In this class students will investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 8000 B.C.E to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; making historical comparisons; utilizing reasoning about contextualization, causation, and continuity and change over time; and developing historical arguments. The course provides themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places. Some of these themes include: interaction between humans and the environment; development and interaction of cultures; state building, expansion, and conflict; creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems; and development and transformation of social structures.