The course is divided in two modules of 24 hours each. The first part provides a general introduction to World History. The second part is single-subject and deals with slave trades, diasporas and migrations in global perspective from the 15th to the 20th century.
Students have to rely on the notes taken in class and the slides prepared by the teacher. The reading and other
material will be indicated at the beginning of the course and inserted on the E-Moodle platform of the course, which is accessible only to attending students.
Students NOT ATTENDING the course:
Non attending students are kindly advised to contact prof. Fattacciu in advance. Texts assigned are:
1) Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
2) Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004)
Obiettivi Formativi
This course is designed to familiarize students with concepts, methods, approaches and empirical research on World history.
By the end of the course students should therefore be able to demonstrate:
• A core historical grounding in the subject and a confident knowledge of the topics, but also a critical approach.
• A new understanding of the problems of global economy, environment, and culture; of processes of globalization in the nineteenth-twentieth century.
• Advanced knowledge of critical historical process on a large scale, involving macro areas such as the Atlantic world, the Indian Ocean, Central-East-South Asia, from 15th to 20th century. In particular, mobility of goods and people, power relations and balances, colonialism and post-colonialism, urban/rural relations.
• The capacity to discuss analytically about topics in the field and to cultivate a capacity for critical thinking.
Prerequisiti
Good general knowledge of early modern and modern history
Metodi Didattici
Lectures (also from Italian and foreign experts) and and classroom discussions, audio and visual sources, reading of primary sources, students' presentations.
During the course the teacher may hand out reaction papers on some of the activities carried on. The participation grade also includes homework assignments which may be given at the instructor's discretion, either to prepare for discussion or to complement topics dealt with in class. Clearly, participation requires study of the assigned readings listed in the schedule.
Altre Informazioni
Students attending the course have to register for the class on the EMoodle
platform (http://e-l.unifi.it/ ask professor for the password) and
download the material that the teacher will be posting on it.
Modalità di verifica apprendimento
Students who attend the class must pass an oral examination about the general content of the course (40%) and a major book in World History (40%). Evaluation of active participation in classroom discussion will be part of the final mark (20%).
Students must read one of the following volumes in view of the oral exam:
1) Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
2) Christoper A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780 – 1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Maden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).
3) Jurgen Osterhammel, The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015)
The study of the book can be substituted with a 2500-word seminar paper on a specific topic to agree with the professor before the end of the class. Papers are due at least ten days before the oral exam.
Students who do not attend the course must pass an oral examination on Charles H. Parker, Global
Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
and Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and
Comparisons (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004).
Programma del corso
Classes will start presenting a general introduction to big issues in world history including methodology and main trends, convergences and divergences. In the prosecution, students will tackle an up-to-date discussion of historiography and case studies relating to human mobility, to the formation of systems of communication and power relations and to the formation of colonial empires and their consequences on a global scale. The course will conclude with a series of lecture on the main themes regarding processes of globalisation in the twentieth century, from the crisis of nationalism to the core themes of post-colonial theory.
Weekly readings (a scientific article or a book chapter) will be discussed in classroom.
Week 1_Methodology and introduction to World History
Lesson 1: Presentation of the course; introduction to the materials used and readings. Information on assignments and exams. What is World History and why does it matter?
Lesson 2: What is new in world History? From UNESCO's 'History of Mankind' to Subrahmanyam's Connected History.
Lesson 3: The politics of writing history, discussion about the first weekly reading: Poul Duhedahl, Selling Mankind: UNSECO and the Invention of Global History, 1945-1976, Journal of World History, 22(1), 2011: 101-133.
Week 2_Periodization (I)
Lesson 4: Forging New Networks in the Early Modern World
Lesson 5: Global connections: empires and exchanges
Lesson 6: Weekly reading: Jeremy Adelman, ‘Mimesis and Rivalry: European Empires and Global Regimes,’ Journal of Global History 10, no. 1 (2015): 77–98
Week 3_Periodization (II)
Lesson 7: Revolutions and divergences
Lesson 8: The age of western predominance
Lesson 9: Weekly reading: Peter N. Stearns, Globalization in World History (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), 90–123 (Chapter 5: ‘The 1850 as Turning Point: The Birth of Globalization’)
Week 4_Empires
Lesson 10: International Markets and Global Exchange Networks
Lesson 11: Systems of power and domination across the Americas, Europe and Africa: circulation of goods, people, ideas.
Lesson 12: Weekly reading: Aram B. – Yun Casalilla B., Global Goods and the Spanish Empire, 1492-1824. Circulation, Resistance and Diversity (Palgrave, 2014), ch. 8, pp. 137-152
Week 2 – Slave Trades
Lesson 13: Africa and forced labour across the Atlantic Ocean
Lesson 14: Other slave trades from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean
Lesson 15: Weekly reading: Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (New York: Viking, 2007), 75–101 (Chapter 3: ‘African Paths to the Middle Passage’)
Week 4 – Migrations
Lesson 16: Cross-community migration: a distinctive human pattern
Lesson 17: Spanning the oceans: mobility in the early modern world
Lesson 18: Is todays' migration an European "emergency"? Discussion on the third weekly reading Micharl H. Fisher, Migration: A world History (Oxford: OUP 2014) ch. 3, Migrations Start to Reconnect the World, 1450-1750, pp.50-75.
Week 5_Racial categories, Segregation and Discrimination
Lesson 19: A global revolution? Nation, race and western colonialism.
Lesson 20: Segregation and divided cities
Lesson 21: Weekly reading: Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, Verso Publisher 1993, ch.1
Week 8_ Periodization (III) and final reflections
Lesson 22: The post-colony: new histories and methodological perspectives.
Lesson 23: Global System: Interdependence and Conflict in the Contemporary World
Lesson 24: Redrawing the map of world history. Discussion about the sixth weekly lecture, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton: PUP, 2000), ch.1, Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History, pp. 27 – 46.