I'm teaching world history next year. Where should I place the halfway pt?

[Bucky]

In planning my two semesters for next year, I found that the text book and recommended curriculums on World History place the halfway mark at the discovery of the new world. I mean no slight against ancient cultures, but that seems like it leaves way too little time to cover:

1. The Reformation and Counter Reformation
2. The Scientific Revolution
3. The development of nationalism and absolute monarchies
4. The age of revolutions and constitutionalism
5. The Napoleonic Wars
6. The age of imperialism
7. The industrial revolution
8. The growth of leisure time in social history
9. The women's movement of the 19th century
10. The two world wars
11. the growth of labor movements
12. The rise (and defeat) of totalitarianism
13. The Cold War
14. The independence movements of the third world
15. The technology revolution
16. The rise of Third Wave economies, and
17. The post-Cold War world

In other words, all the stuff that's relevant to understanding the development of modern life that would help shape the thinking of the future voters in my classroom. In a discussion with a colleague, I disingenuously suggested I should make WW1 the cut off point. I was told that's too recent.

Does anyone here have a suggestion about where I should be in history by the time of the December midterms?

[Yupster]

1. No offense, but

are you sure you're teaching World History?

Your bullet points look more like a Western History syllabus.

When I taught World History, I had better luck going region by region rather than in a timeline.

Don't know if that's something you would consider or even if you'd be allowed to consider it.

Anyway, best of luck from this old history teacher and textbook author.

[Bucky]

3. None offense taken. please note...

First, I teach what I'm required by law to teach and I teach what my kids need to learn to make them informed future voters. From this list above, items 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 deal explicitly with events that occured in non-western countries. I'm pretty sure I'm teaching an inclusive, non-eurocentric, and broad-based curriculum.

[leyton]

2. Try and go beyond WW1 if you can!

I took two world history courses during high school. One was really Western History from Antiquity to WWI; the other was actually world history from WWI to detente. I think the second class was far more valuable; while the first was interesting, I found 20th century far more relevant and illuminating and your students probably would as well. I'd say allow as much time as possible to recent history, but I'm afraid it sounds like you might run into trouble with whoever regulates curriculum in your department.

[Lefty48197]

4. The Byzantine era

Teach them about the origins and development of man. Teach them how humans evolved from semi-nomadic hunters/gatherers to an agricultural based people, and how that led to the growth of the great cities and civilizations. Teach them about the civilizations in Egypt and Greece. Teach them about the Chinese empires, the Roman empire, the Persians. Teach them about the spread of Christianity, about the Reformation, about the history of Islam. Teach them about Jewish history. Teach them about the invaders, teach them about the European kingdoms. I would end the first semester with the Byzantine era. (of course, I'm not a teacher!)

[WMliberal]

5. Second semester picks up as folows in my district:

west: just before the renaissance.
middle east:post-crusades (ottoman dominance)
far east:ming empire
africa: mali empire

[Bucky]

6. That seems too far back to cover it all up to present by May.

As I've revised my schedule (over and over) I keep running into stuff far back in time that I think--oh that's cool, I wanna cover that, too. Currently I'm thinking:

far east: Qing Dynasty, maybe include collapse of the Mings. But it seems that the Qing problems teach us more about modern China

Africa from the Mali and Mideast from the Ottomans, sure, but I want to start in soon enough there to cover the Great Game over India, Persia

Europe: Enlightenment is the very earliest I can justify starting there. Otherwise I'd have to short shrift social and labor history

Americas: I can more or less cover the Amerindian genocide quickly and then jump straight over to the Latin American independence movement. Spanish colonial strikes me as less important to know than the rise of the caudillos.

[barb162]

7. I think,maybe you should use a date cutoff, perhaps 1300 -1500 or

so knowing you will have some overlap between the two sessions. So much was popping after these dates. I have no idea how anyone can teach a world history course as it is just too much to cover even as a long survey course. (PS I was a European History major)

[Montagnard]

8. Battle of Hastings

1066. This was the start of the movement toward european nation building.

[TheBaldyMan]

9. between pre- & post-enlightenment,

culturally this would seem to me to be a point where history might be separated into two parts. Any subject in the 17th and 18th century could be used as a stop/start point and may leave some impression of continuity.

just my tuppence worth.

[nealmhughes]

10. I would begin my "recent" part at ca. 1500 because so much happened

thereabouts, such as moveable type printing, New World rediscovery, beginning of large scale colonial adventure, fall of the Byzantine Empire and the first beginning of the Reformation immediately following...the unification of Spain and final ouster of the Arabs...Mexico at its Aztec zenith...

Yep, 1500 is pretty good place to end. I think Kishlansky is a good book to do Part I out of, myself. I used it 3 years in WC 101. Not a lot about China or India, though.