Unit 5: Part II, CH 19 & 20
Industrialization and the Global Integration, c. 1750 to c. 1900
UNIT 5: European Moment in World History, 1750-1914
In which John Green talks about the methods of writing history by looking at some of the ways that history has been written about the rise of the West. But first he has to tell you what the West is. And then he has to explain the Rise of the West. And then he gets down to talking about the different ways that historians and other academics have explained how the West became dominant in the world. He'll look at explanations from Acemoglu and Robinson's "Why Nations Fail," Francis Fukuyama's "The Origins of Political Order," and Ian Morris's "Why the West Rules, for Now."
A fascinating journey in both time & space to explore the impact of the British empire on the modern world. From the earliest British settlers in Virginia to the decline of the empire in the aftermath of the two World Wars, positive & negative aspects of the empire are illustrated through key events & players.
The British Empire in the 19th century was the largest the world had ever seen, and one of the most idealistic. Simon Schama reveals how, disastrously, the liberal politics & free-market economics that drove it unravelled, resulting in the Irish Potato Famine, & mutiny in India. By the early 20th century, nationalist movements around the globe had turned their back on the British 'workshop of the world'.
