This course examines the development of American culture and society from the Columbian encounter through the Civil War. Topics include humanism, the political life of the northern Italian city states, changes in spirituality and in the life of the church, the status of women, and the development of political theory. Readings include Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Erasmus. For the oral communications component, students will carry out three oral assignments in the context of exploring the Renaissance humanist emphasis on rhetoric. An interdisciplinary approach to war and peace, this course incorporates the dual perspective of philosophy and history.
Students study various ethical arguments as shaped in different cultures.
The course begins with warfare as treated in the Bible and concludes with nuclear terrorism. Students learn principles of mathematical thinking by investigating a particular mathematical topic. Recent topics included dynamic geometry, mathematics of games, and cryptology. Students investigate ideas through technical and non-technical reading and problem solving, introducing them to mathematical literature and exposition. The study of counterpoint is a way of better understanding the compositional techniques of great composers, as well as developing one's own fluency in writing music.