Introduction
Unlike most sourcebooks that you will use, this one is organized by theme rather than time period. I have done this in order to more ably facilitate looking at ideas across time and space. This is an important skill to develop when studying world history. Nothing ever exists in a vacuum. This is not to say that events in one world region will have a direct impact on another, but rather that similar conditions will often lead to similar outcomes. These similarities can help us delve into a universal human condition. Conversely, when similar conditions lead to different outcomes, or different conditions lead to similar outcomes, we can learn just as much.
By looking across time, we can continue to gauge the universality of these ideas. It might be trite to state, but everything has a start, a middle, and eventually an ending. The following sources will be drawn from each of these points in the time line, as we need to examine how things start, progress, and finish. Keep this in mind as you answer questions that ask you to examine multiple sources. When answering a comparative question, it is not enough to state that the people involved are acting differently, what you must get at is why they are acting differently. Understanding that the events in different sources are happening at different moments in a similar movement can lead to a deeper understanding of the theme you are being asked to examine.
Each source will be accompanied by a brief introduction that will contextualize it within its society and time period and/or give some background on the author. When reading the source, it is important to read this introduction for context. However, when you are doing the actual analysis of the source itself, you must focus on what is in the source, not the editor’s note. You want to focus on the voices of the past (the primary source) not the contemporary voice talking about it (secondary source).
Finally, our goal here is to come to understand these historical societies, not judge them. As you read the sources, set aside your modern biases. Try to read the sources from the perspective of the time and society that produced them. Look into the historical past and imagine yourself there. What you read and see might make you feel uncomfortable, but no one ever said the past was pleasant.
Many of the sources found in the following pages have been compiled by the Internet History Sourcebooks Project hosted by Fordham University. They are reprinted here for academic use under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license. All other sources are individually labeled as to provenance and copyright within the note following the source. All chapter and document introductions have been authored by Travis Ritt and can be used under the Creative Commons CC-BY license.
