World History - Kamin

Welcome to Mr. Kamin's World History page.

If you are already a student in this class and have come here in search of specific course assignments or files, click here.

If you have come here to find out about the World History 10 course in general, read on!

“Work begins when you don't like what you're doing.” -Joseph Campbell

It’s true, isn’t it? If you hate what you’re doing it seems like work. But if you’re enjoying what you’re dong (especially if you really love it), it never seems like work, no matter how long or hard you keep at it. Could learning about the planet you were born into and how it got the way it is be one of those things that you enjoy enough that it doesn’t seem like work?

For almost all of human history--about 200,000 years--humans lived in small groups of about 15 to 20 adults and survived by hunting animals and gathering plants and then moving on when the resources in a given area were used up. About 10,000 years ago human beings in an area near modern day Turkey figured out how to do two things that changed everything. They learned how to cultivate plants and they learned how to herd animals. And with those two simple ideas the story of human history and civilization began. For the first time humans had a steady supply of food. They could stay in one place, build communities, and at least some of the people in those communities had time devote themselves to something other than staying alive. In this two semester course we will follow the story of how those first city dwellers and those who followed them created the civilizations, the political systems, the art, the culture, the technology, in a word--everything--that became the world you and I live in today. It’s a fascinating story. Educated people know that story. I hope you will want to know it too.

Text:

Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction, McDougal LIttell, 2009

Course Outline:

First Semester:

 Cluster I: Development of Modern Political Thought

Unit 1: The effect of Greco Roman Philosophy and Judeo-Christian thought on Western Political Thought

Unit II: The effects of the Glorious Revolution, American Revolution, French Revolution on self-government and individual liberty.

Cluster II: Industrial Revolution, Imperialism & Nationalism

Unit I: Cause and effects of the Industrial Revolution

Unit II: Rise of Imperialism and effects of Colonialism

Cluster III: Causes and Courses of WWI

Unit I: Factors leading to WW I and Major events of WW I

Unit II: Treaty of Versailles and effects of WW I

Second Semester:

Cluster IV: Causes and effects of WW II

Unit I: Causes and Consequences of Russian Revolution and Totalitarian Regimes

Unit II: Causes, events and effects of WW II

Cluster V: International Developments in post-WWII World

Unit I: Cold War, transformation of China

Unit II: Creation of the State Israel and the collapse of the Soviet Union

Please feel free to drop by room 505 if you have any questions or would like to know more about this course.
Mr. Kamin