Western Culture Topics

Textbooks currently used in Western Culture 101 and 102:

Hunt et al., The Making of the West
Kagan et al., The Western Heritage 

Western Culture 101: Beginning to 1500 CE

Themes:

Hebrew Culture
The Greek World
The Roman World
Rise of Christianity
Middle Ages
Rise of Islam
The Renaissance

Texts:

Genesis
Homer, The Iliad, selections
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex or Antigone
Plato, Apology
One gospel, selections
Augustine, Confessions, selections
Dante, Inferno, selections
Machiavelli, The Prince*

Works of Art:

The Parthenon
Chartres Cathedral

Western Culture 102: 1500 CE to the Present

Themes: 

Protestant Reformation
Enlightenment
French Revolution
Science and Technology
Rise and Decline of Communism
The World Wars
Civilization and the Individual
Post-Colonial Struggles
The Changing Role of Women
Globalization

Texts:

Machiavelli, The Prince*
Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, or Macbeth
Luther, selections
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, selections
Darwin, The Origin of Species, selections
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, selections
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, selections
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Work of Art:

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9

*The Prince can be included at the end of WCUL 101 or the beginning of WCUL 102.