Reading Assignments

Topic 1 - The Birth of Western Civilization:  The Ancient World and Greece

Kagan - Why We Should Study the History of Western Civilization

Morris - Why the West Rules (summary)

    The Odyssey

    Hammurabi Code.pdf

    Summary of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata

    Aristotle vs. Plato

Topic 2 - From Republic to Empire:  The Roman World

    Founding of Rome (Myths)

Topic 3 - The Medieval Synthesis -- and Its Cracks

    William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire (link to Amazon)

Dante’s Divine Comedy Squashed and Nicely Abridged

    Dante's Inferno:  The Graphic Novel (link to Amazon)

    Dante's Inferno In Modern English (link to Amazon)

Topic 4 - From Death to Rebirth

     Manchester-A World Lit Only By Fire.pdf

     P&S Reader - The Renaissance.pdf

Topic 5 - Global Encounters and the Shock of the Reformation

     P&S Reader - Protestant Reformation.pdf   

Topic 6 - Cataclysm of World Views:  Wars of Religion and the Scientific Revolution

     Lynn - Soldiers on a Rampage.pdf

Topic 7 - Absolutism, Constitutionalism, and the Search for Order

    Brinton - Anatomy of a Revolution.pdf

    Massie-Peter the Great packet.pdf

Topic 8 - Old World Economies and New World Ideals:  The Atlantic System and the Enlightenment

WHP - The Enlightenment

John Newton and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.pdf

    Jonathan Swift, Modest Proposal.pdf

What Was the Enlightenment (Summary)

    Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations.pdf

Topic 9 - Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Era                 

     France Before the Revolution of 1789.pdf

     Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.pdf

     French Revolution National Assembly Debate.pdf

     Napoleon-Child or Betrayer of the Revolution.pdf

     

Topic 10 - The Age of Industrialization, Conservative Restoration -- and Its Discontents

     P&S Reader - Industrial Revolution

    The Rise of New Ideologies in the Nineteenth Century

WHP - Class Structure

WHP - Rise of the Proletariat

WHP - Responses to Industrialization

    Steves & Oppenshaw - Art in the Age of Nationalism.pdf

    The Revolutions of 1848 (Euro Spark Notes Summary)

    Karl Marx Euro Spark Notes

    Romantic Poets - Wordsworth & Blake

Topic 11 - Industries and Empires: The Age of New Imperialism

    The Art of Manliness.pdf

    The Victorian Ladies

    Top 10 Weird Things Victorians Did for Fun

    Steves & Oppenshaw-Modern European Art.pdf

    The New Imperialism.pdf

Topic 12 - Storm of Steel: The Great War and Its Aftermath    

    The Battle for the Mind - WWI Propaganda.pdf

    Voices from World War I (Poetry).pdf

    The Russian Revolution.pdf

    Goldston-The Russian Revolution.pdf

Topic 13 - The 20th Century Crises: Great Depression, Totalitarianism and World War II

  Communism in the Soviet Union

   The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (link to Amazon)

    Carr-Stalin Reaches for World Power.pdf

    Goldhagen - Eliminationist Antisemitism.pdf

    Answering the Fuhrer's Call to Genocidal Action.pdf

Topic 14 - The Cold War and Making of the Modern World    

    Origins of the Cold War.pdf