Advanced Placement World History:
3000 B.C.E. - 2012 C.E.
AP World History: Primary Text - Adelman, Brown, Kotkin, Marchand, Tsin. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World From the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present. W.W. Norton & Company, 2011 (978-0-393-93492-2) Third Edition. Students are to answer the Focus Questions at the beginning of each chapter and the Study Questions at the end of each chapter in their notebooks. Questions are to be completed on the "due date" listed under assignments below. These questions explicate fundamental themes of the text and assist students in writing continuity and change questions. Students are also expected to briefly answer the questions at the end of each primary source document. The "primary documents" help assist students in learning how to write the analytical DBQ question. A well-written notebook is fundamental to a good course grade and students receive a quarterly exam grade for their notebook writing.
*****Summer Reading: Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. (978-0-618-00190-3) 2009. Write a seven page analytical essay
using quotations to develop and discuss the author's thesis. This essay
will be turned in no later than September 12th. There will be a seminar
on the 12th to discuss the analytical essays.
Fukuyama, Francis. The Origins of Political Order. (978-0-374-22734-0). Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, New York. (978-0-618-00190-3) 1998.
Ferguson, Niall. The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West. (1-59420-100-5) The Penguin Press, New York, 2006.
Darwin, John. After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405. (978-1-59691-393-6) Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. Millenium: A History of the Last Thousand Years. (0-7432-0249-X) Touchstone Books, 1996.
Assignments: Text - Kotkin, Stephen. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart. W.W. Norton and Company, 2008.
T = Text A = Art DA = Document Analysis (Primary Source Documents) M = Map FQ = Focus Questions SQ = Study Questions
***Answer all of the analytical questions at the beginning of each chapter in the "bolded" box. Answering the questions will assist you in writing analytical answers for your AP World History exam. Also answer the "study questions" at the conclusion of each chapter.
9/3 2-15 Precursors to Modern Humans. DA # 6 - "A Hindu Creation Myth". DA # 9 - "How We Know What We Know".
9/4 15-25 The First Modern Humans. DA # 21 - "Problems in the Study of Hunters and Gatherers". DA # 23 - "The Art of Chauvet Cave".
9/5 26-37 The Beginnings of Food Production. DA # 26-27 - "Original Language Family Groups". DA # 28-29 - "The Origins of Food Production".
9/6 37-46 Agriculture in the Americas. DA # 39 - "A Mesoamerica Creation Myth". DA # 41 - "The Spread of Farming in Africa". DA # 44 - "Mothering and Milking".
9/9 Exam # 1: Becoming Human: Multiple Choice, Identifications, Essay.
9/10 50-63 Settlement, Pastoralism and Trade. DA # 54-55 - "The World in the Third Millennium BCE". DA # 58 - "Trade and Exchange in Southwest Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean."
9/11 63-72 Social Hierarchy and Families. DA # 65 - "The Origins of Writing According to the Sumerians." DA # 70 - "The Mystery of Harappan Writing."
9/12 72-81 The Gift of the Nile: Egypt (5000-2000 BCE). DA # 78 - "Egyptian Gods". DA # 80 - "The Admonitions of Ipuwer".
9/13 81-93 Riverine Peoples in East Asia (5000-2000 BCE). DA # 82 - "Riverine Peoples in East Asia (5000-2000 BCE). DA # 84 - "Archaeological Evidence for Longshan Culture". DA # 87 - "Settlements on the Margins: The Eastern Mediterranean and Europe (5000-2000 BCE)." DA #88-89 - "Ritual Objects in the Iranian Plateau, China and Tibet." DA # 91 - "The Male Warrior Burials of Varna and Nett Down".
9/16 Exam # 2: Rivers, Cities and First States: (4000-2000 BCE).
9/17 96-106 Nomadic Movement and the Emergence of Territorial States. DA # 103 - "War Chariots".
9/18 106-116 The Rise of Territorial States in Southwest Asia and North Africa. DA # 112 - "The Epic of Gilgamesh".
9/19 116-126 Nomads and the Indus River Valley. DA # 117 - "Vedic Hymns to the Chariot Race of the Gods." DA # 118 - "How Languages Spread: The Case of Nomadic Indo-European Languages." DA # Sima Qian on the Ruler's Mandate." DA # 124 - "The Oracle Bone."
9/20 126-136 The South Pacific (2500 BCE - 400 CE). DA # 130 - "Linear A and B - Writing in the Early Mediterranean Worlds".
9/23 Exam # 3: Nomads, Territorial States and Microsocieties: 2000-1200 BCE
9/24 140-152 Forces of Upheaval and the Rise of Early Empires. DA # 145 - "Afro-Eurasia: 1200 BCE - Urban Cores and Nomadic Invaders." DA # 150 - "The Banquet Stele of Assurnasirpal II."
9/25 152-166 The Persian Empire. DA # 155 - "Beisitun Inscription". DA # 161 - "War in Homer's Iliad."
9/26 166-181 Foundations of Vedic Culture in South Asia (1500-400 BCE. DA # 169 - "Becoming a Brahmin Priest".
9/27 DA # 170-71 - "Prophets and Founding Texts - Comparing Jewish and Vedic Sources". DA # 174 - "Zhou Succession Story."
9/30 Exam # 4: First Empires and Common Cultures in Afro-Eurasia: 1200-350 BCE.
10/1 182-195 Eastern Zhou China (770-221 BCE). DA # 194 - "Warring Ideas: Confucianism Versus Daoism".
10/2 195-204 The New Worlds of South Asia. DA # 202-03 - "Warring Ideas: The Buddha Versus the Brahmans." DA # 204-05 - "Prophets and the Founding Texts: Comparing Confucius and the Buddha."
10/3 204-212 Common Cultures in the Americas. DA # 209 - "Olmec Art as Ideology."
Course Syllabus