For Teachers: Lessons
Rethinking the rise of the West: The Great Divergence Debate
Konstantin Georgidis, Canterbury School, Ft. Myers, Florida
INTRODUCTION
Instructional Objectives
- Identify the different ways historians have tried to explain the rise of the West.
- Explain what is meant by the term "world systems theory" and how world systems operate.
- Compare the basic issues in the debate on the great divergence between East and West which have become the focus of the historical research of the following scholars: David Landes, Andre Gunder Frank, Bin Wong, Kenneth Pomeranz, Peer Vries and Philip C. C. Huang.
- Identify and explain the kinds of evidence and arguments which are being used by opposing sides in this debate.
- Trace how historians’ changing views of the rise of the West in the last 25 years illustrate the dynamic nature of the discipline of history.