PART I—INTRODUCTION
Week 1 (1/17)—Introduction: The World in 1900
Before class read:
- J.A.S. Grenville, A History of the 20th c. World, introduction
- Martin Gilbert, A History of the World in the Twentieth Century, “1900” and “1901”
In class, watch:
- “People’s Century: Age of Hope, from 1900 to World War I”
PART 2—PANORAMA OF THE WORLD IN 1900
Week 2 (1/24)—Europe in the Age of Empire (part 1)
Before class read Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Empire (1987), preface-164.
Students signup for Presentations, Visual Sources, & Discussion Questions:
- Ch. 1, “Centenarian Revolution” –
- Ch. 2, “Economy Changes Gear” – Christian
- Ch. 3, “Age of Empire” – Emma
- Ch. 4, “Politics of Democracy” – Dylan
- Ch. 5, “Workers of the World” – John
- Ch. 6, “Nations and Nationalism” – Shelley
Week 3 (1/31)—Europe in the Age of Empire (part 2)
Read Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, pp. 165-340
Students signup for Presentations, Visual Sources & Discussion Questions:
- Ch. 7, “Uncertainties of the Bourgeoisie” – Christian
- Ch. 8, “The New Woman” – Dylan
- Ch. 9, “The Arts Transformed” – Emma
- Ch. 10, “The Sciences” – Shelley
- Ch. 11, “Reason and Society” – John
- Ch. 12, “Towards Revolution” – Burke
- Ch. 13, “From Peace to War”
- Discuss “Epilogue” together
Week 4 (2/7)—A Tour of the World in 1900 (er 1913), part 1
Rd. Charles Emmerson, 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War.
We will all read the Introduction – and take time on Wednesday night to discuss.
We will read the rest of the book in pieces, with everyone reading two cities from Part I and two cities from Part II as below. On Wednesday, I’ll ask each pair or group assigned to a chapter to provide some observations about the city they’ve studied. Bring in: some interesting details, some pithy quotes, an idea of what it adds up to. Help the rest of us understand this city and this world. (In class I suggested that we might coordinate how to present each chapter, but I realize that is a bit complicated, as you are each part of four chapter groups. There’s no need to coordinate at length before class, just be ready to share a picture of the chapter as a group).
Of course, we’ll also take time to discuss what all of this adds up to.
At least two hours before class, please post a message to our discussion forum that include two discussion questions about the book (and the picture of 1913 you take away so far) and one image that you’d like to present and discuss.
Read
Introduction, ix-xiv (All)
I. Centre of the Universe, 3-14 (All)
- London – Shelley
- Paris – Burke
- Berlin – Emma
- Rome – John
- Vienna – Christian
- St. Petersburg – Dylan
II. The Old New World, 135-143 (All)
- Washington DC – Christian, Dylan
- New York – Burke, Shelley
- Detroit – John, Burke, Emma
- Los Angeles – Shelley, Christian
- Mexico City – Dylan, Emma, John
Week 5 (2/14)—A Tour of the World in 1900 (er 1913), part 2
Also:
- Think about: your family in 1900
- popular culture representations of 1900
- next week’s assignment
Rd. Charles Emmerson, 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War,
To prepare for class, do your reading as assigned, prepare to present your city chapters (with important background, essential details and an idea of what it adds up to), prepare to discuss the entire book (with a few quotations at hand and some ideas about the portrait Emmerson presents).
On our Discussion Forum, share a few observations about the cities you’ve read about. Also, share one image (from any context) as a bit of visual evidence from the world in 1913. Prepare to present and discuss this image in some detail.
Some questions we may take up in discussion (and that you may ponder before class):
- Why does Emmerson divide up the world in the way he does? How else might we?
- What features of the world in 1900 does he reveal? (And what features does he obscure?)
- How does his story compare to the portrait that we took from Hobsbawm?
- How does the world look different from different points of the globe?
Part III. The World Beyond, 223-229 (all)
- Winnipeg-Melbourne – Emma
- Buenos Aires – Dylan
- Algiers – Christian
- Bombay-Durban – Burke
- Tehran – John
- Jerusalem – Shelley
Part IV. Twilight Powers, 347-357 (all)
- Constantinople – Shelley, Burke
- Peking-Shanghai – Christian, Emma
- Tokyo – Dylan, John
- London, 431-449 (all)
Epilogue, 450-457 (all)
Week 6 (2/21)—Our Tour of the World in 1900
We’ll go off on our own and read in textbooks to help understand a particular region of the world, circa 1900. You have several goals here: to quickly develop a solid understanding of the major developments in this region in 1900; to prepare a short bibliography on the region in 1900; and to present some essential aspects of this history to the class.
The idea is to focus on 1900, but as we’ve seen, that might entail a bit of looking back and a bit of looking forward. For example, to understand British India in 1900 you probably need to look back to 1857 and the Sepoy Mutiny and the reordering of Indian governance, or to 1885 and the foundation of the Indian National Congress. And you need to look forward to WWI and the contribution of Indian troops to the war effort.
I suggest beginning with a reading in a textbook of world history. Then you ought to choose two different textbooks and read appropriate sections on your own. You won’t have time to read multiple monographs, but you will have time to read bibliographies and book reviews to prepare your short bibliography.
To give an example, if you were doing India: you might start with Bob Tignor, et al, World’s Together, World’s Apart, and read the sections on India, from the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 down to World War I. You might then take up: Barbara and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, a well-regarded textbook of Indian history, or John Keay, India: A History, a popular account. Through this reading and the bibliographies in these works, you would outline essential developments and identify important monographs and primary sources (following works such as the document reader Sources of the Indian Tradition, Tracking Modernity on Indian railroads, the speeches of Lord Curzon, or appropriate sections of Financing the Raj, etc.).
Regions:
- Latin America & the Caribbean – Burke
- Sub-Saharan Africa – Shelley
- The Ottoman Empire – John
- China and Japan – Christian
- British India – Dylan
- Southeast Asia – Emma
- Of course, we have to recognize that we’re leaving out important regions of the world and their histories…
Some further details:
What to bring to class?
- A presentation – of about fifteen minutes
- Visual aid – Powerpoint or Google slides
- A one-page handout for your classmates
- And a very briefly annotated bibliography for your professor.
For your presentation, plan for about 15 minutes. Beware of bringing in too many details. Aim to present a few key ideas and a very basic chronology and then take us to some particular examples (which might be a simple narrative or a primary source or a photograph) that demonstrate these key ideas. Think of this as an introductory lecture.
Pull together a Powerpoint or Google presentation that will help you to tell your story.
Bring in a one-page handout for the class, which might include names, chronologies, quotations, maps, photographs – anything that will help you orient your listeners to this history.
Bring a copy of your bibliography (with short annotations for the sources) for the professor. It should include the works you used to prepare your presentation as well as works for additional reading (primary, secondary, books, articles). Including them on your bibliography does not mean that you have read them at any length, but that you consider that these are the best works to start with.
How to find the most important works? You might begin with by checking out the bibliography in Hobsbawm, Emmerson, Strayer, etc., searching CONSORT, searching in JSTOR and Academic Search, checking out course syllabi online, asking me, and asking experts in the history department and beyond.
Don’t stress out too much over this assignment! Go into it with the right attitude. You won’t become an expert in one week of reading, but you can come to understand the basic structure of the regional history you are studying: key events, key developments, key examples.
Note: think about Paper #1 as you complete this assignment.
PART 3—WRITING THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 1900
Week 7 (2/28)—Imperialism in the World of 1900
Rd. Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998).
Signup:
- Find scholarly book reviews and share by Friday – Shelley
- Post three discussion questions by Tuesday at 7pm – John
- During class: present Primary Document – Emma
- During class: Present Visual Evidence – Christian
Alternative readings might include:
- Edward Said, Imperialism and Culture (1993)
- Fred Cooper and Ann Stoler, eds., Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (1997)
- Isabel V. Hull. Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (2006)
- Thomas Metcalf, Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean, 1880-1920 (2007)
- Edward Berenson, Heroes of Empire: Five Charismatic Men and the Scramble for Africa (2010)
- Steven Press, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa (2017)
Friday 3/2: Paper #1 – 1900 Viewed From One Corner of the World – Due by midnight
Week 8 (3/7)—Commodities in the World of 1900
Rd. Stephen Harp, A World History of Rubber: Empire, Industry, and the Everyday (2017). We’ll focus on the first half of the book, chapters 1-3, though I ask you to skim the second half and read the conclusion.
We’ll also read the introduction to Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2014).
Signup:
- Find scholarly book reviews (including some about Beckert’s Empire of Cotton or commodity history) and share by Friday – Burke
- Post three discussion questions by Tuesday at 7pm – Dylan
- During class: present Primary Document – John
- During class: Present Visual Evidence – Emma
Watch the Goodyear Tire Co’s “Island of Yesterday, Sumatra, Dutch West Indies” (1920)
Other books to consider:
- April Merleaux, Sugar and Civilization: American Empire and the Cultural Politics of Sweetness (2015)
- John Tully, The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber (2011)
And other works that have told the history of commodities and trade:
- Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1986)
- Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants (1993)
- Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (1998)
- Peter Chapman, Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World (2009)
SPRING BREAK!
Week 9 (3/28)—The US and the World
Rd. Robert Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922 (2005)
Signup:
- Find scholarly book reviews and share by Friday – Dylan
- Post three discussion questions by Tuesday at 7pm – Christian
- During class: present Primary Textual Document – Burke
- During class: Present Visual Evidence – Shelley
Also. For class, please prepare to talk of at least five minutes (and maximum of ten) about one or the other:
- Your family in 1900
- Your hometown in 1900
And other works to consider:
- Walter LaFeber, The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion 1860-1898 (1963)
- Robert Rydell, All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 (1984)
- David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (1978)
- Robert Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922 (2005)
- Julia Greene, The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal (2010)
Another approach, via episodic histories, snapshots of a year:
- Jim Rasenberger, America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of the Model T, and the Making of a Modern Nation (2011)
- Dlorian Illies, 1913: The Year Before the Storm (2013)
Or of the world on the way to war:
- The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2014)
- Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (1966)
Or for some other views:
- Carl Schorske, Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (1980)
- Ian Jared Miller, The Nature of the Beasts: Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo (2013)
- Nara Milanich, Children of Fate: Childhood, Class, and the State in Chile, 1850–1930 (2009)
- Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China (2014)
- James Reckner, Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet
- Michael Fisher, Migration: A World History (2013)
- Massimo Livi Bacci, A Short History of Migration
Week 10 (4/4)—Historians on 1900
Read in depth in a historical monograph—that is, a secondary source by a historian—that sheds some light on this history we are studying. You might choose one of the selected works from our regional studies or an additional reading from our schedule. I must approve your choice of reading.
Come to class with a short write-up on the source that you read. Be prepared to present your source and to explain how you would analyze it. Who is the author? What is the book about? What is its argument? What kinds of sources does it use? How does it make its case? How does it fit in a larger historiography? How can it help us to better understand the world in 1900?
You’ll write a paper for Friday in which you present and analyze this work as a view on the history of the world in 1900.
Readings:
- Burke – Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2012)
- Christian – Timothy Giilfoyle, A Pick Pockets Tale the Under-world of the 19th Century New York, 1870 to 1920 (2006)
- Dylan – James Reckner, Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet (1988)
- Emma – Thomas Metcalf, Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean, 1880-1920 (2007)
- John – Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China (2014)
- Shelley – Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (1966)
Friday 4/6: Paper #2 – Review of Historical Monograph – Due by midnight
Week 11 (4/11)—Global Connections
Read carefully in one of the following categories or another that I approve. I list a few suggested readings for some of the categories. This will give you an idea of the kind of reading I’d like you to do, namely: an encyclopedia article or general survey and then a couple scholarly (peer-reviewed) history articles or chapters. But you may read other or additional sources if you like.
The idea is to read on a particular theme that has global resonance – and to understand how this theme might help us understand the world in 1900. Please let me know what topic you are going to read in before the end of the weekend, so that we each have a topic of our own.
Come to class with a brief write up of your reading, prepared to present your topic in about 10 minutes. You might bring along important quotations, essential examples, visual sources, primary sources.
Neurasthenia – Shelley
- Encyclopedia entry
- Christopher Forth, “Neurasthenia and Manhood in fin-de-siècle France,” in Cultures of Neurasthenia (2001)
- Paolo Drinot, “Madness, Neurasthenia, and ‘Modernity’: Medico-Legal and Popular Interpretations of Suicide in Early Twentieth-Century Lima” Latin America Research Review (2004)
The Boer War – Dylan
- Encyclopedia entry
- Kenneth O. Morgan, “The Boer War and the Media (1899-1902)” Twentieth Century British History (2002)
- John Higginson, “Hell in Small Places: Agrarian Elites and Collective Violence in the Western Transvaal, 1900-1907” Journal of Social History (2001)
The Rubber Boom
- Refer to Stephen Harp for a general view
- Emily Lynn Osborn, “‘Rubber Fever’, Commerce and French Colonial Rule in Upper Guinée, 1890-1913,” Journal of African History (2004)
- Thomas T. Orum, “The Women of the Open Door: Jews in the Belle Epoque Amazonian Demimonde, 1890-1920” Shofar (2001)
The Russo-Japanese War – Emma
- Encyclopedia entry
- John W. Steinberg, “Was the Russo-Japanese War World War Zero,” Russian Review
- Naoko Shimazu, “Patriotic and Despondent: Japanese Society at War,” Russian Review (2008)
- Simon Partner, “Peasants into Citizens? The Meiji Village in the Russo-Japanese War,” Monumenta Nipponica 62
Human Rights and Peace Movements
- Encyclopedia entry
- Identify two articles or book chapters in JSTOR
Race in 1900 – Burke
- Encyclopedia entry
- Identify two articles or book chapters in JSTOR
The Metropolis: Urbanization, circa 1900
- Encyclopedia entry
- Identify two articles or book chapters in JSTOR
The Physical Sciences, circa 1900
- Encyclopedia entry
- Identify two articles or book chapters in JSTOR
PART 4—BY WAY OF CONCLUSION: WRITING OUR OWN HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 1900
Week 12 (4/18)—The Sources of History for 1900
Read in depth in a book-length primary source (or a collection of short primary sources) that interests you and that sheds some light on the world in 1900. I give you wide latitude as to how you might do this with only a few restrictions: your source should be something you don’t already know well, it should have been first published between the years 1890 and 1910 and I must approve of your selection. Let me know what you would like to read by Thursday, 4/12.
How to choose your work? You might search CONSORT or WorldCat while selecting books published in this range of years. Another alternative is to browse the Wikipedia categories of 1890s Books or 1900s books. There are some websites that might help, such as Books of the Century, 1900-1909. Find a work that engages questions that we’ve raised, take a quick look to make sure it fits you, and send me an email to get my approval.
Some quick possibilities:
- A novel or play or work of poetry from the era. There are many classics of the era, such as H.G. Wells, Emile Zola, Theodore Dreiser, etc.
- An important work of social or cultural criticism. See Max Nordau, Degeneration (1895) or Emile Durkheim, Suicide (1897), for two examples among hundreds.
- A powerful political statement. See W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folks (1903), or Mahatma Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (1909), for a couple examples.
- Works of propaganda, travel narratives, human rights, etc. See The Casement Report (1904), for example..
I encourage you to consider reading in a foreign language if you can do so without too much difficulty. (I’ll give you some extra credit for using foreign language sources. And I’ll allow that you might read less than if you were reading in English.)
Come to class with a short write-up on the source(s) that you read. Be prepared to present your source and to explain how you would analyze it in about ten minutes. Who is the author? What is this work? What does it have to say? What is its context? How was it received around the world? How should we understand it as a source for our history of the world in 1900?
Readings
- Burke – W.E.B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folks (1903)
- Christian – Owen Wister, The Virginian (1902)
- Dylan – Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot (1908)
- Emma – H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)
- John – Sun Yat Sen, San Min Chu-i (Three Principles of the People) (1905)
- Shelley – Edmond Rostand, Chantecler (1910)
Week 13 (4/25)—Globalization 1.0 & The History of the World in 1900
I’d first like us to consider some aspects of globalization pre-1914 (what has been called the first era of globalization) through the reading of Niall Ferguson’s short article.
- Rd. Niall Ferguson, “Sinking Globalization,” Foreign Affairs (2005)
In addition, I’d like us to begin to think through how we would reflect on the work that we have done through a reading of the introductory piece from Jans Romein’s Watershed of Two Eras.
- Rd. Jans Romein, “1900: A Synoptic View,” in The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900 (1978)
And finally, a bit of thinking and writing. Bring in (in outline form) your proposal for a Wikipedia entry on the History of the World in 1900. Think big and think about the structure of the whole. What categories would you use to divide up the topic? What sections would you include within each category? How would you balance events, personalities, and developments? How would you balance politics, economics, society, and culture? Note: you might want to look over Hobsbawm and 1913 and your textbook readings from week six as you do this.
And note, this will be the basis for the last paper. I’ll ask you to write your Wikipedia entry on the History of the World in 1900.
Sunday 4/29: Paper #3 – Wikipedia Entry on the History of the World in 1900 – Due Sunday by Noon
Week 14 (5/2)—Your Account of 1900
I will post your papers to the “Student Papers” section of our website by Sunday afternoon. I will also start a discussion thread on our Moodle Discussion Forum, so that we can share some comments before we meet.
Before we meet on Wednesday evening, read your classmates papers. Share a comment on each one on the Moodle Discussion Forum.
Class will meet this week at my house over dinner. Bring laptops or smartphones so that you can complete the course evaluation. We will have a relaxed opportunity to talk about where we’ve been and what we’ve done.
I will hand out the Take-Home Final. The Take-Home Final will ask you a set of questions about our discussions, the books we’ve read, and the larger topic of the world in 1900.