History 605 Approaches to World History:
Readings in the History of Global Inequality
Spring 2010, Tuesday, 1-3:30 p.m Will meet at UMASS
Synopsis:
This course explores how world histories explain global inequality. Why are some nations in the present so much richer and more powerful than others? We will compare narratives, in professional and popular works and in textbooks, which emphasize such factors as physical environments, technological innovation, the moral capacities of societies, and chance. We will cultivate skills in comparative history to investigate a related but less-frequently-formulated question: what historical processes led to most of the world’s people receiving little more than subsistence for all their labor? Classic works of Karl Polanyi, Lewis Mumford, and E.P. Thompson will inform our thinking, and we will attempt to consider not only what global transformations created the world we inhabit and how historians have explained them, but also, how might these ideas be effectively conveyed in world history courses?
Syllabus: Not available
Course Website: Not available
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