Since we devoted a good deal of time and thought to the relationship between the Fall of Western Rome and their Bread and Circuses, maybe it would be a good time to see if there is any parallels in modern-day America. Drop your thoughts below and be sure to including your first name and last initial. email is not required.

No more free "A" for practice kiddos, this one is for keepsies. Write your best POV per our class rules for Plato's Apology. Due at Midnight tonight, don't be tardy.

Compare and contrast the continuities and changes between first and second-wave civilizations in Afro-Eurasia and/or Americas between the years 3500 to 500 BCE.

Using our rules in class, please post your best POV statement for today's Primary Source. 

• underline whether you selected AUTHOR, AUDIENCE, or PURPOSE
• use italicized font for relevant STRINGE categories
  
• use ALL CAPS for TONE, FOCUS, or RELIABILITY
• skip a few lines and conclude with the "example or effect"

EX: The author, Chief Seattle, was a/n STRINGE(s) which impacts the TONE/FOCUS/RELIABILITY

...in that....
...because...

Compare and contrast [ a) the social structures b) the political systems c) the interaction d) the culture OR e) the economics] of two of the following human societal arrangements:
•gatherer & hunter societies
•agricultural societies
•pastoral societies
​
•Compare and contrast the similarities and differences:
   - Please include:
   - Thesis statement including a time, a place and 3 categories of analysis
 
​Be sure to post ONLY your thesis statement by midnight on Monday.

Step 2: Prompt Change:
Compare and contrast pastoral and settled agricultural societies.

​*Directions can be found under the WHAP main tab...happy thesising!
**Due, again, at Midnight

Propaganda Bonus Assignment: As we have discussed, the war for public opinion was never more important than with the advent of modern, total war. Couple of ways to accrue some extra points here. The first is to respond to one of these quotes with your own perspective / evidentiary-based comment. Another is to post an example of modern propaganda and explain its details. This later option would obviously garner more points as it requires more time and laborious thinking...but I bet it would be worth it! Happy History WHAP. 
​
Image to the right courtesey of Jeff Gates, Chamomile Tea Party; for more, visit: http://chamomileteaparty.com)

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” 
― George Orwell, 1984

“All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” 
― Upton Sinclair

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” 
― George Orwell

“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” 
― Joseph Goebbels

“There is nothing in the record of the past two years when both Houses of Congress have been controlled by the Republican Party which can lead any person to believe that those promises will be fulfilled in the future. They follow the Hitler line - no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth.” 
― John F. Kennedy

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” 
― H.L. Mencken, In Defense Of Women

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” 
― Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

“We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN.” 
― B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light​

​“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.” 
― Lysander Spoone

“Violators cannot live with the truth: survivors cannot live without it. There are those who still, once again, are poised to invalidate and deny us. If we don't assert our truth, it may again be relegated to fantasy. But the truth won't go away. It will keep surfacing until it is recognized. Truth will outlast any campaigns mounted against it, no matter how mighty, clever, or long. It is invincible. It's only a matter of which generation is willing to face it and, in so doing, protect future generations from ritual abuse.” 
― Chrystine Oksana, Safe Passage to Healing: A Guide for Survivors of Ritual Abuse

“It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated.” 
― Herbert M. Shelton, Getting Well

“The American people are free to do exactly what they are told.”
― Ward Churchill

“It is possible to argue that the really influential book is not that which converts ten millions of casual readers, but rather that which converts the very few who, at any given moment, succeed in seizing power. Marx and Sorel have been influential in the modern world, not so much because they were best-sellers (Sorel in particular was not at all a widely read author), but because among their few readers were two men, called respectively Lenin and Mussolini.” 
― Aldous Huxley

“But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.” 
― Adolf Hitler

“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” 
― Hermann Göring
​
“Information is controlled because the free flow of truth is not always expedient for those wishing to maintain control.” 
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.” 
― Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” 
― Winston S. Churchill

“Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think.” 
― Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

“A fool will believe anything.”--PROVERBS 14:15

Final Directions: EACH student needs to have the following turned in [either electronically or traditionally] by the beginning of class on Monday, November 30th:
a) your assigned SOAPSTone 
b) your assigned Point of View Statement
c) answers to your assigned questions
d) answers to the four questions below (they should be dripping wet with evidence yo!)
ex. If you were in the Marco Polo group (Marco!...........that was a fun game!), you should be submitting the following: a SOAPStone and POV statement for document 7.2 with the assigned four (a-d) questions for that document as well as individual answers to the four using evidence questions below. 
*No length requirement, duh; QUALITY over QUANTITY always my little humans, always. 

Using Evidence:
1. Describing a foreign culture: Each of these documents were written by an outsider to the people or society he is describing. What different postures toward these foreign cultures are evident in the sources? How did the traveler’s various religions shape their perception of places they visited? How did they view the women of their host societies? Were these travelers more impressed by the similarities or by the differences between their home cultures and the ones they visited?
 
2. Defining the self-perception of authors: What can we learn from these documents about the men who wrote them? What motivated them to travel so far from home? How did they define themselves in relationship to the societies they observed?
 
3. Assessing the credibility of sources: What information in these sources would be most valuable for historians India, China and West Africa in the 3rd Wave Era? What statements in these sources might be viewed with the most skepticism? You will want to consider the author’s purpose and their intended audiences in evaluating their writings.
 
4. Considering outsider’s accounts: What are the advantages and limitations for historians in drawing on the writings of foreign observers?

7.1 - A Chinese Buddhist in India
a. What surprised or impressed Xuanzang on his visit to India? What features of Indian life might seem the most strange to a Chinese visitor?
b. How might these selections serve to illustrate or to contradict the descriptions of Indian civilization found in chapters 3-5?
c. What can this document contribute to our understanding of Buddhist practice in India?

7.2 – A European Christian in China
a. How would you describe Marco Polo’s impression s of the city? What did he notice? What surprised him?
b. Why did Marco Polo describe the city as “the finest and the noblest in the world”?
c. What marks his account of the city as that of a foreigner and a Christian?
d. What evidence of China’s engagement with a wider world does this account offer?

​7.3 – An Arab Muslim in West Africa
a. How would you describe Ibu Battuta’s impression of Mali? What surprised or shocked him? What did he appreciate?
b. What does Ibu Battuta’s description of his visit to Mali reveal about his own attitudes and his image of himself?
c. What might historians learn from this document about the nature and extent of Islam’s penetration in this West African empire? What elements of older and continuing West African cultural traditions are evident in the document?
d. What specifically does Ibu Battuta find shocking about the women he encounters on his travels in West Africa?
e. What indications of Mali’s economic involvement with a wider world are evident in this document?

Using our ten in-class examples, please identify the sole correct thesis statement and copy / paste it into this forum. Don't trip if it doesn't appear; this one can only be seen by me!

• Both massive Empires of Afro-Eurasia, the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire of the Classical Era had similar social hierarchies  with the Hans dividing people into land lords and peasants and the Romans dividing people into patricions (sic) and plebeians, but they differed in that Roman’s believed certain races were meant to be slaves and Slavery was on a small scale in the Han Dynasty; furthermore the women of the Hans were bound by confuscionist (sic) test that made them subordinate to their men and the Romans allowed their women to own property.
  • Social (no AP) – 3.5
  • cat one: should compare the iniquities not that they have social hierarchies
  • cat two: not a direct comparison
  • cat three: wording; women were relatively “freer” in Rome than Han

 

• Between the years 500 BCE and 500 CE in Afro-Eurasia, the Roman and Chinese Empire’s culture differed in religion china absorbed Buddhism and Rome obstained (sic) Christianity. Secondly, adding that their belief systems were very distinctive of what was to be teached (sic) and done, however were alike in invoked supernatural sanctions.
  • Culture (no AP) - 3
  • cat one: isn’t their absorption of a foreign religion a similarity?
  • cat two: huh?
  • cat three: good

 

• During the second wave era, the Han Dynasty of China and the Roman Empire of Afro-Eurasia were threatened by foreigners, formed militaries that expanded their militaries, but Rome centralized its power while the Han Dynasty utilized Confucianism and Legalism.
  • Political? (no AP) – 3.5
  • place stamp should be East Asia
  • Cat one and two: spot on
  • cat three: another similarity? they both centralized power but differed in how / effectiveness

 

• In 500 BCE to 500 CE in Afro-Eurasia both Roman and Chinese classical cultures used supernatural beliefs to explain why they were in power while incorporating foreign religions into their empires, but in contrast the Romans exiled their beliefs for Greek rationality and the Romans focused their architecture on leaders and upper-class citizens, whereas the Han Dynasty also did, but included their soldiers.
  • Culture (AP!) – 4.5
  • cat one: perfect
  • cat two: perfect
  • cat three: CLOSE! Rome adopted foreign ideas whereas China did not

 

• The Roman and Han Empires in the Classical era in Afro-Eurasia both used a form of coinage, had their own standardized weights and measurements, but differed in the percentage of wealth produced by slave labor.
  • Economics (AP) - 5
  • cat one: good
  • cat two: good
  • cat three: perfect
  • There IS actually one incorrect element in this thesis; it should read: The Roman and Han Empires in the Classical era in Afro-Eurasia were ECONOMICALLY similar in that they both used coinage and had their own standardized weights and measurements, but differed ECONOMICALLY in the percentage of wealth produced by slave labor. 
    

 

• During second wave civilizations in Afro-Eurasia, the Roman and Han empires constructed separate empires; The Roman empire expanded slowly while the Han empire expanded very quickly, and the Han empire used legalism to fix their empires while Rome didn’t try to fix their empire; while the two empires were distinct they both had a common feature which was that they were brutal to their enemies and relied strongly on their military.
  • Political? (AP) – 4 or 4.5
  • cat one: good
  • cat two: no a direct comparison
  • cat three: good

 

• The Roman Empire around 27 BCE in Afro-Eurasia and the Han Empire in 206 BCE in China, both had large plantation owned by the wealthy, although both empires were similar in their agricultural, there nature of trade and slavery was greatly diverse.
  • economics (AP) - 3
  • wrong time stamp
  • wrong place stamp
  • cat one: good
  • cat two: similar in their agriculture?
  • cat three: nature of trade? (vague) but slavery is acceptable

 

• In 500 BCE to 500 CE in Afro-Eurasia the Han and Roman empire tied their belief with natural phenomenons (sic), also because of expansion they caused deforestation, pollution, and urban diseases; lastly the Hans were more accepting of technology, unlike the Romans.
  • Interaction (no AP) - 4
  • cat one: correct but awkward
  • cat two: perfect
  • cat three: correct but again awkward
    • does not address prompt nor does it state sim or diff (implied)

 

• The Han and Roman Empires in Afro-Eurasia between 200 BCE and 200 CE, both had patriarchal societies, as well as distinctive hierarchical ranks, and slave labor than the Han did.
  • Society (no AP) – 3 or 3.5
    • does not address prompt in thesis
  • wrong time stamp
  • cat one: good
  • cat two: vague (what is the sim or difference ABOUT the social hierarchies?)
  • cat three: not a direct comparison

 

• The Roman Empire in Afro-Eurasia and the Han Dynasty in Asia from 500 BCE to 500 CE were similar in their causing deforestation and pollution being put in the air, but differed in that while Rome imported a lot of agriculture from their Egyptian cities, the Chinese empire had multiple smaller farms spread out within its empire. 
  • Interaction (AP) – 4.5
  • time stamp not regional – EAST Asia
  • cat one: good
  • cat two: good
  • cat three: good

He there superstars! One of the great features of our learning community moving forward will be our whole-group Socratic seminars. However, since we spent a few extra days on unit one, I really do not have time for one on our excerpt by Tom Standage. Solution; the Internet! What follows is a few short questions that you need to answer. Additionally, please respond to at least one other student's answers. Please have your submissions in by midnight on Sunday, September 20th. Happy blogging. 

1. Describe the “process of co-evolution” between cereal grains and humans.
2. How was food a “tool” for social organization?
3. What makes modern maize an attractive surplus-producing crop?
4. Describe the transition from teosinte to modern maize.
5. Was this human manipulation of genetics purposeful?
6. What is pellagra and how does it develop in humans? How did early farmers combat this?
7. Describe the transition of wheat.
8. Describe the transition of rice.
9. How was the domestication of cereal grains similar to the domestication of animals?
10. How is the cultivation of agriculture represented in early cultural mythology?
*What is the significance of human agriculture and the domestication of animals?

I’ve a fantastic way for you to both celebrate and flex that sharply-trained historical perspective you have worked so hard developing throughout this course. As per our learning community goals, this MicroTeach lesson is the most efficient and beneficial approach to cover a wide breath of subject matter in a short allotment of time all-the-while stimulating and enticing one’s audience to learn and do more on their own at a later time. This is not a presentation; it is a micro (small) teaching lesson (where a lesson is taught). You have 7 to 10 minutes; I will need to adhere to a strict cutoff unless you are rocking my stinking socks off. You have a few ways in which to satisfy the main requirement of this MicroTeach lesson (remember, “teaching” can happen in many settings):

1. Drones - Kassandra C.
2. Palestinian / Israeli Conflict (including Egyptian Wars) - Michael B.
3. Russian / Ukrainian Conflict - Kaimen D.
4. Human population / Green Revolution / GMO’s / Food Printing - Celine C.
5. Nuclear proliferation - Sarah S.
6. Human-caused global warming  / Earth’s water crisis - Hannah W
7. ISis – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Syrian Conflict / Iran and “West”) - Kaylee R.
8. Genocides of Africa (Rwanda) / Diamond mining in Africa / Boko Haram - Adryana M.
9. Digital Divide: Internet legislation in USA and allies (Free for 3rd World?) - Gary G.
10. Edward Snowden - Chance D.
11. Species Extinction: Bees and Tuna - Caleb G.
12. Income disparity in USA and World - Ariel J.
13. Global Recession and Corporate Bailouts of ‘07 - "C"
14. New Pope - Alexis R.
15. Indian Ocean Earthquake in ’04 / I.O. Piracy - Danny R.
16. America’s War on Drugs - Cheyenne L. 
17. European Union / Greece - Patrick
18. Human trafficking - Ariadna P.
19. China post-Mao / Tienanmen Square in China - Wendy X.
20. Military-Industrial Complex - Erik D.
21.Tesla / Elon Musk and “Future” Corporations - Dalton L. 
22. Apartheid in S. Africa - Brandon A.
23. India since independence / Pakistan Relations - Angela S.
24. Standardized testing in American schools: The Commodification of Education - Christina P.
25. North Korea - Fabian K.
26. Oil Extraction: US Dakotas and Alaska and Canadian Pipeline - Jazzmon
27. USA’s War on Terror / September 11th attacks (including Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay) - Sherer

*To reserve your topic, simply reply to this post with a few sentences justifying why you are interested in this topic. That way, you will have proved your interest and other people can cross that topic off the list. 

Please take a few moments to complete the following mandatory self-reflection. As is the usual, these posts will not be published for everyone to see but will, instead, go directly to my inbox. Remember too, honesty is nearly always the best policy.
1) Was this assignment "fair?"

2) The best aspect of this assignment was...
3) The worst aspect of this assignment was...
4) What letter grade do you think you have earned from today's debate/discussion/assignment?
5) What idea or belief of yours was challenged most by this assignment (either from the in-class discussion or from your own research)?
6) Give a shout-out to a job well done: who do you think deserves the Most Valuable Student award for today's class discussion? (It is totally alright to pick yourself!)
7) Final Thoughts: use this space to leave any final comment, question, concern or suggestion. 

Here is the post where you can continue today's riveting discussion / debate. As always, quality posts have the potential to magically transform into bonus points on this weeks' examinations.

Lately we have been discussing historical interpretation and anachronistic thought. Click on this link, watch the video, use the inter-tubes to find the lyrics for analysis. Your post should follow the following format:
a) Factually-Correct Lyrics
b) Factual Inaccuracies
c) Musical Thoughts?

As usual, the comments will post the day after I have a chance to read them and we will be sure to discuss this tasty musical lesson in Wednesday's class. Read on!

Please provide your group's best effort in analyzing the point of view of these two religious documents. Also, please type your STRINGE category and FOCUS/PURPOSE/TONE in all capital letters like I just demonstrated, mmmkay? Have fun with it; this will be a bit of a challenge but I know all of you are capable of rising to the occasion!