"Harvard is a very intellectual place and it would be great to have a course that reflects that and that would take advantage of the great diversity of fields represented in our department," Hankins said. "I personally question whether a world civilization class would give the same frame of reference."

Designing the Course

Despite the concerns, Hankins said a departmental committee will probably begin designing the world history course next year. The course would be introduced in 2000-01 at the earliest.

Next year, Hankins will teach the course as part of a "three-years-on, three-years-off agreement" with Ozment, who currently teaches History 10a. In the spring, Coolidge Professor of History David G. Blackbourn, the department's acting chair, will teach History 10b.

The logistics of creating and teaching a world history course are still up in the air, though tentative plans are being discussed.

"It is very hard to cover history from the Sumerians to the present day in one year," Hankins said.

He said the design of the world history class would probably be topically-based, with a cross-cultural comparative approach. The course would cover two units a semester, four in a year, with each unit taught by different departmental faculty.

"Area studies within the History Department can then contribute their research and knowledge to [a world civilization course]," Hankins said.

Possible units include the rise and fall of empires, the family unit in history, human ecology, religious and industrial revolutions and imperialism.

"All of these lend themselves to cross-cultural comparisons," Hankins said.

History concentrators say a cross-cultural comparison would be beneficial.

"If you actually did some kind of intelligent comparison of different societies without worrying about relating them to post-modern concerns, then it would be a great service to history concentrators," said Laszlo Nagy '99.

Replacement or Alternative?

Hankins predicted a "lively debate" within the department on whether the new world history class would be required of history concentrators in place of History 10, or whether it would simply be offered as another option with which they could meet the requirement.

For a time, both courses will probably be offered, he said.

"We don't like to tell professors what to do," he said. "If they want to teach 10 a/b, they can."

In addition, the department hopes to have the new class added to the Core Curriculum. According to Hankins, History 10 never received a favorable response from the Committee on the Core.

"Ideally we would have liked having History 10 in the Core Curriculum," Hankins said. "Many departments have their intro courses in the Core, allowing freshmen to explore their disciplines...[Such courses] act as recruiting for the department."