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Western Civilization Honors

Course Overview

This honors course explores the foundations and development of Western culture. Its aim is not to present a comprehensive survey of European history but rather to develop an understanding of Western history and culture through an exploration of selected topics. We begin the course with a brief unit on Western foundations in the classical and early medieval periods. The main focus of the course is on the development of Western Civilization over the last 1,000 years, from the later Middle Ages through the twentieth century. We will pay special attention to the four themes described below as we trace the development of Western culture and evolve an understanding of what its means to be “Western.” Of special significance is the global impact of the West and its interactions with other cultures.

Readings

There is no textbook for this class. Readings are drawn for a variety of sources. 

  1. Core readings for the topics within each unit 
  2. Primary source readings, and
  3. Extended secondary essays by leading historians

 GOALS:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the major events in the history of Western Civilization from the later Middle Ages to the 20th century.
  2. Trace four key themes in the development of Western Civilization and understand their impact on the present and their implications for the future:

·        Development of representative government, democratic citizenship, and individual rights

·        Development of nation-states and nationalism

·        Material development of Western Civilization: its economic development and its scientific and technological leadership

·        Global impact of Western Civilization.

  1. Read and recognize a variety of approaches to writing history including social history, cultural history, environmental history, and history of technology.
  2. Read critically as historians do, evaluating sources, placing readings in historical context, and using primary sources to corroborate or challenge historical interpretations.
  3. Communicate an understanding of history in oral, written, and multimedia formats.

 

Unit Proficiencies: Students will be able to...                                                                       

  ALL UNITS:

  1. Read and analyze primary sources for each unit, assessing the origins and purpose of the sources, placing them in historical context, and using the primary sources to corroborate or challenge historical interpretations.
  2. Read secondary materials (short essays and excerpts from the works of leading historians), identify author’s thesis, analyze the main ideas, and assess conclusions.

CONTENT OF COURSE: FIRST SEMESTER

  Introduction: Classical and Early Medieval Foundations

  1. Legacy of Greece , Rome , Early Middle Ages
  2. Reading history sources: primary sources and secondary materials.

Introduction proficiencies: student will be able to

  1. Define primary source, analyze critically and use primary sources (both texts and artifacts) to construct historical arguments to answer historical questions.
  2. Define secondary material, read critically, identify the author’s thesis, analyze main ideas, and use secondary sources to construct historical arguments to answer historical questions.
  3. Explain the political and cultural legacies of ancient Greece and Rome

  Unit 1: Rise of the West in the High Middle Ages

  1. Revival of Europe in the High Middle Ages
  2. Islam and the Crusades
  3. Revival of Royal Power
  4. Development of Limited Monarchy in England

  Unit 1 proficiencies: student will be able to

  1. Explain how multiple factors cause history: evaluate the connections that link the revival of trade, the development of technological innovations, and the revival of town life to a general revival of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages.
  2. Describe the cultural and intellectual revival of the West in the High Middle Ages.
  3. Describe the rise of Islam and its contacts and clashes with the West; list the causes of the Crusades evaluate their impact on European society; discuss the Crusades as an example of unintended consequences in history.
  4. Analyze and give examples of the role of the Church in the social, cultural, and political history of the Middle Ages.
  5. Identify reasons for the revival of royal power and the rise of strong nation states during the later Middle Ages.
  6. Describe the significant reigns and events in England after the Norman Conquest that established the foundations of constitutionalism.
  7. Evaluate the impact of the Magna Carts on American constitutional development.
  8. Contrast constitutional monarchy in England with absolute monarchy in France
  9. Explain the factors that made the late Middle Ages a troubled period in for the West

  Unit 2: Age of Exploration

  1. Background/causes
  2. English Colonies in America
  3. The Columbian Exchange
  4. Commercial Revolution
  5. Western Global Dominance

  Unit 2 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Identify and describe economic, religious, and political factors that led to the Age of Exploration.
  2. Give examples of and evaluate the impact of technology as an important factor in the ability of Europeans to explore distant places and maintain links to their overseas empires.
  3. Identify routes explored by the Atlantic Powers and the geographical reach of the colonial empires they established around the world.
  4. Assess the impact of disease on exploration and conquest.
  5. Explain the concept of the Columbian Exchange; give examples and evaluate its impact on Europe, Africa, and the Americas .
  6. Identify the role of groups and individuals who played key roles in the founding of the English colonies in North American and analyze the economic and religious motivations of the early settlers.
  7. Contrast the development of the three colonial regions.
  8. Explain the concept of the Commercial Revolution and describe the system of global trade that placed Europe at the center of things.

  Unit 3: The Renaissance

  1. Origins of Renaissance culture
  2. Renaissance outlook
  3. Renaissance writers
  4. Renaissance art and artists
  5. Northern Renaissance

  Unit 3 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Define the term Renaissance; explain the historical forces that gave birth to this movement in Italy at the end of the Middle Ages.
  2. Understand that the Renaissance is a transitional period and be able to give examples of historical continuity as well as historical change; identify elements of a “modern” outlook that are identifiable in Renaissance culture;
  3. Evaluate the impact of technology and trade on the development and spread of the Renaissance in Western Europe .
  4. Explain the concept of humanism as an intellectual, cultural, and civic concept and identify aspects of humanism in primary sources.
  5. Contrast the political visions of Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas More and explain how they are both evidence of changing ideas about politics.
  6. Contrast Italian and Northern humanists and draw conclusions about the difference in social and cultural impact of the two Renaissance movements.
  7. Evaluate examples of Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture; describe characteristics of Renaissance painting, contrasting Renaissance art with the art of the Middle Ages; identify Renaissance characteristics in representative works of early and High Renaissance artists.
  8. Explore the question, “Was there a Renaissance for women?” through multiple sources, using primary sources and selections from the writings of modern historians.

  Unit 4: The Reformation

  1. Background causes of the Reformation
  2. Martin Luther
  3. John Calvin
  4. The Reformation in England
  5. The Catholic Counter-Reformation
  6. Legacy of the Reformation

  Unit 4 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Describe the background causes of the Protestant Reformation, evaluating the impact of religious, political, social, and technological factors and the role of the individual in the Reformation.
  2. Identify and describe differences of religious interpretation that separated Catholics and Lutherans and Calvinists.
  3. Evaluate the social and political impacts of Protestantism and its historical significance for key themes in Western Civilization.
  4. Show on a map the geographic division of Christianity that resulted from the Protestant Reformation.
  5. Explain the political issues that drove Henry to separate the English Church from Rome .
  6. Assess the impacts of the English Reformation on the English political system.
  7. Compare and contrast the approaches to religious reform taken by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Elizabeth ’s “via media.”

Unit 5: The English Revolution

  1. English nationalism/Reign of Elizabeth I
  2. Background causes of the English Revolution
  3. The English Civil War
  4. Restoration of the monarchy
  5. Glorious Revolution and the Revolution Settlement
  6. Impact on political institutions in Britain
  7. Legacy of ideas

Unit 5 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Identify the strengths of Elizabeth that made her one of England ’s most successful monarchs.

  2.   Identify the political and religious problems during the Tudor era that the Stuarts inherited when they came to the throne.

  3. Describe the opposing political philosophies that pitted the divine right Stuarts against the constitutionalism of Parliament, giving specific examples of this conflict of perspective.

  4. Evaluate the roles played by religious, social, and economic factors in the political clashes between king and Parliament.

  5. Explain the causes and assess the consequences of the Civil War phase of the revolution.

  6. Evaluate the significant role that individuals played at each stage of the revolution.

  7.  Explain how the English Revolution brought about permanent changes in the institutions by which England was governed.

  8. Assess the legacy of the English Revolution for Western political ideas.

CONTENT OF COURSE: SECOND SEMESTER

  Unit 6: The Enlightenment, French Revolution, and Napoleon

  1. The Scientific and the Print revolutions
  2. Political, economic, legal, and social ideas of the philosophes
  3. Background causes of the French Revolution
  4. Events of 1789
  5. Phases of the Revolution
  6. Reign of Terror
  7. Napoleon
  8. Long-term impact of Napoleon and the French Revolution

Unit 6 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Explain the principal ideas that formed the basis of the Enlightenment and the relationship between the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
  2. Assess the impact of print culture on the development and spread of Enlightenment ideas.
  3. Identify and analyze the principal social, political, religious, legal, and economic ideas associated with the philosophes.
  4. Evaluate the role of women in the Enlightenment and its impact on the position of women in society.
  5. Discuss the background causes of the French Revolution.
  6. Evaluate the French Revolution of 1789 as a popular revolution that drew support from a broad range of French society.
  7. Explain how the revolution moved through moderate, radical, and reactionary phases.
  8. Assess the extent to which the ideals of the revolution were achieved.
  9. Evaluate Napoleon in terms of his influence on the French Revolution and 19th Century Europe , including the growth of nationalism and liberalism.
  10. Describe the organization of post-Napoleonic Europe .

  Unit 7: The Industrial Revolution and Nineteenth Century Ideas

  1. The Revolution in Britain
  2. Social and economic impacts
  3. The Second Industrial Revolution
  4. Liberalism
  5. Democracy
  6. Socialism
  7. The New Imperialism

Unit 7 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Explain why the first industrial revolution began in Britain : identify the key factors needed for an industrial “take off.”
  2. Assess the impact of industrialization in its first phase on the middle and working classes, for women and children, and on health and the environment.
  3. Explain the idea of a “second industrial revolution” and assess its impact on the emergence of mass culture.
  4. Describe and contrast the fundamental principles of laissez-faire capitalism, utopian socialism, and Marxism
  5. Critique the ideas of Karl Marx.
  6. Contrast an evolutionary model of democratic change in 19th century Britain with continuing revolutionary change in 19th century France and assess the progress made by women and labor reforms for workers.
  7. Read essays on social change in Victorian Britain and analyze nineteenth century social change from a social history perspective.
  8. Define the forms of imperialism, evaluate the factors that led to a new surge in empire building, and identify areas around the world where the Great Powers “scrambled” to build colonies.

  Unit 8:  Nationalism and World War I

  1. Nationalism in the 19th Century
  2. The New Imperialism
  3. Background Causes of the Great War
  4. Technology and War
  5. Paris Peace Conference
  6. Russian Revolutions

Unit 8 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Identify and describe factors that contribute to nationalism and its growing importance as a factor in late 19th century Europe .
  2. Explain how nationalism draws together the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy as new states but destabilized the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.
  3. Evaluate the cause of the New Imperialism and its impact on international tensions before World War I.
  4. Identify the background and immediate causes of World War I.
  5. Evaluate the impact of technology and new weapons on the course of the war.
  6. Analyze the causes of World War I from a cultural history perspective.
  7. Analyze the national interests of the “Big Four” and assess the impact of the peace settlement on Germany and European society in the inter-war period.

Unit 9: Russian Revolutions and the Rise of Stalin

  1. 19th Century Background
  2. Events leading to the March Revolution of 1917
  3. Problems of the Provisional Government
  4. The Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917
  5. The consolidation of the Revolution under Lenin
  6. Stalin and totalitarianism in the Soviet Union

Unit 9 Proficiencies: Students will be able to

  1. Analyze the background causes of the Russian Revolutions in the problem faced by Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  2. Analyze the ways Lenin modified Marx’s ideas to apply them in a Russian setting.
  3. Explain the events that led to the March Revolution of 1917.
  4. Analyze the weakness of the Provisional Government and the strengths of the Bolsheviks.
  5. Analyze the consolidation of the Revolution under Lenin.
  6. Evaluate the extent to which Lenin left in place a totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union .
  7. Describe and assess the success of the “Stalin Revolution” in agriculture and industry.
  8. Describe the elements that constituted the “Great Terror” and explain how Stalin used terror to consolidate his control.

  Unit 10: Road to World War II

  1. Rise of Totalitarianism
  2. Rise of Hitler
  3. Totalitarianism in Germany
  4. Road to War: 1933-1939
  5. Appeasement
  6. Blizkrieg in  Europe : 1939-1941
  7. The Holocaust

  Unit 10 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Describe, compare, and contrast the two totalitarian systems in Europe: Communism in Russia and Nazism in Germany .
  2. Describe the factors that explain the rise of the Nazi movement and Hitler’s rise to power.
  3. Analyze the Nazi revolution as a “revolution from below” taking a social history perspective on the rise of Nazism.
  4. Discuss the background and immediate causes of World War II.
  5. Assess the actions, and inactions, of the Allies during the era of appeasement.
  6. Describe the outbreak of the war and assess the extent of Nazi victories in Europe by 1941.
  7. Trace the course of the Holocaust from pre-war harassment and legal restrictions through the genocide of the “Final Solution.”

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