On my first blog, I wrote that after reading the first two chapters, I found myself thinking I had traveled far and felt transported to another time. I found Strayer’s book more like a novel rather than a text book. Every time I finished a chapter, whether it would be on the Indus Valley People, Roman and other Empires, Silk, Sand and Sea Roads, slavery, or world of Islam, I felt as if I had been to these places. Over the weekend, I read the last two chapters (minus the Reflections on chapter 23) because I was not ready to end my “trip around the world”. But I could not say that I was done with all the reading, so I finally ended my “trip around the world” yesterday afternoon when I read the Reflections of chapter 23. I found Strayer’s “last” words to have struck an emotional chord with me and eloquently summarize my feelings about how I benefited from this class. “But historical understanding is always incomplete, relative, and subject to change. Nonetheless, the achievements of the historical enterprise are impressive and enormously enriching. Our subject – world history – makes us witnesses to the broad contours of the human journey and provide a context in which our individual lives can find a place and, perhaps, a measure of meaning. It serves to open us to and inform us about the wider world that shapes our daily experience. If we base our understanding of life only on what we personally experience in our own lives, we render ourselves both impoverished and ineffective.” (Strayer & Nelson, 1062) Even though there were times when I felt overwhelmed by all the reading we needed to get through in a single week, I know that I am a more enriched person after taking this class.
