Students in this course will sharpen their ability to analyze and weigh historical evidence from conflicting sources, to discern broader historical trends, to generalize and interpret, and to master relevant details. This course is a comparative, global exploration of the major forces, ideas, and watershed events of this violent, revolutionary century. Class materials include readings from primary sources, novels, and films. II Although centered around the history of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, this course seeks to show the student that the events of the Holocaust were not unique to one country and one century. Comparisons and parallels are made to past and contemporary issues, events, and choices.
Students investigate concepts of power, obedience, loyalty, decision-making, justice, and survival.
We hope that when the semester is over, the student and teachers have a better understanding not only of a tragic episode in human history, but of themselves. I, II This course will focus on developments in England since the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the 5th century although attention will also be paid to events elsewhere when they impact on that history e.g. the troubled relationship with Ireland over many centuries. The Vietnam War had, and still has, a profound effect upon American life and attitudes. The course utilizes films such as Indochine , Platoon , The Killing Fields , and the PBS television history series Vietnam to supplement an extensive reading list, visitors, and simulations. U.S. History From the Treaty of Tordesillas to the Monroe Doctrine, from the Mayan Empire to U.S. hegemony, the history of the Western hemisphere has recorded moments of breathtaking beauty and repugnant barbarity, of startling paradox and consistently clear harmony.