This seminar offers an exploration of some of the most recent developments in world history with discussions about the latest research in big, early-modern and modern world history. The seminar will consist of three biweekly tutorials.
Timetable
Semester I and II, see timetables.
Method of Instruction
Literature Seminar; attendance is compulsory ( see the rules and regulations of the Department of History, art. 2).
Course objectives
Students will acquire a profound understanding of scholarly discussions in the history of European expansion and globalisation. This in turn will serve as a basis for other courses within the MA specialisation. A number of important new works will be read which students are expected to have studied prior to the session in which they are discussed.
Required reading
Week 1: Information and course overview
Week 3: Big Histories
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005)
Robert McNeill and William H. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003)
Week 5: Early-Modern Worldhistories
Tomothy Brook, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2007).
Harold Cook, Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).
Week 7: Modern Worldhistories
Chris Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (London: Blackwell 2004)
John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire since 1405 (London: Penguin 2007).
Examination
This course is assessed by the students overall performance during the seminar. Students must be present at all three tutorials in order to receive a passing grade. Grades will be based on a short essay that reflects on all the readings (50%), as well as the students’ presentations and participation during the tutorials (50%).
Overview
Apart from the introductory meeting, each biweekly tutorial will consist of presentations by students (circa 10 minutes) in which they are expected to critically analyze one of the required books for that week. Presentations will be followed by a short reaction by one or two commentators and the tutor, who will touch upon structural issues (such as presentation) as well as content. Thereafter the discussion will be opened to the group. All students are expected to study the required literature for that week and write a short report on its strengths and weaknesses. Book reports must be handed in by e-mail 2 days before the start of each tutorial.