A Primer for Teaching Indian Ocean World History is a guide for college and high school educators who are teaching Indian Ocean histories for the first time or who want to reinvigorate their courses. It can also serve those who are training future teachers to prepare their own syllabi, as well as those who want to incorporate Indian Ocean histories into their world history courses. Edward A. Alpers and Thomas F. McDow offer course design principles that will help students navigate topics ranging from empire, geography, slavery, and trade to mobility, disease, and the environment. In addition to exploring non-European sources and diverse historical methodologies, they discuss classroom pedagogy and provide curriculum possibilities that will help instructors at any level enrich and deepen standard approaches to world history. Alpers and McDow draw readers into strategically designing courses that will challenge students to think critically about a vast area with which many of them are almost entirely unfamiliar.

Edward A. Alpers is Emeritus Research Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Indian Ocean in World History.

Thomas F. McDow is Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University and author of Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean.

Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction. Initial Thoughts  1
Part I. Foundations and Sources  7
1. Mapping the Indian Ocean  9
2. Beyond Eurocentrism  21
3. Beyond the Text  33
Part II. Global Themes  45
4. Indian Ocean Commodities: The Life of Spice  47
5. People on the Move  59
6. Rethinking Slavery  73
7. Empire and Its Aftermath  87
8. Disease and Environment  101
Part III. Teaching Strategies  117
9. Teaching Technologies: Some Classroom Strategies  119
10. Teaching Technologies: Research Projects for Student Engagement  131
Conclusion. Final Thoughts  147
Notes  149
Selected Bibliography  185
Index