The world: 1400-present

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

There is no prerequisite for this course.

This course surveys the economic and political evolution of societies and cultures from 1400 to the present. It studies the increasing interaction between communities as the barrier of distance succumbed to both curiosity and new transport technologies. It explores the rise of Western Europe and the United States in the period, as well as the great divergence in material, political, and technological development between Western Europe and East Asia after 1750 and its impact on the rest of the world. It examines a series of evolving relationships: human beings and their physical environment; religious and political systems; and subgroups within communities as sorted by race, class, and gender. It introduces historical and other interpretive methodologies using both primary and secondary source materials. It considers architectural, musical, and visual evidence, in addition to textual sources.

Active class participation is central to our work together. Attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to arrive in class on time and prepared to discuss common readings. Students will prepare ten short assignments spaced evenly throughout the term, and one five page paper due at our final class meeting. We will conduct two in-class debates during sessions 9 and 17. Each student will have a central speaking role in at least one of these debates. Instructions for the short assignments, the five page paper, and the debates will be distributed later in the term. There will be no midterm and no final. Each assignment will be weighted in the calculation of the final grade, although these calculations will also take into account improved performance during the course of the semester.

Relevant chapters from this textbook are required, or in some cases recommended, on the Readings schedule:

Tignor, Robert, et al. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart. Vol 2: From 1000 CE to the Present. 4th ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. ISBN: 9780393922097.

21H.009 is a HASS Exploration (HEX) subject. HEX subjects are team-taught courses that explore a major concept or topic from multiple viewpoints found across or within disciplines in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. By showcasing the generative value of dialogue and debate among diverse disciplines, specials, theoretical frameworks, or methodologies, HEX subjects allow students to approach a given problem, phenomenon, or topic from multiple vantage points. Emphasizing close interaction with faculty, the courses encourage the development of foundational skills such as critical reading and analysis of primary materials. More broadly, they provide a pathway into modes of thinking that are central to the HASS curriculum and offer students an opportunity to explore concepts, topics, and histories that are crucial to understanding and inhabiting the complex world in which we live.

The web now hosts many sites which offer college level papers of varying quality on a variety of topics. We are well acquainted with these sites, and with others that offer detection services to professors. Buying a paper and submitting it as your own work is cheating. Copying sections from someone else's print or online work into your own without an acknowledgement is plagiarism. MIT has strict policies against both activities that we will fully enforce. For the appropriate MIT definitions and policies, visit the following website, Academic Integrity at MIT. If you are uncertain about what constitutes cheating or plagiarism, please contact one of the instructors before submitting the work in question.

In most weeks, the class met twice. Professors McCants and / or Ravel led lectures, unless otherwise indicated.

Revolutions - Industrial and Industrious, Not Political

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