(please see attached syllabus!)
Week Topic Content and Reading Assignment Teaching Activities and Homework
1 9/4
Origins of Civilization, Mesopotamia, Egypt Brooks vol I, chapters 1-3 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Development of Neolithic Age developments
-Similarities and differences between Mesopotamia and Egyptian developments
2 9/11
Greece and Persia Brooks vol I, chapters 4-7 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Distinctions between culture of classical Greece and cultures that preceded it
-Geographical and cultural context of rise of the polis
-What was the ‘age of Pericles’?
-Contrasts between the poleis: Athens, Sparta, Miletus
-Basic outline of Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War
3 9/18
Rome Brooks vol I, chapters
8-10 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Characteristics and strengths of Roman civilization; how were Romans able to succeed?
-Outline and causes of Roman decline and fall
4 9/25
Christianity, Byzantium, and Islam Brooks vol I, chapters
10-12 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Reasons why Roman world was Christianized
-Importance of Church Fathers
-Byzantium as Rome; religious disputes
-Islamic contributions to Western civilization
5 10/2
Middle Ages Brooks vol I, chapter 13; vol II, chapters 1-2 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Factors of European economic development
-Causes for First Crusades and later crusades
-Outline of crises (Black Death) and heresies
-Causes of Hundred Years’ War
6 10/9
Renaissance and Reformation Brooks vol II, chapters
3-4, 6-7 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Importance of northern Italian cities to the origin of the Renaissance
-Understand renaissance and what was meant by classical humanism
-Humanism in other European contexts
-Why Reformation in sixteenth century, and not earlier?
-Good works vs. ‘faith alone’
-Contrast Martin Luther, his contemporaries, and later reformers
-Understand Council of Trent and Catholic Church’s attempts to combat Protestantism
7 10/16
Exploration, Absolutism, and Scientific Revolution Brooks vol II, chapters
5, 8, 10 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-How to define absolutism? Aims?
-What were alternatives to absolutism? Why Britain? Holland?
-Explain origins of scientific method
• Contrast Bacon and Descartes
• Consider the different national contexts for the Scientific Revolution
8 10/23 Midterm
9 10/30
Eighteenth Century: Enlightenment and Revolution Brooks vol II, chapters
11-13; vol III, chapter 1 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Contrast various national ‘Enlightenment’
-What does Enlightenment have to do with the contemporary world?
-Differences between liberal and radical phases of the French Revolution
-Understand French Revolution and the creation of modern political culture
10 11/6
Nineteenth Century: Industry, Ideology, and Imperialism Brooks vol III, chapters
2-6 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Industrialization
– Why Britain first?
– Social impact?
– Alternatives to the Industrial Revolution?
-Goals of Congress of Vienna
-Contrast ideologies/responses to the French Revolution: conservatism, liberalism, socialism
-Understand motives of the New Imperialism
-Examples of resistance to imperialism
11 11/13
World War I and Russian Revolution Brooks vol III, chapters
7-8 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
Why war in 1914 (and not earlier)?
Why was this a ‘Great War’?
Russian Revolution(s)
• Why 1917?
• Nature of Leninist party
• Bolshevik state
• Bolshevik experimentation
12 11/20
The Interwar Period: Challenges to the Liberal Order Brooks vol III, chapters
9 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Birth of Fascism
• Fascism’s appeal
• Anatomy of Fascism: A Fascist core?
• Explain Hitler’s rise
• German and victimization
• Spain as a battleground
• Challenge of the Depression
13 11/27
World War II and Holocaust Brooks vol III, chapters
10-11 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Outbreak and Conduct of War
• History and Munich
• Causes for Allied victory
-Final Solution, causes, “never again”
14 12/4
Rebirth and Cold War, Decolonization Brooks vol III, chapters
12-14 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Decolonization: Possibilities and problems in decolonization
-Causes for Western European rebirth
-Importance of Global 1968
15 12/11
End of Cold War, Toward the Present Brooks vol III, chapters
15 Student completes reading before class
Lecture (with PPT) and class discussion
Topics/Questions:
-Soviet Bloc: Strength/weakness; Dissidents
-Causes for Collapse of Communism in Europe
-Limits to Growth Debate
-Continuing Conflicts
16 12/18
Final
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