Course Description

Student Competencies

Texts

Student Contributions

Course Objectives

Course Evaluation

Course Schedule

   Course Credits: 3
   Contact Hrs: 45
   Requirement: Foundations: Global & Multicultural
   Recommended: ENG 22

Course Description

The World Civilization sequence of courses (History 151 & 152) will provide an analysis of the evolutionary development of civilizations, of global historical interactions and interrelationships, to provide a framework for understanding the modern world. History 152 will focus on World Civilizations since the year 1500 A.D.

With the successful completion of these courses, students should be able to:

1. Distinguish the characteristics of the world's major civilizations in their geographic and temporal settings
2. Describe the interactive roles of social, religious, political, economic, scientific, and technological forces among civilizations
3. Trace the development of traditional civilizations and recognize their enduring influence
4. Discuss the historical dimensions of contemporary world affairs
5. Describe global processes (e.g., agricultural and urban revolutions, emergence & growth of civilizations, disease impacts, human migrations, ecological forces, imperialism, decolonization, and industrialism)
6. Compare and contrast responses of world's peoples to intercultural contacts and the diffusion of ideas, inventions, and institutions
7. Draw upon their knowledge of the varieties of human experiences, and their sympathetic understanding of the foreign, to define their roles as citizens of the contemporary world
8. Analyze cause and effect relationships in historical events
9. Discuss the attempts of others to decipher the ethical and other fundamental questions of life posted throughout history
10. Evaluate such historic theories as the ‘great person’ in history, or deterministic interpretations

Texts

The World Since 1500, by L.S. Stavrianos
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque

Student Contributions

Students will be responsible for class attendance, reading assignments, completion of course quizzes, exams, and paper. It is the student's responsibility to know where we are in the textbook readings, to take notes in class, and to review, organize, and synthesize the materials for the exams, quizzes, paper, and discussions. Respect and courtesy will be expected in class, as per the student conduct code.

Course Objectives

Course objectives are based on the Performance Objectives for the Stavrianos text, and paper guidelines for the Remarque novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. (see below)*

Course Evaluation

Students will demonstrate mastery of the course objectives in the following ways

1. Weekly quizzes on the chapter,
   "Terms", from Performance Objectives 25%
2. Two essay exams, midterm & final,
   based on 'Essay Questions' 50%
3. One 10 page paper on World War I,
   based on guidelines 20%
4. Attendance and Participation 5%

Course Schedule

We will be reading one or two chapters per week in the Stavrianos text, with a weekly quiz on chapter terms and class review and outline of the chapter essay question. We will also review in class the Remarque novel with discussions, films, handouts, and lectures, in preparation for the papers.

*Paper Guidelines for All Quiet on the Western Front and World War I

We will examine one important historical event in detail the Great War of 1914 18, known later as World War I. More than any other event, the Great War shaped the modern world of the 20th Century.

In your 10 page typed paper, due at the end of the semester, you should address the following question What were the course, characteristics, and consequences of the Great War of 1914 18?

1. The course of the Great War?
a. immediate and long term causes
b. failures of diplomacy and arms
c. strategies and battles

2. The characteristics of the Great War?
a. trench war & war of attrition
b. attitudes and experiences of soldiers
c. effect of new weapons on man and nature

3. The consequences of the Great War?
a. what it did to the generation that fought it
b. what it did to the values and institutions of the West
c. what important developments, movements, and events came out of it