Western Civilization to 1715
Western Civilization to 1715
History 105
Spring 2006
University of Massachusetts-Lowell
Professor Patrick Young
patrick_young@uml.edu
Coburn 108
x4276
office hours: Tuesdays, 12:30-2, Wednesdays 1:30—2:45, and by appointment
Course Description
This course will survey some of the more important issues and tendencies in the history of Western Civilization from its origins through the early modern period. Given the scope of the period covered, we will of necessity need to be selective in our choice of themes. These will include “civilization” and the rise of cities, different imaginings of god(s) and humanity, evolving forms of political organization (monarchies, empires and consensual forms of government), continuity and change in social organization and everyday life, and the ongoing dialogue of faith and reason. In addition to textbook and lecture overview, the course will involve direct interpretation of a wide range of original source materials, including political documents, literary, religious and philosophical texts, art and architecture, and music. Our principal aim throughout will be to practice the method of the historian: raising historical questions, critically reading evidence, forming and testing interpretations.
Course Texts
The following are required texts for the course. They are available at the University bookstore, and should be purchased as soon as possible. Copies will also put on reserve at the library. As these books are widely used in World Civilization survey courses, they should be available in cheaper used versions as well. All images shown in class will be housed on the course website, and I will provide any supplementary readings directly in class or online. Since much of the work of the course will consist of primary source analysis, students are required to bring the Perry source book to class every day.
Mark Kishlansky, et. al., Civilization in the West, Volume I, 6th Edition (Pearson Longman, 2006)
Marvin Perry, et. al., Sources of the Western Tradition, Volume I, 6th Edition (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
Coursework Requirements
The work of the course will include a quiz, midterm and final examinations, a pair of short papers and in-class participation, and will break down as follows:
quiz and worksheets 15%
midterm 20%
papers 20%
final exam 30%
class discussion 15%
Due dates for the assignments are provided below. I cannot accept late work unless arrangements are made well in advance (24 hours at least). The penalty for late work is one half-letter grade per day.
On Class Discussion:
My aim is that class discussion be a fully integrated part of the work we will be doing in the class, and that students will participate in an active and informed way in those discussions. It will take the form of analysis of original source documents from the Perry reader, which you are required to bring to each class. In addition, students will sign up at the beginning of the term to be “primary discussant” during a single class of their choosing at some point over the course of the semester. I will also provide occasions over the course of the semester for involvement via the course website, and this involvement will be considered formal participation. These will be combined with a grade for daily participation, to produce an overall class discussion grade. Lateness and/or incomplete preparation for the discussion will lower the participation grade, as will any more than three absences.
On Plagiarism:
The University handbook defines plagiarism (p. 41) as:
1) direct quotation or word-for-word copying of all of part of the work of another without identification and acknowledgment of the quoted work.
2) extensive use of acknowledged quotation from the work of others which is joined together by a few words or lines of one’s own text.
3) an abbreviated restatement of someone else’s analysis or conclusion, however skillfully paraphrased, without acknowledgment that another person’s text has been the basis for the recapitulation.
For a fuller explanation of plagiarism, see Professor Walters’ website at . If you have any question about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult the handbook, the website or me personally. Any suspicion of plagiarism will be fully investigated, and if proven can result in failure of the assignment and possibly the course.
Schedule of Classes
Unit One: Civilizations of Antiquity, 3000 B.C.-400 A.D.
1/25
I. Course Introduction; “Civilization” and “the West”
II. Ancient Near East: The Sumerian City, Law and Divine Kingship
Kishlansky, 9-23
Perry, 9-15
Discussion questions:
How does the Hammurabi law code embody “civilization”?
What was the nature of a pharaoh’s political authority?
2/1
I. Polytheism and Monotheism
Kishlansky, 23-29
Perry, 22-34
Discussion questions:
What are the similarities and differences between the Mesopotamian and Hebrew creation stories?
What kind of relationship did the Hebrews strive to maintain with their god?
II. Classical Greece: Rise of the Polis and Greek Humanism
Kishlansky, 35-55
Perry, 45-50
Discussion questions:
What Greek values are underscored in Homer’s descriptions of Hector, Andromache and Priam?
What are the defining features of a polis?
*worksheet due
2/8
I. Greek Democracy: Achievements and Limitations
Kishlansky, 55-62; 71-75
Perry, 69-73; 77-80
Discussion questions:
How genuine was Athenian democracy?
What role did women and slaves play in Athens?
What is the purpose of philosophy, according to Socrates, and why does Athens need it?
II. War, Expansion and Empire, 500-30 BC
Kishlansky, 75-99
Perry, 58-61; 66-8; 74-6
Discussion questions:
How did Herodotus and Thucydides tell the history of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and what is the importance of their accounts?
What was the impact of Alexander the Great’s conquests?
*paper due
2/15
I. The Roman Republic
Kishlansky, 107-127
Perry, 101-103
Discussion questions:
What values and institutions defined the Roman Republic?
How does Polybius explain the success of the Roman army?
II. From Republic to Empire
Kishlansky, 129-141
Perry, 119-123
Discussion questions:
Why did the Roman Republic fall into crisis and give way to an Empire?
*quiz
2/22
I. Augustan Rome
Kishlansky, 141-149
Perry, 125-129; 143-144; 147-148
Discussion questions:
What, according to Augustus, were his most valuable accomplishments?
Was the Pax Romana more a blessing or a curse for those living in the provinces of the Roman empire?
II. Early Christianity
Kishlansky, 149-153; 153-157
Perry, 160-163; 185-8
Discussion questions:
In what ways was Christianity consistent with Hebrew monotheism, and in what ways was it a departure?
Why, according to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, should one “turn the other cheek” when struck?
Was Christianity a challenge to the power of Rome?
Unit Two: The West in the Middle Ages, 400-1300
3/1
I. *Midterm examination
II. Rome’s Three Heirs: Byzantine, Islamic and Christian Empires
Kishlansky, 187-210
Perry, 195-198
Discussion questions:
In what ways did the Byzantine Empire preserve the legacy of Rome and the classical world?
What does Islam share in common with Christianity and Judaism, and what in it is distinctive?
3/8
I. Medieval Economy and Society
Kishlansky, 230-235; 256-260
Perry, 212-222
Discussion questions:
What is feudalism and why did it come to structure social and economic life in medieval Europe?
How was economic and social life in towns different from that in the countryside?
II. Politics and Kingship in the Middle Ages
Kishlansky, 234-241; 247-249; 279-289
Perry, 256-258
Discussion questions:
In what senses did the reign of Charlemagne mark a “Renewal of the West”, as the textbook suggests?
What is the historical significance of the Magna Carta (1215)?
*Spring Break
3/22
I. Popes, Monks, Crusaders and Heretics: Boundaries of Medieval Catholicism
Kishlansky, 260-270
Perry, 223-230
Discussion questions:
How did Pope Gregory VII assert the authority of the pope?
Why did the call for a crusade in Jerusalem meet with such an enthusiastic reception in Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries?
II. Mind and Spirit in the Middle Ages: the University and the Cathedral
Kishlansky, 262-263; 270-279
Perry, 237-241
Discussion questions:
How did Gothic cathedrals express medieval religious and intellectual aspirations?
How was the medieval university similar to and different from the modern one?
Unit Three: The Early Modern West, 1300-1715
3/29
I. The Fourteenth Century Crisis
Kishlansky, 310-315
Perry, 258-263
Discussion questions:
What was the demographic, economic and religious impact of the Black Death on Europe?
What were the causes of popular rebellions in the cities and countryside of Europe in the fourteenth century?
II. The Renaissance Rethinking of Human Nature
Kishlansky, 321-350
Perry, 282-283
Discussion questions:
Why do human beings have a unique “dignity”, according to Pico della Mirandola?
How were Renaissance ideals expressed in art, architecture and politics in Italy?
4/5
I. Overseas Exploration
Kishlansky, 353-366
Perry, 327-333
Discussion questions:
What motivated European voyages of exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?
What does Diaz emphasize in his description of Montezuma’s court and Tenochtitlan, and why?
II. Christendom Divided: The Protestant Reformation
Kishlansky, 387-416
Perry, 295-306
Discussion questions:
What is Martin Luther’s critique of the Catholic Church, and how radical is the alternative vision of Christian belief he proposes?
How and why did the Protestant Reformation spread beyond Germany?
How did the Catholic Church respond to the challenge of Protestantism?
*document analysis paper due
4/12
I. Religious War and the Rise of the State, 1555-1648
Kishlansky, 419-434; 439-446
Perry, 321-325
Discussion questions:
How did the doctrinal conflicts between Catholics and Protestants give way to nearly a century of repression and warfare in Europe?
What, if anything, was the end result of this war?
II. Absolutism and Louis XIV’s Theater of Power
Kishlansky, 483-492; 502-509
Perry, 356-364
Discussion questions:
What was “absolutism”?
How did Versailles embody the ambitions of Louis XIV and the power of the French state?
4/19
*Monday class schedule: No Class
4/26
I. Crises of the Royal State and the Rise of Political Theory
Kishlansky, 492-502
Perry, 366-371; 400-402
Discussion questions:
How did king and Parliament come into conflict in England?
What is “modern” in the way Hobbes and Locke understand the nature of political power and the state?
II. Capitalist Commerce and Urban Life: the Dutch Case
Kishlansky, 449-460
Perry, 334-5
Discussion questions:
In what ways was there a “transformation” in the economic development of the West in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, according to the textbook?
What was a joint-stock company, and how did it represent a new way of doing business?
5/3
I. Capitalism and the Slave Trade
Perry, 340-350
Discussion questions:
What economic objectives fueled the growth of the Atlantic slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
On what grounds did Europeans both condone and condemn slavery?
What, according to Olaudah Equiano, were the most difficult aspects of the slave’s passage to the New World?
II. Early Modern Society and the Witchcraft Craze
Kishlansky, 460-479
Perry, 350-356
Discussion questions:
How had society changed in Europe since the Middle Ages, and how had it remained the same?
Why was there a “witch craze” in seventeenth century Europe?
5/10
I. The Scientific Method and Universe: A Revolution in Worldview?
Perry, 372-8; 389-392
Discussion questions:
Were the findings of Copernicus and Galileo a challenge to religion?
Why is Descartes’ phrase, “I think therefore I am” often seen to be the beginning of modern philosophy?
II. Final exam review
*Final Examination
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