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General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
HISTD06BH
Course Title (CB02)
History of Western Civilization: 750 C.E. to 1750 C.E. - HONORS
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
The development of Western Civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 CE), which includes late Medieval, the Renaissance, Reformation, and the Enlightenment. As an honors course, the students will be expected to complete extra assignments, or an additional longer assignment, to gain deeper insight into the history of Western civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 CE).
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a major preparation requirement in the discipline for the Associate of Arts in History for transfer degree and for at least one CSU or U.C., and is a requirement of a B.A. degree. This course meets a general education requirement for ý, CSUGE and IGETC. In addition, it is part of a sequence and meets the needs for history majors, G.E., and honors students as it satisfies a chronological sequence and offers European history from late antiquity (750 CE) to early modern (1750 CE).

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
ý GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GC2ý GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
2GDXý GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGC2CSU GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG3BIGETC Area 3B - HumanitiesApproved
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
C-IDArea(s)StatusDetails
HISTHistoryApprovedHIST D06AH & HIST D06BH required for C-ID HIST 170 HIST D06BH & HIST D06CH required for C-ID HIST 180

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

  • (Not open to students with credit in the non-Honors related course.)
  • (Admission into this course requires consent of the Honors Program Coordinator.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class essays

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Film/documentaries

Assignments

  1. Reading Assignments: Regular reading assignments from the college-­â€level texts, including both primary and secondary sources, from which students will gain and demonstrate knowledge of political, economic, social, and cultural events of the historical era for this course.
  2. Writing Assignments: Writing to be selected from a combination of assignments such as research papers, in-­â€class essays in exam format, book reviews, and/or other analytic written assignments that critique and evaluate primary sources and secondary sources and demonstrate an understanding of the historical era for this course. Students will write a minimum of 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words.
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, or objective sections of in-­â€class midterm(s) or the final examination in which students demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate primary and secondary historical sources.
  4. The honors project will include a written research paper of 8-10 pages total (or two shorter research papers of 4-5 pages each), which demonstrates analysis of additional historical sources, including both primary and secondary source material in the history of western civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 C.E.). The honors project will require 10 or more hours of work beyond the regular (non-honors) course requirements, will include more advanced work with higher expectations for achievement, and must include quotations, citations, and bibliography.
  5. Group or individual participation in oral analytical expression such as in-­â€class discussions, debates, or analysis of texts, including primary historical documents.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Oral analysis: participation in and contribution toward classroom discussions, debates, or specified group project(s) in which students demonstrate analytical skills, such as clarity of argument and the use of evidence to support arguments, in oral interpretations of sources, including primary historical documents.
  2. Essay assignments that will demonstrate students’ ability to make and support meaningful statements about primary and secondary historical sources and historical events and to exhibit critical thinking and analytical skills in evaluating the era of history for this course. Students will write at least 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words..
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, objective sections of in-­â€class exams, final exam or other analytical projects in which students demonstrate the ability to critically analyze college-­â€level secondary source readings and primary source documents in the era of history for this course..
  4. The honors project, a written research paper of 8-10 pages total (or two shorter research papers of 4-5 pages each) will be evaluated for depth of analysis of both primary and secondary sources, originality, critical thinking skills, historical references and citations, and a comprehensive discussion of the specific topic in the history of western civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 C.E.).

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Backman, Clifford. The Cultures of the West: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Second edition, 2016.
Cole, Joshua, and Carol Symes. Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture. 18th Edition. New York: Norton, 2013.
Dutton, Paul Edward, et al. Many Europes: Choice and Chance in Western Civilization. 1st edition. Prentice Hall, 2013.
Hunt, Lynn, et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 5th edition. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2016.
Kidner, Frank L. et al. Making Europe: The Story of the West. 2nd Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Ariès, Philippe and Georges Duby, eds. A history of private life. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1987.
Berkey, Jonathan. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Bloch, Marc. Feudal society. (Second Edition.) London: Routledge, 2014.
Briggs, Robin. Witches & Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. New York: Viking, 1998.
Colish, Marcia L. Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400. (Revised Edition) New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.
Donner, Fred. Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2012.
Elliott, J.H. Empires of the Atlantic World : Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Erasmus, Desiderius. The Praise of Folly and Other Writings. New York: Norton, 1989.
Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. New York: Knopf, 1966-69, 2013.
Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994.
Henry, John. The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science. (Third Edition.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. (Second Edition.) New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Israel, Jonathan I. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
Lambert, Malcolm. Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian reform to the Reformation. (Third Edition.) Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 2002.
Lawrence, C.H. Medieval Monasticism : Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. (Fourth Edition.) New York : Longman, 2015.
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Reformation : Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700. New York : Allen Lane, 2005.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Moore, Thomas. Utopia (Third Edition.) New York: Norton, 2010.
Nauert, Charles G. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe. (Second Edition.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Peters, Edward. Europe and the Middle Ages. (Fourth Edition.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2004.
Schiebinger, Londa. The Mind Has No Sex? : Women in the Origins of Modern Science. (Revised Edition) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Tracy, James D. Europe's Reformations, 1450-1650. (Second Edition) Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1993.
Tracy, James D., ed. The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350-1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Turner, A. Richard. Renaissance Florence : The Invention of a New Art. New York : H.N. Abrams, 1997.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Compare, contrast and develop a critical understanding of the historical method. Critically evaluate, explain, and defend informed study with respect to the history of western civilization with the use of primary and secondary sources.
  • Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to an understanding of dominant themes in the development of Western Civilization, while also fostering recognition of the contributions of its diverse peoples.
  • Analyze and interpret historical evidence with both primary and secondary sources. Develop critical thinking skills within a multi-cultural diverse approach of the historical method. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to multi-cultural assessments and interpretations of historical problems within western civilizations. Understand the chronological survey of the stages of development in Western Civilization from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern era.
  • Critically analyze the impact of a major historical event or major historical figure(s), with indication of both long-term and short-term historical significance, for the history of western civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 C.E.), to fulfill the college honors requirements for this course.

CSLOs

  • Students will demonstrate and apply knowledge of Western history from the early Middle Ages through the early Modern Era (1750 C.E) to construct defensible statements of meaning and evaluation about this period's development.

  • Students will identify, critically evaluate, and interpret Western history from the early Medieval era to the early Modern Era (1750 C.E) primary documents to construct historical analysis.

Outline

  1. Compare, contrast and develop a critical understanding of the historical method. Critically evaluate, explain, and defend informed study with respect to the history of western civilization with the use of primary and secondary sources.
    1. The study of history
      1. History defined
      2. History and myth compared
      3. Introduction to the development of the philosophical approach to history
      4. The practical importance in the study of history
    2. Historiography, and the study of western civilizations from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern era
      1. The historical method
      2. Critical analysis of evidence (primary and secondary sources)
      3. Epistemology of historical study.
      4. The role of formal and informal logic in the historical method
      5. Key issues and debates across cultures that define the human condition within western civilizations
  2. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to an understanding of dominant themes in the development of Western Civilization, while also fostering recognition of the contributions of its diverse peoples.
    1. Major Themes in Western Civilization
      1. Examine Economic organization in western society including trade and Communication Networks.
      2. Explain the Impact of Science and Technology, including inventions and achievements.
      3. Expansion, conquest and other conflicts between East and West
      4. Cultural, (including artistic, literary and architectural contributions), Religious and Philosophical Perspectives
      5. Environment Factors
    2. Recognition of the contributions of diverse peoples in the development of western civilizations
      1. The place of slavery
      2. The roles of women
      3. The impacts of ethnic and racial diversity
      4. The role of religious dissent
      5. The role of human sexuality
  3. Analyze and interpret historical evidence with both primary and secondary sources. Develop critical thinking skills within a multi-cultural diverse approach of the historical method. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to multi-cultural assessments and interpretations of historical problems within western civilizations. Understand the chronological survey of the stages of development in Western Civilization from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern era.
    1. The Coming of Islam
      1. Pre-Islamic Arab culture
      2. Mecca
      3. The Ka'ba
      4. Mohammad the Prophet
      5. The Quran
      6. Conversion of the Mecca to Islam
      7. The spread and fracturing of Islam
      8. Umayyad caliphate
      9. Abbassid Caliphate
    2. The Early Medieval World
      1. feudalism
      2. aristocracy
      3. rise of cities and growth of trade
      4. universities
      5. culture and philosophy (Aquinas, Anselm, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides)
      6. Romanesque and Gothic Architecture
    3. Rise of the European Kingdoms (England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy)
      1. church reforms
      2. religious orders
      3. heresies
      4. Near Eastern instability and the Crusades
      5. Black Death
      6. Hundred Years War
      7. Rise of Vernacular Literature (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Christine of Pizan)
    4. The Renaissance
      1. growth of trade
      2. Italian states
      3. Machiavelli and statecraft
      4. Humanism (Erasmus and Moore)
      5. The Arts (Botticelli, Masaccio, Donatello, Brunelleschi, da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Van Eyck)
      6. the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires
    5. The Reformation
      1. Hus and Wycliffe
      2. Luther
      3. The Peasants’ War
      4. France, England, Switzerland
      5. Calvinism
      6. The Catholic Reformation
      7. Jesuits
      8. The French Wars of Religion
      9. Elizabethan England
      10. cultural flowering (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser)
    6. Europe and the New World
      1. Columbian Exchange
      2. Spanish and Portuguese
      3. Conquest of the Aztecs and Incas
      4. Building a Spanish Empire
      5. African slave trade
      6. Dutch, French, and British colonialism
    7. The Turbulent 17th Century
      1. Thirty Years War
      2. Minority persecutions
      3. Absolutism in Europe (Austria-Hungary, Russia, France)
      4. Civil War in England
      5. The Glorious Revolution
      6. Baroque Art
    8. The Scientific Revolution
      1. Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Newton
      2. Faith and Reason (Descartes, Bacon, Spinoza, Pascal)
    9. The Enlightenment
      1. Philosophes (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Locke)
      2. Women in the Age of the Enlightenment
      3. Rise of the novel
  4. Critically analyze the impact of a major historical event or major historical figure(s), with indication of both long-term and short-term historical significance, for the history of western civilization from the early Middle Ages to the early Modern Era (1750 C.E.), to fulfill the college honors requirements for this course.
    1. Inclusion of analysis of both primary historical documents and secondary historical sources.
    2. Indication of students' understanding of historiographical debate over the interpretation(s) of significant historical issues.
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