Lecture and Reading Schedule

Syllabus

Schedule

Announcements

Lecture Objectives

Teaching team
This lecture schedule is subject to flexibility and change.
Please check back before class sessions.

Session Topic Readings
Monday, 8-25, 2008 Introduction

Wednesday, 8-27

Defining Western Civilization & Introduction to Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond: Preface, Prologue, Ch 1
Friday, 8-29 Collision of Cultures Diamond: Ch 2, 3
Monday, 9-1 No classes, Labor Day
Wednesday, 9-3 Guns, Germs, Steel video
National Geographic/PBS Documentary, Episode 2: Conquest
Transcript from PBS
this is not required reading, but it may help with note-taking
Friday, 9-5 Food Production Diamond: Ch 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Monday, 9-8 Animals, Axes, & Germs Diamond: Ch 9, 10, 11
Harris: Pig Lovers / Haters (Reader)
Wednesday, 9-10 Guns, Germs, Steel video
Episode 1- Out of Eden
Transcript from PBS
this is not required reading, but it may help with note-taking
Friday, 9-12 Writing & Technology Diamond: Ch 12, 13
Monday, 9-15 Government & Religion Diamond: Ch 14
Wednesday, 9-17 Exercise & Discussion
Strongest/Weakest Chapter
Friday, 9-19 Project Administration:
Western Civ in the Movies
Monday, 9-22 Project Administration:
The Annotated Bibliography
Wednesday 9-24 Historiography and A Critique of Diffusionism Blaut: 1;
Diamond: Ch 16 (skim lightly)
Blaut online review of Diamond
Blaut, J. M. 1999. “Environmentalism and Eurocentrism: A Review Essay.” Geographical Review 89, 3 : 391-408.
Friday, 9-26
deadline for choosing your WCIM team members
The Myth of the European Miracle Blaut: 2
Monday 9-29 Blaut's Theory of the Rise of the West Blaut: 3, 4, 5
Diamond: Ch 18
Wednesday, 10-1 Exercise & Discussion
Diamond vs Blaut pro/con & debate
Friday, 10-3 contingency session
Monday, 10-6 Review
Wednesday, 10-8 First Exam
Friday, 10-10 Civilizations and Natural Resources: Easter Island, Mesopotamia, Rome
Ponting: Green History of World (Reader)
Diamond: 17
Perlin: Forest Journey (Reader)
Monday, 10-13
Ancient Civilizations and Sustainability
Exercise & Discussion - Concept Map
Wednesday, 10-15
Knowledge: The Greek Legacy

VanDoren: History of Knowledge (Reader)

Friday, 10-17
deadline for choosing your WCIM film & topic
Christianity and the Western World View

Ponting: Green History of World (Reader)
White: Historical Roots

Monday, 10-20 Environmental Ethics Continuum Exercise & Discussion

Wednesday, 10-22 Medieval Times: Feudalism, Magna Carta & the Black Death Bromley: Rousseau's Revenge (Reader)
Domesday Book
Roger of Wendover, Runneymede
Friday, 10-24 "Rousseau's Revenge"

Monday, 10-27
Annotated Bib Due
"Rousseau's Revenge"
Exercise & Discussion
social ownership - opinion/ pro-con
Wednesday, 10-29 The "Rise" of the West: The Umbrella of the Renaissance Machiavelli
Vasari on Leonardo da Vinci
Friday, 10-31 Reformation Luther's 95 Theses
Weber Protestant Ethic, Ch V
Monday, 11-3 Scientific & Philosophical Revolutions
Study of the Natural World

Copernicus
Newton
Bacon,
Descartes
Thomas: Man and the Natural World (Reader)
Boorstin: The Discoverers (Reader)

Wednesday, 11-5 Science and Nature
Exercise & Discussion
one minute paper

Friday, 11-7
deadline for WCIM thesis statement
Enlightenment

Boorstin: The Seekers (Reader)
Rousseau, Social Contract
Locke, Two Treatises

Monday, 11-10 Review

Wednesday, 11-12 Second Exam

Friday, 11-14 Western Civ In the Movies

6

Monday, 11-17 Western Civ In the Movies 5
Wednesday, 11-19 Western Civ In the Movies 4
Friday, 11-21 Western Civ In the Movies 3
Monday, 11-24
Western Civ In the Movies
2
Wednesday, 11-26
Friday, 11-28
No Classes, Thanksgiving Break

Monday, 12-1 Western Civ In the Movies

1

Wednesday, 12-3 Contingency / Review Session
Friday, 12-5 Review for Final Exam
Final Exam
(Cumulative)
Friday, Dec. 12th, 8:00 a.m., 146 Baker