York Country Day School

 

AP WORLD HISTORY

Syllabus

Mr. Gyenes

 

Course Description

 The purpose of the AP World History course is to develop a greater understanding of global historical processes and contrasts viewed against the interaction of different types of human societies. The course highlights the changes in international framework, their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. The course emphasizes relevant factual knowledge used in conjunction with leading interpretive issues, types of historical evidence, and appropriate analytical skills. Focused primarily on the past 1,000 years of the global experience, the course builds on an understanding of cultural, institutional, and technological precedents that, along with geography, set the human stage prior to 1000 CE. Rather than focusing on continents or states, we study cultural regions or civilizations. Periodization or how we structure past eras forms the organizing principal for dealing with change and continuity. Themes provide further organization to the course, along with constant attention to contacts among societies that form the core of world history

 

Themes:

AP World History highlights six overarching themes that should receive approximately equal attention throughout the course beginning with the Foundations section:

 

  1. Impact of interaction among major societies (trade, systems of international exchange, war, and diplomacy.)

 

  1. The relationship of change and continuity across the world history periods covered in this course.

 

  1. Impact of technology and demography on people and the environment (population growth and decline, disease, manufacturing, migrations, agriculture, weaponry.)

 

  1. Systems of social structure and gender structure (comparing major features within and among societies and assessing change.)

 

  1. Cultural and intellectual developments and interactions among and within societies.

 

  1. Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities (political culture), including the emergence of the nation-state (types of political organization.

 

Textbooks

 

Bentley, Jerry H.. and Herbert F Ziegler.  Traditions and Encounters:  A Global Perspective on the Past. (Major Text)

 

In addition to Bentley and Ziegler the student will receive  a large quantity of handouts from major primary source readers, particularly:

 

Alfred Andrea and James Overfield, The Human Record: Sources of Global History.

 

Reilly, Kevin.  Worlds of History:  A Comparative Reader.

 

Ř      The course readings are major aspects of the course.  I am here to teach you, not read to you.  The majority of the lectures and class discussions will be supplemented with  in class and outside reading.  Therefore, to get more complete picture of the periods under study you must read the assigned pages/articles/documents, etc. and participate in class discussions and projects.

 

 

 

 Notebooks and Materials

A 2” wide 3 ring notebook (exclusively for this subject) with loose leaf paper for note-    taking and dividers with pockets is required.

Students are expected to keep a class notebook.  Notebooks should be kept in        chronological order, corresponding to chapters read each quarter. The divisions are: (1) lecture/reading notes, (2) handouts, and (3) in-class writing.

 Notebooks will be checked for a grade without advanced notice.

 

 

Grading

                    10% Class Notes and Homework Notes

                    10% Chapter Quizzes

                    20% Homework

                    20% Projects and In Class Assignments

                    40% Unit Tests

 

*Late assignments will automatically drop ONE LETTER GRADE per day late.  If you are absent on a due day you must submit the work whether you have class or not on your return day.

 

At the beginning of each week the student will receive a weekly schedule for all daily topics and assignments.

 

 

The Examination:

Multiple-choice (70 questions) [55 minutes]

Document-based question (DBQ) (1) [50 minutes]

Change-Over-time essay (1) [40 minutes]

Comparative essay (1) [40 minutes]

 

 

COURSE STRUCTURE/BREAKDOWN (26 “teachable” weeks plus one (1) week for review:

 

Foundations (2 weeks) [Bentley Chapters: 1-6; pp. 1-458]

 600 C.E. -1450 (6 weeks) [Chs. 7-22; pp. 159-600]

1450-1750 (6 weeks) [Bentley Cchs. 23-29; pp. 601-799]

1750-1914 (6 weeks) [Bentley Chs. 30-34; pp. 800-963]

1914-Present (6 weeks) [Bentley Chs. 34-40; pp. 963-1168]

 

Organization of the AP World Course.

The course will have as its chronological frame the period from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present, with the period 8000 BCE to 600 BCE service as the foundation for the balance of the course.

 

An outline of the periodization, along with the major developments which the student will learn, for the course is as follows:

 

I.                  Foundations (c. 8000 BCE- 600 BCE) (2-3 weeks)

A.     Locating world history in the environment and time.

B.     Developing agriculture and technology.

C.     Basic features of early civilizations in different environments:  culture, state, and social structure.

D.     Classical civilization.

E.      Major belief systems.

F.      Late classical period.

 

 

II.               600 C.E. -1450 (6 weeks)

A.     Questions of periodization.

B.     The Islamic World

C.     Interregional networks and contacts.

D.     China’s internal and external expansion.

E.      Developments in Europe.

F.      Social, cultural, economic, and political paterns in the Amerindian world.

G.     Demographic and environmental changes.

H.     Diverse interpretations.

 

III.             1450-1750 (6 weeks)

A.     Questions of periodization

B.     Changes in trade, technology, and global interactions

C.     Knowledge of major empires and other political units and social systems

D.     Slave systems and slave trade

E.      Demographic and environmental changes:  diseases, animals, new crops, and comparative population trends

F.      Cultural and intellectual developments

G.     Diverse interpretations

 

IV.            1750-1914 (6 weeks)

A.     Questions of periodizations

B.     Changes in global commerce, communications, and technology

C.     Demographic and environmental changes (migrations, end of the Atlantic slave trade, new birthrate patters, food supply)

D.     Changes in social and gender structure (Industrial Revolution; commercial and demographic developments; emancipation; and tension between work patterns and ideas about gender)

E.      Political revolutions and independence movements; new political ideas

F.      Rise of Western dominance (economic, political, social, cultural and artistic, patterns of expansion; imperialism and colonialism) and different cultural and political reactions (reform; resistance; rebellion; racism; nationalism)

G.     Diverse interpretations

 

V.               1914- the present (6 weeks)

A.     Questions of periodizations

B.     The World Wars, the Holocaust, the Cold War, nuclear weaponry, international organization, and their impact on the global framework (globalization of diplomacy and conflict; global balance of power; reduction of European influence; the League of Nations, the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Nations, etc.)

C.     New patterns of nationalism (the interwar years; decolonization; racism, genocide; new nationalisms, including the breakup of the Soviet Union)

D.     Impact of major global economic developments (the Great Depression; technology, Pacific Rim; multinational corporations)

E.      New forces of revolution and other sources of political innovations

F.      Social reform and social revolution (changing gender roles; family structures; rise of feminism; peasant protest; international Marxism)

G.     Globalization of science, technology, and culture

H.     Demographic and environmental changes (migrations; changes in birthrates and death rates; new forms or urbanization; deforestation; green/environmental movements)

I.        Diverse interpretations.