This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

Wherever possible, the book citations below reflect the specific editions used in the course.

Required

Buy at Amazon de Erauso, Catalina. Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World. Translated by Michele Stepto and Gabriel Stepto. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780807070727.

Buy at Amazon Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Equiano. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2004. ISBN: 9780375761157.

Buy at Amazon Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London, UK: Penguin in association with Heinemann African Writers Series, 2001. ISBN: 9780141186887.

Buy at Amazon Kovaly, Heda. Under a Cruel Star. New York, NY: Holmes & Meier, 1997. ISBN: 9780841913776.

Optional

Buy at Amazon Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman Company, 1996. ISBN: 9781886746626.

Readings by Class Session

SES # TOPICS readings
1 Introduction to Class and Requirements Buy at Amazon Abu-Lughod, Janet Lippman. "The World System in the 13th Century: Dead-End or Precoursor?" in M. Adas, Islamic and European Expansion. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1993, 75-102. ISBN: 9781566390682.
2

Transatlantic Contact and Its Significance

Discussion: Letter from Columbus

 Letter from Buy at Amazon Columbus; Morison, Sauer, & Todorov on Columbus in M. Lunenfeld. 1492: Discovery, Invasion, Encounter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. 107-113, 131-142. ISBN: 9780669211153.

Buy at Amazon Begin: Pomeranz, Kenneth and Topik, Steven. Eds. The World that Trade Created. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, 21-23, 53-55. ISBN: 9780765602497.
3 Indian Ocean Encounters; Conquest in the New World

Buy at Amazon Pomeranz, Kenneth and Topik, Steven. Eds. The World that Trade Created. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, 16-18. ISBN: 9780765602497.

Buy at Amazon McNeil, "The Age of Gunpowder Empires 1450-1800" in M. Adas, Islamic and European Expansion. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1993, 103-139. ISBN: 9781566390682.
4 Discussion: Catalina de Erauso, Lieutenant Nun Buy at Amazon de Erauso, Catalina. Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World. Translated by Michele Stepto and Gabriel Stepto. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780807070727.
5 Racism I: New World Slavery  
6 Discussion: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Equiano Buy at Amazon Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Equiano. New York, NY: Modern Library, 2004. ISBN: 9780375761157.
7 The Ottoman Empire; Absolutism in Europe  
8 Revolution in France  
9 Discussion: Abbé Sieyés; Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,
and other documents from L. Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights
 		 Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,
and other documents from Buy at Amazon Hunt, Lynn. The French Revolution and Human Rights. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996. ISBN: 9780312108021.
 
10

Revolution in Haiti

Discussion: Readings and documents on Toussant L'Overture
(from Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)

 Readings and documents on Toussant L'Overture from Buy at Amazon Censer, Jack and Hunt, Lynn. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780271020884.
 
11

European Industrialization

Discussion: The World that Trade Created

 Pomerance, and Topik. The World that Trade Created. pp. 179-213.
12

Social Implications of Industrialization

Discussion: Documents on child labor and social conditions of industrialization, Smiles, Self-Help and Communist Manifesto

Smiles, Self-Help (1882).

Buy at Amazon Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Communist Manifesto. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1998. ISBN: 9780451527103.

[Download Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, a version of this text from Project Gutenberg.]
13 The (Mis)Measure of Man: Culture of Technology and Race "Science"

Excerpt from Buy at Amazon Adas, Michael.Machines as the Measure of Men. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780801497605.

Excerpt from Charles Darwin & Comte de Gobineau
 
14 From the Opium Wars to the Boxer Uprising in the Far East  
15 The New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa Excerpt from: Adas, Michael. Machines as the Measure of Men.

Short excerpt from: de Gobineau.
16
Discussion of Chinua Achebe's, Things Fall Apart 		Buy at Amazon Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London, UK: Penguin in association with Heinemann African Writers Series, 2001. ISBN: 9780141186887. (Entire book.)
17 Cultural Transformation & Economic Genocide Buy at Amazon "King Leopold's Congo" and "Imperium et Libertas in India" in Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman Company, 1996. ISBN: 9781886746626.
18 The Modern Metropolis and the Origins of Mass Culture  
19 Discussion: Advertising: The Magic System, and "From Salvation to Self-Realization"

Buy at Amazon Williams, Raymond. "Advertising: The Magic System." In Problems in Materialism and Culture. London, UK: Verso, 1980, 170-195. ISBN: 9780860917298.


Buy at Amazon Lears, T. J. Jackson. "From salvation to self-realization: Advertising and the therapeutic roots of the consumer culture, 1880-1930." In The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History, 1880-1980, Edited by Richard Wightman Fox and T.J. Jackson Lears, New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1983, 1-38. ISBN: 9780394511313.
20 The First World War  
21 Socialism in the Soviet Union and China Begin reading: Buy at Amazon Kovaly, Heda. Under a Cruel Star. New York, NY: Holmes & Meier, 1997. ISBN: 9780841913776.
22 World War II  
23 Discussion: Heda Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star Buy at Amazon Kovaly, Heda. Under a Cruel Star. New York, NY: Holmes & Meier, 1997. ISBN: 9780841913776.
24

Decolonization

Discussion: Short excerpt from The Wretched of the Earth

 Short excerpt from: Buy at Amazon Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press: Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2005. ISBN: 9780802141323.
25 The Cold War  
26 "Globalization"?  
  Final Exam