Western Civilization
Fall 2008
This course will introduce and place in perspective the essential features of the human experience in the western world from ancient Mesopotamia to the Reformation. Political and institutional developments, social organization and political ideas, art, architecture, literature, philosophy and religion will all receive attention. Basically, this is the course where you will encounter all those things you have always known you ought to know, and find out why you felt you ought to know them. Readings will be drawn from a course textbook and a series of primary sources ranging from the very earliest literature of ancient Mesopotamia through to the writings of Martin Luther, taking in Homer, the Bible, Cicero, Peter Abelard and Dante along on the way. Reading will average about 125 pages per week.
The courses consists of three lectures and a discussion section each week.
Students will complete three hour-long examinations and write four three to four page papers.
Possible readings:
T.F.X. Noble, et al., Western Civilization. The Continuing Experiment, 3rd edition, Volume 1 (Houghton Mifflin, 2002).
M. Perry, J.R. Peden & T.H. Von Laue, Sources of the Western Tradition, 4th edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
Additional readings will be available online through the course website.