Class 1: Introduction; What is ‘Western’ History? Ancient Greece and the Ancient Hebrews

Class 2: Ancient Rome, from Republic to Empire

Readings:   

Plutarch, Life of Caesar, chapters 1, 2, 15-23, 32

Norman Davies, Europe, 149-160, 172-185, 192-206, “Crux”

note: with Davies, skip the capsules unless they are specifically mentioned. Read the capsules listed here, whether in the page-range or not.

Class 3: Early Medieval Europe

Readings:

Einhard – life of charlemagne 
St. Augustine, City of God, Book First, sections 7,8,9, 

Davies: Davies, 213-238, 251-258, 291-321, “Fiesta,” “Ghetto,” “Gothic,” 383-385, 409-423, “Vlad,”

note: these secondary readings are for both this class and the next one

Class 4: Late Medieval Europe

There will be a short test at the start of class. That test may include questions on the Boccacio and Anonimalle Chronicle readings. It will also cover the material of weeks 1-3, focusing on the primary source readings, the lectures, and the capsules from Davies.

Readings:

Boccacio     

Anonimalle Chronicle: English Peasants’ Revolt 1381 

Class 5: The Renaissance and the Reformation

Readings:

Luther, “95 Theses”

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre eyewitness descriptions 

Davies, 469-523,

(Lunar New Year break) 

Class 6: The Scientific Revolution and the Seventeenth Century

Readings:

Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Book II Chapter 1 (all), Chapter 7 sections 87-89,  Chapter 7 sections 95-98, Chapter 9 section 123, Chapter 19 sections 222-223 

Davies, 545-558, 563-569

Class 7: Colonial and Revolutionary America

Bacon’s Declaration in the name of the people

selected Virginia laws on slavery – read December 1662-ACT XII. Negro womens children to serve according to the condition of the mother. and September 1663-ACT XVIII. An act prohibiting servants to go abroad without a lycence. and October 1669-ACT I. An act about the casuall killing of slaves.

Declaration of Independence

Davies, 577-582, 596-605

Class 8: The French Revolution and Napoleon

Declaration of the Rights of man

Robespierre on Political Morality

Davies, 605-609, 675-679, 693-757, “Gauche,” “Noyades,” “Guerrilla,”

Class 9: Test.

This test will cover the material of weeks 1-8, focusing on the primary source readings, the lectures, and the capsules from Davies.

Class 10. Industrialization

Engels, The Condition of the English Working Class 

Davies, 679-682, 759-782

 NOTE: There will not be class on 30 March

Class 11: Nineteenth-Century Europe

Readings:

Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil, selections:

http://fleursdumal.org/poem/156

http://fleursdumal.org/poem/215

http://fleursdumal.org/poem/202

http://fleursdumal.org/poem/321

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Preface and Chapter 1

Davies, 812-821, “Famine,” 835-840, 842-848

Class 12: Nineteenth-century America

NOTE: your take-home exams are due this week.

Frederick Douglass, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”

The Declaration of Sentiments
(no secondary readings this week)

Class 13: Colonization
There will be a short test at the start of class. That test may include questions on the Kipling and Orwell readings. It will also cover the material of classes 10-12, focusing on the primary source readings, the lectures, and the capsules from Davies.

Kipling, The White Man’s Burden

Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

Tutorial: 25%

Tests: there will be a short test at the start of class during the 4th class worth 10% of your final grade, and one during the final class worth 15% of your final grade. There will also be a test during the 9th class which will be worth 30% of your final grade.

Take-home exam: due on 9 April. Due 9 April. Questions sent out on 19 March. 20% of your final grade. 

(updated at 17:22 on 19 Jan, 2018)
Dates: 23/2, 9/3, 23/3, 13/4
Groups: A&B –10:30-12:00 (FRI); C&D — 16:30-18:00 (FRI)

The course will offer 4 groups (2 groups for each time slot, around 18-20 students per group). Enrollment is open from 19 Jan to 22 Jan, 17:00 on BLACKBOARD. Students have to sign up for one group and attend ALL tutorials classes as it accounts for 25% of the final grade.
Change of groups is not accepted after enrollment.

More details will be announced.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

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