Throughout the semester, please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas you might have about History or the classwork. This introductory course surveys the major Historical forces, ideas and personalities that have shaped the world as we have come to know it. It is a quest to understand the legacy of the past by retracing previous paths taken by our ancestors. The ancient world will be studied in order to understand the foundations of our civilization. At the same time we will learn to appreciate cultural diversity by exploring human institutions and practices that have been abandoned or altered over the course of time.
History is a constant struggle between continuity and change.
We will also see how human agents have changed their environments and have in turn been shaped by those environments. Contents Outline A. Early Civilizations Mesopotamia and Egypt Other Near Eastern Civilizations . To enable the student to identify and to explain the major factors that influenced the development of Western Civilization and later the world. To enable the student to compare and to contrast characteristics, phenomena, and contributions of the major periods of the past. To enable the student to distinguish between the facts of History and the interpretations that can be applied to those facts so that each can make intelligent judgments on their own.