finial

Humanities 104 WB, Spring II, 2014

Class schedule:

March 13 Introduce the study of Western civilization. Define civilization and culture. Discuss why we study this material. Review key elements of man’s first 3500 years of recorded history. Why do civilizations progress differently? Discuss goals and expected outcomes for Humanities 104. Discuss readings assigned by e-mail for this week’s class. View Plato’s, The Cave, and lectures on Machiavelli’s, The Prince. Discuss Plato’s view of the ideal state as described in The Republic. Contrast Plato’s view with that of Machiavelli as presented in The Prince. View DVDs on Florence, and on the Reformation. Review the great artists of the High Renaissance, Leonardo daVinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Out of class, read Chapters 13 through 15.

March 20 See the feature film, Elizabeth. Discuss Northern Humanism and the Northern Renaissance. Focus on Shakespeare’s works of literature. Discuss the state of religion and reform. Look at the evolution of government in England and France. Look at the technology of war. Introduce the explorations that add greatly to the territory of the western nations. See the interaction between the western and Japanese people and concepts. Look at the leaps forward in science and philosophy. Discuss the events and circumstances leading to the American Revolution. Assign a course-long project. Out of class, read chapters 16 and 17.

March 27 Discuss the Age of Reason and the political structure of the European Powers. Introduce Adam Smith and political economics. Take a peak to the east and what China is about. Introduce the Industrial Revolution. View media as appropriate. Look at the influence of Napoleon and revisit the technology and concepts of war. Review the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Discuss Romanticism. Read Chapters 18 and 19.

April 3 Review the readings on the Bourgeoisie. How do liberalism, nationalism, and laissez-faire economics fit into the same era? Remember the fractured German states? Look at their emergence as the power in central Europe. Complete the midterm exam. Read chapter 20.

April 10 Describe the American Civil War’s causes and reasons for its outcome and aftermath. Look anew at religion’s evolution. Discuss early modernism and look at the philosophy and psychology that drove it. Discuss the politics of the late 1800s. Look at the first German Reich. Introduce the new imperialism in Africa and Asia. Out of class, read Chapter 21.

April 17 See a media presentation on the Impressionists. Dissect World War I for causes, technology, strategies, and aftermath. Look at the Roaring 20’s, Black Friday and the Great Depression. Look at Modernism in art and philosophy. Discuss the economic thoughts of John Maynard Keynes. Out of class, read Chapter 22.

Class schedule continued

April 24 Discuss the military events from 1945 to 1975. Talk about the Truman Doctrine and also about the Cold War. What is the Third World, and why is it important to the second half of the 20th Century? Talk about the rebellions on the African Continent. Discuss the conflicts in Southeast Asia. Listen to Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire. Talk about the fall of Communism in Europe. How about Ukraine? Submit the term project. Assign a take home portion of the final exam.

Read Chapter 23 out of class.

May 1 What’s happening in the 21st Century? How far back can we trace the seminal events? Describe terrorism. Discuss predictions for the remaining decades of the first half of the 21st Century. Submit the take home part of the final exam. Complete in class portion of the final exam.