13 May 1999

Upper Secondary Grades 11 and 12
Advanced Studies in World History

  1. World War books recommended include:
    a.     The DollMaker, by Harriette Arnow (Avon Books: 1954). This book was recommended by a teacher teaching the Second World War. It reflects well, too, the social crisis many people faced in the migration from the farm to the city to work in factories during the war. This book documents a family moving from the Appalachian mountains to Detroit.
    b. Hiroshima, by John Hersey (Vintage Books: 1946). Many upper secondary school teachers use this book in their units on the Second World War. John Hersey document the lives of five people who survived the bomb and lived to lead fruitful lives decades later. Their lives contrast sharply with the times that followed, though, and the book's captivating coverage of their lives makes it journalism masterpiece. I listened to the Edward Azner audio tape of the book and felt it long-winded compared to the book itself.

  2. World War Videos Recommended:
    a.     The Great War, the PBS eight hour documentary on the First World War with an extensive teaching guide. Discussion of the biases shortcomings of the series and debates with the documentary could form a focus of the class. How would they have done it differently to place less of the blame on Germany?
    b. Casablanca, the Humphrey Bogart classic for class discussion.

  3. Special Project Recommended: Comparative Oral History of the Second World War using Japanese and American sources in English. I have only been able to scan through these books so far, but the prospects look good:
    a. Japan At War: An Oral History, by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook (The New Press: 1992)
    b. "The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, by Studs Terkel
    (The New Press: 1984)

　

Links and Sets of Links:

Global History Sourcebook
This great set of links to global history souces is organized by Paul Halsall PhD, Fordham University:

Halsall Home | Ancient History Sourcebook | Medieval Sourcebook | Modern History Sourcebook
Other History Sourcebooks: African | East Asian | Indian | Islamic | Jewish | LGBT | Women's | Science

The Global History Sourcebook is dedicated to exploration of interaction between world cultures. It does not, then, look "world history" as the history of the various separate cultures (for that see the linked pages, which do take that approach), but at ways in which the "world" has a history in its own right.

Specifically this means looking at:

Trade

Societies interact through trade.

War

Movement of soldiers; occupation; admiration of conqueror's culture,

Religion

Religion is of special importance.

Migration

Migration can be due to nomadism, forced dispersal, attraction to a new land, or due to enslavement. It can take the form of group movements, or be done by individuals and families.

Empire

Art and Music

***

This page is a subset of texts derived from the  online Sourcebooks listed below. For more specific  information about each world cultural area check out these web sites.

　

Notes:

 In addition to direct links to documents, links are made to a number of other web resources.
2ND
 Link to a secondary article, review or discussion on a given topic.
MEGA
 Link to one of the megasites which track web resources.
WEB
 Link to a website focused on a specific issue.. These are not links to every site on a given topic, but to sites of serious educational value.

Contents

　

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 General

General

World Systems Theories

　

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 Ancient Cultures: The World Until c.100 CE

Travel in ancient societies was extremely difficult, and a result, interaction between cultures occured slowly.

General

Trade

Religion

Migration

Empire

Art and Music

　

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 Medieval World Systems: Trade and Faith 100-1500 CE

Missionary religion brought an important new aspect to global interaction after circa. 100 CE. That is roughly the point when both Christianity and Buddhism began to spread rapidly, both creating their own worlds - Christendom, and although the word is a neologism, Buddhadom.  A late entrant. circa 640 CE. was the religion of Islam which created a Muslim world [called "Islamdom" by Marshall Hodges], which stretched from Spain to India, and eventuall the Philipines. These three were the most successful missonary religions, but were by no means the only ones: Manichaenism, a modified form of Persian dualism also persued a missionary strategy.

General

Trade

Religion

Migration

Empire

Art and Music

　

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 The Creation of a United World System, 1500-1800 CE

　

General

Trade

War

Religion

Migration

Empire

Art and Music

　

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 The Western Hegemony, 1800-1918

General

Trade

Religion

Migration

Empire

Art and Music

　

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 The Twentieth Century?

General

Trade

Religion

Migration

Urban Migrations

Empire

Art and Music

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 Globalization?

General

　

General

Trade

Religion

Migration

Empire

Art and Music


Further Resources on Global History

Other Resources

This text is copyright. The specific electronic form, and any notes and questions are copyright. Permission is granted to copy the text, and to print out copies for personal and educational use. No permission is granted for commercial use.

If any copyright has been infringed, this was unintentional. The possibility of a site such as this, as with other collections of electronic texts, depends on the large availability of public domain material from texts translated before 1923. [In the US, all texts issued before 1923 are now in the public domain. Texts published before 1964 may be in the public domain if copyright was not renewed after 28 years. This site seeks to abide by US copyright law: the copyright status of texts here outside the US may be different.] Efforts have been made to ascertain the copyright status of all texts here, although, occasionally, this has not been possible where older or non-US publishers seem to have ceased existence. Some of the recently translated texts here are copyright to the translators indicated in each document. These translators have in every case given permission for non-commercial reproduction. No representation is made about the copyright status of texts linked off-site. This site is intended for educational use. Notification of copyright infringement will result in the immediate removal of a text until its status is resolved.

Paul Halsall July1998
halsall@murray.fordham.edu

　

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