Monday, December 19, 2005

FINAL ESSAY "The West: Progressive and Retrogressive Forces"

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Monday, December 05, 2005

28.5] A Great Beginning, Lenin

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28.4] Versailles Treaty: Part VIII Reparation

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28.3] The Fourteen Points, Woodrow Wilson

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28.2] Poems of Siegfried Sassoon

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28.1] Poems of Wilfred Owen

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27.3] The Antichrist, Frederich Nietzsche

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27.2] "A Dream is a Fulfillment of a Wish, Sigmund Freud

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27.1] Natural Selection, T.H. Huxley

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26.4] The Jewish Question and Zionism, Theodore Hertzel

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26.3] Militant Suffragists, Emile Pankhurst

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26.2] Protest Against State Regulation of Vice, Joseph Butler

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26.1] Speech on Labor Reform, Otto von Bismark

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25.4] Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

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25.3] Catholic Rights in Ireland, Daniel O' Connell

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25.2] Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels

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25.1] Proclamation to the People of Venezuela, Simon Bolivar

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24.4] Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe

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24.3] Poems of William Wordsworth

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24.2] Principles of Utility, Jeremy Bentham

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24.1] An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus

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23.4] The Railroads: Newspaper Accounts of Openings and Accidents

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23.3] Living Conditions of the Working Class, Edwin Chadwick

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23.2] An oration on Child Labor, Michael Sadler

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23.1] Women in the Coal Mines

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Thursday, December 01, 2005

Fahrenheit 9/11 Comments

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Dr. Rahman, I figured I would create a topic since there seemed to be people who are ready to post.

Monday, November 28, 2005

TOPICS FOR FINAL ESSAY, DUE by Wednesday 11/30 midnight.

Please post ideas for your Final Essay. Others will comment.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

MUSEUM PAPERS

Post your Museum Paper here. Post by Friday November 18, 2005.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

GROUP PROJECT: TASK FORCE ON INDUSTRIALIZATION/FRANCE

Post the results of your findings here, by Monday November 18, 2005.

Monday, October 17, 2005

22.5] Proclamations, Pierre Toussant L'Ouverture

Comment on the significance of this proclamation.

22.4] Women's March on Versailles

Comment on the role of women in the French Revolution. What were their views of social change?

22.3] Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Compare this text to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration. How do they differ?

22.2] What is the Third Estate?, Abbe Sieyes

Comment on this major document of the French Revolution.

22.1] American Declaration of Independence

Comment on the philosophy of this document. What sources of knowledge influenced the author (Thomas Jefferson) to produce this text?

Monday, October 10, 2005

21.4] Ashkenazi Jews of Poland, Solomon Maimon

Comment on this excerpt.

21.3] Marriage of Figaro, Beaumarchais

Comment on the play in relation to the life of the working class.

21.2] Of the Club, Richard Steele

Comment on Steele's thoughts about women.

21.1] Clarissa, Samuel Johnson

Comment on the excerpt from Johnson's novel. Use the accompanying questions to guide you through.

20.4] Gulliver's Travels: Why States Go To War, Jonathan Swift

Whys do states go to war, according to Swift?. Is this true in today's world? Why?

2.3] The Spirit of the Laws, Baron de Montesquieu

Comment on this major work of the Enlightment Period.

20.1] Memoirs, Catherine the Great

Based on the accompanying questions, comment on the selections from the memoirs.

Monday, October 03, 2005

19.5] On Toleration, Voltaire

Comment on Voltaire's idea of religious faith and toleration.

18.3] Letters on the Existence of God, Isaac Newton

Comment on Newton's idea of God.

18.2] Condemnation and recantation of Galileo

Comment on this issue of philosophical significance.

18.1] Copernican Theory

Comment on this early revolution in scientific thinking.

19.4] Mercantilism, Adam Smith

Comment on Smith's idea of human nature and economics

19.3] The 'Encyclopedie', Jean Le Rond D'Alembert

Commnet on Alembert's work.

19.2] On Sovereignty, Jean Jacques Rousseau

Comment on Rousseau's idea of general will.

19.1] Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke

Comment on John Locke's idea of education, and education.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

INTRODUCTION


The second of a two semester sequence, this course covers the historical development of the Western civilization from the Age of Enlightenment to the present.

Our topics of discussion will include the following: The Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment Period, The Industrial revolution, Age Romanticism, Nationalism, The Rise of Nation-States, Colonialism and Imperialism, The Age of Mass Consumption, and finally The current period of Deconstructionism in Global Socio-Political Construction.

Focus areas:
1. Broad cultural history (periodization)
2. Formation of cultural heritage (phenomena of complex evolving systems)

Enduring Questions:

Our exploration will be guided by the following enduring question/inquiry themes:

-How has the “West” been defined and redefined? -How is the West constructed? -How has Science, Reason, and ideas of Humanity shaped the concept of the West? -How has the concept of the West change through the development of technology and consciousness, and through the historical march of capitalism? -How has the West been reconstructed as a consequence of colonialism? -How has the rest of the world developed in accordance with the ideological framework of "The West"? -Who benefits from the process of globalization?

Let us now post comments on the following questions:

What is the West?
Is it purely a geographical concept?
How has the concept of the West shaped the modern world?
Is the "West" synonymous with the idea of "American Empire"?
Why, or why not?

Discuss these questions, drawing information from and your understanding of our introductory lecture.