World History Lecture Improvements

Some items to be sure to include:

• an example or two of Aesop's Fables
• more on the history of democracy
• more discussion of the origin of language
• the history of the English Bible, including discussion of King James I, with reference to Bible sales annually
• more detail about the Spanish Inquisition
• more detail about Galileo
• how virtually all Christians agree on the contents of the New Testament, and on the Nicene Creed
• introduction to term list
• include references to history of mathematics and mathematicians [1]
• how different China and India are, but how together they have perhaps 8 times the population of the U.S.
• how the development of China and India's economies supposedly affected the value of commodities like oil.
• Luke accompanied Paul in his work
• include a discussion of the Habsburgs
• more on the Revolutionary War and its significance in world history
• the section on nation-states (Lecture 8) should clarify that the Holy Roman Empire was not a nation-state

More Current Events

• economy - outsourcing jobs
• economy - price of oil

More Bible history

• When the books were written (example of Esther)
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Split of Israel due to its civil war (draw analogy to American Civil War)
• date of translations of Bible

More on Development of Ideas

• paucity of humor in ancient world
• concept of zero, and more mathematical history
• concept of invisible hand, and more economic history
• concept of democracy, and more political history

More on history of language

See http://i-cias.com/e.o/cuneiform.htm .

In 1611, the publication of the King James Bible had a powerful effect on the development of English. It established a framework of knowledge of the English language, and a basis for future development of words at a rate of about 1000 words per year (in modern times). See Essay:Best New Conservative Words.

English is unique among world languages in its ability to incorporate and adapt words from other tongues.

Kulturkampf, a word developed in 1879, means the conflict between civil government and religious authorities with respect to the appointment of church officials and education.

kremlinology, a word developed in 1958, was the study of the bizarre and byzantine practices of the communist Soviet government

The period of Modern English is from the 1500s to the present.

Include this info re: history of English:

The English language has been variously divided into periods by different writers. In the division most commonly recognized, the first period dates from about 450 to 1150. This is the period of full inflection, and is called Anglo-Saxon, or, by many recent writers, Old English. The second period dates from about 1150 to 1550 (or, if four periods be recognized, from about 1150 to 1350), and is called Early English, Middle English, or more commonly (as in the usage of this book), Old English. During this period most of the inflections were dropped, and there was a great addition of French words to the language. The third period extends from about 1350 to 1550, and is Middle English. During this period orthography became comparatively fixed. The last period, from about 1550, is called Modern English.