Sources You Can Use
Required source that you MUST use for your midterm:
William E. Burns, Knowledge and Power: Science in World History, 1st edition (London; New York: Routledge, 2011)
Example citations: Check! What edition do you have?
Paperback, first edition (image of Arab alchemist on cover): (Burns 2011, 18).
eBook, first edition: (Burns 2016, 24).
Paperback, second edition (image of Chinese astronomer on cover): (Burns 2019, 16).
eBook, second edition: (Burns 2018, 24).
Optional sources that you may use if you wish:
Lecture slides
Example citation: (Elrod, February 27, 2024).
“Science in Islam,” 211-250, in Scott L. Montgomery and Alok Kumar, A History of Science in World Cultures: Voices of Knowledge (London; New York: Routledge, 2016).
Example citation: (Montgomery and Kumar 2016, 243).
“New World civilizations: Olmecs, Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs,” 253-291, in Montgomery and Kumar, A History of Science in World Cultures (2016).
Example citation: (Montgomery and Kumar 2016, 272).
“The Scientific Revolution,” 182-196, in Christopher Brooks, Western Civilization: A Concise History, vol. 2 (Open Textbook Library, 2020).
Example citation: (Brooks 2020, 185).
“The Scientific Revolution and ‘Eurocentrism,’” 164-65, in William E. Burns, The Scientific Revolution in Global Perspective (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Example citation: (Burns 2016, 164).
Burns, “Race, Slavery, and Science,” 119-24, in William E. Burns, The Scientific Revolution in Global Perspective (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Example citation: (Burns 2016, 123).
How You Can Format Your Project
You may complete this project in any of the following formats:
written essays that add up to a total of at least 6 pages (double-spaced)
a PowerPoint presentation that includes an audio recording of your voice (at least 20-25 min. long)
a video recording of you presenting your answers (at least 20-25 min. long)
For more advice on creating audio or video presentations, follow this link or type “tinyurl.com/hist114-projectformats” into your web browser.
Writing Prompts
For all three essays below, aim to be as specific as possible with your answers and include many examples from Burns’s Knowledge and Power, including page numbers, to support your answers. Remember that you must show your work by citing evidence from our assigned texts! In History writing, an answer or argument is only as strong as the evidence and citations that support it.
Essay 1 Science in Circulation
In at least two pages, describe specific examples of scientific ideas and practices that circulated from one culture into another culture. Your essay should answer questions a, b, AND c below, but you may choose the regions you want to write about when options are given. Aim to be as specific as possible by providing examples of specific people, books, instruments, ideas, institutions, or events.
What scientific customs did medieval Europeans adopt from Arab scholars? (reminder: the Middle Ages occurred from about 500 to 1500)
What scientific customs did eastern empires adopt from early modern Europeans between 1600 and 1860? You may choose to write about either China, Russia, OR Japan.
What scientific knowledge did Europeans adopt from the peoples that they colonized? You may choose to write about either indigenous Americans (1500-1700) OR African peoples (1700-1960).
Essay 2 Science in Service to the State
Why were rulers willing to support scientific research? What benefits did it offer to their state governments? In at least two pages, describe specific types of research that each of your chosen empires considered valuable to the state. Aim to be as specific as possible by providing examples of specific people, books, instruments, ideas, institutions, expeditions, or events. Your essay should choose 3 of the following empires:
Islamic empire
Russian empire
Japanese empire
European colonial empires in Africa
Essay 3 Science and Power
In at least two pages, explain how colonial empires used scientific ideas and goals to defend how they treated colonized peoples. Aim to be as specific as possible by providing examples of specific people, books, ideas, fields of knowledge (like scientific racism or ethnopsychiatry), institutions, expeditions, or events.
How did European colonizers in Africa use science to justify their conquest and exploitation of African people and resources?
BOOK: https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=8d5fc1242d&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1790991000372887053&th=18dae0d36525be0d&view=att&disp=inline&saddbat=ANGjdJ_gdoylbnAVPG9vk9LhmfseaplcaIZkH3bIKoY3_gykm7MghJ7awiFSHJP7BCvuoKA0E-amuyXAwBTSApl_5af3l2vkFmyQg1sbZvB6107CLuSYQ3sPlNtqCBHQ_XA_uUJ0fotklj8D2PVBYG_eGQnK7hmL8CxAAA5e3YGUnf8nMBB3UGT7zLoShtPZumr2zlTbnGaOukn6M9AUTn6QwcTz24aXT8L5l2mO-10V93ZH0yGtJog0Cbr1tPEOp2epD3dTfk__UtJ9ZBeapE99HnelLVPR8LhJxAQUMj8uoz8f38PH7Mw3jbv92PAxjVxAGNTrd670lxBgblRZ6pvR4gp8slpU_EojqEb7YP-xrojVv996T8Yxo4lqaEfOLjCn1Mvn5MkSwN7vvfAoYlduje2pbshNzzJ_c44dvqXSR3kV8LhVu9Kd8cZ5FGdOOcnxxTmTxpEONx_uLjYVTq1y8e9CBzJcwEBb_h4RJqSDiauJQ0Q2NcSJ8M2PVayxpaG9_mwqkgO_qvzIgDH67c5VWXwsadPUsRqfWqcqRWlX2ZZ8esZ_q4saQLrYE1zSA2408YQI3Qw9ydq6H_msOxOEv0t32U90iqI8I7gdkpxDuePBRbyu4O7tl5chgUySB9q08GkMLJ9erRGtRwxnaReYlvSgUMezg5Q09RhTfqMGwfeAUQOy2tSgn4QsFiHvk7e9jB6WLHAUUPPZqBFvwfED7KlDM27P7k2aUWf48FHCBTFa-ssHAQU6NNLdOhGqyL4n7LsgHBprnBEYvv_Sa2GztXf4yikQQhXQZu4axccFGuujTNFbQsoVQYnAfIALnkPfpOjt7U8b0jcMlwLVAUCuMOGesPO_8SCEp93lpkSX7qy8wSdg0LRRkQFD5XuUzVvD3gMES3mOPBphgssEnpdwch05N0erlVIf-4Cb2Ma_4_H4BPDlO9HUgKdKgRKnCBWu5dK7Wb3QDneLK_vCfoSBbxsSwtrEoImD406RFuOLYWaQ_XusfepGSRpXTyhksdoimpABYVLFb0ZnQNX1
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