THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD (HIST 105-106)
HIST 106: The Making of the Modern World II, Spring 2009
Coordinator: Ahmet Ersoy
e-mail: ersoya@boun.edu.tr
Office hours: Tuesdays 13:30-15:00, TB 512
Teaching Assistants: Seren Akyoldaş (Head T.A.): hist106@boun.edu.tr
Ceren Abi, Ümit Fırat Açıkgöz, Melek Cevahiroğlu
Lectures: MWF 4, GKM
Discussion sessions: Fridays, Kuzey Park, hours TBA
Blog: hist106-2009spring.blogspot.com
Course Description:
The Making of the Modern World (Hist 105; Hist 106) is a two-semester elective course providing a thematic history of the world from ancient to modern times. The course surveys the major patterns and events of human activity from a global perspective within a broad chronological framework, while familiarizing students with interactions, parallelisms, and incongruities in the historical and cultural patterns of diverse societies and civilizations. The course aims to develop an understanding of modes and patterns of historical change, and provides a perspective on the complex ways in which the legacy of the past shapes our present.
Hist 106 explores the paths of specific historical change in the early modern and modern periods in different regions of the world, covering the period between the 15th and the early 20th centuries. Therefore the course is as much about the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe as about culture and society in the early modern Middle East; as much about transformations in European feudalism as about the methods of rule of East Asian polities; as much about the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 in Europe as about the transformation of Ottoman political power in relation to the Habsburg and Russian empires. Issues regarding political, cultural, ideological and institutional structures and transformations that ushered in the modern era are discussed, as well as aspects of daily life and material culture. Connections and interactions across spatial and cultural divides remain a focus throughout the survey.
Format:
Hist 106 is team-taught by members of the History Department. Lectures of each week will be followed by one-hour discussion sessions led by the teaching assistants on Fridays.
There are two types of reading for the course. Two textbooks [P.N. Stearns, M. Adas, S.B. Schwartz, M.H. Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 2007), and C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (Oxford, 2004)], provide an introduction and background to the topics to be covered in the lectures. The primary source readings for each week introduce a set of particular issues and themes directly related to the lecture topics. The Friday sections with the teaching assistants will be devoted in part to the in-depth discussion and interpretation of the primary sources, and in part to the discussion of the main themes and issues of the week. Four historical movies or documentaries related to course themes will be screened through the semester.
It is highly important that you participate fully in the course by attending the lectures, doing the readings (preferably before lectures, certainly before the Friday discussion hours), and partaking in the discussions led by the teaching assistants.
All required readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves). Also included in the library reserves are additional sections from Bayly’s The Birth of the Modern World which are listed as supplementary readings. These are not required readings but are only included as supplementary material for students with special interest in certain topics. Stearns, et. al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience is also available in the Boğaziçi University Bookstore. Lecture outlines and course announcements will be posted on the course website.
Requirements: (There are no pre-requisites for Hist 106)
Mid-term exam: 40%
Final exam: 50%
Attendance and participation in discussion sessions: 10%
HIST 106 THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD II SPRING 2009
18 February W Introduction (Ersoy)
A.) DISCOVERIES AND EXPANSION
20 February F European Expansion in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans (Terzibaşoğlu)
Reading: P.N. Stearns, M. Adas, S.B. Schwartz, M.H. Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 2007), pp. 434-448.
23 February M Ottoman Expansion and the East-West Trade (Terzioğlu)
B.) RELIGION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA
25 February W The Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe (Kafescioğlu)
27 February F The Reformation and Counter Reformation: Change in Society and Culture (Kafescioğlu)
Discussion : Discoveries and Global Expansion
Readings and sources: Stearns, Chapter 21 (pp. 458-477); pp. 514-531 (from ch. 24); and pp. 569-576 (from ch. 26)
Francis Drake, Voyages, 1580
Paul Lunde, “Piri Reis and the Columbus Map,” and “A Muslim Discovery of the New World.”
2 March M Society and Culture in the Early Modern Near East (Kafescioğlu)
C.) THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM: STATE-BUILDING AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS
4 March W Film: Florence
6 March F The Power of the Prince: The Renaissance State (Kafescioğlu)
Discussion: The Court and the City
Readings and sources: Stearns, pp. 438-442 (from ch. 20); and pp. 478-486 (from ch. 22)
Castiglione, from The Book of the Courtier
Mustafa Ali, from The Tables of Delicacies
9 March M The Power of the Prince: States in the Post-Mongol Middle East (Terzioğlu)
11 March W Ottoman Absolutism and its Limits (Terzioğlu)
13 March F The Ming Bureaucratic Empire in China and Tokugawa Centralized Feudal Order in Japan (Togan)
Discussion: Mirrors for Princes
Readings and sources: Stearns, Chapter 26 (pp. 566-590); and pp. 601-612 (from ch. 27)
Machiavelli, from The Prince, pp. 16-19; and 67-71 [parts IV and IX]
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, Chapter 1, pp. 27-48.
Film: The Merchant of Venice
16 March M Absolutism at its Peak: France Under Louis XIV (Terzioğlu)
18 March W Absolutism Challenged: The English Revolution (Terzioğlu)
D.) REASON AND REVOLUTION
20 March F Scientific Revolution: from the Renaissance to Newton (Girardelli)
Discussion: Critique of Absolutism
Readings and sources: Stearns, Chapter 22 (pp. 478-496); and Bayly, pp. 49-55.
Voltaire, from A Philosophical Dictionary
Montesqieu, from The Spirit of Laws
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, chapter 2
23 March M The European Enlightenment (Girardelli)
25 March W An Enlightenment Experiment: The American Revolution (Mazzari)
27 March F Destroying the Ancien Régime: The French Revolution (Girardelli)
Discussion: Enlightenment and Revolution
Readings and sources: Stearns, Chapter 28 (pp. 622-646), and Bayly, pp. 86-100.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Rousseau, from The Social Contract
Diderot and d’Alembert, trom The Encyclopédie: “Philosophe”
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, chapter 3
Film: Danton
E.) AGE OF CAPITALISM
30 March M Transition to Capitalism: Agricultural Origins (Terzibaşoğlu)
1 April W Diverging Paths: Mercantilism versus Free Trade (Terzibaşoğlu)
3 April F The Industrial Revolution (Terzibaşoğlu)
Discussion: Social Transformations in the Age of Capitalism
Readings and Sources: Bayly, pp. 114-120; pp. 125-138; and pp. 155-160; and Review Stearns, pp. 631-639.
Friedrich Engels, “Industrial Manchester”
6 April M Colonialism and Imperialism: A Project for World Domination (Terzibaşoğlu)
8 April W MIDTERM EXAM
10 April F Society Transformed: Peasants, Workers, Consumers and Capitalists (Terzibaşoğlu)
Discussion: Colonialism and Imperialism
Readings and sources: Stearns, Chapter 29 (pp. 648-671); and Bayly, pp. 170-188.
John Hobson, “Imperialism”
Joseph Conrad, from The Heart of Darkness
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, pp. 227-233.
13 April M Romanticism and the Rise of History (Ersoy)
F.) STATES AND NATIONS
15 April W Nations and Nationalism in Europe (Karakışla)
17 April F Towards a Europe of Nations and Latecomers (Karakışla)
Discussion: Perspectives on the Nation
Readings and sources: Bayly, pp. 199-212; and pp. 218-227.
Renan, What is a Nation?
20 April M Old Empires, the Struggle for Survival: Romanovs, Ottomans, and Habsburgs (Ersoy)
22 April W 19th Century Ottoman Transformations (Ersoy)
24 April F 19th Century Russian Transformations (Karakışla)
Discussion: Late Ottoman Politics of Identity
Readings and sources: Stearns, pp. 700-714 (ch. 31); pp.724-732 (ch. 32); Bayly, pp. 212-218
From the Gülhane Edict.
Ahmed Midhat, from The Basis of Reform
4 May M Reform as Resistance: Meiji Modernity and Japan’s Asian Empire (Aoki Girardelli)
G.) REVOLUTION, WAR AND MODERNITY
6 May W Revolution and Nationalism in China (Togan)
8 May F Women, Power and Modernity: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Öztürkmen)
Discussion: Reform and Revolution: Westernism versus Asianism
Readings and Sources: Stearns, pp. 714-722 (ch.31); pp. 735-743 (ch. 32); and Bayly, pp. 395-402.
Fukuzawa Yukichi, (1835-1901) Civilization and Enlightenment, pp. 705-707.
Amur Society (Black Dragons) Anniversary Statement, 1930, pp. 951-953.
Liang Ch’i-Ch’ao, (1873-1929) A People Made New, pp. 755-759.
Sun Yat-Sen, (1866-1925), The Three Principles, pp.767-771.
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, Chapter 11.
11 May M The Great War (Karakışla)
13 May W The Russian Revolution (Karakışla)
15 May F The End of Empires (Karakışla)
Discussion: War and Revolution
Readings and sources: Stearns, pp. 724-735 (from ch. 32); and Chapter 33 (pp. 754-780).
Private Barkley’s Journal
Lenin, “Our Programme”
Woodrow Wilson, “Fourteen Points”
Supplementary Reading: Bayly, Chapter 13
Film: All Quiet on the Western Front
18 May M The Dawn of a New Age: Culture and Modernity (Girardelli)
20 May W Anti-colonialism and Orientalism (Ersoy)
22 May F Overview (Ersoy)
Discussion: Review
Readings: Stearns, pp. 746-753 (from Part VI); pp. 782-787 (from ch. 34); and pp. 831-839 (from ch. 35)
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