04 Jul GLOBAL CIVILIZATION
Take home final exam
2 to 3 paragraphs or bullets for each section.
Total of 4-5 double spaced, type-written pages. You can tackle each question individually, or combine them all into one
essay. You must demonstrate a) that you have engaged the material (including the films), and b) that you have been
attentive to and engaged in class discussions.
ANSWERS MUST BE DRAWN FROM THE BOOKS AND CLASS DISCUSSIONS.
1) Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond.
Diamonds argument might be boiled down to his answer to “Yalis question.” Yali asked “why do you white men have so much
cargo (or material goods) and we New Guineans have so little?” It was not race or intelligence or ingenuity or culture
that made the difference, argues Diamond. The answer was geography. “If your people had enjoyed the same geographic
advantages of my people,” says Diamond to Yali, “your people would have been the ones to invent helicopters…”
Please answer the following:
a) How does Diamond construct his case?
b) Do you find it convincing and why or why not?
c) What are the implications for our understanding of why some countries in the world today are rich and some are poor?
2) The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the 21st Century, by Robert
Marks.
Marks picks up on Diamonds emphasis on the importance of environmental and geographical circumstances in the shaping of
a given societys prospects. But he develops things further through a discussion of several themes: the enduring strength
(through to the middle of the 1700s) of a Asian network of commerce and political power centered on China and India; the
emergence of a New World economy in the Americas in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; the far reaching effects of the
Industrial Revolution, including the transition out of a “biological old regime” of energy production and into one based
on fossil fuels; and last, the connections between the development of some societies and the lack of development in
others.
Please answer the following:
a) How was the emergence of a “New World Economy” in the Americas connected to the presence of a thriving network of
commercial and imperial power in Asia?
b) Marks argues that the Industrial Revolution was as important and far reaching in its effects as the agricultural
revolution which occurred 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. Why is this the case? Be sure to include a discussion of a shift in
the ecological basis of the economic production.
c) Summarize Marks argument in chapter 5 about how the industrialization of England in 18th century led to the
de-industrialization of India in the same period, and then describe your reaction to these findings. For example, is a
similar process of industrialization in one place leading to de-industrialization in another at work in the world today?
3) A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage.
All the drinks that Standage looks at have truly global histories; his book allow us discuss and imagine the ways these
everyday beverages connect us with others across time and space, others who have enjoyed these drinks or been involved
with the work of bringing them to our tables. With this in mind,
Please answer the following:
a) Describe how rum (and with it sugar production) was entangled in the creation of a new world economy in the Americas
and the Caribbean, one that thrived on slavery and was the transformed by revolution?
b) Now that you know about the world history of coffee, and something about the current circumstances of its worldwide
production, imagine and retell the story of your morning cup.
4) Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, by Raj Patel.
Here the basic themes of A History of the World in 6 Drinks are put in the perspective of the emergence of corporate
driven, global system of food production and consumption. In the chapters we read (Intro, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9) Patel
describes the struggles of farmers the world over, the influence of companies like Monsanto, the exponential growth of
soy farming and production in Brazil, and the way in which we here in wealthier countries are told we have endless
choices when it comes to food when in actuality our choices are quite limited.
Please answer the following:
a) Explain how our choices about food are connected to a wider, global system of food production and consumption, one
that includes rural workers from India to Brazil, and the global corporations that seem to have so much control over what
is available for us to eat.
b) On page 294, Patel quotes a South African organizer who has argued that the solution to our food problems is not
cheaper and cheaper food, but the eradication of poverty. Read the quote, re-tell in your own words the argument it
makes, and describe your reaction. Does it make sense? Why?
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