Choice Reading Assignment

Supplemental Reading Assignment

-All students will submit reading journal pages for the text chosen. Due dates will be posted in class.

Project Choices:

1. Critical Essay

ASSIGNMENT:  Refute the author's thesis, or write an paper answering a "big history" question using the text as support. You must write a 4-5 page, thesis driven paper, (absolutely no more than 5 pages!) which refutes the author's thesis, or answers a "big history" question.  You must find 3 critics who agree with your thesis and cite them.   

You will write a 4-5 page typed "critical essay" which will:

1.         Provide 5-6 well, developed paragraphs

2.         Propose an alternate thesis

3.         Provide three literary criticisms (cited) to support your thesis

4.         Provide a Works Cited page (Five minimum)

Papers received after class (i.e, your class period) are considered late and will be worth half their credit with each additional day being penalized 10 pts per day (that includes Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, etc.) 

Refer to Rubric for more information on evaluation.  Remember to use reputable critics.  Not everything on the internet is reputable.  Good Luck!

2. Group Presentation

-Focus on the AP World History themes, and within the groups, create a presentation of the information and how the material relates to world history.

            · Focus on the "Big Picture History"

            ·What questions are raised the texts, and how are they answered?

            · What questions do you have that the texts answer?

-You will submit a presentation proposal, with main questions and topics to be covered before the due date (TBD).

-You may use/create visuals.

-You will work with the other people reading the books in your category and will demonstrate that all people were involved in the process and presentation.

FYI-for the presentations:

-Copyright law allows educational reproductions-you may only use the copies for this class.

A. Copied sections should support the main themes of AP World       

B. Copied section(s) should demonstrate main point of author


KEY

Trade =      A 1=Global

          A2 = Regional

Globalization D

Environment G

Regional B

Women E

Disease H

Technology C

Cultural integration F

 

List of books

Category

Title

Athor

     

A1

Salt: A World History

by Mark Kurlansky

A1

Uncommon Grounds

by Mark Pendegrast

A1

Old World Encounters: Cross Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times

by Jerry J. Bentley

A1

The World that Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy 1400 to the Present

by Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik.

A1

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Jack Weatherford

A1

Dialogues Across Civilizations Sketches in World History

Prazniak, Roxann

A1

The Great Divergence

Pmeranz, Kenneth

A1

 The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography -

-this book will make you think about the world's geography and the way we perceive it in a different way

Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen's

A2

Experiencing World History

Adams

A2

A History of the World in 6 Glasses

Tom Stadage

A2

The Confusions of Pleasure

Timothy Brook

A2/B

Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800

 - a great book for understanding the important role of Africans in shaping the development of the Atlantic world. A good corrective for a topic that is often dominated by the role of Europeans

John Thornton

B

Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha)

by M. K. Gandhi

B

The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic

 - this is an amazing book on the Atlantic world that looks at the contributions of the average man.

Peter Linebaugh, Marcus Rediker's

C

Technology in World Civilization

by Arnold Pacey

C

 Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850-1940

by Daniel R. Headrick

D

 Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World

by Benjamin R. Barber, Andrea Schulz

D

 Longitudes and Attitudes

by Thomas Friedman

D

 Lexus and the Olive Tree

by Thomas Friedman

D

A Worlds Game: A History of Soccer

by Bill Murray and W.J. Murray

D

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely theory of Globalization

by Franklin Foer

E

Sisters of the Resistance

by Margaret Weitz

E

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

by Geraldine Brooks

E

Gender in World History

by Peter N. Stearns

F

What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response

by Bernard Lewis

F

 Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570

by Inga Clendinnen, Alan Knight?(Editor)

F

1421: The Year China Discovered America

by Gavin Menzies

F

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

G

Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th Century

by J. R. McNeil, et al

G

The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative

- a short and engaging read that synthesizes much of the recent scholarship. This is a great introduction to the material, although it sometimes simplifies things

Robert Marks'

Group

Guns, Germs and Steel

by Jared Diamond

Group

Collapse

by Jared Diamond

H

 Plagues and Peoples

by William Hardy McNeill

H

The Great Influenza

by John M. Barry

Pol

Art of War

by Sun Tzu

Pol

The Prince

by Machiavelli

R

9 Hills to Nambonkaha

by Sarah Erdman

R

Envy of the Gods: Alexander

by John Precas



AP World History Themes: Questions

1.     Interaction between humans and the environment

·      How did humans interact with the environment?

 

· Demography and disease

· Technology

· Migration

· Patterns of settlement

2.     Development and interaction of cultures

·      How did cultures interact?

·      What were the main belief systems of the civilization?

·      What technologies were created? 

·      How did these technologies affect other cultures?

·      Compare and contrast the technological development between the Easter and Western Hemispheres?

· Religions

· Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies

· Science and technology

· The arts and architecture

3.     State-building, expansion, and conflict

·      What states/empires were created?

·      How were they structures?

·      What conflicts did they have?

 

· Political structures and forms of governance

· Empires

· Nations and nationalism

· Revolts and revolution

· Regional, trans-regional, and global structures and organizations

4.     Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems

·      What type of economic systems did this generation creates?

·      What impact did the system have on goods and products being produced?

 

· Agricultural and pastoral production

· Trade and commerce

· Labor Systems

· Industrialization

· Capitalism and socialism

5.     Development and transformation of social structures

·      What was the social structure of the society?

·      What was the role of women in the society?

·      Did this structure survive or influence other cultures?

 

· Gender roles and relations

· Family and kinship

· Racial and ethnic constructions

· Social and economic classes