Goals

This course has the following three goals: 1) to give the students an over-view of the development of Western Civilization from its beginnings to approximately 1650; 2) to provide the students with a sense of what “doing history” entails; and 3) to foster the critical, analytical, and communicative skills of the students, through extensive reading and writing assignments. By the end of the course, the students should be able to describe effectively the basic development of Western Civilization from the Ancient Near East to the Peace of Westphalia, and to evaluate critically the sources upon which historical portrayals of Western Civilization have been based. Furthermore, students should be able to reflect on how Western traditions have impacted, and continue to impact, life in the West today. Thus this course contributes to, and indeed is based on, IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning. The exams, combined with the final essay (see below) are designed to develop and test the students’ communication and quantitative skills, their critical thinking, their ability to integrate and apply their knowledge, their intellectual depth, breath, and adaptiveness, their understanding of society and culture, and their values and ethics. This is not a course that seeks only to impart information. This is a course that by design focuses on the creation of meaning in the past, and how that creation of meaning in the past relates to present-day meanings. Reflection on and analysis of the sources and well as the self is the primary requirement for success in this course. History is not a “thing of the past”, but a “thing” of the present. The ways in which it is so are the foundation upon which this course is based, and are analyzed as much as they are taken as givens. The over-all goal for the course is that students will not only develop their communicative and analytical skills, but will also gain intellectual depth and breadth in reflecting on the values and ethics of the past as a “sounding board” for the values and ethics of today in coming to a deeper and broader understanding of the society and culture of the past and of the present, and how that past has impacted and continues to impact themselves and their worlds.

Required Texts

Sherman, Dennis, and Joyce Salisbury, The West in the World. Vol. 1: To 1715. McGraw-Hill,

2004.

Perry, Peden, Von Laue, Sources of the Western Tradition. From Ancient Times to the Enlightenment.

Houghton-Mifflin, 2003.

Grading

The final grade will be given based on the following percentages:

1) Two mid-term examinations (100 points each): 200 points each (40%)

2) Three 3-5 page essays, top two grades count (50 pts each): 100 points (20%)

3) Final Exam 200 points (40%)

Total: 500 points

Extra Credit:

Participation in Oncourse Discussion Forums, Chat Rooms, etc.: 50 points

One 8-10 page term paper (topic to be discussed with professor): 50 points

The mid-term exams will be multiple-choice, covering the text book, the assigned, required readings, and the lectures. The final exam will be comprehensive, and will consist of two parts. The first part is an essay question, worth 100 points; the second part is multiple choice, worth 100 points. The multiple choice part of the exam will be comprehensive, but will focus on the material assigned and presented in class since the second mid-term. This part of the exam will be taken at the scheduled time for the final. The essay part of the final exam is a take-home essay. The assignment is found here below. It is to be typed, double spaced in standard font. Please see the guide included below for the final essay. It will be due in class at the scheduled final time. In addition to the exams, three 3-5 page essays on the sources are assigned, with the top two grades counting toward the final grade. Please see the guide to writing the essays included here below.

Students interested to doing the extra credit term paper must see me; no extra credit term papers will be accepted without prior permission and consultation. The extra credit assignment will only be counted toward your final grade if the grade you receive on the extra credit assignment is higher than the grade you receive for the course without the extra credit, regardless of the point count. For example, if you receive 390 points for the course, which is a C, and do the extra credit term paper, on which you earn a 30, which is a D, you will receive a C in the course, even though the total points with the extra credit would be 420 points, which would be a B. If, however, you have 360 points, which is a C, and do the extra credit term paper, for which you earn 40 points, which is a B, then your total for the course would be 400 points, which is a B, and you would receive a B in the class. To repeat: the extra credit term paper will only be counted toward your final grade if and only if the grade you receive on the extra credit term paper is a higher grade than what you have earned in the course. If there are any questions about this policy and this assignment, please see me in advance. Further, there are 50 points extra credit available for class participation. This entails actively participating in the Oncourse component of this course (see below). The same principle applies for this component of the course as is valid for the extra credit term paper, namely: the extra credit participation points will only be counted toward your final grade if and only if the grade you receive on the extra credit participation is a higher grade than you have earned in the course. However, please note that the extra credit participation points will be calculated first and this score will be used to determine your eligibility for the extra credit term paper points. Again, if you have any questions about this policy, please ask. My reason for making this policy is because I strongly feel that a student should not earn an A or a B in a course in which she/he did C or D work. The extra credit is offered as a stimulus to learning, and as a reward for hard work; it is not intended to function as a way of getting a higher grade in the course than you have earned. Again, if you have any questions, please ask.

Oncourse

This course uses oncourse for much of its administration. If you do not know how to use oncourse, you are strongly urged to contact the University Information Technology Services to learn how, and please notify me as well. The essay assignments, as well as the final essay, are to be turned in via oncourse. In addition, there will be periodic chat rooms available, and on-going discussion forums. This course will use course mail for all communications and announcements (as well as in class). I will be discussing the use of oncourse for this course during the course of the semester, of course!

Attendance

I expect each and every student to attend each and every lecture. More than three absences will result in a loss of 25 points; more than six absences will result in a loss of an additional 50 points. Excused absences must be cleared with me. Only the most extraordinary of circumstances will excuse more than three absences.

Policy on Cheating

Please note that I will not tolerate cheating, and will punish any student caught cheating with the full severity allowed me by IUPUI regulations, namely, any student caught cheating on any assignment will be suspended permanently from the course and automatically assigned an ‘F’ as a final grade, and further disciplinary measures will be considered. I view cheating any of the following: 1) Plagiarism of any kind, by which I mean: copying all or part of another student’s paper; handing in papers written for you by someone else; failure to properly footnote direct quotations, paraphrased passages, or opinions of other scholars (including authors of Cliff Notes and other such study aids) in essays written outside of class. Plagiarism also consists of using material from the WWW without using quotation marks and proper citation. Plagiarism is easy to detect. Do not do it! If you have any questions whether you are plagiarizing material, please ask me about it before hand! Once a paper is turned in, it is too late and the paper, if plagiarized, is subject to the penalties mentioned above; 2) collaborating on any in-class exam; 3) copying the answers of any other student during an in-class exam In short, DO NOT CHEAT AND DO NOT PLAGIARISE! YOU WILL BE CAUGHT AND PUNISHED!

Schedule of Lectures

Th. Aug. 26: Introduction: What are we doing here?

Week 1

T Aug. 31: The Emergence of Civilization: Ancient Mesopotamia

T Sept. 2: The World of The Greeks

Readings: Sherman and Salisbury, The West in the World, ch. 1 (hereafter cited as S&S); Perry, Peden, and Von Laue, Sources of the Western Tradition, chs. 1 and 2 (hereafter cited as Sources)

Week 2

T Sept. 7: Beyond the Gods: The Greek Mind

Th Sept. 9: The Myth of Rome

Readings: S&S, chs. 2 and 3; Sources, chs. 3 and 4

Week 3

T Sept. 14: The Rise of Christianity

Th Sept. 16: Augustine of Hippo

Readings: S&S, ch. 4; Sources, chs. 5 and 6

Week 4

T Sept. 21: “Not with a Bang, but a Whimper”: The Fall of Rome

Th Sept. 23: First Mid-Term Exam

Readings: S&S, ch. 5

First Essay Due: Th Sept. 23

Week 5

T Sept. 28: The Rise of the West

Th Sept. 30: Feudal Society: The Myth of Christendom

Readings: S&S, ch. 6; Sources, ch. 7

Week 6

T Oct. 5: Power, Authority, and Rule: Church and State

Th Oct. 7: Monasticism and Modernity

Readings: S&S, ch. 7; Sources, ch. 8, sections 2 and 3

Week 7

T Oct. 12: The Medieval Renaissance

Th Oct. 14: The Flowering of Medieval Culture

Readings: S&S, ch. 8; Sources, ch. 8, sections 1, 4-10

Week 8

T Oct. 19: Popes, Princes, and Patres: Who Ruled Europe?

Th Oct. 21: The Crisis of the Later Middle Ages

Week 9

T Oct. 26: In the Footsteps of the Ancients: A Renaissance?

Th Oct. 28: Humanism—Civic and Otherwise

Readings: Sources, ch. 9

Second Essay Due: T Oct. 26

Week 10

T Nov. 2: Late Medieval Reform and Reformation

Th Nov. 4: Second Mid-Term Exam

Readings: S&S, ch. 9; Sources, ch. 8, sections 11 and 12

Week 11

T Nov. 9: Martin Luther: From Friar to Reformer

Th Nov. 11: The Development and Spread of the Reformation

Readings: S&S, ch. 10; Sources, ch. 10

Week 12

T Nov. 16: John Calvin and the Reformation of the Refugees

Th Nov. 18: Politics, Theology, and the Early Modern State

Week 13

T Nov. 23: Reform and Reformation in England

Th Nov. 25: Thanksgiving

Readings: S&S, ch. 11

Week 14

T Nov. 30: Confessionalization and the Wars of Religion

Th Dec. 2: Seeing Through Heaven: Science and Superstition

Readings: S&S, ch. 12

Week 15

T Dec. 7: Absolutism, Imperialism, and Modernity: The Myth of Nationalism

Th Dec. 9: So What?

Readings: S&S, chs 13- 14; Sources, chs. 11-12

Third Essay Due: T Dec. 7

End of Classes

FINAL EXAM: Thursday, December 16, 1:00 P.M.-3:00 P.M

IMPORTANT DATES

Thursday, September 23: First Essay Due

Thursday, September 23: First Mid-Term

Tuesday, October 26: Second Essay Due

Thursday, November 4: Second Mid-Term

Tuesday, December 7: Third Essay Due

Thursday, December 16: Final Exam: 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Guide to Writing the Essays

As stated above on the syllabus, three 3-5 page essays are required for this course, with the top two grades counting toward your final grade. The essays should be typed/printed, double-spaced, in standard font (e.g.: CG Times, Times New Roman). They should be well written, without grammatical errors. The point of the essays is to analyze the sources and to argue a case in answering a question, supported with evidence from the sources themselves and the historical context. Prove your case, do not just state it. You may use the text book and your lecture notes for your answer as well as the sources themselves. If you have any questions about this assignment, please do not hesitate to see me! The essay assignments are given here below. Good luck!

Essay 1:

Was the pax Romana the beginning of Rome’s “Golden Age” or the beginning of Rome’s “Decline and Fall”? Answer this question based on an analysis of the sources, particularly Augustus’ own Achievements, Virgil’s The Aeneid, Tacitus, Juvenal, Seneca, Aelius Aristides, and Marcus Aurelius. You may focus on any particular source, or base your answer on all of them. In any case, be specific and argue a position with strong support.

Due: Thursday, Sept. 23

Essay 2:

How would Marsilius of Padua reply to Pope Gregory VII’s Dictatus Papae? Argue your position by analyzing the arguments both of Gregory VII and Marsilius. What was the major difference between them?

Due: Tuesday, Oct. 26

Essay 3:

What was the concept of sovereignty put forth by Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan and what were his reasons for such a position?

Due: Tuesday, Dec. 7

Guide to Writing the Final Essay

As stated above on the syllabus, part of the final is a take-home essay. The essay for the final is given here below. You are strongly encouraged to work on this essay throughout the semester. The essay must be typed/printed, double-spaced in standard font (e.g.: CG TIMES, TIMES NEW ROMAN). Your essay will be graded on form as well as content. It must be well written, without spelling or grammatical errors. The essay should be approximately 5-7 pages, though no maximum limit is given. The essay should be answered based on the course material, namely, the lectures, the textbook, and the source readings. Your essay should have a strong argument, supported with evidence, namely, detail and reference to the sources. There is no right or wrong answer on this essay. The essay will be graded based on how well you analyze the course material and apply it to the question below. Be sure to argue your case, and to base your argument on the course material, and particularly on the sources. When quoting from the textbook, the source readings, or from the lectures, please give references/citations in parenthesis. For example: “As can be seen in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when Gilgamesh cried out: ‘How can I be silent, how can I rest, when Enkidu whom I love is dust, and I too shall die and be laid in the earth.’ (Sources, 6).” If you have any questions about this assignment, please do not hesitate to see me! Good luck!

Answer the following::

“The foundational myth of Western Civilization is Western Civilization.” Defend or refute this thesis in answering the questions: What is ‘Western Civilization’? When did it arise? What are its characteristics? How did that civilization that is distinctively and uniquely western develop into what we term ‘Early Modern Europe’? Be sure to include in your essay a comparison of factors from: 1.) the ancient Near East; 2.) the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome; 3.) the Middle Ages; and 4.) Early Modern Europe, taking into account all material assigned and presented in this course (or in other words: analyze and evaluate the origins and content of the consciousness and ideology of ‘the West’ and its impact on the development of Western society and culture).