Williamson,Arthur H - California State University, Sacramento
Williamson,Arthur H - California State University, Sacramento
Williamson,Arthur H - California State University, Sacramento
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CSUS<br />
Department of History<br />
Hist. 105.01/SP- 13 A.H. <strong>Williamson</strong><br />
GREAT AGES AND ISSUES IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION<br />
This course will provide an introduction to the development of Western Civilization from about<br />
1650 to the present. As such it does not focus on the narrative of events, but instead examines<br />
the basic ideas, assumptions, and commonplaces shared by modern people. Virtually all such<br />
ideas--whether liberal-democratic values, the attitudes toward nature in modern science, our<br />
notions of privacy, self, emotions, love, and even what it means to work--differ vastly from those<br />
universally held during most of the history of the West. How did they arise, how did they<br />
become persuasive, and subsequently central to Western people? Why are we convinced that<br />
modern science asks the right questions and that earlier approaches to nature are either irrelevant<br />
or ridiculous? What convinces us that something called "love"--and admittedly irrational-should<br />
be the basis for forming enduring personal relationships? How, in a word, did we become<br />
who we are?<br />
This course has two additional objectives. It stresses the careful reading and analysis of original<br />
texts and thereby, hopefully, will develop the student's capacity to read critically and historically.<br />
Although the readings in this course are significant statements of Western culture--and important<br />
for history majors--part of the purpose is simply to teach students to read any writing more<br />
insightfully, whether the <strong>Sacramento</strong> Bee or even the speeches of George W. Bush.<br />
The course is further intended to strengthen the student's expository prose and seeks to achieve<br />
this objective through three analytical papers, a mid-term and a final examination. Finally the<br />
course also strongly encourages the student to analyze and engage the material through class<br />
discussion.<br />
Course requirements: Mid-term Examination (20%)<br />
Analytical Papers (30%)<br />
Final Examination (30%)<br />
Class Participation (20%)<br />
***Students are expected to bring the scheduled reading material to class each session***
Required Books:<br />
Marvin Perry et al., Western Civilization, 1660-Present, 9th edition (Houghton)<br />
Keith Baker, ed., The Old Regime and the French Revolution (Chicago)<br />
John Boyer and Jan Goldstein, eds., 20th Century Europe (Chicago)<br />
Voltaire, Philosophical Letters (Bobbs/Hornet)<br />
Blaise Pascal, Pensées (Penguin)<br />
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (Hafner/Hornet)<br />
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography (Pengiun)<br />
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marx-Engels Reader (Norton)<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, Use and Abuse of History (Bobbs)<br />
A.H. <strong>Williamson</strong>, Great Ages and Issues (Hornet)<br />
A.H. <strong>Williamson</strong>, Images of Blood (Hornet)<br />
All required texts are available in the bookstore and are on reserve in the library (hopefully).<br />
Course requirements: There will be a midterm and a final examination, as well as three brief<br />
papers (brief = three double-spaced typed pages, about 1000 words).<br />
Paper #1: Write a summary of Turgot's argument in his article about "Foundations" (in Baker).<br />
Due in class 28 February.<br />
Paper #2: Summarize Lord Byron's argument in his poem "Prometheus." Due in class 21<br />
March.<br />
Paper #3: Compare Nietzsche's argument in The Use and Abuse of History with the ideas about<br />
people and society developed by Jeremy Bentham in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals<br />
and Constitutional Code ("Selected Readings"). Due in class 25 April.<br />
***Late papers will not be accepted***<br />
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00-3:00 and by appointment in 3061 Tahoe Hall (278-6914).<br />
1st Week: 29/31 January<br />
Man and Nature in the Pre-Modern World<br />
Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, 1733 (Selected Readings,<br />
hereafter indicated as SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 17, pp. 400-18.<br />
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(Note excerpt from Descartes’ Discourse on Method, 1637, p. 417)<br />
2nd Week: 5/7 February<br />
The Rise of Modern Science: Descartes, Newton, and the Concept of Cause<br />
Voltaire, Philosophical Letters,1733, 52-74<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 18, pp. 419-51.<br />
(Note Three Impostors, date and author uncertain, p. 449)<br />
3rd Week: 12/14 February<br />
The Enlightenment: Science and Society under the Ancien Regime<br />
4th Week: 19/21 February<br />
Charles Loyseau, Traité des Ordres, 1610(Baker)<br />
Denis Diderot, "Definition of an<br />
Encyclopedia," 1757 (Baker)<br />
Voltaire, Philosophical Letters, pp. 3-29, 39-40<br />
Absolutism Can Be Fun<br />
Anne-Robert-Marie Turgot, "On Foundations" 1757 (Baker)<br />
Anne-Robert-Marie Turgot, "Memorandum on Local Government<br />
and National Education" 1775 (Baker)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 18, pp. 442-43 (review).<br />
Continuity and Contiguity: Blaise Pascal<br />
Blaise Pascal, Pensées, (1650) #23, 24, 25, 26, 33, 44, 45,60, 66,<br />
83, 86, 114, 125, 131, 188, 200, 228, 242, 520, 533, 750,<br />
781<br />
Further Reading (= optional, i.e. you don't gotta):<br />
5th Week: 26/28 February<br />
Voltaire, Philosophical Letters, pp. 114-150<br />
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THE FRENCH REVOLUTION<br />
(First Paper due in class, 28 February)<br />
a. The "Moderate" Revolution<br />
J.J. Rousseau, The Social Contract,1762, Bk. I, chs. 1-7 (pp. 5-<br />
18), Bk. II, chs. 3, 4,7 (pp. 25-30, 35-39), Bk. IV, ch. 8 (pp.<br />
115-125)<br />
Abbe Sieyès, What is the Third Estate? (Baker) 1789, pp. 154-165;<br />
remainder optional.<br />
"Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen," 1789 (Baker)<br />
"La Liberté des Colons," 1791 (SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 19, pp. 451-67.<br />
b. The Republic of Virtue<br />
Documents of the Sans Culottes (Baker)<br />
Maximilien Robespierre, "Letter to his Constituents," 1793 (SR)<br />
"Draft Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen," 1793 (SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 19, pp. 467-80, 486-7<br />
(Profile).<br />
(Note excerpt from Robespierre’s “Report on Public Morality,” 1794)<br />
6th Week: 5/7 March<br />
(Baker)<br />
Popular Culture: the Advent of Kitsch<br />
No readings (!!!)<br />
Reaction: Edmund Burke and the Marquis de Sade--the Problem of Nature and Self<br />
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790<br />
Marquis de Sade, Philosophy in the Bedroom, 1795 (on reserve)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 22, pp. 531-36, 548-51.<br />
The Romantic Impulse<br />
George Gordon, Lord Byron, "Prometheus" (SR)<br />
Byron, "On this Day I complete my Thirty-Sixth Year" (SR)<br />
John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (SR)<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
7th Week: 12/15 March<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 22, pp. 520-31, 541-46.<br />
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein<br />
19th CENTURY LIBERALISM AND ITS CRITICS<br />
a. Auguste Comte and the Science of Reaction:<br />
"Sociology"<br />
Auguste Comte, Early Essays, (on reserve)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 22, pp. 534-41, Chapter 24, p.<br />
578 (Comte); (Note Joseph de Maistre, pp. 544-45)<br />
b. The Individual and Society<br />
Jeremy Bentham, An<br />
Introduction to the Principles of Morals, 1780 (SR)<br />
Bentham, Constitutional Code for the Use of all Nations, 1827<br />
(SR)<br />
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, 25-71, 84-86, 93-96, 111-118.<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 21, pp. 500-18; Chapter 22,<br />
pp. 534-41; Chapter 24, pp. 589-90.<br />
8th Week: 19/21 March<br />
(Second Paper due in class, 21 March)<br />
Socialism and the Rise of Social Theory<br />
Marx-Engels Reader, pp. 70-81, 473-500.<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 24, pp. 573-89.<br />
<br />
9th Week: 2 April: Review<br />
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10th Week: 9/11 April<br />
4 April: *MID-TERM EXAMINATION*<br />
Imperialism: the European Order at Its Zenith<br />
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden"(SR)<br />
Marquis de Condorcet, Sketch” (SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 25, pp. 609-19.<br />
The Critique of Time and Reason<br />
11th Week: 16/18 April<br />
12th Week: 23/25 April<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, Use and Abuse of History (entire)<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886 (SR)<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 1889 (SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 26, pp. 622-32, Chapter 27,<br />
pp. 650-71, 674-76; Chapter 28, pp. 678-82 (Note excerpt from<br />
Nietzsche’s Will to Power, 1883-88, p. 703).<br />
Modernism: the End of the Victorian World View?<br />
"Futurist Manifestos," 1909 (Boyer)<br />
Sigmund Freud, “Thoughts for the Times of War and Death,” 1915<br />
(Boyer)<br />
René Magritte, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe," 1928-9 (SR)<br />
René Magritte, "Personnage marchant vers l'horizon," 1928-9 (SR)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 28, pp. 678-702.<br />
(Third Paper due in Class, 25 April)<br />
and Wilson – the Enlightenment Moves East<br />
6<br />
The Russian Revolution: Lenin<br />
V.I. Lenin, <strong>State</strong> and Revolution, 1917 (on reserve)
13th Week: 30 April / 2 May<br />
14th Week: 7/9 May<br />
Joseph Stalin, The Foundations of Leninism, 1924 (Boyer)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 29, pp. 708-43. Chapter 30,<br />
750-579. (Check out picture on p. 708)<br />
Fascism and the Right: Modernist and Anti-Modernist<br />
T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men," 1925 (SR)<br />
Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," 1917 (SR)<br />
Eliot, "The Boston Evening Transcript," 1917 (SR)<br />
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925 (Boyer)<br />
Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932 (Boyer)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 30, pp. 759-83 (Review<br />
Chapter 25, pp. 609-19). Note Profile of Charles Maurras,<br />
pp. 780-81 (hugely influential on T.S. Eliot.<br />
THE POST-WAR ERA<br />
a. Existentialism<br />
15th Week: 14/16 May<br />
Jean-Paul Sartre, "Existentialism is a Humanism," 1945 (Boyer)<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 31, pp. 806-08.<br />
b. The Cultures of the Cold War: McCarthy and Zhdanov<br />
Perry, Western Civilization, Chapter 33, pp. 851-69.<br />
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD<br />
16th Week: ***FINAL EXAMINATION***<br />
Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power", 1982 (Boyer)<br />
A.H. <strong>Williamson</strong>, “Images of Blood: Ethnic Identity and the<br />
Destruction of the Left in Europe and America, 1972-1992.”<br />
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