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Western Civilization I:
A broad view of the society we live in and the ideals we live by,
starting with the
ancient New East, Greece, and Rome and continuing through the "divine
right"
monarchies and the revolutions of the seventeenth century.
Syllabus
for Summer Session
Syllabus
for Section 01
Sakai
Rutgers
510:102
Western Civilization II:
the course
emphasizes the development of modern society, modern attitudes, and
modern political life.
The eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the democratic political
revolutions that began in
France between 1789 and 1848, industrialization and urbanization, the
rise of ideologies,
imperialism, and wars and revolutions of the twentieth century will be
the main themes.
This course will provide vital background for understanding a large
number of political
and social problems facing us in the world today.
Sakai
Rutgers
510:107
Values of Western Civilization:
This
course looks at five pre-modern epics of the Western World: The
Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid,
The
Shahnameh (Persian Book
of Kings), and The
Nibelungenlied, and
seeks to compare the human values expressed in them with the values of
the
major religions of the west as seen in their sacred literature:
The Tanach
(Hebrew Sacred Scripture), The New Testament,
and The
Qur’an.
Sakai
Rutgers
516:301 The Ancient Near East:
the great river
civilizations that developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia from the
beginnings of history (c.
3000 BC) to their disappearance under the Greeks and the Romans.
510:302
Ancient Israel:
Israelite history from the
settlement in Canaan (c.1250 BC) through the destruction of the Second
Temple (AD 70).
Attention will be given to ancient Israel's interaction with its
neighbors and the role of
its unique religion in the history and culture of Israel.
Archaeological evidence will be
integrated with that of the Biblical text.
510:303 Athens: The Golden Age:
a study of the
history of the city of Athens from the Persian Wars (490 and 480-79
BC) to the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 BC) and the death of
Socrates (399 BC). Besides the usual political
development of Athens and her empire, the following topics will be
emphasized: urban
development of Athens; public festivals; law systems; and the social
development of Athens
into a cosmopolitan center.
510:304 Rome and the First Caesars:
Rome during the
first century BC endured great civil wars before emerging with a new
form of government
and a new ruler, Caesar Augustus. This course traces the development
and changes in Rome's
economy, society and government during these civil wars and the reigns
of the Caesars
after Augustus, especially Claudius and Nero.
Some
URLs of interest for Rome and
the First Caesars
510:305 The Fall of Rome:
this course will
examine the causes and consequences of the dismemberment of the Roman
Empire during the
third, fourth and fifth centuries AD. In addition to looking closely at
the sequence of
events which led to the formation of the various barbarian kingdoms in
Western Europe while in the East the Roman Empire became the
Byzantine Empire and the Arab caliphates emerged, students will
focus their attention
on the role of religion in the Roman Empire and its successor states as
well as on the
disappearance of the ancient city and its replacement by new "medieval"
settlements.
510:360 Modern Italy:
from the nineteenth-century
struggle for unification, through the dictatorship of Mussolini, and
the founding of the
Italian Republic up to the present.
A Collection of helpful URLs for
modern Italy