Lesson 1

HISTORY 1b 

Terminology

BP - before present
BC - before Christ.
AD - Aro Domini
BCE - before common era (the same as BC but a more political way of saying it)
CE - common era


history
Start: 13.7 billion BP.
End: Present
Event: The Big Bang. Matter forms. New chemical elements. Life on Earth is created.
- anything that happened in the past. The known past begin 13.7 billion BP.


prehistory
Start: 200 000 BP
End: 3500 BCE
Event: Ice age. People begin to spread and meet around the world.
- the human past before the invention of writing.
- Anything that happened to us humans before we could write.


What is the definition of writing and how did it develop?
First people used pictograms. Pictograms are pictures you draw in clay.
Then the need of writing faster increased so people started useing cuniforms. Cuniforms are similar to pictograms  but thay are drawn much faster. The first writing occurd in Mesopotamia. Here the first civilization happened. It is between Euphrates and Tigris. Sumerians 3500 BCE. In Sweden the first writing occured 300 CE. The writings were made by the Vikings.


History
Start: 3500 BCE
End: Present
Event: Anything that is written down. For example: World War 2.
- the academic study of the human past traditionally based upon written sources.
- It lives in schools, libraries and universities.
- It is very frustrating for historians to only study written sources. Therefore there has been a movement overe the past decades to study history that is not written. For example, landscapes, architecture, stones etc. Today, historians are very open minded and study anything they can come across on.

Big History
Start: 13.7 billion BP
End: 
Event: 
- A study by David Christian
- begins at the beginning of Big bang
- The broadest possible history perspective.


Timeline
Alexander the Great - born 356 BC
Alexander the Great - born 323 BC
Jesus - born 1 AD
Today - 2012 AD

Essay Plan

Thesis:

If there is no society to hold the natural human instincts in restraint, people will lose self-control and start acting violently.  

Introduction

Today, the Earth is inhabited by approximately 7 billion people. With help from the laws of society we share the land of the Earth and live side by side, but what would happen if the laws of society weren’t there? This situation is found in “Lord of the Flies” and the novel clearly illustrates the importance of laws and the consequences of not having any. This essay will argue for that the characters, setting and turning point illustrate the message of the novel. If there is no society to hold the natural human instincts in restraint, people will lose self-control and start acting violently.  

Topic sentence 1

Over time you can clearly see how the lack of society and civilization turns the characters into savages.

Topic sentence 2

The setting of the novel has a huge impact on the characters’ behavior due to the non-civilized society.

Topic sentence 3

The turning point when Jack leaves the group to form his own army with no laws illustrates the human instincts’ overpower of his civilized behavior.

Comparison "White Tiger" and "Slumdog Millionaire"

There are many similarities between ”Slumdog Millionaire” and ”White Tiger”. One clear similarity is that the both main characters come from extreme poor conditions. Balram Halwai grows up in a poor family with a low caste in a small town in India and Jamal becomes homeless at a very young age and starts to live on the streets in the slum.

However, there are some differences as well. One difference is that Jamal and Balram want different things in life and have different goals. Balram wants to become a successful entrepreneur while Jamal’s biggest dream is to live his life together with a woman that he loves.

My first impressions of The White Tiger

My first impressions of The White Tiger are good. I think the book seems to be interesting and exciting. I like the way the book is set up, that the book is written like letters to a person in China that includes small anecdotes of Balram's life. I also like the way he writes and tells the reader about his life and you can clearly feel the tension building up to the murder. It is interesting to read about the background of how he became a successful entrepreneur.
In the book you learn a lot about India and how the society works in India with castes and poverty etc.which is interesting.