1. 1
S Y L L A B U S
World History I
St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School
2014-2015
Geoffrey M. Smith, Instructor (931) 463-2174 (Campus)
gsmith@sasweb.org (256) 479-8784 (Mobile)
Image 1: Germans watch a fireworks display in front of the Brandenburg Gate
during celebrations marking the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I – Course Description and Objectives
World History I—a year-long course required for ninth-grade students—fosters
the development of historical thinking skills as it explores broad historical topics,
themes, and concepts with a focus on Western civilizations from antiquity to the
present. As a foundational course in the Upper School, World History I stresses
the refinement of essential skills in critical reading, clear writing, and persuasive
speaking. With a focus on Eastern civilizations, World History II is a year-long
course required for tenth-grade students that completes the sequence in world
history at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. Together, these courses—World
History I and II—provide a variety of often conflicting, sometimes
complementary, perspectives on common topics, such as cultural diffusion,
nationalism, and globalization, while preparing students for achievement in
future classes in history and the liberal arts as well as life beyond the Academy.

2. 2
Image 2: The book selections for World History I.
II – Course Requirements
Concepts and Skills
World History I fosters the development of historical thinking skills, including
argumentation and use of evidence, chronological reasoning, comparison and
contextualization, and interpretation or analysis and synthesis. Although World
History I often explores “big ideas” more than “small details,” students will
acquire the cultural literacy needed for success in civic life. Students will make
their own informed connections between current and past events, applying
loosely Faulkner’s observation, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Twenty-first-century students benefit from access to an abundance of digital
information. Students must demonstrate how to process (not simply recall)
information and share an interpretation or analysis in written and oral form.
Students must demonstrate how to work individually and in groups, and a
collaborative project is an integral part of each major unit of study. After its initial
critique by the instructor, one essay each quarter will be revised by the student
for full credit. End-of-semester examinations are cumulative.
Classroom Materials
Students are required to bring a three-ring binder with college-ruled paper,
pocket dividers, a writing instrument—preferably a pencil with an eraser (not a
pen)—to class daily. Students must access their e-mail account and RenWeb on a
regular basis. Students will need reliable access to the Internet.
Does handwriting matter? Recent research by psychologists and neuroscientists
suggests a link between handwriting and broader educational development.
Yale psychologist Paul Bloom believes that, “with handwriting, the very act of
putting it down forces you to focus on what’s important,” and he adds that,
“maybe it helps you think better.”
With this recent brain research in mind (perhaps, a bad pun), students will learn
to take hand-written notes based on the Cornell method devised by Walter Pauk,
author of How to Study in College (originally published in 1962). In 2008, a study
by Wichita State University confirmed that this systematic method of note-
taking—with generous columns and margins for key terms, questions, and
summary—has added benefits over “guided notes” in disciplines that require
students to synthesize, not simply recall, information and ideas.

3. 3
Books and Other Resources
History teachers and students alike rarely like their textbooks, and parents,
politicians, and social activists voice frequent criticisms of the nation’s history
textbooks, too. James W. Loewen—a sociologist by training—writes extensively
on this subject in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History
Textbook Got Wrong (2007). For the most part, World History I eschews
conventional textbooks; instead, this course uses online resources and visual,
written, and audio primary sources provided by the instructor. Students also
read the following selected books.
Heinrich Böll, The Train Was on Time (2011). ISBN 978-1935554325.
Alfred W. Crosby, Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity’s Unappeasable
Appetite for Energy (2007). ISBN 978-0393931532.
David S. Mason, A Concise History of Modern Europe: Liberty, Equality, Solidarity
(2011). ISBN 978-1442205345.
Margaret MacMillan, Women of the Raj: The Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the
British Empire in India (2007). ISBN 978-0812976397.
Elie Wiesel, Night (2006). ISBN 978-0374500016.
III – Outline of Study
Here is the tentative, skeletal outline of study for World History I for 2014-2015,
with major units; representative essential questions; key topics, themes, and
concepts; and assessment schemes.
Quarter 1—Europe from Zero Hour to the Present (1945-Present)
“Is the past ever past?”
•Aftermath, legacy, and memorialization of World War II
•Expansion and collapse of communism
•Decolonization, multiculturalism, and Americanization
Assessments
20% Homework and classwork
30% Three brief analyses of (a) visual, (b) written, and (c) audio primary sources
30% A critical essay, including a mandatory revision
20% A collaborative project
1—Week of August 18
Logic (a priori, post hoc ergo propter hoc), historical reasoning (context, continuity
and change-over-time, comparison, argument and use of evidence), Stunde Null
(“Zero Hour”), collective memory
2—Week of August 25
Creation of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, creation
of the state of Israel

4. 4
3—Week of September 1
Origins and conduct of the cold war (Kennan’s “X” article, containment,
Hungarian revolution of 1956, Berlin airlift of 1948 and crisis of 1961)
4—Week of September 8
Jazz, rock, and rebels: Cold war politics and American culture in a divided
Germany; the spy thriller in literature and film
5—Week of September 15
Decolonization, the battle of Algiers, Prague Spring, 1968
6—Week of September 22
Thatcherism; Billy Bragg, the Smiths, and popular music as political protest; the
European Union, multiculturalism
7—Week of September 29
Fall of the Berlin wall, 1989
8—Week of October 6
“Ostalgie,” Goodbye, Lenin!
—End of Quarter 1—
Quarter 2—Foundations in Western Civilizations (Origins-1750)
“What are the ideas that shape our worldview?”
•Big history
•Belief systems, scientific and intellectual history
•Cultural diffusion
Assessments
20% Homework and classwork
30% A set of exercises involving the analysis of primary sources
30% A continuity and change-over-time essay, including a mandatory revision
20% A collaborative project
9—Week of October 13
“Big history,” agricultural revolution, civilization (family/kin/tribe;
country/nation/state), “imagined communities”
10—Week of October 20
Plato (inside/outside, universal/particular), truth, beauty, and goodness
11—Week of October 27
Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), the ancient
Mediterranean world (Egypt, Greece, Rome, Jerusalem, and Arabia), story of
Mohammed
12—Week of November 3
Rise and spread of Islamic civilization, networks of exchange (silk/sand/sea
“roads”), Crusades, creation of the Ottoman empire

5. 5
13—Week of November 10
Art, architecture, material culture, and interfaith relations in late medieval and
early modern Europe (Italy and Spain, 1492)
14—Week of November 17
Renaissance, Reformation, and the scientific revolution
November 22-30: Thanksgiving Break
15—Week of December 1
European overseas expansion, pre-Columbian America (Mayan, Aztec, and
Incan civilizations)
16—Week of December 8
Columbian exchange, America in European consciousness
—End of Quarter 2—
17—Week of December 15
Examinations
Grading Scheme for Semester 1:
An average of grades for Quarters 1 and 2 = 80%
A cumulative examination = 20%
—End of Semester 1—
December 19-January 4: Christmas Break
Quarter 3—The European Moment in World History (1750-1900)
“How and why does the West come to dominate the Rest?”
•Enlightenment thought and practice
•Industrialization
•Imperialism
Assessments
20% Homework and classwork
30% A set of exercises involving the analysis of primary sources
30% A comparative essay, including a mandatory revision
20% A collaborative project
1—Week of January 5
Enlightenment thought (Rousseau, Voltaire), Western social contract,
nationalism
2—Week of January 12
American, French, and Haitian revolutions; slave trade and the African diaspora
3—Week of January 19
Industrialization

6. 6
4—Week of January 26
Hegel (dialectical process), revolutions of 1848, Marx
5—Week of February 2
Imperialism (Dutch Indonesia, British India, Belgian Congo)
6—Week of February 9
***Winterim***
7—Week of February 16
The West and the Rest? “Latitudes, not attitudes,” the idea and paradox of
progress
8—Week of February 29
Fin de siècle Vienna (psychology, modern art)
—End of Quarter 3—
Quarter 4—Collapse and Conflict in World History (1900-1945)
“How and why did the West descend into the abyss of the early twentienth century?”
•Origins and conduct of the global conflicts of the early twentieth century
•The Shoah
•Agency or determinism?
Assessments
20% Homework and classwork
40% A document-based essay, including a mandatory revision
40% A collaborative project
9—Week of March 2
Origins and conduct of World War I, Russian Revolution of 1917, the League of
Nations
March 7-22: Spring Break
10—Week of March 23
Weimar Republic (liberal constitution, Bauhaus, cabaret culture)
11—Week of March 30
Spanish civil war (Lorca, Orwell, Guernica); fascism, militarism
12—Week of April 6
Origins and conduct of World War II (rise of Hitler, appeasement)
13—Week of April 13
The Shoah (understanding the Holocaust from within the Jewish experience),
“Holocaust by bullets”
14—Week of April 20
German resistance to Hitler? Browning vs. Goldhagen debate

7. 7
15—Week of April 27
Decision to use the atomic bomb, Nuremberg and Tokyo trials
16—Week of May 4
Tikkun Olam (“repairing/healing the world”)
—End of Quarter 4—
17—Week of May 11
Examinations
Grading Scheme for Semester 2:
An average of grades for Quarters 3 and 4 = 80%
A cumulative examination = 20%
—End of Semester 2—

8. 8
IV – Student Conduct and the Honor Code
Students are expected to abide by the standards of conduct in the student
handbook and to uphold the principles of the Honor Code. For major
assignments, such as essays and examinations, students will affirm their
academic integrity with the following “pledged” statement.
This work is my own. I have neither given nor received any unauthorized
assistance on this assignment. Pledged by [Name of Student] [Date].
Keep this syllabus in your notebook for World History I.

9. 9
V – Acknowledgement
Choose one of the following statements.
! I acknowledge that I have reviewed the syllabus for World History I, and I
will strive to meet the objectives of this course.
! I acknowledge that I have reviewed the syllabus for World History I, but I
would like to discuss my concerns with you.
_______________________________________________________________________
Signature of Student Date
Return this signed acknowledgement to the instructor.