• Mar. 7, 2012: I just received the printout results of my student evaluations--2c11 Esci scores.
• Nov. 6, 2011: 2011 Midterm Study Guide and Family History Paper Handout added.
• Oct. 3, 2011: Final update on crashing. There are still 20 spaces in this course; the most spaces are in M 6pm, T noon and Wed. 3pm. Switching may be possible with TA permission and codes.
  • Here are pdfs with the slides from the first 3 lectures:
    1. Introduction, 2: What is World History?; 3. The Atlantic Slavery System
  • Assignment for lectures in week 3:
  1. Based on ch. 15, pp. 689-698: List the causes Strayer gives for the rise of the slave trade
  2. Read the intro to Pt. V "A European Era?": What causes the predominance of Europe?
  3. Read ch. 16, Atlantic Revolutions. Make a table of five causes explaining the outbreak and course of each of the four revolutions (North American, French, Haitian, Spanish American). Not to be turned in, but discussed in lecture.
  • Clicker points. Five total can be earned. Full credit will be based on clicking (whether correct or not) for 75% of the questions in 75% of the 16 lectures from 10/4 to 12/1 (thus in 12 lectures). For each lecture missed or inadequately clicked below 12, 1 point less (11 lectures: 4 pts, 10 lectures 3 pts, 9 - 2 and so on)..
  • Extra Credit Film series: Thursdays, 3-6pm, HSSB 3041.
    Burn! (1969) was shown on 9/28. I will put it on reserve in Kerr Hall on 10/3. The question was: note some examples that determined the success (or failure) of the uprisings for each of the EIEIO categories explained in lecture.
    Rules for the series:
  1. To get credit, you must turn in an initialed index card (you get it from the Prof. at the showing or in office hours) to your TA within one week of the showing (the following Thursday after lecture).
  2. 1 pt for 1 film; 2 pts for 2 films; 3 pts for 4 films/event.
  3. If you want to watch a film on your own, you have to get a card from the prof. in office hours, explaining why you couldn't make the showing.
  4. On the card, note (briefly) an answer to the prof's question.
  5. At the end of the quarter, your TA will sort all received cards and enter the points corresponding to the number of cards from those students participating.
• Sept. 28, 2011: Crashing: It looks like there is room for everyone on the waiting list who attended lecture so far. If you let the TAs on whose waiting listS you are know the order of section preference you have, they have started giving out approval codes.
  • For students not yet enrolled, I'm posting the optional readings here that were only available on Gauchospace: Made-up Minds; Why we have college; History quotes handout.
• Sept. 26, 2011: The following information sent out via Gauchospace:
  • Clicker registration: You go to http://www.iclicker.com/support/registeryourclicker/, enter your name, clicker ID (don't forget to put clear tape over it), PERM as student ID, and the captcha. You need to do this again even if you've done it before--the registration database was purged in July.
  • Reading assignment: As I said, we're going to breeze through Part IV (chaps. 14, 15, 16) without reading the source sections at the end. My idea is that you read 14 over the weekend, 15 for Tuesday and 16 for Thursday. However, lecture Tuesday will draw most heavily on 14 and a little on 16, with Thursday's lecture focusing on 15, esp. the sections on the slave trade (pp. 689-698).
    • The two essays on Gauchospace (Why college; Made-up minds) are for your reading pleasure--I think they are important to reflect about to get your bearings on what you want to get out of college learning--but we won't have time to discuss them in any depth. Maybe I can solicit your feedback about them via clicker questions.
    • The Nietzsche selection is up to your TAs to assign and use or not. I recommend reading it--as I said, what you get out of this course depends on what you put in. Figuring out what history might be good for could be a big help in getting motivated.
  • Honors section: There will be an honors section, Wednesdays 2-3pm in HSSB 4080. It is open ONLY to freshmen and sophomores, and will be numbered Hist 99. There is a special enroll code and override code you need to get in. Given the level of interest last Thursday, we'll have to find some way of limiting enrollment to 15 students. This week we'll discuss the essays on Gauchospace; most other weeks there will be extra readings and student presentations.
  • Switching sections: I've created a forum on our Gauchospace site where you can post your exchange proposal: https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/mod/forum/view.php?id=65849 -- add a new topic, or if you're taking up someone's offer, respond to it. Make sure you subscribe to that forum if you want to keep abreast of what's on offer. NOTE: this is NOT an invitation to switch sections--please do this ONLY if it is really necessary. It is extra work for the TAs.
• Aug. 17, 2011: Required books for Fall 2011. The books listed below will be used in this course this fall; 1, 2, 3 & 5 are required of all students; 4 is optional but strongly recommended for history majors (it is required in several other history courses, especially some of the required proseminars). Prices given here are advisory only and may change with availablity.
  1. Robert Strayer, Ways of the World: A Brief Global History **with Sources**, vol. II (Bedford, 2010) ($73 at UCen; $63 at amazon.com; $68 from publisher--incl. eBook?)
     As eBook: ($35 for the whole book for one year--same price at the UCen).
     NOTE: you will need your textbook in your discussion section. I don't know whether you can download the eBook to a laptop, or whether you need internet access, which may not be available in all classrooms.
  2. Robert Allison (ed.), The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself (Bedford, 2nd ed. 2007) (UCen $12.45 used, $16.65 new; $14-16 at amazon)
  3. iClicker Student Response Unit (iClicker1 $35 at amazon; iClicker2 $40 at UCen)
     Note: I will use the iClicker1, which you can find used for even less. The UCen will be selling the iClicker2, which just came out and costs only $5 more, because future courses will probably use its additional features. Thus if you think you'll never need one again, go for iClicker1, if you're a freshman, an iClicker 2 is probably the way to go..
  4. Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (Bedford, 6th ed. 2009) ($22 at UCen; $14-16 at amazon)--optional; recommended for History majors
  NOTE: The UCen bookstore (Fall '11 History textbook order page) will also sell some shrink-wrapped package options that may save you some money, depending on what you want:
  a. Paperback textbook plus Equiano, $81 (savings of ca. $3-6)
  b. eTextbook access card plus Equiano, savings of ca. $4
• Do you hate the price of textbooks? I feel your pain, as do a vast majority of students. See this survey about student textbook purchasing & reselling in the Aug. 23, 2011 Chronicle of Higher Education--70% of students have not purchased at least one textbook because of price.
• Sept. 13, 2011: Our TAs will be: Munther Alsabbagh, David Baillargeon, Sienna Cordoba, Wendy Hurford, Eric Massie, Joshua Rocha, Cody Stephens, Brian Tyrrell.
• Sept. 17, 2011: Enrollment history & data: Aug. 16: 365/432; Aug. 18: 432 (full); Aug. 25-Sept. 8: 427; Sept. 17: 403. Of those 403: 47% freshm., 21% soph., 24% jr, 8% sr.
  Since Aug. 16 (before transfer enrollment started), jr. enrollment doubled; 14 freshmen dropped. Majors: 83 undeclared (54 fr, 23 so, 5 jr, 1 sr); 66 presoc; 33 prebio; 29 prepsy, 27 prepol, 35 precom; 22 hist. Based on majors probably about 90 transfer students total. Update Sept. 20: 390 enrolled.

Books for Fall 2011 (back to top) (updated 8/23/11)

Robert Strayer, Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, vol. II (Bedford, 2010) (publisher's website; $60 at amazon.com)	Robert Allison (ed.), The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself (Bedford, 2nd ed. 2007) ($14-16 at amazon)	iClicker Student Response Unit ($35 at amazon;)	Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (Bedford, 6th ed. 2009) ($14-16 at amazon)

Lecture outlines (LIST STILL FROM 2009) (back to top)

• L1: Introduction
• L2: The Atlantic Slavery System
• L3: Antislavery
• L4: Revolutionary Causes
• L5: Revolutionary Outcomes
• L6: Industrialization
  • EIEIO causality model, full page size for midterm study purposes. On student request I've consolidated all of the related ppt slides into one file: 5 full-size and 1 page with 6, or 9 full size slides.
• L7: Industrialization
  L8: China, Japan and Imperialism
• L9:
• L10: Colonial Encounters
• L11: Midterm (2009 study guide)
• L12: Europe and 20th Century Global Convulsions .
• L13: World War II
• L14: Communism's Rise
• L15: ... and Fall
• L16: The Global South I
• L17:
• L18: Memory and History
• L19: 21st Century Issues
• L20: Conclusions
  • 2009 Final Exam Study Guide

Course materials (back to top)

• 2009 syllabus
• 2009 Reader table of contents;
• Books for purchase:
  • Textbook: Robert Strayer, Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, vol. II (Bedford, 2010)
  • Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), (Bedford 2006 ed., edited and introduced by Robert Allison). This autobiography of a former slave played an important role in the antislavery movement. ($14/9 used at amazon)
  • Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (Boston: Bedford, 6th ed. 2009 [earlier editions ok]). This is an excellent how-to guide about writing history papers and preparing for exams. ($16 at amazon)
  • iClicker: Classroom response unit ($30/23 used at amazon)
  • Reader of additional essays and sources, available at GrafikArt on Pardall Rd. in IV (xx pages).
  • Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative (1789)(Bedford edition)
    • We will read this at the beginning of the course. Skim chapters 4, 5, 8-11.
    • Excellent site with an illustrated biography of Vassa/Equiano, and excerpts from his book, also a bibliography, map and links.
      The site was created by Dr Brycchan Carey at the School of Humanities, Kingston University, UK. Carey's 1996 MA thesis was on "The Poetry of Anti-Slavery; 1787-94," and his 2000 doctoral thesis was titled The Rhetoric of Sensibility: Argument, Sentiment, and Slavery in the Late Eighteenth Century.
      Carey is a recognized expert in this field.
    • PBS's Equiano pages have additional resources (see also resource listing [scroll down to point IV])
    • The full text of the Interesting Narrative is online, scanned by a project at Hanover college in Indiana
    • "Unraveling the Narrative: A scholar raises questions, and hackles, with evidence that the ex-slave who wrote the definitive first-person account of the Middle Passage may not have made that infamous journey," by Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2005.

Course Description (back to top)

• This lecture course with discussion sections is designed for undergraduates of all disciplines (natural and social sciences, fine arts, humanities) with no prior college-level coursework in history. It fulfills the General Education requirement in area E-1, Civilization and Thought, and is approved as a GE writing course. (UCSB catalog info on GE)
• The UCSB General Catalog description for Hist 2A,B,C reads as follows:
  "Survey of the peoples, cultures, and social, economic, and political systems that have characterized the world's major civilizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania."
  Hist 2C covers the period 1700CE-present.
• Of course, it is utterly impossible to cover this much temporal and spatial ground in a meaningful way during a 10-week quarter, and I don't even try to do that. In fact, I don't think of history as a lot of information that "everyone should know." For me, it is a wealth of experiences, some of which are interesting and entertaining (like good books or movies), and some of which help me to understand and evaluate what is going on in the world around me. In this course we will study some of the historical experiences I have found to be interesting and helpful in understanding the present (we won't pass judgment on the entertainment value). Some of those experiences are the lives of exceptional people, some of ordinary people. Some are great cataclysmic events such as revolutions or wars. And some are ideas (or systems of beliefs) that have helped people to see the world around them in new ways, and have led to monumental changes in the way they--and we--live. Along the way of learning about these experiences, we will also learn and practice some skills, such as how to understand and draw meaning from primary sources, how to think beyond the obvious level of a story to its deeper meanings, and how to express our thoughts clearly in discussion and in writing.

Course Goals (back to top)

By reading the assignments, attending the lectures, participating in section discussion and doing the written work, you should:

1. gain a better understanding of the nature and relevance of historical study in general;
2. better appreciate the historical forces and events that have shaped the modern world (since ca. 1700);
3. better appreciate the diversity of modern nations and peoples and the ways they act on each other in time and space;
4. improve your ability to understand and interpret (draw reasoned conclusions about) historical source materials (including texts, images and music);
5. improve your ability to write a short paper with research, analysis, interpretation and argumentation.

Extra Credit Film Series (back to top)

I will be setting up a weekly time at which the following films will be screened. Students can earn extra credit by attending

• 2008 Policy on the extra credit films. In the interest of fairness, the TAs are willing to do the extra administrative work for students who can't attend the showings at the MCC. However, you will have to do a little more work (writing). So here are the policies:
  • If you can attend the showing at the MCC, just jot down your name, the film title, and a few notes on the index card Anil distributes, and give it to your TA. That will get you credit.
  • If you canNOT attend the showing, you must obtain the film on your own and watch it. In some cases (namely if UCSB, the prof, or a TA has a copy) a copy may be placed on 24 hour reserve at the library. This may be a VHS copy, however (Amistad is).
    • You should show your TA a copy of your class or work schedule that shows that you have a conflict. (We really prefer that you attend the showing if possible.)
    • You must type and submit to your TA: a 1-page (ca. 250-300 word) answer to the question: How have the concepts presented in the course helped me to understand the film? Or: How does the film reflect the concepts taught in the course?
    • You must do this within one week of the official showing time and get the card to your TA in section or lecture. (Do not come with a bunch of cards at the end of the quarter!)
  • Finally, if you know any films that you'd like to suggest, please e-mail the prof or ask your TA to pass on the suggestion. Thanks!
• June 25, 2008: I've started a World History Feature Films page.

1. .

Links to interesting web sites (back to top)

• 7/13/04: The on-line journal World History Connected (homepage) has some excellent articles for teachers. Next time I teach this course I'm going to start the course by discussing this June 2004 article about the fundmental approaches found in world history textbooks: Tom Laichas, "History and the Textbooks". I think it lays out very clearly one of my goals for this college-level required introduction to the discipline of history, namely to help us recognize our underlying assumptions in the ways we conceive of our world. We are not teaching The Truth, but how to find principles that can guide our understanding about how and why things happen, then and now. It would be fun to have each TA's sections take one of my EIEIO/C causes (see L1 outline) and make arguments for it as the writing assignment.
  By the way, I find that William Everdell's article "How To Use the Theme Of Technology in Teaching the World History Survey Course" offers some insightful new approaches for examining some of the tried-and-true events of world history.
• Sept. 29, 2004: I found an interesting and very comprehensive teaching site developed since 1999 by Alexander Ganse, a German historian teaching World History at an elite school in South Korea, "World History at KMLA" (Korean Minjok Leadership Academy) hosted by the Center for Instructional Media (ZUM) in Germany. It is in English, and especially the links seem to be excellent and unique (that is, not the usual top 3 google results).
• Oct. 2, 2004: Well-designed lesson plan about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, at newzcrew.org, which is run by Global Kids and NewsHour Extra. Global Kids is a New York City-based educational organization that supports urban youth to become global citizens and community leaders. NewsHour Extra is the student section of the Online NewsHour, the Web site for PBS's daily news broadcast, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
• Jan 7, 2005: World History Connected (homepage) has an excellent newsletter with many interesting articles. See, for instance, this 2004 special issue on Africa, and the index of issues.
• Internet Global History Sourcebook (by Paul Halsall at Fordham U.)(texts and links; scroll down to "Contents") (see also the multimedia section--includes music)
• Center for History and New Media at George Mason University has a "World History Sources" page with annotated links, essays about primary source genres, and sample case studies.

Grading issues (back to top)

Please note that we grade YOUR WORK, not you.
If you feel that the grade you received on an assignment, exam or paper does not correspond to the quality of work that you submitted, you must first meet with your TA.
No grading reassessments will be done before 24 hours have elapsed since the work was returned to you, nor after two weeks after the work was returned.
If you are within that window of time, you can:

1. EITHER: Print out, complete, and submit this Universal Grade Change Application Form.;-)
2. OR: Write a page (or paragraph, whatever it takes) explaining WHY you think your work is better than the grade assigned to it. Please refer to the appropriate assignment sheet, and make sure you fulfilled the formal requirements of the assignment.
   1. Then resubmit the work in question with your explanation to the TA.
   2. If you are not satisfied with that reevaluation, please ask your TA to date and sign your explanation sheet, and then submit it and ALL of your work for this course to me (I need everything so that I will have the comparable knowledge of your work as your TA). I will assess your work for the course and the assignment in question, and get back to you.
   3. Note that I may lower your grade as well as raise it.
   4. Finally, be sure to put some contact address on your explanation sheet, so that I can be in touch with you

• Here is the overall grade distribution for Spring 2003 (107 students):
  

  total #: 108	B+    29	C+   8	D+    0	F       2
  A      7	B      19	C     7	D      0	withdraw/incomplete: 0
  A-   23	B-    13	C-   0	D-     0	mean grade: 86.2
  28% As	56% Bs	14% Cs

• Here is the overall grade distribution for Spring 2006:
  

  total #: 227	B+    26	C+   20	D+    1	F     6
  A     19	B      61	C       8	D      1	withdraw/incomplete: 3
  A-   37	B-    39	C-     8	D-     1	mean grade: 85.0 (w/o Fs)
  25% As	56% Bs	16% Cs	1% Ds

• Here is the overall grade distribution for Spring 2008 (468 total students):
  

  A+     8	B+    59	C+   30	D+    4	F     9
  A     51	B     117	C     36	D      2	withdraw/incomplete: 2
  A-   77	B-     68	C-     5	D-     0	mean grade: 85.4 (w/o Fs)
  29% got As	52% got Bs	15% Cs	1% Ds

• Here is the grade distribution for Fall 2009 (255 total students):
  

  A+     2	B+    28	C+   18	D+    2	F     3 + NP   4 = 7
  A     32	B      48	C     14	D      2	withdraw/incomplete: 0
  A-   41	B-     38	C-     4	D-     0	mean grade: 85.6 (w/o Fs)
  30% got As	46% got Bs	15% Cs	2% Ds	18 "Pass" = 7%

Old Announcements (back to top)

• 9/28/04: After seeing the film Outfoxed (official Outfoxed site) about how the Fox "News" network systematically obfuscates opinion and fact, I think historians need to focus more than ever on teaching students how to assess the reliability and relevance of their sources. This is a step that would precede the interpretation of primary source material, which many World History courses (and the notorious DBQ) emphasize. 11/10/05: here are some good sites:
  • UC Berkeley library: Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask (detailed how-to guidelines and explanations)
  • New Mexico State library's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources" page has 5 Evaluation Criteria (checklist with brief rationale).
• June 10, 2008: Sample papers page with 4 prizewinning papers now available, and (finally) the results of the midterm survey.
• Sept. 3, 2008: Now some bloglike thoughts on how to restructure the course the next time I teach it. Number 1: refuse to teach it in Campbell Hall. The entertainment venue is not at all conducive to the more demanding, less entertaining way I conceive of my courses, as the comments on the student evals (and RateMyProfessor) bear out. [scan ESCI form when it resurfaces]
  • Inspired by UC Berkeley prof Richard Muller's Physics 10 course and new book, Physics for Future Presidents (UCB Aug. 2008 press release; $18 at amazon; 26 lectures on Youtube), I could reconceive this course as "What every world leader should know about [world] history." That would put a very different spin on the selection of lecture topics, and their content.
  • CHNM's world history sources pages has oodles of annotated & reviewed websites, like this one on Cook's voyages.
• Sept 2009
  • We will be using a GauchoSpace course website for this class.
• 9/24/09, 7am, updated 5pm: "Crashing" Hist 2c. There is very little chance that this will be possible. If you want to try anyway, here's what to do:
  1. sign in at the first lecture on 9/29, as attendance at lecture is the first prerequisite of getting on ANY waitlist
  2. go to a specific section that you want to crash, and put your name on a waitlist there.
  • You must go to ALL sections you want to crash. Exception: if the same TA teaches multiple of your chosen ones, ask him/her to add your name to another list as well.
    You can check which TA teaches which section in the table on p. 3 of the syllabus. No need to or benefit from contacting them in advance.
  • Bring documentation of priority reasons. I have asked TAs to consider, in order:
    1. students who were once enrolled in this course and were dropped because financial aid came through too late (applies for any section, not just the original).
    2. History majors, or majors in dept's that require this course (bring a transcript printout that shows your declared major)
    3. Seniors in majors (like bio or engineering) that have so many prerequisites that they could not have taken GE courses in their first years at UCSB
    4. Students with other valid, documented reasons why they must take this course THIS QUARTER. (2A and B are offered in W, 2C in Spring, by Prof. Spickard, who's more fun than I am)
• Sept. 26, 2009: The first film in the extra credit film series (see syllabus p. 3) will be:
  • Paradise Now (2005), 90 mins. It will screen at 7pm on Wed. Oct. 5 in the MCC theater. (preview on Netflix: it's about 2 suicide bombers assigned to Tel Aviv)
  • I'm also starting World History Links and World History Books pages to archive materialsI come across and want to include in future topical pages.
• 10/12/09:
  • Extra credit film policy (we don't have a regular time yet): you MUST attend the screening in order to receive credit, unless you have a documented class or work conflict. The prof will try to put the films on reserve for those with conflicts, and others are free to watch them but won't receive credit. Index cards must be given to your TA within one week.
  • Extra credit for attendance of Oct. 14 teach-in events (schedule): 1pt for a 1/2 - 1 page summary description of the event, including what you learned from it. This would count as one of the films (3 total for credit).
• 11/3/09:
  • And here is the Family History Essay handout (1 page pdf).
• 11/24/09: Essay due date extension, request for survey, final exam date
  Before you leave for Thanksgiving break, a few announcements:
1. After consulting with the TAs, we decided that it would be ok to extend the paper due date until Thursday, Dec. 3 (8am), so you have more time to write after Thanksgiving break
2. Also, I have a survey I'd like you to take. The 15 questions (3 multiple checkbox and 12 single answer "radio button") takes less than a minute to complete. It is anonymous, and I appreciate your candid answers.
   Please do respond, this is valuable information for me. Here is the link: http://www.feedbackfarm.com/surveyengine/s.php?i=3e4
   After you finish, you'll see links to previous years' survey results. [2009 survey results]
• Jan. 17, 2010: Two universities in Bremen, Germany, have teamed up to offer an English-language M.A. program in Modern Global History. Their program page outlines the program's core themes is slightly greater detail; its emphasis is on the post-1850 period. (for 200w)
  • Comparing Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Jared Diamond's 2005 article "One Island, Two Worlds," excerpted from his book Collapse, seems particularly timely now that the world is focused on Haiti's poverty after the huge earthquake there. (from The Globalist)
• Jan. 30, 2011: Since they are so buried on this site, I've added links to some of the special" online features of this course to the navbar above: transcript of 2008 chat review session; 7 page pdf of all 2009 Clicker Questions (with results and some interpretation); 2009 survery results page, with links to previous surveys at bottom.
  See also this 9/4/2011 Chronicle of Higher Ed article on clickers and cheating: "With Cheating Only a Click Away, Professors Reduce the Incentive: Handheld devices can answer a question—even if a student is home sleeping."
  When I redesign the site for Fall 2011, I'll have to figure out better places to put these.
• August 11, 2011: I've been thinking about this course as I pick my textbook, and have some links to add:
• "The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science" by Chris Mooney, in the May 2011 edition of Mother Jones magazine. Mooney lays out the neuroscience behind why people tend not to change their opinions even in the face of massive evidence to the contrary. I think this would be a great introductory reading for a discussion of controversial historical explanations and the use and value of evidence.
  A short 2-page excerpt was published in The Week on May 20, 2011: "Made-Up Minds: Since political beliefs are rooted in emotion, the Facts are often irrelevant." (scanned pdf version). The original has more examples and links to the actual studies.
• "Why We Have College" by Louis Menand in the June 6, 2011 issue of the New Yorker. Menand discusses several answers to why we have colleges: they are "meritocratic" (college sorts students according to ability, assigning a score--GPA--useful to future employers), or "democratic" (deliver knowledge and skills to make better citizens), or "vocational" (providing specialized skills and knowledge needed for skilled work). (scanned pdf)
  The article discusses this 2008 article by "Professor X" in The Atlantic: "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower," a sarcastic but thought-provoking gloss that the anonymous author turned into a padded book of the same title in 2011. He argues that many college students should not be in or should not have to go to college.
• Textbook. After reviewing quite a few textbooks during a graduate seminar on the teaching of the World History survey, I narrowed it down to 2 choices:
  • Tignor, Adelman, et al's Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (Norton, 3rd ed. 2011) (WTWA), and
  • Robert Strayer, Ways of the World (Bedford, 2011).
  I used the 1st and 2nd edtions of WTWA before, and tried Judge/Langdon, Connections (Pearson, 2009, 2nd 2012) the last time I taught this course--to about 470 undergraduates at a large public research university. Although the new edition of WTWA is much shortened and improved even over its excellent predecessors, this time I decided to try Strayer before possibly going back to it. Here are some reasons:
  • Strayer is slightly more thematic, and I like the "big picture" section introductions. His themes cut across longer stretches of time, giving them and their evolution more emphasis with less attention to disjointing chronology.
    The chapter themes also work better with the "EIEIO" model of causality that I use (comparable to the "PERSIA-T" and "SPRITE" mnemonics): 17 ideology, 18 economics, 19 elites, 20 international.
  • While Strayer does devote somewhat more space to Europe, he addresses this issue head-on at the outset of part 5, making it a very "teachable moment."
  • I've decided to use Strayer's Brief Global History with Sources edition, which will give TAs a weekly body of primary material to work with in section, and I can focus my photocopied reader on secondary texts
  • In my 10-week quarter I cover 9 chapters (340 pages 8.5x11") of WTWA, 8 chapters (408 pages 6.5x9"), so that the latter works better subtracting for introductory and exam weeks.
  • Not only is UCSB's world history survey a prime General Education course with many students taking it mainly because it fulfills multiple requirements, I'm also teaching the course in Fall quarter, which enrolls the largest proportion of incoming freshmen. The lower text density (24,600 vs. 31,800 sq.in.--admittedly a very rough measure, given illustrations, maps, font size, line spacing etc.) makes for smoother reading for this audience, giving me more space for non-textbook readings.
  • While the ancillaries and websites are comparable, as are the various marginal/caption/heading aids in the book, I find the in-text questions more specific and thus accessible in Strayer. For example:
    WTWA p. 580: How did the industrial revolution reorder society?
    Strayer p. 827: In what respects did the roots of the Industrial Revolution lie within Europe? In what ways did that transformation have global roots?
    830: What was distinctive about Britain that may help to explain its status as the breakthrough point of the Industrial Revolution?
    833: How did the Industrial Revolution transform British society? ...
    849: Did Latin America follow or diverge from the historical path of Europe during the 19th century?
• Aug. 17/Sept. 8, 2011: How to "crash"--enroll in this course now that it is full.
  On August 18 Hist 2c filled up and was CLOSED, which means that no one can enroll without a code from an instructor. Thus any space opening up because of someone disenrolling from the course will remain open.
  An electronic waiting list has been started at https://waitlist.ucsb.edu/. According to department policy, we will use this waitlist to prioritize enrollment. Note that enroll codes will be given out ONLY IN PARTICULAR DISCUSSION SECTIONS with open spaces.
  Thus students at the top of the electronic waitlist who attend a discussion section with open spaces have the best chance of getting into the course. Sections times are all day Monday (8am-7pm), Tuesday 11am-7pm, and five on Wednesday (mostly mornings).
  Thus: put your name on the waitlist ASAP!!
  Sincerely,
  Prof. Marcuse
  (On Aug. 25 five spaces had opened up and 12 names were on the waiting list;
  update Sept. 8: Still only 5 spaces open.)
  
• Now to complicate things: If it is possible to do prioritizing within the waitlist, we will try to accommodate the following reasons, BUT ONLY IF WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED:
1. Documented attendance at the first lectures (on sign-in sheet)
2. Students who were once enrolled in this course and were dropped because financial aid came through too late (applies primarily for the original section; I have a course list from Aug. 23 to confirm).
3. History majors, or (pre-)majors in departments that require this course (bring a transcript printout that shows your declared major and courses you have taken)
4. Seniors in majors (like bio or engineering) with so many prerequisites that they could not have taken GE courses in their first years at UCSB (again: transcript needed)
5. Students with other valid, documented reasons why they must take this course THIS QUARTER. (2A and B are offered in W'12, 2C again in Spring by Prof. Bergstom)
• Sept. 20, 2011: update: about 45 spaces available, 74 on the waitlist
  TA section schedule (who is my TA?): jpg, pdf. 2011 Syllabus (corrected 9/26/11)
• Sept. 22, 2011: Here some updates on crashing before I leave for a conference over the weekend (no more updates til Monday): 53 spaces available; 87 names on the electronic waitlist as of 8:30am today; 51 of them also signed in to document lecture attendance. All of them get top priority for adding. Here are two screenshots of the list: nos. 1-52; 53-87. See info below if you still want to crash.
  • PDF of Lecture 1 (17 slides on 3 pages; note last page summarizes assignment)
  • An honors section WILL happen as Hist 99 for Freshmen & Sophs ONLY. More info next week. Meets Wed. 2-3 in HSSB 4080. Need "B" grade for honors credit. Only room for 15, sorry in advance.