Week 5 Introduction
We have covered a significant span of time and space in this course. The final week is a way for you to think through some of the information and to make broader connections between the material in the documents you have read. If you were in a sixteen-week class, we would have read another text to see how some of the ideas we encountered during the term moved well into the twentieth century. As it is this summer, I want to you think about four themes that moved through the readings this term. I will point to two but you should be able to think of four themes beyond the two I mention. The idea of economic exchange and trade were important for the development of a West in opposition to an East. The lines were blurred often, but by the end of the term, it became clear that Europeans and Americans defined themselves economically and militarily as advanced. The shift is interesting and important because Chinese thinkers felt the same way about all outsiders in the documents about the Silk Roads. The themes of trade and encounters created ways for cultures to reshape and shift but also to develop strong opposition to any change.
In this final week of class, I would like for you to go back to the documents in all of the readings and think about constructing an argument about about the four themes you will write about for the final essay. How do the documents you choose help support your thesis? How might another person read the documents in a different way? Think about the broader implications of the themes as they move across time and place, how does the sharing of ideas change us? Is that always good?
One final note, since I am not assigning reading and specifically pointing you to texts, do not assume that you can write the final essay in one day. You will need to engage every book we read this term in some way, so spend the week wisely choosing the documents you will use.
Essay 5
This week you will write an essay that explores three themes that you found in the readings for this term. Each of the themes needs to use documents from each of the books you read as evidence to support your thesis. In this case, the thesis should be a large overarching theme for the course that then has support from the three themes you examine in the essay. The point of this assignment is to see how you bring the ideas we encountered in the readings together to make some sense out of western histories.
All of the earlier standards for essays are the same (you may push the essay to four pages if necessary).
Following are the instructions for each previous essays:
Essay 1:
Essay 1 Guidelines: This essay asks you to think about how historians use primary sources as historical evidence. Below you will see a list of four broad categories of the kinds of sources that we have read this week. Pick any two categories and tell me what you see as the strengths and limitations of these sources for understanding the Silk Roads. You must use six (6) documents from the readings in the essay, at least two which I did not assign.
documents that support exchange of ideas along trade routes
documents that criticized exchange of ideas along trade routes
personal accounts of life along trade routes
histories of the trade routes
Things to think about as you craft your essay: what kinds of documents did you find most reliable and trustworthy; which ones find most suspect, and why? Why is it important to look at different kinds of documents, even those you find lest trustworthy? Your essay should discuss at least four primary documents, including one not assigned.
Essay 2:
Essay 2 Guidelines: This essay asks you to think about the next step in the historian’s task. After reflecting on how documents function the writing of history, you will begin to construct a specific argument about why religious transformations appear to occur across the globe at roughly the same time. Pick any two areas (it is okay to skip Europe in the assignment if you want) and using the documents from Wiesner-Hanks as well as the introductions from the areas you pick make an argument for why the transformation occurred in religious practices. You must use six (6) sources total, at least two not assigned by me. Also, please use the actual texts (don’t say: “document 32 says that so-and-so made this claim”/ quote so-and-so). Historians use primary texts as evidence so you need to learn how to use the documents to make your claim.
Essay 3:
Essay 3 Guidelines: This essay asks you to think about the next step the formation of a West. After constructing a particular argument about religious transformations across the globe, you will explore how the encounter with Japan created notions of “a West” that was in opposition to the “an East.” The primary focus of the book is to take you into Japan cultural and thinking during the pivotal nineteenth century. But there are examples, particularly around trade, that give you a sense of how Europe and the United States saw Japan. Given that Japan is now understood to be part of the western economy, this assignment asks you to think about how Japan’s encounter with western nations forced it to make decisions based on traditional Japanese ways. Pick six (6) documents throughout the book, at least two must be ones I did not assign) and create an argument about Japanese understandings of outside influences and why the United States deemed itself important enough to force a trade agreement on Japan. Again, please use the actual texts (don’t say: “document 32 says that so-and-so made this claim”/ quote so-and-so). Historians use primary texts as evidence so you need to learn how to use the documents to make your claim.
Essay 4:
Essay 4 Guidelines: This essay asks you to construct an argument for how New Imperialism in Europe used enlightenment ideals and industrialization to understand its relationship to Africa. Using four documents from the collection, explain your argument for the rise of the Congo Free State as a European/Western idea. Be aware of how this engagement with Africa looks similar to other interactions we have studied this term. You must use six (6) documents, at least two I did not assign.
Last Completed Projects
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