Fall 2011: HSTY 113

Introduction to Modern World History

Syllabus

Lectures: MW10:30-11:20am, Nord 410

Discussion sections: F 10:30-11:20am and TBA

Instructor
Jia-Chen Fu, Mather House 301, 368-2623, [email protected], MW 1-2pm

Teaching Assistants
Jonathan Wlasiuk, Mather House, [email protected], MW 2-3 pm, SAGES Cafe
Corey Hazlett, Mather House, [email protected], Th 2:30-5:30pm, Mather 12

OVERVIEW
This course introduces students to the history of the modern world. We will examine how the
political, economic, and social changes of the last five centuries have affected peoples across the
world. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the emergence of modern notions of production,
consumption, and trade from a global perspective. Prominent themes include growth and dynamics
of empires, colonization and decolonization, technology and the development of a global economy,
nationalism and revolutionary movements, the interplay of political, cultural, and religious values, and
modern imperialism and its influence on global societies, economies, and political systems.

TEXTBOOKS
 Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History: Power and Politics of Difference
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
 Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost (New York: First Mariner Books, 1998).
 Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008).
 Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York: Penguin
Books, 1985).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
 Attendance in class: The lectures complement the readings; they do not duplicate them.
Students who miss lectures will miss vital content. Moreover, the grading elements of the
course (discussions, writing assignments, and quizzes) will demand incorporation of lecture
material. Respectable grade are only possible with evidence of such integration.
 Regulation completion of the reading assignments. What you have learned from the
lectures and readings is to be used in the discussions and writing assignments.
 Prepared participation in discussion sections. Participation in section should show
evidence of having read and though critically about the assigned readings, as well as having
incorporated material from the lectures. All students must actively participate in discussions
in section meetings.
 6 Writing assignments: four short papers (500-1000 words, 10% each) and two longer
papers (1500-2000 words, 15% each). Students may choose which weeks they submit papers
and they may choose to make a given paper either short or long, provided all six papers are

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 written by the end of the semester. Three of these papers, including one of the longer
variety, must be completed by 28 October 2011. Each paper must make an argument and
must show evidence of incorporation of lecture and reading material. Please double-space,
paginate, use 12-point Times New Roman, and 1-inch margins all around.
o Paper topics will be available on Blackboard
 Quizzes: Over the course of the semester, four unannounced quizzes will be given in the
lecture sessions. They will be based on material drawn from the lecture and assigned
readings and include a map component.

GRADING
Attendance/participation 10%
Short papers (4) 40%
Long papers (2) 30%
Quizzes (4) 20%

LECTURE TOPICS & READINGS

WEEK ONE
29 August Introduction to the course
31 August Beginning of the Modern World
2 September Struggle for the Mediterranean

WEEK TWO
5 September Labor Day – No Class
7 September New world silver: Empires 117-48
9 September Discussion section: Timothy Brook, “Vermeer‟s Hat,” in Vermeer’s Hat: The
Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World (New York: Bloomsbury, 2008),
pp. 26-53

WEEK THREE
12 September Colonial Spanish America: Empires 149-70
14 September Sugar and the Triangle Trade: Empires 170-84
16 September Discussion section: Sweetness and Power, ch. 2-4

WEEK FOUR
19 September Wealth and the construction of culture: Ottoman scientists and Chinese litterati
21 September Steppe empires: Russia and China: Empires 185-218
23 September Discussion section: Peter Perdue, “Empire and Nation in Comparative Perspective:
Frontier Administration in Eighteenth-Century China,” Journal of Early Modern
History 5.4 (2001): 282-304 and Peter Perdue, “Boundaries, Maps, and Movement:
Chinese, Russian, and Mongolian Empires in Early Modern Central Eurasia,”
International History Review 20.2 (June 1998): 263-86

WEEK FIVE
26 September Political revolutions in the Americas and Europe: France and Haiti: Empires 219-35
28 September Revolutions in Anglo- and Spanish America: Empires 235-50
30 September Discussion section: Richard White, “The Origins of the West,” in It’s Your Misfortune
and None of My Own: A New History of the American West (University of Oklahoma

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 Press, 1991); Laurent Dubois, “Insurrection & The Language of Rights,” in A Colony
of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804 (2004)

WEEK SIX
3 October Empires of capital and industry/Enlightenment reconsidered
5 October Rise of the US (US exceptualism): Empires 251-86
7 October Discussion section: Ussama Makdisi, “Bringing America Back into the Middle East:
A History of the First American Missionary Encounter with the Ottoman Arab
World,” in Imperial Formations, eds. Ann Laura Stoler, Carole McGranahan, and Peter
Perdue (Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2007)

WEEK SEVEN
10 October Alternative visions
12 October Nations and empires: 19th century colonialism and the imperialism of free trade:
Empires 287-329
14 October Discussion section: Vijay Prashad, “The Strange Career of Xenophobia” and
“Coolie Purana,” in Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth
of Cultural Purity (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001)

WEEK EIGHT
17 October TBA
19 October Nations and empires: 19th century reforms: Empires 331-68
21 October Discussion section: Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation?” in Eley, Geoff, and Suny,
eds., Becoming National: A Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)

WEEK NINE
24 October Fall Break – No Class
26 October Post-WWI and nationalism: Empires 369-92
28 October Discussion section: King Leopold’s Ghost

WEEK TEN
31 October Counter-voices to European and N. American dominance
2 November Masses and visions of the modern
4 November Discussion section: Lisa McGirr, “The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Global
History,” The Journal of American History 93:4 (March 2007); Robin Kelley,
“Introduction,” in African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This ain't Ethiopia, but
it'll do” (1992)

WEEK ELEVEN
7 November Russian Revolution and Third Reich: Empires 393-412
9 November Japan and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
11 November Discussion section: James Scott, “Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams,” in
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale
University Press, 1998), pp. 193-222; Eric R. Wolf, “Nationalist Socialist Germany”
in Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis (University of California Press,
1999), pp. 197-275.

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WEEK TWELVE
14 November Chinese Revolution
16 November Global Cold War
18 November Discussion section: L. Winner, “Do Artifacts have Politics;” David Noble,
“Command Performance: A Perspective on the Social and Economic Consequences
of Military Enterprise,” in Major Problems in the History of American Technology (Boston:
Houghton Miffin, 1998); M. Spencer, “Fallout: The Silent Killer” (29 August 1959)

WEEK THIRTEEN
21 November Decolonization and the invention of the Third World: Empires 413-29
23 November Pan-Africanism and the Bandung Conference
25 November Thanksgiving Break – No Class

WEEK FOURTEEN
28 November End of colonial empires and ongoing imperial competition: Empires 429-42
30 November Middle East: Arab-Israeli conflict
2 December Discussion section: All the Shah’s Men

WEEK FIFTEEN
5 December Globalization and the new global order
7 December Persepolis (2008, film)
9 December Discussion section: Vijay Prashad, “Kung Fusion: Organize the „Hood Under I-
Ching Banners”

POLICIES
 Jia-Chen Fu is the principal lecturer and instructor of record. The teaching assistants for this
course, however, are experienced and highly qualified instructors, and the conduct of the
course is a collaborative effort among the entire teaching staff. Students should recognize
that teaching assistants have full authority over their sections, including the assignment of
grades.
 Grading: Section leaders will assign letter grades (A, A-, B+ … F) to writing assignments
and quizzes. They will also assign letter grades for discussion performance. Attendance and
active participation are mandatory. At the end of the semester, final course grades will be
calculated according to the weighting specified above. Students who believe that a grade on a
writing assignment is unfair or inaccurate have the right to submit the paper for re-grading.
Such re-submissions, however, will only be considered if accompanied by a written
statement (in hard copy, not email) from the student to the original grader laying out the
grounds of the grievance. The result of the re-grading may be a raising or a lowering of the
grade, or no change. If the student still feels the grade is unfair, she or he may then ask to
have the work considered by one of the course‟s other instructors. This second
reconsideration will then represent a final decision.
 Late papers: Papers are due (in hard copy, not email) at the beginning of class on the due
date. They should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced with 1-inch
margins. Late papers will be assigned a penalty of one full grade per day. Instructors reserve
the right to grant extensions in extraordinary circumstances, but these decisions will be made
on a case-by-case basis. Circumstances for which extensions will not be granted included,
but are not limited to, computer problems, workload from other classes, and conflicts with

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 extracurricular activities. Papers not handed to the relevant section leader must be initialed
and dated by one of the department assistants in the history office, Mather House 106.
 Incompletes: In accordance with University policy, incompletes will be granted only in truly
extenuating cases and will not be given without a written request and a schedule, which must
conclude before the end of the exam period, for completion of the work.
 Academic Integrity: Students are expected to abide by the Case policy on academic
integrity, available on the web at http://studentaffairs.case.edu/office/integrity/policy.html.
All papers should be fully documented and represent the student‟s own work. Plagiarism,
whether from printed, unprinted, or digital sources, is a form of theft and a serious violation
of ethical conduct. All cases will be reported to the dean of undergraduate studies.
 In-class conduct: Students are expected to be present, attentive, and prepared at all lectures
and section. Instructors will start classes on time. They expect students to be just as
courteous. Also, please turn off cell phones (and other objects that beep or ring) during
class.
 Blackboard: Please look regularly at the course site on Blackboard where, besides readings,
I will post images and maps, links to relevant sites, writing assignments and guidelines for
writing a good history paper.
 Changes to the syllabus: I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus as the semester
progresses.
 Communications and accommodations: I will do my best to facilitate learning in this
class. If you encounter difficulties, please talk to me as soon as possible. I invite you to come
to office hours or, if you cannot come at the posted times, to make an appointment. I would
especially like to meet with students with disabilities who are registered with the Coordinator
of Disability Services (368-5230) and who might need individual arrangements. The best way
to reach me is by email. Please put HSTY 113 in the subject line.

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