Historical Literature:
World History

(graduate reading course on world history)

page compiled by Harold Marcuse
(professor of German history at UC Santa Barbara)
Harold Marcuse homepage

created month December 20, 2010, updated 8/16/2015

Introduction and Announcements (back to top)

• Aug. 16, 2015: H-World just posted a thread on "Advice for Beginning World History Teachers." Some recommendations led me to these websites:
  • http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu: rich in resources, including many teaching units in pdf format
  • YouTube "Crash Course in World History:" 42 ca. 12 min. "lectures" by hyper teacher John Green, illustrated by really fast photos and animations. Not my taste, but maybe for review. Or students watch in advance and come to class with questions?
  • Books by David Christian and by Peter Stearns were recommended as well.
• Sept. 20, 2013: two recent popularizations of World History around the Columbian Exchange, by journalist Charles Mann:
  • 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (Vintage, 2006), 541 pages. ($10 at amazon with timeline;
  • 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (Vintage, 2011), 560 pages
    ($10 & searchable at amazon; )
    -Sept. 2013 summary/review in English in German newsmagazine Der Spiegel
• Feb. 25, 2013: Review of Ian Morris, Why the West Rules—for Now (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2010) in the Chronicle of Higher Education. A controversial book that takes a similarly "zoomed-out" view to Jared Diamond's various books.
• In January 2010 I will begin teaching the UCSB History department's course for graduate students either preparing a Ph.D. examination field in World History, or planning to offer such a course sometime during their careers. This page links to documents and information for that course.
  

Course Description & Syllabus (back to top)

• The offical catalog description:
  A reading course in a general area of history, specifically designed to prepare M.A. candidates for their comprehensive examination fields, but also appropriate for Ph.D. students seeking broad preparation. Introduces the student to the sources, historiography, and general literature of the field in question.
• My description:
  This seminar is intended for students preparing a third dissertation exam field in World History, and for students wishing to develop expertise in teaching World History for jobs and job applications. Thus there is a dual focus: On the theory and historiography of the field, and on practical issues of teaching World History survey courses. Students will write two book and two textbook reviews, prepare a lecture with an accompanying resource guide, and develop their own syllabus. I plan to ask colleagues from the department to join us at times to talk about their teaching strategies and experiences. There are two main readings:
  • Ross Dunn (ed.), The New World History (Bedford, 2000), and
  • Heidi Roupp (ed.), Teaching World History in the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe, 2010).

Teaching Resources (back to top)

• “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) is a role play game method developed by professor Mark Carnes at Barnard College in the late 1990s. The Big List of Reacting Games: BLORG shows many scenarios appropriate for world history. The most polished games are published by Pearson: list of published games (the price of the 1945 Indian statehood game from 2005 [192 pages] is $25 at amazon [out of print at publisher in 2013])

Academic Field of World History (back to top)

Links (back to top)

• Lee Pappas' Readings in World History, 1500-1914 website at Sam Houston State University. 27 chapters, mostly western, linking to full text selections of secondary and primary sources.