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Course Title: World History Survey
Department: Social Studies
Instructor: Mr. Charles Burris
Semester: Fall 2019-Spring 2020
Class Meets: Regular Schedule
E-mail Address: burrich@tulsaschools.org
Course Overview: This course provides students with a comprehensive study of world history from roughly 1500 AD to the present. We will examine five major revolutions that substantially changed world history during this period:
Each civilization's history is explored from the perspective of that civilization's internal development and from the perspective of how cross-culture interaction has affected its development and the development of other civilizations.
Course Objectives:
Students will be able to:
Course Philosophy: My philosophy is to actively involve all students in our daily activities and discussions. Students will be encouraged in critical thinking and analysis, to see the connections between historical events and the contemporary world they live in.
This course is designed to develop within you the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in Modern History. It is very demanding and rigorous. THERE WILL BE A READING AND/OR ESSAY WRITING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT EVERY DAY. The primary method of instruction is by viewing videos related to the course content. You will be required to carefully watch a specific video documentary each day in class, take Cornell notes, and from your notes write an evaluative essay in MLA format on the material you learned from the video. Your academic goals are to develop critical literacy and disinterested reflection -- through critical reading, analyzing data, and synthesizing historical evidence to develop new insights and understanding with clarity and precision. Our course should thus develop the skills necessary for you to arrive at evaluative conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and historical evidence clearly and persuasively in essay format.
Course Outline:
The Beginnings of the Modern Age
The Renaissance and Reformation
The Age of Absolutism
The Road From Runnymede -- Anglo-American Political Institutions, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law, from Magna Carta through the American Constitution
The Age of Enlightenment -- Intellectual Revolution of the 17th and 18th Centuries
The French Revolution and its Tremendous Consequences to Modern History
The Development of Sociopolitical Ideologies in the Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte
The Evolution of Liberalism
The Reaction of Conservatism
The Development of Socialism
The Birth of Industrial Society
The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
The Factory System
Working Conditions of Urban Industrial Workers
Technology and Communications
Advances in Science, Medicine and Civil Engineering
The Sociocultural Development of Industrial Society
Nationalism -- Unification of New Nations Added to Rising Tensions in Europe
Italy United, Bismarck, Prussia, and the Birth of the Welfare-Warfare State
Russian Autocracy
Austria-Hungry and the Balkans
The Rise of Imperialism
Entering the 20th Century -- the Age of Hope
Setting the Stage for World War
Internecine Conflict between Dynastic Families
World War I -- the Great War
The Russian Revolution
The New Europe
The Birth of Modernism
The Great Depression and the Rise of Totalitarianism
The Coming of Fascism
Postwar Prosperity Crumbles
The Specter of Soviet Communism
New Political Forces Emerge in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
The Road to World War II
Local Conflicts Threaten World Peace
Hitler's Aggression in Europe
Japanese Atrocities in Asia and the Pacific
The United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States
The Holocaust
Allied Victories Over Germany, Italy and Japan
Postwar Changes
The Cold War
The Communist Bloc and the West
Espionage and the Development of the National Security State
The End of Colonialism in Africa and the Middle East
Israel and the Arabs
The Fifties
The Korean War
Cold War Conformity Leads to Youth Rebellion
Birth of the Civil Rights Movement
The Sixties
The New Frontier -- Remembering JFK
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Dangerous World -- The Dark Side of Camelot
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Vietnam
Youth Rebellion -- Nihilistic Gangsters or Counter-Culture
1968 -- The Year That Shaped a Generation
Apollo 11 -- Man on the Moon
The Seventies
Nixon and DĂ©tente
The Key to Watergate
Asia and the World
The Middle East
Iranian Revolution and the Hostage Crisis
The Eighties
The Reagan Revolution
Latin America Becomes the Focus of World Attention
Iran-Contra Scandal
The Superpowers in the Modern Era
The Reagan Doctrine
The Crumbling of the Soviet Empire and the End of the Cold War
The Nineties -- Challenges Faced by the Post-Cold War World
Saddam Hussein and the Invasion of Kuwait
The Gulf War -- Desert Storm
International Terrorism
Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo
The Twenty First Century
9/11 and Osama bin Laden
The Invasion and Occupation of Afghanistan
Saddam Hussein and Weapons of Mass Destruction
The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Course Requirements: Students will need to bring notebook paper daily along with a pen or pencil in order to take Cornell Notes for your evaluative essays.
Technology: The Internet may be used in this course for research purposes but all plagiarism will result in a 0% F.
Types of Assessment:
Grading Scale:
Course Expectations:
Suggestions for Success: Students will be successful if they arrive on time and are prepared for class. Student involvement in class discussions is strongly encouraged. You should study on a regular basis, not just the night prior to the assessment. Students are responsible for asking for makeup work after an absence and should always seek help when they are not meeting expectations.
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