1/7, 9 Week 1 1/7, 9 Thinking about world history

            William McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History," History and Theory 34.2 (1995):8-26. (online access via JSTOR)

Jerry    Jerry  H. Bentley, "Myths, Wagers, and Some Moral Implications of World History," Journal of World History, 16.1 (2005) :51-82. Online access from Journal of World History.

Week  Week 2  1/14, 16  Asking big questions

            Guns, Germs, and Steel, 13-191

Week Week 3  1/23  Eurasia versus other world regions

            Guns, Germs, and Steel, 193-401.

Week Week 4  1/30  The role of technologies

Jack    Jack Goody and Ian Watt, "The Consequences of Literacy," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 5.3 (1963) :304-345. Online access via JSTOR

Week Week 5  2/4, 6  The impact of disease

            William McNeill, Plagues and People, pp. 19-207.

Week Week 6  2/11, 13  Economic factors and cross-regional trade

Janet   Janet Abu-Lughod, "The World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or Precursor? In Michael Adas, ed. Islamic and European Expansion: The forging of a Global Order (1993), 75-102. Online reserve

Week Week 7  2/20  Primary and Secondary State Formation  SHORT PAPERS DUE

Victor Victor Lieberman, "Transcending East-West Dichotomies: State and Culture Formation in Six Ostensibly Disparate Areas," Modern Asian Studies 31 (1997), 463-546. Online access via JSTOR.

Week Week 8  2/25, 27  The spread of religions

Jerry    Jerry Bentley, "Missionaries, Pilgrims, and the Spread of World Religions," in Old World Encounters (1993), 67-110.  Online reserve

Week  Week 9 3/5  The Mongol empire

            David Morgan, The Mongols, pp. 32-198 (1986 ed.)

Week Week 10  3/10, 12 Presentations  LONG PAPERS DUE