Bridging World History

Episode 01

Maps, Time, and World History

Jan 2, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 02

History and Memory

Jan 9, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 03

Human Migrations

Jan 16, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 04

Agricultural and Urban Revolutions

Jan 23, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 05

Early Belief Systems

Jan 30, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 06

Order and Early Societies

Feb 6, 2004 · 28 min

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.

Episode 07

The Spread of Religions

Feb 13, 2004 · 28 min

How do religions interact, adopt new ideas, and adapt to diverse cultures? As the missionaries, pilgrims, and converts of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam moved around the world, the religions created change and were themselves changed.

Episode 08

Early Economies

Feb 20, 2004 · 28 min

How do societies assign value to land, labor, and material goods? A comparison of manorial economies in Japan and medieval Europe is contrasted with the tribute economy of the Inka, and the experience of dramatic economic change is illustrated by the commercial revolution in China.

Episode 09

Connections Across Land

Feb 27, 2004 · 28 min

How were land-based trade routes conduits of both commerce and culture? The Eurasian Silk Roads, the trans-Saharan Gold Roads, and the Meso-American Turquoise Road trace the transmission of commodities, religions, and diseases, as well as the movements of people.

Episode 10

Connections Across Water

Mar 5, 2004 · 28 min

How were water routes used as conduits of expansion and trade? The traders of the Indian Ocean, the early Mississippians, and the Norsemen carried death and disease, skills and technologies, philosophies and religion down rivers and across oceans.

Episode 11

Early Empires

Mar 12, 2004 · 28 min

What makes an 'empire'? Through the Mongol empire, the Mali empire, and the Inka empire, this unit examines the construction of empires, their administrative structures, legitimating ideologies, and the environmental and technological conditions that shaped them.

Episode 12

Transmission of Traditions

Mar 19, 2004 · 28 min

What are traditions and how are they transmitted? Islamic Spain, Korea, and West Africa provide examples of many different modes of transmission, including oral, written, artistic, and architectural.

Episode 13

Family and Household

Mar 26, 2004 · 28 min

What does the study of families and households tell us about our global past? In this episode examining West Asia, Europe, and China, families and households become the focus of historians, providing a window into the private experiences in world societies, and how they sometimes become a model for ordering the outside world.

Episode 14

Land and Labor Relationships

Apr 2, 2004 · 28 min

What factors shape the ways in which the basic resources are exploited by a society? From Southeast Asia to Russia to Africa and the Americas, the ratios between land availability and the usable labor force were the primary basis of pre-industrial economies, but politics, environment, and culture played a part as well.

Episode 15

Early Global Commodities

Apr 9, 2004 · 28 min

What is globalization and when did it begin? Before the sixteenth century, the world's four main monetary substances were silver, gold, copper, and shells. But it was China's demand for silver and Spain's newly discovered mines in the Americas that finally created an all-encompassing network of global trade.

Episode 16

Food, Demographics, and Culture

Apr 16, 2004 · 28 min

What role has food played in human societies? Studying the production and consumption of food allows historians to uncover hidden levels of meaning in social relationships, understand demographic shifts, and trace cultural exchange. This unit examines the earliest impact of globalization including changing cuisine, environmental impact, and the rise of forced labor as a global economic force.

Episode 17

Ideas Shape the World

Apr 23, 2004 · 28 min

How do ideas change the world? This unit traces the impact of European Enlightenment ideals in the American and Haitian revolutions and in South America. It also examines the revitalization of Islam expressed in the Wahhabi movement as it spread from the Arabian peninsula to Africa and Asia.

Episode 18

Rethinking the Rise of the West

Apr 30, 2004 · 28 min

How does historical scholarship change over time, and why do the perspectives of historians shift? This unit recaps the economic and political events that led to the rise of the West, but examines and re-examines those events through differing opinions of its causes, reflecting changes in historical interpretation.

Episode 19

Global Industrialization

May 7, 2004 · 28 min

How was the story of the industrial revolution a global process? Industrialization was and is a global process, not just a European or American story. This unit links Cuba, Uruguay, Europe, and Japan, examining the impact of industry on trade, environment, culture, technology, and lives around the world.

Episode 20

Imperial Designs

May 14, 2004 · 28 min

What lasting impacts did modern imperialism have on the world? The profound consequences of imperialism are examined in the South African frontier and Brazil, where politics, culture, industrial capitalism, and the environment were shaped and re-shaped.

Episode 21

Colonial Identities

May 21, 2004 · 28 min

How did colonialism and eventual de-colonization mutually affect the colonizer and the colonized? From Zanzibar to India, colonial and post-colonial identities are examined through clothing.

Episode 22

Global War and Peace

May 28, 2004 · 28 min

How 'global' were the World Wars? This unit examines Japanese imperialism, the Belgian Congo, and twentieth century peace institutions to study how local, national, ethnic, and religious conflicts shaped these wars and their aftermaths.

Episode 23

People Shape the World

Jun 4, 2004 · 28 min

What is the impact of the individual in world history? This unit examines the role of individual and collective action in shaping the world through the lives of such diverse figures as Mao Zedong, the Ayatollah Khomeini, and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.

Episode 24

Globalization and Economics

Jun 11, 2004 · 28 min

How have the forces of globalization shaped the modern world? This unit travels from the Soviet Union to Sri Lanka and Chile to study the role of technology and the impact of economic and political changes wrought by globalization.

Episode 25

Global Popular Culture

Jun 18, 2004 · 28 min

What are the sounds and sights of an emerging global culture? From World Cup soccer to Coca-Cola, modern icons reflect the intertwined cultural, political, and commercial dimensions of globalization. This unit listens to and looks at the music and images of global production and consumption – from reggae to the Olympics.

Episode 26

World History and Identity

Jun 25, 2004 · 28 min

How have global forces redefined both individual and group identity in the modern world? This unit examines the transnational identity that emerged from the Chinese diaspora, and compares it to a newly re-defined national Chechen identity forged through war with Russia.