Contemporary World: Historical Perspectives

Catalog description

The purpose of a world history course is to encourage students to think more coherently, systematically, and comparatively about the past. This course focuses on change and continuity within and across major regions of the world and between the modern and contemporary historical periods. We will make comparisons and connections to see how developments in different parts of the world affected one another. We will investigate causality to understand multiple causes of complex events in the recent past. We will investigate contingency, to see that historical outcomes in the 20th century are deeply interconnected with developments in the modern era and are not pre-determined. And we will learn context, to situate people, events, and sources in time and place. Several big picture questions will provide students with a better sense of the contemporary world and their place in it. Questions include: In what ways did the global world of the 18th and 19th century shape the patterns of change in the 20th century and beyond? Does the century since 1914 represent a separate phase of world history? What are the key continuities and transformations? How are ideologies such as nationalism, anti-imperialism, authoritarianism and neoliberalism interrelated and how have they influenced the present day? What have been the benefits and costs of the spread of industrial capitalism across much of the world? How has globalization promoted common values and interests, and an increasingly common material culture across the world, and how has it increased conflicts? Pre-requisite(s): HIS 150 .