This course is anchored by questions about how and why human societies rise and fall and learning how diverse cultures and societies around the world developed and interacted. Students will practice the skills that historians use to reconstruct and analyze the past, undertake in-depth research, make complex arguments, defend logical positions with detailed evidence, and explore the cause-and-effect connections brought about by the choices of individuals and groups. This course covers Neolithic Revolution in 10,000 BCE to the present day.
The course is organized around four key themes:
- Hierarchy and Community (how human societies are organized and led)
- Migration and Exchange (the movement of people, goods, and ideas in global patterns of exchange)
- Humans and the Environment (how humans have shaped and altered their natural environment, and have themselves been shaped by the resources, opportunities, and threats of the natural world)
- Progress and its Consequences (history as a fluctuating and unpredictable narrative where what was progress for some brought disastrous consequences for others)
Key skills being developed include identifying patterns and relationships, analyzing primary sources, conducting research, forming relevant questions, identifying bias, and communicating effectively in writing.