Civilizations: Past and Present
I was looking forward to this history class for some time now; above and beyond just looking forward to learning about cultural origins in general. I had no idea what to prepare for. So far we’re taking a general “survey” approach to 17th century through early 20th civilizations around the world. Specifically, European industrialization and expansions throughout America and Africa. For the time being anyway. This class is moving well outside the realms of Europe and into various tribes and factions in Africa itself, the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, and who knows what else (well the syllabus I suppose). At any rate, this evening in class I was moved to near tears… but not over anything in particular. Just the fact that I felt so enormously privileged to sit amongst my friends and discuss (the style of our professor is to teach through pure discussion) events that shape our lives today. It awes me to have the ability to talk about events and lives that took place centuries ago, and to find true parallels that exist in the way we conduct ourselves today. Learning is the greatest gift that we can receive and give in return.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
That sounds like a fantastic class. I dig the more interactive learning environment.
April 13th, 2006 at 6:39 am
John Copp. History and philosophy occasionally. I highly recommend him even after only a few classes. If the rest of the class is as rich as the first week then I will be looking for his name first in Fall quarter.
April 13th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
You should read The Peoples History Of The United States. The whole first half is basically about the european conquest of the americas, has alot of real journal entries as well as population statistics and such. Very very interesting, and yet utterly disgusting at the same time. I forget exactly what tribe it was, but there was a population of over 350,000 when the spanish arrived and less than 30,000 a year later.
September 22nd, 2006 at 7:22 pm
In my openion, the world’s 5 main civilizations dating back to 5000 years are as follows:
Middle East
China
Africa
Europe
India
New civilizations arising in the last 500 years are America and Hispania. Beyond that it gets really fuzzy.
July 30th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
The New Worlds
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1) Nafta
Orient
2) Mercusor
3) African Union
4) Arab League
5) ECO
6) SAARC
7) ASEAN
9) Russian States
10) European Union