Invitation to History: Coffee and Globalization (HIST*1050)
Code and section: HIST*1050*02
Term: Winter 2018
Instructor: Stuart McCook
Details
Course Synopsis:
This course introduces students to the basics of the historian’s craft including interpreting primary sources, locating and critically analyzing secondary sources and writing for History. It will provide you with the tools that you need to be successful in your History major, minor or area of concentration. You can choose any one of the following four classes. The classes are different in terms of topic, but will teach the same skills and prepare you for other history classes in the same way. This section is called Coffee and Globalization.
Coffee is everywhere you look, from the Timmy’s double-double that you pick up at a drive-through counter, to the complex single-origin coffees offered by specialty roasters in luxurious cafés. We have lost sight of just how strange it is that people across the world became addicted a drink made from the fruit of an obscure plant native to a remote corner of Ethiopia, and also how the livelihoods of people around the world have come to depend on cultivating this plant. We will explore coffee’s journey from a minor forest plant to a global commodity, considering the globalization of coffee production, trade, and consumption over the past 500 years.
Methods of Evaluation and Weights:
Short Written Assignment 15%
Essay Proposal 10%
Research Essay 25%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Class Participation 10%
Texts and/or Resources Required Include All or Parts of:
• Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed the World (Basic Books, 2010).
• William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones, Writing History: A Guide for Canadian Students (Oxford University Press, 2016)
• Other primary and secondary readings, on courselink
*Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.