Please keep an eye on this page. It will be updated with readings as the semester goes on.
Unit 1 (8000 BCE-600 CE):
- Stearns chapters 1-5
- Harman part 2
- The Tao of Pooh
- Hammurabi and Moses: Law as a Mirror of Civilization
- Asoka and Shi Huangdi: Honey and Vinegar
- Religions’ Effects on Gender
Jared Diamond: The Worst Mistake in the History of the World/Back of History – DAY ONE
• The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Epic of
• Hammurabi’s Code
• Indian Seals, Mesopotamian Seals, and Cretan Seals (images)
• Rig Veda, The
• Population Statistics
• Buddha, The Teachings of
• Matthew, The Gospel of
• Confucius, The Analects
• Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease
• Herodotus: Hellenes & Phoenicians
• Herodotus: The Carthaginian Attack on Sicily, 480 BCE
• Asoka, Rock and Pillar Edicts
Unit 2 (600 CE – 1450 CE):
- Stearns chapters 6-15
- Harman part 3 and 4
• The Nestorian Stele (images and text)
• Excerpts from the Quran
• A Thousand and One Arabian Nights
• Chen Pu – The Craft of Farming
• The Mosaics of San Vitale (images)
• Population Statistics – World’s Largest Cities
Unit 3 (1450-1750 CE):
- Stearns chapters 16-22
- Harman part 5
• Ibn Battuta – Long Distance Travel Beyond the Mongol Peace
• Marco Polo – Description of the World
• Zhao Rugua – Description of Barbarous Peoples
• Luther, Martin – Table Talk
• The Gokstad Ship (image)
Unit 4 (1750-1914 CE):
- Stearns chapters 23-27
- Hochschild King Leopold’s Ghost
• Voltaire – A Treatise on Toleration
• Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations
• Napoleon Crossing the Alps (image)
• Simon Bolivar -The Jamaica Letter
• Summary of a Conversation with Osei Bonso, King of Asante
• Abdullah Wahab -The History and Doctrines of Wahabis
• Envoys from Vassal States and Foreign Countries Presenting Tribute to the emperor, China (image)
• Marx and Engels – The Communist Manifesto
• Charles Darwin – On the Origins of Species and the Descent of Man
Unit 5 (1914-Present Day):
- Stearns chapters 28-36
• Selected Poetry of the War Poets
• 1918 Flu Epidemic Death Rates (Statistics)
• Adolf Hitler -Mein Kampf
• Bombing of Tokyo and Other Cities (Statistics)
• Gandhi – Indian Home Rule
• Mikhail Gorbachev – Perestroika
• Muralist Paintings
• Osama Bin Laden -Declaration of Jihad against Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques
