Bridging World History

A multimedia course for secondary school and college teachers that examines global patterns through time, seeing history as an integrated whole. Topics were studied in a general chronological order, but each is observed through a thematic lens, showing how people and societies experience both integration and differences.

1. E1. Maps, Time, and World History

   Jan 2, 2004 · 28m

   What tools do world historians use in the study of history? This unit begins the study of world history by examining its use of geographical and chronological frameworks: how they have shaped the understanding of world history and been used to chart the past.

2. E2. History and Memory

   Jan 9, 2004 · 28m

   How are history and memory different? Topics in this unit range from the celebration of Columbus Day to the demolition of a Korean museum to the historical re-interpretation of Mayan civilization, exploring the ways historians, nations, families, and individuals capture, exploit, and know the past, and the dynamic nature of historical practice and knowledge.

3. E3. Human Migrations

   Jan 16, 2004 · 28m

   How did the many paths of human migration people the planet? From their origins on the African continent, humans have spread across the globe. This unit explores how and why early humans moved across Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas, based on recent studies in archaeology and linguistics.

4. E4. Agricultural and Urban Revolutions

   Jan 23, 2004 · 28m

   What do historians know about the earliest farmers and herders, and the evolution of cities? Newly emerging evidence about the 'cradles of civilization' is examined in light of the social, technological, and cultural complexity of recently discovered settlements and cities.

5. E5. Early Belief Systems

   Jan 30, 2004 · 28m

   How did people begin to understand themselves in relation to the natural world and to the unseen realms beyond, and how was religion a community experience? In this unit, animism and shamanism in Shinto are contrasted with philosophical and ethical systems in early Greece and China, and the beginnings of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Judaism.

6. E6. Order and Early Societies

   Feb 6, 2004 · 28m

   How do diverse political structures and relationships distribute power and material resources? Through the rise of the Chinese empire, Mayan regional kingdoms, and the complex society of Igbo Ukwu, this unit considers the origins of centralized states and alternative political and social orders.

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