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
Summary of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
Topic 2 - From Republic to Empire: The Roman World
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
Topic 5 - Global Encounters and the Shock of the Reformation
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
Topic 8 - Old World Economies and New World Ideals: The Atlantic System and 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
The Rise of New Ideologies in the Nineteenth Century
WHP - Rise of the Proletariat
WHP - Responses to Industrialization
Romantic Poets - Wordsworth & Blake
Topic 11 - Industries and Empires: The Age of New Imperialism
Top 10 Weird Things Victorians Did for Fun
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
Topic 13 - The 20th Century Crises: Great Depression, Totalitarianism and World War II
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (link to Amazon)
Answering the Fuhrer's Call to Genocidal Action.pdf
Topic 14 - The Cold War and Making of the Modern World