the newly developing political philosophy of the Mauryan Empire?
The Sermon at Benares
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/bud-ser.html
The Rock Edicts of Ashoka. (You are only required to read the section titled "The Fourteen Rock Edicts.”) http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html
Excerpts from Kautilya’s Arthashastra. Read only chapters 7 and 19: The Life of a Holy King, and the Duties of King
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/kautilya1.html
October 14 The Hundred Schools of Chinese Philosophy: Consider how these philosophical excerpts would translate into concrete political structures
Excerpts from Confucius, Analects
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/confucius.html
Excerpts from Han Fei-tzu, The [Book of] Master Han Fei
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/hanfeitzu.html
Excerpts from Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/lao_tzu.html
Week Eight: The Romans (pp. 130-164)
October 17 Lecture: Rome in a day.
October 19 Consider in these readings the transformation of Rome from Monarchy to Republic to Empire. How would the legal rights and lived experience of the average Roman have changed for the better or for the worse?
The Twelve Tables (Early Roman Law)
http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/12tables.html
Modern chart detailing the structure of Roman Republican government
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/rome-balance.html
Selections from Acts of the Divine Augustus (by himself)
http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/DeptTransls/ResGest.html
Tacitus: The End of the Republic (excerpt from The Annals)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-ann1a.html
October 21 Analyze what these two readings reveal about Roman culture and attitudes towards the rest of the world – how do you think those attitudes would change as Rome became an empire?
Graffitti found on the walls at Pompeii:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pompeii-inscriptions.html
Tacitus, Germania (about the German barbarians)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus1.html
Week Nine: Romans and the Emergence of Christianity (pp. 164-181)
October 24 Lecture: Late Imperial Rome
October 26 Essay #6: Compare Buddha’s “Sermon at Benares,” Epicetus’ “The Enchiridion,” and Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.” Look for both similarities and differences between these texts. Does their historical or cultural setting seem to matter in their ideas, or have these figures succeeded in transcending the local and reached more global ideas?
The Sermon on the Mount (the Gospel of Matthew, 5-7)
http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=MATT%205-7
Epicetus, The Enchiridion
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/EPICT.HTM
Also read for discussion, though not for the essay, The Gospel of Mary
http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm
October 28 Comparative discussion of the growth of empires, and the political and religious institutions found in these examples. Review your readings and notes.
Week Ten: Emergence of Islam (pp. 194-221)
November 2 Lecture: The Birth of Islam
November 4 For today’s readings, you have a selection of sacred Islamic texts. As you read these, think of the similarities and differences to other religious texts we have read this semester.
Description of the Qur’an (secondary source)
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ISLAM/QURAN.HTM
Excerpts from The Qur’an
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ISLAM/QURANSEL.HTM
Excerpts from The Sunnah
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sunnah-horne.html
This page includes links to numerous Hadith. Select at least one topic to read, in addition to Hadith no. 52 (jihad)
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/
Muhammed’s Last Sermon
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/muhm-sermon.html
Week Eleven: Islamic Expansion (pp. 181-193; 231-255)
November 7 Lecture: The spread of Islam
November 9 Essay #7: For this essay, consider how these early Muslim conquerors dealt with religious and ethnic diversity in their new empire. Based on these readings, how did the Muslims perceive their neighbors in Africa and Europe? How did they perceive conquered peoples who were not Muslim?
Two accounts of the Arab conquest of Egypt
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/642Egypt-conq2.html
Tarik’s address to his troops (in Spain)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/711Tarik1.html
European and Arabic accounts of the Battle of Tours
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/732tours.html
An early Pact of Umar (7th century)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html
A later version of the Pact of Umar (9th century)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-umar.html
Abu Uthman al-Jahiz, excerpt on Africans from The essays
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/860jahiz.html
November 11 The Islamic Golden Age: For non-Muslims, how might these writings present Islamic culture, beliefs, and possibilities? What do these writings tell us of the Islamic golden age? (How does this fit, or not, with contemporary stereotypes of Islam?)
Avicenna, On Medicine
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1020Avicenna-Medicine.html
Mansur al-Hallaj, Sayings (Sufi)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/all-hallaj-quotations.html
Jalal ad-Din Rumi (a Sufi mystic and poet), excerpts from The Masnavi (pay particular attention to the beginning and the end)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1250rumi-masnavi.html
Excerpt from 1001 Arabian Nights
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/1001.html
Omar Khayyam, Profession of Faith
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/omarkhayyam-faith.html
Week Twelve: Islam and Europe (pp. 256-285)
November 14 Lecture: Crusades, Cultural Exchange, and Holy Wars
November 16 Essay # 8 – compare the following documents to our earlier discussion of Islam, and particularly the Bukhari Hadith no. 52 on jihad. What are the similarities and differences between Christian and Muslim conceptions of “Holy War?”
Leo IV: Forgiveness of Sin for Those who Die Fighting the Heathen Army
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/leo4-ind850.html
Pope John VIII: Indulgence for Fighting the Heathens
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/john2-ind878.html
Gregory VII: Call for a Crusade (oops)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-cde1078.html
Urban II, Speech at Claremont (truly starting the first crusade)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2a.html
November 18 In these accounts, consider the motivations of the different participants in the Crusades (from Europe), and the reactions of non-military Muslims to the Europeans.
Accounts of the slaughter of European Jews
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews.html
Usmah ibn Munqidh, excerpts, Autobiography
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/usamah2.html
Guy, A Knight, Letter from the sixth crusade
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1249sixthcde-let.html
Week Thirteen: Asian Hegemony (pp. 286-321)
November 21 Lecture: The Middle Kingdom, indeed
Week Fourteen: The Mongols and the Pax Mongolica (pp. 286-321, contd.)
November 28 Lecture: Mongolia’s fifteen minutes of fame, and lasting legacy
November 30 William of Rubruck’s Account of the Mongols: at a minimum read sections 1-3, 16-21, and poke around through the rest as you like.
http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/rubruck.html
December 2 As you read these selections, compare the tone of Ibn al-Athir with the chronologically later (and culturally less traumatized) European travelers. What was the impact of these European explorers on Europe’s view of the larger world?
Ibn al-Athir, On the Tatars
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1220al-Athir-mongols.html
Brother John of Monte Corvino, 1280
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1280corvino2.html
John of Monte Corvino, 1305
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/corvino1.html
Marco Polo: The Glories of Kinsay
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/polo-kinsay.html
Marco Polo: On the Tartars
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/mpolo44-46.html
Week Fifteen: The Plague and the Renaissance (pp. 396-415)
December 5 Lecture: Death and Renewal
December 7 As you read these accounts, how did the crisis of the Black Death bring forth old and new ideas about humanity? What, if anything, seems novel about Mirandola or Machievelli?
The Black Death and Jews
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.html
Boccacio, Decameron: Introduction
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.html
Pico della Mirandola, excerpt from Oration on the Dignity of Man
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/ORATION.HTM
Machievelli, The Prince (excerpts)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/prince-excerp.html
December 9 Wrap up and review REVIEW SHEET FOR THIRD EXAM
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
The best learning environment is one based on mutual respect and trust. However, the desire to achieve a good grade without doing the necessary work may tempt some students to cheat on exams or to represent the work of others as their own. Plagiarism and Cheating are acts of “academic dishonesty.” The term “academic dishonesty” means a deliberate and deceptive misrepresentation of one’s own work. Instances of academic dishonesty include all, but are not limited to, the following:
· Plagiarism: presenting as one’s own work, whether literally or in paraphrase, the work of another author.
· Turning in the same paper for multiple courses.
· Cheating on exams, tests, and quizzes; the wrongful giving or accepting of unauthorized exam material; and the use of illegitimate sources of information.
· Unsanctioned collaboration with other individuals in the completion of course assignments.
· Falsifying excuses for non-attendance or completion of assignments.
There are no mitigating circumstances to justify academic dishonesty. Ignorance is no excuse. Discovery of academic dishonesty will bring stiff penalties, including a failing grade for the assignment in question and possibly a grade of F for the course. The maximum penalty at Salisbury University for plagiarism is possible expulsion from the entire USM system, so for your own sakes, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE.
Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing across the Curriculum is a nationally recognized initiative that is designed to improve students’ learning through encouraging different types of writing in all university courses. This course is committed to this program, and will use the following tools:
You will be required to refine your note-taking skills in class
Your examinations will be essay based. These essays will require you to think broadly about the primary themes of the course, and to marshal specific evidence in support of an argument.
You will be required to do short writing assignments in-class and at home to allow you the opportunity to think through some general course questions.