TV ShowCanceled

Bridging World History

2004
1 season
26 episodes
Documentary

A multimedia course for secondary school and college teachers that examined global patterns through time, seeing history as an integrated whole. Topics were studied in a general chronological order, but each is observed through a thematic lens, showing how people and societies experience both integration and differences.

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Seasons

A multimedia course for secondary school and college teachers that examines global patterns through time, seeing history as an integrated whole. Topics were studied in a general chronological order, but each is observed through a thematic lens, showing how people and societies experience both integration and differences.

  • Ep 1

    1.Maps, Time, and World History

    02-01-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 2

    2.History and Memory

    09-01-200428m

    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 May...

  • Ep 3

    3.Human Migrations

    16-01-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 4

    4.Agricultural and Urban Revolutions

    23-01-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 5

    5.Early Belief Systems

    30-01-200428m

    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 a...

  • Ep 6

    6.Order and Early Societies

    06-02-200428m

    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 soci...

  • Ep 7

    7.The Spread of Religions

    13-02-200428m

    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,...

  • Ep 8

    8.Early Economies

    20-02-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 9

    9.Connections Across Land

    27-02-200428m

    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 transm...

  • Ep 10

    10.Connections Across Water

    05-03-200428m

    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 tec...

  • Ep 11

    11.Early Empires

    12-03-200428m

    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, legitimati...

  • Ep 12

    12.Transmission of Traditions

    19-03-200428m

    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,...

  • Ep 13

    13.Family and Household

    26-03-200428m

    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 hi...

  • Ep 14

    14.Land and Labor Relationships

    02-04-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 15

    15.Early Global Commodities

    09-04-200428m

    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 deman...

  • Ep 16

    16.Food, Demographics, and Culture

    16-04-200428m

    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, underst...

  • Ep 17

    17.Ideas Shape the World

    23-04-200428m

    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 revit...

  • Ep 18

    18.Rethinking the Rise of the West

    30-04-200428m

    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 We...

  • Ep 19

    19.Global Industrialization

    07-05-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 20

    20.Imperial Designs

    14-05-200428m

    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, cultu...

  • Ep 21

    21.Colonial Identities

    21-05-200428m

    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...

  • Ep 22

    22.Global War and Peace

    28-05-200428m

    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 rel...

  • Ep 23

    23.People Shape the World

    04-06-200428m

    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 figure...

  • Ep 24

    24.Globalization and Economics

    11-06-200428m

    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 econo...

  • Ep 25

    25.Global Popular Culture

    18-06-200428m

    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 dimension...

  • Ep 26

    26.World History and Identity

    25-06-200428m

    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 c...

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