Description:  This reading-intensive colloquium focuses on the vibrant and volatile debate over the Rise of the West: How did Europeans become so rich and why did they come to dominate so much of the world between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries? Was it the result of Europe’s unique culture? Technology? Military supremacy? Politics? Religion? Science? Geography? Luck? This course is designed for students who are teachers or will one day teach world history, as well as those who are interested in trans national, trans regional, integrative history.

Required Readings:

• David Christian, Maps of Time (California, 2004)
  
• Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel (Norton, 1999)
• Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony (Oxford, 1989)
• Eric Jones, The European Miracle, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 2003)
• Toby Huff, The Rise of Early Modern Science, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2003)
• Alfred Crosby, The Measure of Reality (Cambridge, 1997)
• Joel Mokyr, The Lever of Riches (Oxford, 1990)
• Andrew Gunder Frank, ReOrient (University of California Press, 1998)
• John Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization (Cambridge, 2004)
• Ken Pomeranz, The Great Divergence (Princeton, 2000)

• Participation: Active, informed, engaged, respectful participation in discussions (20%). Each student will be responsible for submitting five discussion questions in advance of one week’s assigned reading. Students will email the instructor their questions the day before their designated class meeting.
• Two 3-4 page essays (15% each). Each should be a critical review and analysis of the substance of one of the assigned books, due on the day we discuss that book.
• Either a 12-15 page essay synthesizing the assigned reading, or a 12-15 page research paper on a topic relating to the Rise of the West to be chosen in consultation with the instructor, due May 24, before noon (50%).

Policies:

• You are expected to attend each class meeting and to arrive on time. More than two absences (for any reason), or repeated lateness, will result in a failing grade for the course. If you miss a class, you must submit a 2-page summary and analysis of the reading for that week before class begins.
• Late assignments will be marked down 1/3 grade per day. All assignments must be completed in order to receive credit for the course. 
• Any student caught plagiarizing (using another person’s words or ideas without proper acknowledgment) will receive a failing grade for the course be referred to the Office of Student Affairs for disciplinary action.
• The instructor reserves the right to modify the course schedule or assignments. Students will be given adequate notice of any changes.

European Exceptionalism