Global History: Overview and exam

Unless the world ends soon The exam is coming HISTORY 103/103G

What not to Do http://www.nathankowald.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/study-verb.jpg

Global History overview Human life and experience over 500 years. TWO ways of thinking about this period: 1. AS THE HISTORY OR PREHISTORY OF OUR PRESENT STATE OF GLOBALISATION and its webs of connectedness, economic, social, technological. ALSO the unprecedented global problems facing humanity: climate change, environmental degradation, especially of the oceans, resource depletion, species extinction, population increase, aging populations, rising inequality, absence of effective global government; unsecured WMD.

Global History overview But of course History is more than simply humanity’s problems. We could equally focus on life improvements over the last 500 years, including transformations of hygiene, medicine and public health, huge increase in life expectancy, reduction in poverty, technological transformation of personal comfort and opportunity. More importantly History is not about the present, although it enables us to put the present in context, and get it in perspective. Rather it is about the past, otherness and difference.

Global History overview 2. So Option 2: GLOBAL HISTORY STUDIES THE LAST 500 YEARS OF LIFE AND EXPERIENCE BEFORE GLOBALISATION. IN SPACE: the nature of human connection and interaction. Numbers; proximity and diversity; movement across space. IN TIME: the nature and extent of change over time. Enlightenment and the idea of progress. Industrialisation and the transformation of life (not only human). A history of unintended consequences?

Exam preparation IN GENERAL - If you have attended classes (tutorials and lectures) regularly you are already prepared - But in addition print out some past exam papers - Familiarise yourself with the format (Parts A and B) Revise further for each of these BE PREPARED…

Finding past exam scripts Go to the library website Click on ‘Readings & Exams’

FINDING PAST EXAM SCRIPTS Type your course code i.e. HISTORY 103 Click search (or press enter)

FINDING PAST EXAM SCRIPTS Click ‘View online’

FINDING PAST EXAM SCRIPTS Login You will be taken to the normal logon screen Use the same password you use for CECIL, email, SSO, etc.

FINDING PAST EXAM SCRIPTS You’ve made it! Select which past paper you want from the list on the left hand side of the page.

SECTION A Broad, thematic questions Choose one of four questions Draw examples from across the course Make sure you construct an argument in response to the question Note that this course is about GLOBAL HISTORY

SECTION B More specific questions Focussed primarily on one aspect of the course Choose one question from this section But remember, this is still a global history course and the question that you choose will also have occurred in a global context Make sure you construct an argument in response to the question

Exam preparation FOR SECTION B - Revisit your essay and essay notes - Look at previous exam questions on that topic - Pick out some new reading and take notes - Prepare another Section B topic with fresh reading and notes BE PREPARED…

Exam preparation FOR SECTION A Go back over your lecture notes, lecture recordings, tutorial notes, and tutorial readings. Take new notes from the tutorial readings bearing in mind the points that emerged from class discussion Go over a handful of past 103 Exam papers and look at the range and type of questions asked in Part A. Go back over the Lecture Programme in your Course Guide and pick out half a dozen large connecting themes. Use the Course Guide pp 4 and 17 to identify new general reading.

Exam preparation EXAMPLES OF GENERAL THEMES: Empires Migrations and movements of people Environments and interaction with them Trade before and after Industrialisation Revolutions and political culture Wars, regional and global

ONE HOUR MEANS ONE HOUR TWO QUESTIONS IN TWO HOURS = ONE HOUR PER QUESTION You have to write two essays in this time. Be harsh. Do not give one question more time.

MOST Importantly: answer the question It’s important that you answer the question that you are asked in the exam and don't just regurgitate pre-studied information on the topic. You are being marked on your ability to formulate an analytical argument and write a cohesive historical essay, not just on remembering examples and themes on their own. Get straight to the point and make sure you stay focused on answering the question.

SAMPLE PART A QUESTIONS (2010) 1. `Without Europe there would be no global history’. Discuss. 2. Does a global history approach exaggerate connections between societies and understate discontinuity and disconnection? Support your answer with specific examples. 3. Compare and contrast the global impact of three of the following developments between 1500 and 2000: empire, religious change, war, migration, industrialisation, nationalism.