Dr. Michael Lewis

 

History 101:  World Civilizations 

Environment and Honors sections

Fall 2007

 

Office:  389 Holloway Hall

E-mail: mllewis@salisbury.edu

Phone: (410) 677-5020

Office Hours:  Wednesday 10:00-2:00, and by appointment

 

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, with special attention given to the environmental history of human societies’ growth, collapse, and religious traditions..  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:

 

For each week, I have listed the approximate topics that we will cover. A corresponding set of pages from your textbook are indicated. These textbook readings will supplement your understanding of the material that we go over in class, and represent the baseline of our shared factual basis for understanding world history. You will need to evaluate your own learning style – for some of you, it will be best to read the textbook before class, so that you are familiar with the events and places that I mention in class. For others, you might prefer to read the textbook after class, to clarify your understanding of class material. The textbook will be especially important as you prepare for your exams, as the index will help you to find ID’s on the study guide that you may have missed the first time through.

 

In addition to the textbook, there are web-based readings assigned on many of the class meeting days. Unlike the textbook, I require that you do these readings before the class period for which they are assigned. In some cases, I will refer to the readings in lectures, and it will not make sense to you if you have not done the reading. In other cases, I will use the readings as the basis for a class discussion. I reserve the right to give pop quizzes if it appears that students are not prepared. Make sure that you check your syllabus regularly, so that you do not miss any of these meetings.

 

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 web-based 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.

 

In addition to your reading assignments, you will note that there is a written report assigned for each unit. These reports should be typed, double-spaced, and ready to turn in at the start of class. For these writings, I expect you to cite all of the sources that you use with parenthetical notation (Smith, p. 32), but otherwise the writing style may be informal (with personal pronouns and no cover pages, for instance). You will need to develop an argument, use evidence to prove your point, and use a bibliography. Please make sure that you cite all of your sources. The consequences for plagiarism are severe. I will give you a more detailed assignment sheet in class.

 

For one of your reports, you will have to make a presentation in class, sharing the information that you have found in a formal multi-media presentation of ten minutes. I will assign the presentation schedule in class.

 

Grading Structure:

Exam 1, 2, and 3                                                         60% of the total grade (20% each)

Class Presentation                                                        10% of the total grade

Essays 1, 2, and 3                                                        30% of the total grade (10% each)

 

Attendance, reading quizzes, and class participation will be used to adjust borderline grades up or down.

 

Grading Scale:         

A         90-100%

B          80%-89%

C         70-79%          

D         60-69%                                              

F          59% and below

There will be no incomplete grades offered

 

ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

 

Unit One: Civilizations

Environmental History question for this unit: Choose a human society that emerged prior to 700 CE that is not one of the four classic “river-valley” civilizations, nor Mediterranean. Describe how your chosen society’s environment influenced the development of that society. Would you consider your society a civilization? Why or why not? What opportunities or constraints did the local environment provide?
 

Week One:     Prehistory 

 

August 28         Introduction, Syllabus

 

August 30         Lecture: Before there was History

 

Week Two: The question of “civilization” (pp. 2-10; 224-231) 

 

September 6     Lecture: The Birth of Civilizations

 

Week Three:     Mesopotamia, Egypt   (pp. 10-33)

 

September 11     Mesopotamia

Sumer Proverbs:

                        http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/2000sumer-proverbs.html

Advise of an Akkadian father to his son:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/2200akkad-father.html

 

September 13               Mesopotamia and Egypt

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/KjvGene.html

  

Week Four: India, China (pp. 38-52; 64-72)

 

September 18   India

http://sify.com/itihaas/fullstory.php?id=13224496

http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/056.html

 

September 20   China

                        http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/World-Civ/Chinese.htm

                       

Week Five:    Americas (pp. 322-343)

 

September 25   New World Civilizations

 

September 27   First report due, and class presentations.           

  

Week Six: Exams and the Greeks (pp. 96-120; 33-37)

 

October 2: First Examination

 

Unit Two: Empires

Environmental History question for this unit: For your assigned empire, what environmental factors were important in the emergence of empire? What were the environmental implications of your empire? Did environmental factors play a role in its collapse?

 

October 4   The rise of the Greeks

Aristotle’s Politics 

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/aristotle-politics1.html

                        Pericles’ Funeral Oration

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html

 

Week Seven: Greeks, Alexander the Great, and Ashoka  (pp. 120-129; 72-93)

 

October 9        From Athens and Sparta to Alexander

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 

 

October 11        Buddhism and the Ashokan 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  

       

Week Eight:  Chinese and Roman  Empires (pp. 52-63; 130-64)

 

October 16     The Hundred Schools of Chinese Philosophy:

            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

 

October 18     The Birth of Rome

                        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

 

Week Nine:   The Romans (pp. 130-164)

 

October 23       Roman Empire

                        Graffitti found on the walls at Pompeii:

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pompeii-inscriptions.html

 

October 25     Late Imperial Rome

                       Epicetus, The Enchiridion

            http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/EPICT.HTM

 

Week Ten:    Christianity (pp. 164-181)

 

October 30      The emergence of Christianity

The Sermon on the Mount (the Gospel of Matthew, 5-7)

            http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=MATT%205-7

The Gospel of Mary

            http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

 

November 1     Second report due, and class presentations

 

Week Eleven: Exam and the Emergence of Islam (pp. 194-221)

 

November 6:    Second Examination

 

Unit Three: Foreshadowing the modern world

Environmental History Question for this unit: Consider the impact of your assigned religious tradition upon the natural world. How do people’s conceptions of the divine, and the good life, affect their understanding of nature? Is there an environmental ethic associated with your assigned religious tradition, and if so, from what point in time?

 

November 8    The Birth of Islam

                        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. read Hadith no. 52 (jihad)

            http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/             

 

Week Twelve:            Islamic Expansion (pp. 181-193; 231-255) 

 

November13    The spread of Islam

                        Tarik’s address to his troops (in Spain)

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/711Tarik1.html

                        A later version of the Pact of Umar (9th century)

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-umar.html

 

November 15   The Islamic Golden Age

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 Thirteen: Islam and Europe (pp. 256-285)

 

November 20   Crusades, Cultural Exchange, and Holy Wars

                        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

                        Urban II, Speech at Claremont (truly starting the first crusade)

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2a.html

 

 

Week Fourteen: Asian Hegemony and the Mongols (pp. 286-321)

 

November 27   Third report due, and class presentations

 

November 29   From China to Mongolia

                       

 

Week Fifteen:            The Mongols, The Plague, and the Renaissance (pp. 396-415)

 

December 4    Pax Mongolica

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

Marco Polo: The Glories of Kinsay

            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/polo-kinsay.html

                       

December 6       Death and Renewal    

                        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

 

Final Exam:    Thursday, December 13, 4:15-6:45

 

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 writing assignments in-class and at home to allow you the opportunity to write more polished arguments.