Results for CLASSHIS

Preference to freshmen. Explore themes on the Roman Empire and its decline from the 1st through the 5th centuries C.E.. What was the political and military glue that held this diverse, multi-ethnic empire together? What were the bases of wealth and how was it distributed? What were the possibilities and limits of economic growth? How integrated was it in culture and religion? What were the causes and consequences of the conversion to Christianity? Why did the Empire fall in the West? How suitable is the analogy of the U.S. in the 21st century?

How did a tiny village create a huge empire and shape the world, and why did it fail? Roman history, imperialism, politics, social life, economic growth, and religious change. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required; enroll in sections on Coursework.

Greek history from the rise of the city state through Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia. Economics, society, culture, and technology. Competition and cooperation within and between states; the emergence of strong forms of citizenship along with chattel slavery and gender inequality; the origins and practices of democracy; and relations with non-Greek peoples. Focus is on ancient sources and archaeological remains. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.

Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.

Cultural and political background for Athens of the 5th and 4th century BC. Athenian economy of the 4th century BC. Economic ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon. Pros and Cons of utilitarianism in light of the ethical theories of Plato and Aristotle. Economy and economics of ancient Greece will be compared to the same of ancient China. There is an interesting parallel.

The beginnings and development of historical writing in the ancient world. Emphasis on major classical historians and various models of history they invented, from local to imperial, military, cultural, biographical, world history and church history. Focus on themes of power, war, loss, growth and decline, as put by the ancients into historical narrative forms and probed by way of historical questioning and explanation. Attention to how these models resonate still today. Readings in translation: Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Livy and others.

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.

This course covers the history of the world from 60,000 years ago until 1500 by asking big questions: Why did civilizations develop the way they did? What factors were responsible for similarities and differences between different parts of the world? What does this mean for our newly globalized world?

Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institutional failure was a recent memory or a realistic possibility. Case studies include Greek city-states in the classical period and the northern Atlantic community of the 17th and 18th centuries including upheavals in England and the American Revolutionary era.

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.

This course systematically compares the Han Empire and the Roman Empire in order to provide insight into the distinctive features of the empires as a political and social type. Topics examined will include geographic frames, the nature of the ruler, the role of the city, the form and function of military forces, religious aspects, legal codes, structures of kinship, and the relation of these states to the outside world.