King's College History Department

HONORS 202 Western Experiences I

I. Description:

Where did the bulk of our culture come from? This survey of Western Civilization through the Baroque can help answer that question. This course is a survey of the main stages of Western Civilization, with an emphasis on concepts, forces, ideas, events and people that have shaped our western society up to the 17th century. In coordination with other classes on Art, Literature, Philosophy and Theology, this class will emphasize the political, social and economic constraints and opportunities faced by the founders of Western culture.  

II. Purpose:

A. Mission Statement:

This Honors core course is part of the Humanities suite of courses in the Western humanities.

Civilization courses are designed to explore in some depth the complex dimensions of our world and the cumulative experience of the past, to provide an understanding of how yesterday influences today and the outlook for tomorrow. We study the major developments of Western peoples until the 20th century because most of the problems and institutions of contemporary society have distinguishable roots in the historical past. Moreover, because of the physical and material expansion of the West in the modern period, many of these forms ‹ capitalist industrial manufacturing, the nation-state system, etc. ‹ have become global in nature.

We offer this course as part of your general education requirements because it is important for educated citizens to be familiar with the main stages of Western Civilization and recognize it as an expanding force which produced important forms of political, social, and economic organization. You should understand that most of the structures within which we order our lives are products of this evolution. Historians believe that past human behavior can be studied scientifically and that social scientists can improve our understanding of people in the present.

Further, whatever your major or career goals may be, throughout your lives you will be deluged with information, opinion, and interpretations about events which you should be able to evaluate critically. Answering questions and solving problems by critical analysis -- not just memorization of data -- is a basic goal of education. Information is just the raw material in this process and, though rational analysis must be based on factual data, memorizing tidbits of information is not an end in itself. Our real goal is to develop concepts which give order and meaning to the raw material of our recorded past. Doing this requires comprehension beyond minimal factual details of past events. Major emphasis will be on patterns, themes, and concepts against which the factual data must be understood.

We hope that upon successful completion of this course you will have improved your understanding of world civilizations and become a more perceptive judge of the data, opinions, interpretations and explanations continuously offered to you. This process, indeed, should last your whole life, since (paraphrasing the observation of the distinguished professional historian Carl L. Becker from 1931) "Ultimately, every person is their own historian."

B. Objectives for the student:

1. To be familiar with the main stages of civilization as an expanding force that has produced important forms of political, social, economic and cultural organization which are our common heritage.
2. To identify major events, persons and ideas that contributed to the development of Western (including American) and non-Western attitudes and institutions.
3. To develop concepts which give meaning and order to the raw material of our recorded past.
4. To identify and analyze significant problems and situations as they relate to the continuing issues of contemporary life.

C. Goals for the student:

1. To improve understanding of the major events which have influenced the modern world.
2. To be an intelligent consumer and evaluator of information about world events.
3. To develop a global perspective which recognizes the political, economic and cultural interdependence of all nations.
4. To understand the influence of the past on contemporary events and problems or, in other words, to develop Historical Mindedness.

D. General Learning Outcomes for the student:

In addition to the more content-related objectives described above, this course has some general liberal-learning goals of developing academic skills. It is expected that successful completion of this course will help you improve your ability:

1. To manage information, which involves sorting data, ranking data for significance, synthesizing facts, concepts and principles.
2. To understand and use organizing principles or key concepts against which miscellaneous data can be evaluated.
3. To differentiate between facts, opinions and inferences.
4. To frame questions so as to more clearly clarify a problem topic or issue.
5. To compare and contrast the relative merits of opposing arguments and interpretations, moving between the main points of each position.
6. To organize your thoughts and communicate them clearly and concisely in written form.
7. To obtain practice in selecting and presenting information and arguments within a restricted environment, especially the limitations of time in exams.

III. General Requirements

A. Reading:

• Roy T. Matthews and F.DeWitt Platt, The Western Humanities. 4th Ed. (Mountain View, California, 2001)
• Perry Rogers, ed., Aspects of Western Civilization: Problems and Sources in History. Volume I. 4th Ed. (Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000).

The textbooks are intended to provide you with important factual and background information before class and to be used as review and reference works afterwards.

Before class, you will read in the textbook the pages listed on the class schedule, to be given out. After class, regularly through the semester, you should review your class notes and compare them with the textbook's version of the material.

The instructor may give quizzes to test your textbook reading and comprehension.

B. Class Participation & Attendance:

Participation and attendance are necessary because lecture and discussion provide the essentials for achieving class goals and objectives. Thus a portion of your grade (about 10%) will depend on your in-class performance and presence: you are required to attend each class, arrive on time, remain attentive, and respond to questions. You are encouraged to ask questions.

Lectures may be recorded with the instructor's permission, although the tapes may not be used for any other purpose than study, and must be erased after the exams.

The instructor will regularly take attendance. Absences due to college activities, emergency or extended illness may be excused by the appropriate college official. Other absences are unexcused and will lower the class participation portion of your grade. After any absence, you are responsible for making up missed work, requesting hand-outs and already returned assignments, or borrowing notes from other students. Whether absences are excused or not, you may not get a higher grade than the percentage of classes attended.

A student who arrives at class late, after attendance is taken, must personally request that the absence be turned into a tardy mark. Students who need to leave a class session early, except for medical emergency, should notify the instructor before class begins.

If you miss an exam, contact the instructor as soon as possible. You may take a missed exam only at the discretion of the instructor. The makeup exam may be in the form of an oral exam.

All students who have a learning disability, physical handicap and/or any other possible impediment to class participation and requirements should schedule an appointment with the instructor within the first two weeks of classes to discuss available accommodations.

If at some point during the semester you must discontinue the course, due to poor performance, illness or some other cause, be sure to follow proper procedures for withdrawal.

C. Exams:

You will take two mid-term exams and a final exam as assigned during finals week. The exams are comprehensive: each exam may cover material since the beginning of the course. Each exam are worth different percentages of the final grade.

All exams will consist of objective questions testing recall based on historical geography and maps, short identifications quizzing knowledge of detail and significance, and essays demanding your understanding of the course material through logical presentation of facts and explanation of historical trends.

To encourage your learning for the map portion of the exams, two map quizzes are already scheduled. More may be required. In these quizzes you will simply be asked to identify on a map several locations, from those listed map location guide to be posted.

To study for the exams you should regularly, at least once a week, review your class notes, especially for identifications drawn from the overhead outline. You should also compare and contrast these notes with your textbook and with the issues and trends emphasized in the class description.

Be sure to note the concerns about cheating.

D. Written Assignments:

You will have two written assignments: two of three-to-five pages of text each and one of four-to-six pages, for a total of ten-to-sixteen pages. They are described below.   

Be sure to conform to the instructor's presentation guidelines(!), and use Turabian/Chicago Manual of Style format (see Corgan Library Study Guide #11) for bibliography and citations.  

Deadlines: Meeting due dates are an important aspect of written assignments. Papers should be handed in to the instructor, by you yourself, at the beginning of class on the dates assigned.

The grade of any paper you turn in late will lose at least 10% after the beginning of the first class, 20% after the second, and 35% after the third. No late papers will be accepted after the last day of class.

Be sure to note the concerns about plagiarism.

E.  Written Assignments:

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V. Grading Policy:

Click here for parameters of evaluation and grading.

Your final grade will be based on a percentage (above 91%=A, 89%=B+, 81%=B, etc.) of the sum of the assignments. Different assignments will be worth certain point values, to be announced later.

VI. Tentative Class Topics:

All topics are tentative; the instructor may change them at his discretion.

• PART I The Study of History and the formation of the Ancient West
  • The original humans of small hunter-gatherer communities had problems with becoming civilized.
  • The Ancient Middle Eastern civilizations contributed to the foundations of Western culture.
  • The Greeks and later Hellenistic rulers succeeded and failed in politics.
  • The Romans grew from city-state to a large empire unifying the Mediterranean.
  • The Gręco-Roman philosophy, literature and art unified the Mediterranean, Western Europe and the Middle East.
  • The unique religion of Judaism fostered the new religion of Christianity, which conquered the Roman Empire.
  • Internal and external crises caused the collapse of Gręco-Roman civilization in the West.
• PART II The Medieval West and Early Modern Europe
  • The Roman (Byzantine) civilization which continued in the East and the new rival of Islam contrasted with the emerging Europe in the West.
  • The Franks and the Carolingian family succeeded briefly in uniting a Western European empire and promoting a new fusion of Roman, Christian, and Germanic elements, but ultimately failed.
  • The feudal bonds between knights established new forms of government, while manorial bonds between seigneurs and serfs led to new forms of creating wealth.
  • The revival of trade & towns and their wealth produced new possibilities for change.
  • The beliefs of the Church and its internal reforms begat a dominant influence in society.
  • The conflicts between church and state began the rise of new, more centralized governments under Western European popes and kings.
  • The expansion of learning through medieval universities gave rise to new Western philosophy, literature and art.
  • The so-called "Demographic Catastrophe" transformed politics and society, beginning the Late Middle Ages.
  • The rise of Renaissance humanism promoted the Western transition into modernity.
  • European power expanded throughout the world and yielded a new economy.
  • The crises of the Late Medieval Roman Church paved the way for the different reforms and rebellions.
  • The shifting diplomatic and power relations between the European states created the so-called Balance of Power.
  • Absolutist and Republicanist/Constitutionalist forces clashed about the role and power of government.

URL: http://departments.kings.edu/history/hon202.html Site built, maintained & Copyright © MMII by Brian A. Pavlac All Rights Reserved. Last Revision: 9 July 2002