Articles for WH students to read

Campbell, I. C. “The Lateen Sail in World History.” Journal of World History 6, no. 1 (1995): 1-23.

Christian, David. “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History.” Journal of World History 11, no. 1 (2000): 1-21.

Finney, Ben. “The Other One-Third of the Globe.” Journal of World History 5, no. 2 (1994): 273-297.

Flynn, Dennis O. & Arturo Giraldez. “Born with a ‘Silver Spoon’: The Origin of World Trade in 1571.” Journal of World History 6, no. 2 (1996): 201-221.

Grant, Jonathan. “Rethinking the Ottoman ‘Decline’: Military Technology Diffusion in the Ottoman Empire, Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” Journal of World History 10, no. 1 (1999): 179ff.

Kedar, Benjamin Z. “Expulsion as an Issue in World History.” Journal of World History 7, no. 2 (1996): 165-180.

Kristof, Nicholas D. “1492: the Prequel.” In Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Vol. 2: Since 1400. Edited by Kevin Reilly, pp. 3-16. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2000.

McNeill, J. R. “Of Rats and Men: A Synoptic Environmental History of the Island Pacific.” Journal of World History 5, no. 2 (1994): 299-349.

Mintz, Sidney. “Pleasure, Profit, and Satiation.” Seeds of Change: A Quincentennial Commemoration. Edited by Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1991: 112-129.

Shaffer, Lynda: “Southernization.” In The New World History. Edited by Ross E. Dunn, pp. 175-191. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2000.

Wong, Q. Edward. “History, Space, and Ethnicity: the Chinese World View.” Journal of World History 10, no. 2 (1999): 285-305.

  1. David Northrup “Globalization and the Great Convergence: Rethinking World History in the Long Term”
  2. The question here is, do you buy his arguments, that the year 1000 marks the beginning of an era of “convergence?” Why or why not?
  1. “Migrations, Technology, and Culture in Ancient Africa” from Africa in World History, Chapter 4
  2. The question here is—“contact and exchange,” what are the consequences?
  1. Ralph W. Mathisen, “Peregrini, Barbari, and Cives Romani: Concepts of Citizenship and the Legal Identity of Barbarians in the Later Roman Empire”
  2. This one is about identity. How is identity created or shaped in this article, and why?
  1. David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History”
  2. This one is both about identity and patterns of exchange? Why is it that the Silk Roads are famous, but nobody ever talks about Steppe Roads?
  1. Stephen Cory, “Crossing the Sahara: The Failure of an Early Modern Attempt to Unify Islamic Africa”
  2. The question here is obvious: why did attempts to unify North Africa fail?
  1. John Thornton, Africa and the Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, Chapters 2 & 3.
  2. Again, obvious: what role did Africans play in “exchange” during the period in question, and how did that role shape their identity?
  1. Michael Gannon, The New History of Florida, Chapter 2.
  2. What was the nature of this contact? How again were identities created? How is the European arrival in Florida difference from other case of colonialism you have studied? How were the terms of contact in exchange in this case different from that described in the previous article on Africa?
  1. “The Confucian Family” chapter Five from Discovering the Global Past
  2. Again, pretty simply, how did Confucianism create identities—for men, women, elders, youth, etc.?
  1. Tonio Andrade, “The Company’s Chinese Pirates: How the Dutch East India Company Tried to Lead of Coalition of Pirates to War against China, 1621-1662”
  2. This is just cool…enjoy it, and develop your own questions about identity, contact, and exchange. You might also want to think about the current day troubles with Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
  1. Robert Finlay, “The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History”
  2. Skim it! How did the respective roles played by craftsmen, merchants, etc. in this network of exchange shape identities, OR, how did the identities of the various players in this network of exchange shape the patterns of “contact and exchange?”
  1. Jeffrey Lesser & Robert Levine, excerpts on “Immigrant Ethnicity in Brazil,” and “How Brazil Works”
  2. Again, the questions about identity here are self-evident.
  1. Sandra Gayol, “Honor Moderno:’ The Significance of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Argentina”
  2. This is an interesting article, I think, about identity in a social context.
  1. Mark Philip Bradley, “Becoming Van Minh: Civilizational Discourse and Visions of the Self in Twentieth-Century Vietnam”
  2. This one is though—but I want you to compare the political identities being created in this article to the social ones in the previous article.
  1. “Does Islamic Revivalism Challenge a Secular World Order?” from Taking Sides, Issue 21.
  2. I don’t think you need help with this one?