History Department Home

Instructor: Erik Gilbert

Office: 116 Wilson

Phone Number: 972-3046

Email: egilbert@toltec.astate.edu

Office Hours: 11-12:20 MWF and 9-12 Tuesday

Course Web Site: http://www.clt.astate.edu/egilbert/honors_seminar.htm

Description:

Why some parts of the globe are rich and others are poor is one of the most vexing questions facing the world historian. Why were New Guineans using stone tools in the 1920s when western Europeans were plying the seas in steamships, communicating with telephones, and wearing mass-produced clothes? Is there something wrong with New Guineans and their culture? Or is their something special about Europeans and their culture? Or can these differences in wealth best be explained by environmental and geographical factors rather than cultural ones? This course looks at these questions through two recently published books, Jarred Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and David Landes’ The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, one of which takes the environmental position and the other the cultural position.

Core texts will be:

Jarred Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel

David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

Students will also read excerpts of:

William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples

Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Eric Jones, The European Miracle.

Please buy the core texts – Diamond and Landes at the bookstore. The other readings will be on reserve or if you wish you can buy them from Barnes and Noble or Amazon for a modest sum.

Students will write 5 page critical reviews of the two core texts and write a 15 to 20 page research paper on a topic of their choice. I hope that students will choose to explore topics related to their majors or interests. Since the course and the readings will deal in biology, geography, sociology, agriculture, anthropology, history, business, and economics it should be easy for to apply your own areas of knowledge to the questions addressed by the course. Your grades will be based on your writings and the quality of your contributions to the discussion of the readings. Please consult the web site for more complete directions and advice on the reviews and paper.

Grades will be based on the following formula:

Book Reviews 30%

Research Paper 50%

Class Participation 20%

Aug. 21 Diamond, Prologue and Landes, Introduction

 

Part II The Environmental/Geographical Explanation

Aug. 23 Diamond, Chap. 1

Aug. 28 Diamond, Chaps. 3-4.

Aug. 30 Diamond, Chaps. 4-6

Sept. 4 Labor Day – No Class

Sept. 6 Diamond, Chaps. 7-10

Sept. 11 Diamond, Chaps. 11-12

Sept. 13 Diamond, Chaps. 13-14

Sept. 18 Diamond, Chaps. 15-17

Sept. 20 Diamond, Chaps. 18,19, Epilogue

Sept. 25 McNeill, Chap. 2

Sept. 27 McNeill, Chap. 5

Oct. 2 Crosby, Chap. 3

Oct. 4 Crosby, Chap. 4

 

 

Oct. 9 Landes, Chaps. 1-4

Oct. 11 Landes, Chaps. 5-8

Oct. 16 Landes, Chaps. 9-11

Oct. 18 Landes, Chaps. 12-15

Oct. 23 Landes, Chaps. 16-19

Oct. 25 Landes, Chaps. 20-23

Oct. 30 Landes, Chaps. 24-26

Nov. 1 Landes, Chaps. 27-29, Epilogue

Nov. 6 Weber, Chaps. 1-2

Nov. 8 Weber, Chap. 5

Nov. 13 Jones, Chaps. 9-10

Nov. 15 Jones, Chaps. 11-12

Research paper drafts due on Nov. 15

Each of you will present a draft of your paper to the seminar. Photocopies of the papers will be circulated before the presentations. A designated critic will lead the seminar in a critical discussion of each paper. This is an essential part of a seminar. It teaches you to explain your ideas, criticize others’ work, and to use the criticism of others to improve your own work.

Nov. 20 Presentations

Nov. 22 Thanksgiving Break

Nov. 27 Presentations

Nov. 29 Presentations

Dec. 4 Presentations