HIST 106 THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD, 2 SPRING 2011
Boğaziçi University Department of History
Coordinator: Noémi Lévy Aksu
Office hours: Monday, 14.00-15.00 and by appointment
Teaching Assistants:
Sinem Erdoğan sinem.erdogan@boun.edu.tr (Head TA)
Kerim Kartal qerimqartal@yahoo.com
Tanya Lawrence
Orçun Okan orcun.okan@boun.edu.tr
Ayşe Esra Şirin ayseesrasirin@gmail.com
Gizem Tongo gizemtongo@yahoo.com
Lectures: MWF 4, GKM
Discussion sessions: Fridays
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 later 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.
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 readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library website (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves). 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: 45%
Pop quizzes, attendance and participation in discussion sessions 15%
