World History Assignment

Remember to look in the folder marked with golden paper for folders containing complicated and fun assignments.

Here's one that currently involves about 150 students:

Dr. Simson’s Hist 1111 Survey of World History to 1500

The task:

1.       Select a primary source from before 1500.

2.       Research at least 3 secondary sources (one of which is the textbook) to make clear the historical significance of the text you have chosen.

3. Final result is a paper documented using Chicago/Turabian Humanities style.

Primary sources MUST NOT be fictional literature (fables, plays, satires, etc.) but based on real historical persons or events.

Primary sources MUST NOT be on the excluded list on the syllabus.  (this includes over-used topics such as the works of Plato, the code of Hammurabi , or the Magna Carta PLUS no sacred scripture from the Judeo, Christian, Islamic traditions.  Other documents related to religion such as the works of the early church fathers, sayings of Confucius, etc. are OK.  Sorry that I do not have the entire list.)

He will accept primary sources written slightly after the actual historical event as long as the source was written before 1500. (Examples are accounts of the Crusades written by early historians who might not have been eyewitnesses and similar histories of the Roman era by Josphesus.)
 

See the LibGuide at guides.gpc.edu/hist1111simson for books, websites, and databases containing many primary and secondary sources.  Dr. Simson especially likes the Fordham University Ancient and Medieval History Sourcebooks.