US History Survey Class: Coventry University 2011-2012

5 07 2011

In the next academic year, I will be teaching a class that surveys American history from 1776 to the present. The course code here at Coventry University is ISS 270.

While the module will be organised along broadly chronological lines, emphasis will be placed on addressing those general themes that have been important in the shaping of modern North America. The major themes of this module are: political change and institutions; key leaders; war and diplomacy; economic and social development. The primary focus of the module is the history of the United States. However, consideration will also be given to the histories of the other nations of North America: Canada, Québec, and Mexico.

The overarching theme or narrative of this module is the rise of the United States from a small confederation of agrarian republics into a coherent nation-state capable of projecting military, economic, and cultural power into all corners of the globe. All of the lectures and most of the seminar readings will be connected to this theme in some way or the other.

Intended Module Learning Outcomes

The intended learning outcomes are that on completion of this module the student should be able to:

1. Identify the events and ideas which have shaped the political, economic, and cultural history of the United States.

2. Explain the processes by which the United States went from a small agrarian republic to a global superpower.

3. Assess the nature of the political system and the ideas and issues which dominated American politics between 1776 and 2000.

4. Understand the relations between the United States and its two neighbouring countries, Canada and Mexico.

5. Understand the complex and multicultural nature of the American population.

Module Organisation and List of Lectures and Seminars

Your responsibilities each week will include completing the following readings before the seminar.  The seminars last just fifty minutes, but you can expect to spend up to 4 hours each week preparing for them. In a typical week, you will read the assigned pages in the textbook by David Reynolds and a primary source and you will listen to a podcast.

Please note that the page numbers refer to the paperback version of the textbook by Reynolds.

The podcasts have been taken from http://backstoryradio.org and http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/index.php

In addition, you are expected to follow and read the Disunion Blog on the New York Times website. Ten minutes of each seminar will be set aside to discussing the posts of the previous seven days on Disunion. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/

Autumn Term

Week Subject Readings For Seminar
1 Intro to Module
 Please read course guide before seminar.
2 Colonisation of North America
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 3-55
Jill Lepore “King Philip’s War” http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=14
3 The American Revolution
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 56-92
Declaration of Independence, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp

Richard Ketchum “Divided Loyalties: The American Revolution in New York”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=588

4 The Federalist Era
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 93-120
The Bill of Rights, http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
 Washington`s Farewell Address: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp
5 Jefferson’s America
Hardt, Michael. 2007. “Jefferson and Democracy”. American Quarterly. 59, no. 1: 41-78.
Jefferson`s First Inaugural Address: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.aspPodcasts: Jefferson, Then and Now http://backstoryradio.org/jefferson-then-and-now/ and http://backstoryradio.org/jefferson-then-and-now-pt-2/
6 The War of 1812
Warren H. Goodman, “The Origins of the War of 1812: A Survey of Changing Interpretations” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review Vol. 28, No. 2 (Sep., 1941), pp. 171-186
Edward Ayers “Slavery and the Early American Economy”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=507
7 Andrew Jackson and the Second Two Party System
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 121-154
Podcast: Black & White: The Idea of Racial Purity  http://backstoryradio.org/black-and-white-americas-most-stubborn-color-line/
8 Mexico and Canada
Nelles, H V. 1997. “American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword”. The American Historical Review. 102, no. 3: 749.
Podcast: Borderlands and Bordered Lands http://backstoryradio.org/borderlands-and-bordered-lands/
9 The 1840s
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 155-182
Serving Time: A History of Punishment  http://backstoryradio.org/serving-time-a-history-of-punishment/
10 The 1850s and Road to Disunion
Theodore Power, The Slave Power
“The Slave Power“ pp. 248-287 and “Boston Kidnapping” 316-385,
http://www.archive.org/details/slavepower00park
The Dred Scott Decision: http://supreme.justia.com/us/60/393/case.html
11 The Civil War
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 185-217
First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp

Adam I.P. Smith “Politics in the Civil War North”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=33

12 Reconstruction
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 218-242
 Eric Foner “The Significance of Reconstruction” http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=73

Winter Term

Week Subject Readings For Seminar
1 The Gilded Age
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 243-271
 Beyond Numbers: A History of the U.S. Census  http://backstoryradio.org/the-meaning-of-numbers-a-history-of-the-u-s-census/
2 Indian Wars and the West
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 286-292
 Boyd, James P. Recent Indian Wars, Under the Lead of Sitting Bull, and Other Chiefs With a Full Account of the Messiah Craze, and Ghost Dances. [Philadelphia]: Publishers union, 1892
http://www.archive.org/details/recentindianwars00boydrich pp. 1-13, 129-152
3 Populism and Progressivism
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 272-301
Bryan`s Cross of Gold Speech, http://www.h-net.org/~hst203/documents/bryan.html Patricia Limerick “The American West: A Work in Progress” http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=587
4 Woodrow Wilson’s America
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 302-334
Gary Gerstle “The Progressive Era ”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=537
5 The 1920s
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 335-343
Podcast: Love Me Did: A History of Courtship http://backstoryradio.org/love-me-did-a-history-of-courtship/
6 The Depression and the New Deal
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 343-351
 Podcast: Looking for Work: A History of Unemployment http://backstoryradio.org/looking-for-work-a-history-of-unemployment/
Herbert Hoover`s Inaugural Address: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hoover.asp
7 The Second World War
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 351-372
 FDR`s Third and Fourth Inaugural Addresses: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos3.asp and http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos4.asp
 David M. Kennedy “The Great Depression and WWII”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=13
8 The 1950s
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 375-407
Podcast (The Invention of) Traditional Family Values  http://backstoryradio.org/the-invention-of-traditional-family-values/ John Lewis Gaddis “The Origins of the Cold War”http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=315
9 The 1960s
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty,pages 408-462
 I have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr; August 28, 1963
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp
Jack Rakove “The Supreme Court and the Politics of Race” http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=539
10 The Age of Nixon
Reynolds, Empire of Liberty, pages 463-507
War Powers Resolution, 1973 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warpower.asp
John Prados “The Origins of the Vietnam War” http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=331
11 The Age of Reagan
Reynold, Empire of Liberty, pages 508-585
Paying Up: A History of Taxation http://backstoryradio.org/our-civic-duties-a-history-of-taxes/
12 Towards Continental Union ?
Francis Bedros, “Harmonization of Environmental Standards and Convergence of Environmental Policy in Canada: the NAFTA Context”  http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/nafta-alena/bedros.aspx?lang=en
NAFTA, http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=531
http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/

Key Textbook

Reynolds, D. America, Empire of Liberty: a New History. London, Penguin, 2010.ISBN: 9780141033679 0141033673. All students are encouraged to purchase this book. When ordering please verify the ISBN number to ensure that you are getting the paperback version of this book.  

 

 Research Essay.  2,000-words. Deadline: Deadline February 2012. Your essay will be based on sources in the university library. A list of available topics is listed below. Your bibliography should include least ten items, of which at least five must be primary sources and three must be scholarly (i.e., peer-reviewed) secondary sources. An online database of appropriate primary sources for each topic is identified below. The point of this exercise is to make students familiar with the use of primary sources. Working with primary sources is an essential part of being a historian. Primary sources provide first-hand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are researching. In general, these are documents that were created by the witnesses or first recorders of these events at about the time they occurred, and include diaries, letters, reports, photographs, creative works, financial records, memos, and newspaper articles (to name just a few types). As technology advanced, new types of primary source began to be created (e.g., recordings of radio programmes from the 1930s).
Essay Question Essential Primary Source
How were Anglo-American relations covered in The United States Democratic Review between 1837 and 1859? What sorts of biases were evident in this publication’s reporting on Britain and its leaders? http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/u/usde/index.html
What does the correspondence exchanged between President John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev say about the Cold War in the 1960s? http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v06/comp1
What do declassified CIA documents say about American attitudes to the European Union and Europeans? http://www.foia.cia.gov/search_options.asp
 How did the North American Review cover the issue of southern Reconstruction between 1865 and 1877? http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/n/nora/index.html
How did Harper’s New Monthly Magazine depict Mormons between 1851 and 1891? What do the articles about the Mormons say about this community`s relationship with the national government? http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/h/harp/index.html
What do the papers of Robert Lansing say about the decision of the United States to enter the First World War in 1917? http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS19141920v1
How did DeBow’s Review cover the Mexican-American War? Did the Southern States have a distinct perspective on this conflict? http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/browse.journals/debo.html
 What do the speeches in Congress made during the debate about California statehood say about how Americans conceived of their nation? http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcg.html
Analyse the “fireside chats” of President Franklin Roosevelt. What do they say about his Presidency? http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/fireside.php




History of Globalisation Course

4 07 2011

Next year, I will be delivering a module on the history of globalisation here at Coventry University. The module is aimed at first-year students in history and political science.The aim of this module is to introduce students to a range of social, economic and political themes in the history of globalisation. The module looks at global historical change from 1800 to the present. The emphasis is one three different types of globalisation: the globalisation of goods, the globalisation of ideas/culture, and the global migrations of peoples. The module will also discuss the history of global governance. The module will also introduce students to the ongoing scholarly debates about the history of globalisation. This module requires students to go further than mastering concrete historical facts about globalization and to engage with competing theories of globalisation.

Module Aims

 The intended learning outcomes are that, on successful completion of this module, a student should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an awareness of the major events in the history of globalisation and the scholarly debate over when globalisation actually began.

 

2. Evaluate the political, economic, and technological foundations or causes of globalisation. A student should be able to discuss the debate among historians about what causes globalisation.

3. Discuss the impact of globalisation on diverse countries and on diverse economic groups with societies.

4. Become more familiar with research methods in History and be able to do a document analysis of a primary source.

5. Demonstrate a broad understanding of some theoretical debates in relation to globalisation.

 


Assessment

The intended learning outcomes will be assessed with: Coursework 1 (50% – 10 credits) will comprise a documentary analysis, or equivalent, of 1,000 words (15% – 3 credits) which will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5’ and Coursework 2 a 2,000-word essay, or equivalent (35% – 7 credits), which will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5; a 2-hour unseen examination (50% – 10 credits) will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2 and 3. Re-assessment: Coursework component(s) and/or examination as appropriate.

 

Please note that no coursework will be marked until an identical electronic copy has also been submitted into the module web for a plagiarism check.

 

 

Coursework 1: Book Review Deadline: 4pm, Thursday, 27 October 2011.   Rodrik, Dani. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011.
Book reviews will be approximately 1,000 words (roughly 3-4 pages) in length. Although the book review is not due until November, you should buy the book immediately, since it may take some time to come through the mail. A précis of a book merely provides a descriptive summary of the book’s contents. A proper book review, on the other hand, involves going beyond mere description and requires the input of one’s own reasoned opinions. An essential feature of a good book review is the reviewer’s ability to write concisely so that a comprehensive evaluation of the book can be obtained from a brief reading. So, do not write more, write more concisely.  I shall penalize people who go over the set word limit.  
A book review in a Level One Module should answer the following questions: -What is the book’s purpose? What is the author’s central thesis or argument?
-Does the author prove his or her thesis? What sorts of arguments does he or she use?
-Who is the author? How might their personal or professional background have influenced this book in some way? -What sorts of sources did the author read in the course of researching and writing this book?  HINT: Read the footnotes and the bibliography.
-How is the book organized?
-Who would likely read such a book?
   

 

 

Coursework 2: Research Essay.  2,000-words. Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 16 February 2012.  
Your essay will be based on sources in the university library. A list of available topics is listed below. Your essay should be based on at least six scholarly sources.  I shall elaborate on my expectation for the essay in lecture.  
  1)      How did the advent of telecommunications encourage the development of multilateral institutions of global governance? 2)      What is the “gentlemanly capitalism thesis” and how does it advance our understanding of the British Empire’s role in global history?   3)      How has neoliberalism changed the world since 1978? 4)      How did people in Western Europe react to “Coca-colonization” after 1945? 5)      How much progress has been made towards the creation of customs unions in Latin America?    6)      How are the explanations for the Great Divergence provided by David Landes and Timur Kuran different from that offered by Ken Pomeranz? Which interpretation is most plausible? 7)      Was the economic impact of British rule in India positive or negative? 8)      What was the global ecological impact of the British Empire? 9)      Why were Jeremy Bentham and J.A. Hobson opposed to British imperialism? How were their arguments similar? How were they different? 10)  Europeans and Arabs used Africa as a source of slaves. What do the differences between the Atlantic and Arab slave trades say about the histories of globalisation and about the Great Divergence?  
 

 

Sources for these essay topics are as follows:

The following is not a comprehensive list of the sources needed to research each essay topic. Instead, I have decided to list just a few sources related to the topic that can serve as a point of departure for your own research in the library. In identifying additional sources for your essay, you should pay careful attention to the footnotes in the sources listed below.

 

Topic: How did the advent of telecommunications encourage the development of multilateral institutions of global governance?  Sources: Gorman, Daniel. “Freedom of the Ether or the Electromagnetic Commons?: Globality, the Public Interest, and the Multilateral Radio Negotiations in the 1920s and 1930s” in Empires and Autonomy: Moments in the History of Globalization, Steven Streeter, John Weaver, William Coleman, eds. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009), 138-156; Headrick, Daniel. “Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838-1939″ in Business History Review (Fall 2001)

 

 

Topic: What is the “gentlemanly capitalism thesis” and how does it advance our understanding of the British Empire’s role in global history?  Sources:  Webster, Anthony. The Debate on the Rise of the British Empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006; Daunton, M. J. State and Market in Victorian Britain: War, Welfare and Capitalism. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2008; Akita, Shigeru. Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism, and Global History. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

 

 

 

 

Topic: How has neoliberalism changed the world since 1978?  Sources: Jeong, Seongjin. “The Korean Developmental State: From Dirigisme to Neoliberalism.” Historical Materialism 17, no. 3 (September 2009): 244-257; Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005; Duménil, Gérard, and Dominique Lévy. The Crisis of Neoliberalism. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011; Silva, Eduardo. Challenging Neoliberalism in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009; Giroux, Henry A. “Beyond the biopolitics of disposability: rethinking neoliberalism in the New Gilded Age.” Social Identities 14, no. 5 (September 2008): 587-620.


Topic: How did people in Western Europe react to “Coca-colonization” after 1945? Sources: Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. London: William Heinemann, 2005;Berghahn, Volker R. 2010. “The debate on ‘Americanization’ among economic and cultural historians.” In Cold War History, 107-130; Schroter, Harm G. 2008. “Economic culture and its transfer: an overview of the Americanisation of the European economy, 1900-2005.” European Review of History 15, no. 4: 331-344;  Duignan, Peter, and Lewis H. Gann. The Rebirth of the West: The Americanization of the Democratic World, 1945-1958. Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 1992; Lundestad, Geir. Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998; Nixon, Sean. “Apostles of Americanization? J. Walter Thompson Company Ltd, Advertising and Anglo-American Relations 1945-67.” Contemporary British History 22, no. 4 (December 2008): 477-499; Hilger, Susanne. 2008. “‘Globalisation by Americanisation’: American companies and the internationalisation of German industry after the Second World War.” European Review of History 15, no. 4: 375-401; Gassert, Philipp. “The Anti-American as Americanizer: Revisiting the Anti-American Century in Germany.” German Politics & Society 27, no. 1 (April 30, 2009): 24-38.

 

Topic: How much progress has been made towards the creation of customs unions in Latin America?    Sources: Duina, Francesco G. The Social Construction of Free Trade: The European Union, NAFTA, and MERCOSUR. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006; Cambridge Review of International Affairs 18, no. 3 (October 2005): 421-436;  Gardini, Gian Luca. “Who Invented Mercosur?.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 18, no. 4 (December 2007): 805-830; Christensen, Steen Fryba. “The influence of nationalism in Mercosur and in South America — can the regional integration project survive?.” Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 50, no. 1 (July 2007): 139-158; Duina, Francesco. “Varieties of Regional Integration: The EU, NAFTA and Mercosur.” Journal of European Integration 28, no. 3 (July 2006): 247-275;   Drake, Paul W. Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800-2006. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2009

 

Topic: How are the explanations for the Great Divergence provided by David Landes and Timur Kuran different from that offered by Ken Pomeranz? Whose theory is most convincing?  Sources: Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000; Landes, David S. 2006. “Why Europe and the West? Why Not China?” The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 20, no. 2: 3-22;Horesh, Niv. “What Time Is the “Great Divergence”? And Why Economic Historians Think It Matters.” China Review International 16, no. 1 (March 2009): 18-32; Top of Form Vries, P. H. H. “Are Coal and Colonies Really Crucial? Kenneth Pomeranz and the Great Divergence(*).” Journal of World History 12, no. 2 (Fall2001 2001): 407; O’Brien, Patrick K. 2009. “The Needham Question Updated: A Historiographical Survey and Elaboration”. History of Technology. 29: 7; Kuran, Timur. 2004. “Why the Middle East Is Economically Underdeveloped: Historical Mechanisms of Institutional Stagnation”. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 18, no. 3: 71-90. 

Bottom of Form

 

 

Topic: Was the economic impact of British rule in India positive or negative? Sources: Subrahmanyam, Gita. “Ruling continuities: Colonial rule, social forces and path dependence in British India and Africa.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 44, no. 1 (March 2006): 66-92; Desai, Manali. “Indirect British Rule, State Formation, and Welfarism in Kerala, India,1860–1957.” Social Science History 29, no. 3 (Fall2005 2005): 457-488;  Rothermund, Dietmar. An Economic History of India From Pre-Colonial Times to 1991. London: Routledge, 1993;Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World. London: Verso, 2001; Washbrook, David. 2010. “Merchants, Markets, and Commerce in Early Modern South India.” Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient 53, no. 1/2: 266-289; Klein, Ira. “British Reforms, Commercial Agriculture, and Agrarian Distress in India.” Historian 70, no. 4 (Winter2008 2008): 732-752; Iyer L. 2010. “Direct Versus Indirect Colonial Rule in India: Long-Term Consequences”. Review of Economics and Statistics. 92, no. 4: 693-713.

 

Topic: What was the global ecological impact of the British Empire? Source: Beinart, William, and Lotte Hughes. Environment and Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007;

 

Topic: Why were Jeremy Bentham and J.A. Hobson opposed to British imperialism? How were their arguments similar? How were they different? Sources: Cain, Peter J. Hobson and Imperialism: Radicalism, New Liberalism, and Finance 1887 – 1938. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002; Porter, Bernard. Critics of Empire: British Radicals and the Imperial Challenge. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008

 

Topic:  Europeans and Arabs used Africa as a source of slaves. What do the differences between the Atlantic and Arab slave trades say about the histories of globalisation and about the Great Divergence? Sources: Black, Jeremy. The Slave Trade. London: Social Affairs Unit, 2006;Lydon, Ghislaine. “Islamic Legal Culture and Slave-Ownership Contests in Nineteenth-Century Sahara.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 40, no. 3 (October 2007): 391-439;  Ewald, Janet J. “Crossers of the Sea: Slaves, Freedmen, and Other Migrants in the Northwestern Indian Ocean, c. 1750-1914.” American Historical Review 105, no. 1 (February 2000): 69; Carter, Marina. 2006. “Slavery and Unfree Labour in the Indian Ocean”. History Compass. 4, no. 5: 800-813; Campbell, Gwyn. 2003. “Introduction: Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labour in the Indian Ocean World”. Slavery & Abolition. 24, no. 2: 9-32;Amin, Samir. 1997. “Trans-Saharan Exchange and the Black Slave Trade”. Diogenes. no. 179: 31; Allen, Richard B. “Satisfying the “Want for Labouring People”: European Slave Trading in the Indian Ocean, 1500-1850.” Journal of World History 21, no. 1 (March 2010): 45-73.

 

List of Lectures and Readings for Weekly Seminars

Autumn Term

 

Week lecture seminar readings
1 What is Global History?
seminar theme:  what is global history?
Robertson, Roland. “The New Global History: History in a Global Age.” Cultural Values 2, no. 2/3 (April 1998): 368.
Scheuerman, William, “Globalization”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/globalization
   
 
2 The Great Divergence
seminar theme: the great divergence
O’Brien, Patrick, 2010. “A conjuncture in global history or an Anglo-American construct: the British Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850,” 5Journal of Global History: 503-509.  

van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2008. “The road to the Industrial Revolution: hypotheses and conjectures about the medieval origins of the European Miracle,” 3 Journal of Global History: 337-359.  

The long divergence : how Islamic law held back the Middle East http://youtu.be/0ZqiUc4MtKU

 
 
 
3 The Golden Age of the Dutch Economy
Seminar Theme: Antecedents of  Globalisation
De Vries, Jan, “The Limits of Globalization in the Early Modern World” The Economic History Review, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 710-733.

Ronald Findlay and Mats Lundahl, “The First Globalization Episode: The Creation of the Mongol Empire, or the Economics of Chinggis Khan” http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/mongol.pdf  

 
 
 
     
4 Empire and Globalisation  Seminar Theme: Why were Large Empires Formed?

Adas, Michael, 2009. “Reconsidering the macro-narrative in global history: John Darwin’s After Tamerlane and the case for comparison,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(01), pages 163-173, March.  
  Ferguson, Niall. “The Truth About Empire.” Harvard International Review 28 (2007): 74-77.  
Turchin, Peter, 2009. “A theory for formation of large empires,” 4 Journal of Global History:  191-217.  
 
 
5 The Enlightened Economy
seminar theme: knowledge and the great divergence
O’Brien, Patrick K. 2009. “The Needham Question Updated: A Historiographical Survey and Elaboration” History of Technology.    Hoffman, Philip T. 2011. “Prices, the Military Revolution, and Western Europe’s Comparative Advantage in Violence”. The Economic History Review. 64, no. s1.  
 
 
 
     
6 Free Trade seminar theme: early mncs

  Ann M. Carlos and Stephen Nicholas, “Giants of an Earlier Capitalism”: The Chartered Trading Companies as Modern Multinationals The Business History Review Vol. 62, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 398-419   Ann M. Carlos and Jamie Brown Kruse, “The Decline of the Royal African Company: Fringe Firms and the Role of the Charter” The Economic History Review New Series, Vol. 49, No. 2 (May, 1996), pp. 291-313
 
 
 
 
7 When WASPs Swarmed seminar theme: the anglo settler revolution  Cain, Peter J. 2010. “The Economics and Ideologies of Anglo-American Settlerism, 1780-1939.” Victorian Studies 53, no. 1: 100-107.  

Podcast: Environmental histories of settlement in Canada and New Zealand http://www.eh-resources.org/podcast/podcast2008.html

 
 
 
8 Tentacles of Progress
seminar theme: technology and empire
  Headrick, Daniel R. 2008. “Communication and Empire: Media, Markets, and Globalization, 1860-1930.” Business History Review 82, no. 1: 138-141.  
Bailes, Howard. “Technology and Imperialism: a Case Study of the Victorian Army in Africa” Victorian Studies 24, no. 1 (September 1980): 82  
“Technology – a Global History” David Edgerton http://www.history.ac.uk/podcasts/global-history/2010-03-03-david-edgerton
 
9 Culture and Empire
seminar theme:  globalisation of tradition  
 
Misra, Maria, 2008. “Colonial officers and gentlemen: the British Empire and the globalization of tradition,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(02), pages 135-161, July.  
 
 
10 Apogee of Empire
seminar theme: finances of  empire
Frankema, Ewout, 2010. “Raising revenue in the British empire, 1870-1940: how extractive were colonial taxes?,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(03), pages 447-477, November.      
 
 
 
11 Empire and the Environment  seminar theme: empire and environment

Owen, Roger, 2006. “The rapid growth of Egypt 1914, as an early example of the green revolutions of modern South Asia: some implications for the writing of global history,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(01), pages 81-99, March.  
 
Tvedt, Terje. “Hydrology and Empire: The Nile, Water Imperialism and the Partition of Africa” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 39.2 (2011).  Podcast: Biological invasions, culture and biodiversity in South Africa http://www.eh-resources.org/podcast/podcast2009.html
 
 

 

 

Winter Term

 

Week lecture Readings For Seminar
1 Backlash to Globalisation 
the british empire: a waste of money?
 Avner Offer, The British Empire, 1870-1914: A Waste of Money? The Economic History Review New Series, Vol. 46, No. 2 (May, 1993), pp. 215-238
Niall Ferguson, “British Imperialism Revisited: The Costs and Benefits of Anglobalization”.
 
 
2 Migrations
seminar theme: migration
McKeown, Adam, 2010. “Chinese emigration in global context, 1850-1940,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(01), pages 95-124, March.     Gozzini, Giovanni, 2006. “The global system of international migrations, 1900 and 2000: a comparative approach,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(03), pages 321-341, November.      
 
 
 
3 The First World War and Deglobalisation
seminar theme: impact of the first world war
 
Tomlinson, Jim. “The Deglobalisation of Dundee, c. 1900–2000” Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 29, no. 2 (November 2009): 123-140.
  Ferguson, Niall. “Sinking Globalization.” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 2 (March 2005): 64-77.
 
4 Restarting Globalisation seminar theme: post-1944 economic institutions  

 
Alacevich, Michele, 2011. “The World Bank and the politics of productivity: the debate on economic growth, poverty, and living standards in the 1950s,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(01), pages 53-74, March.    
 
 
   
5 The Rise of Regional Trading Blocks
seminar theme: regional trading  blocs
 
Hopkins, A. G. “The Historiography of Globalization and the Globalization of Regionalism.” Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient 53, no. 1/2 (March 2010): 19-36.  Duina, Francesco. “Varieties of Regional Integration: The EU, NAFTA and Mercosur.” Journal of European Integration 28, no. 3 (July 2006): 247-275;  
 
 
6 The Box That Changed the World
seminar theme:  impact of containerisation
 
Levinson, Marc. “Container Shipping and the Decline of New York, 1955–1975.” Business History Review 80 (2006): 49-80.    
 
 
7 Managing  MNCs
seminar theme: Americanisation
Schroter, Harm G. 2008. “Economic culture and its transfer: an overview of the Americanisation of the European economy, 1900-2005.” European Review of History 15, no. 4: 331-344; 
 
 
 
8 The Rise of Hollywood to Global Dominance seminar theme: varieties of capitalism

 
Wilkins, Mira. 2010. “Multinational Enterprises and the Varieties of Capitalism.” In Business History Review, 638-645. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 2010.
 
Berghahn, V. R. “Varieties of Capitalism in the “American Century.” In Business History Review, 661-663. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 2010.
 
9 The Bond Rating Agencies  
seminar theme: population policy
Connelly, Matthew, 2006. “To inherit the Earth. Imagining world population, from the yellow peril to the population bomb,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(03), pages 299-319, November.  

Frey, Marc, 2011. “Neo-Malthusianism and development: shifting interpretations of a contested paradigm,” Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(01), pages 75-97, March.    

 
 
 
10 The Politics of Oil
seminar theme: oil companies  
Bucheli, Marcelo. 2008. “The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1938.” Business History Review 82, no. 4: 878-880.
 
 
 
11 Neo-liberalism
seminar theme: free market ideology
   
 
Cahill, Damien. “Is Neoliberalism History?.” Social Alternatives 28, no. 1 (2009 First Quarter 2009): 12-16.
  “Trust – a Global History” Geoffrey Hosking http://www.history.ac.uk/podcasts/global-history/2010-02-24-geoffrey-hosking  
12 Conclusion seminar theme: history as a guide to the future

 
Jeff Rubin and Benjamin Tal, “Will Soaring Transport Costs Reverse Globalization?” http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/oil.pdf
 
Mack, Andrew.  Why Is Armed Conflict on the Wane? http://www.cato-unbound.org/archives/february-2011-the-great-peace-why-is-armed-conflict-on-the-wane/  
Pinker, Steven. A Brief History of Violence, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramBFRt1Uzk
     

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}

Normal
0
false

false
false
false

EN-GB
X-NONE
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;}
table.MsoTableGrid
{mso-style-name:”Table Grid”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-unhide:no;
border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-CA;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

Module Aims         The intended learning outcomes are that, on successful completion of this module, a student should be able to:   1. Demonstrate an awareness of the major events in the history of globalisation and the scholarly debate over when globalisation actually began.   2. Evaluate the political, economic, and technological foundations or causes of globalisation. A student should be able to discuss the debate among historians about what causes globalisation.   3. Discuss the impact of globalisation on diverse countries and on diverse economic groups with societies.   4. Become more familiar with research methods in History and be able to do a document analysis of a primary source.   5. Demonstrate a broad understanding of some theoretical debates in relation to globalisation.     The aim of this module is to introduce students to a range of social, economic and political themes in the history of globalisation. The module looks at global historical change from 1800 to the present. The emphasis is one three different types of globalisation: the globalisation of goods, the globalisation of ideas/culture, and the global migrations of peoples. The module will also discuss the history of global governance. The module will also introduce students to the ongoing scholarly debates about the history of globalisation. This module requires students to go further than mastering concrete historical facts about globalization. It asks them to think historically about their own lived experiences. The students should be able to evaluate debates over globalization and take a position in those debates by marshalling historical evidence. Ultimately, this class is designed to enable each student to see the historical and global connectedness of his or her own life.
  Assessment       The intended learning outcomes will be assessed with: Coursework 1 (50% – 10 credits) will comprise a documentary analysis, or equivalent, of 1,000 words (15% – 3 credits) which will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5’ and Coursework 2 a 2,000-word essay, or equivalent (35% – 7 credits), which will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5; a 2-hour unseen examination (50% – 10 credits) will summatively assess intended learning outcomes 1, 2 and 3. Re-assessment: Coursework component(s) and/or examination as appropriate.   Please note that no coursework will be marked until an identical electronic copy has also been submitted into the module web for a plagiarism check. order to pass the module.    

Coursework 1: Book Review Deadline: 4pm, Thursday, 27 October 2011.   Rodrik, Dani. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011.
Book reviews will be approximately 1,000 words (roughly 3-4 pages) in length. Although the book review is not due until November, you should buy the book immediately, since it may take some time to come through the mail. A précis of a book merely provides a descriptive summary of the book’s contents. A proper book review, on the other hand, involves going beyond mere description and requires the input of one’s own reasoned opinions. An essential feature of a good book review is the reviewer’s ability to write concisely so that a comprehensive evaluation of the book can be obtained from a brief reading. So, do not write more, write more concisely.  I shall penalize people who go over the set word limit.  
A book review in a Level One Module should answer the following questions: -What is the book’s purpose? What is the author’s central thesis or argument?
-Does the author prove his or her thesis? What sorts of arguments does he or she use?
-Who is the author? How might their personal or professional background have influenced this book in some way? -What sorts of sources did the author read in the course of researching and writing this book?  HINT: Read the footnotes and the bibliography.
-How is the book organized?
-Who would likely read such a book?
   

   

Coursework 2: Research Essay.  2,000-words. Deadline: 4pm, Thursday 16 February 2012.  
Your essay will be based on sources in the university library. A list of available topics is listed below. Your essay should be based on at least six scholarly sources.  I shall elaborate on my expectation for the essay in lecture.  
  1)      How did the advent of telecommunications encourage the development of multilateral institutions of global governance? 2)      What is the “gentlemanly capitalism thesis” and how does it advance our understanding of the British Empire’s role in global history?   3)      How has neoliberalism changed the world since 1978? 4)      How did people in Western Europe react to “Coca-colonization” after 1945? 5)      How much progress has been made towards the creation of customs unions in Latin America?    6)      How are the explanations for the Great Divergence provided by David Landes and Timur Kuran different from that offered by Ken Pomeranz? Which interpretation is most plausible? 7)      Was the economic impact of British rule in India positive or negative? 8)      What was the global ecological impact of the British Empire? 9)      Why were Jeremy Bentham and J.A. Hobson opposed to British imperialism? How were their arguments similar? How were they different? 10)  Europeans and Arabs used Africa as a source of slaves. What do the differences between the Atlantic and Arab slave trades say about the histories of globalisation and about the Great Divergence?  
 

  Sources for these essay topics can be found at the end of the module guide.