This colloquium examines the legacies of the distant Western past, from the first urban cultures in the Fertile Crescent in the fourth millennium B.C. to the European age of absolutism and the first global imperialism. Hence it is our task to try to use the textbook account as a framework for a more nuanced and humane understanding of people who lived a long time ago. Attached you will find two guides to reading source materials. The first is fairly general, the second aimed more specifically at historical materials. Keep these at hand as you read.
Sources range from biography to drama to religious scripture.
A recurring question will be the extent to which different kinds of documentary sources can be understood to reflect social realities. It is impossible to do more than scratch the surface in our rapid survey of thousands of years of human activity, so readings are designed to highlight in particular the theme of gender , a perennial object of interest and contest in Western societies. I will propose topics for the first paper. There will be an extra credit assignment, an essay-review of a modern scholarly book on a relevant subject. I will provide a list of suitable books.