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GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
This course helps fulfill the Cultural Heritage component of the General Education Program (the "core"). As such it is simultaneously part of the foundation of a liberal arts education and the development of a worldview.
Meeting the following objectives will help in establishing these foundations. Students will be encouraged to
- Master a body of knowledge
covering the development of European civilization and society from about 1500 to the present and other societies in the last century as these were influenced by European developments, in both cases paying particular attention to societal change and continuity.
- Develop a set of critical skills and methods, including
- Competency in reading, writing, and discussion
- Incisive investigation, analytical, and argumentative techniques
- Effective use of analogy, synthesis, comparison, integration, conceptualization, explanation, and interpretation
- Drawing contrasts and making comparisons
- Develop an intelligent skepticism about the generalizations and methods of historians, including the authors of the text and the instructor. Questioning is part of the process of critical inquiry.
- Begin to have a global vision, which will help to link the past to contemporary problems and future possibilities. Thus the course will examine everyday life alongside political relationships, the role of women with that of men, and the view from below besides that from the top.
In summary, the objective of the course is to encourage students to "think historically." Memorization of facts without using analytical and communication skills is a waste of time; the ability to write without possessing information to write about is equally useless. Thinking historically thus presupposes a relationship between facts and perspectives. It also assumes greater sensitivity to the historical dimension of all human activity. Thus, thinking historically requires the student work toward the following.
- To see institutions, values, and themselves as the products of the past
- To value the achievement of human civilization over time
- To recognize contemporary circumstances and issues as aspects of the process of historical change
- To develop greater appreciation and sympathy for people who differ from us in terms of class, race, gender, values, or simply epoch.
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