Paper

 

Your larger writing assignment is due in its final form on December 10th.  This paper will be much like a longer, more in depth, microtheme.  Your final paper will be between 8-10 pages.  You are to take any of the primary sources and place them in historical conversation with one another.  Like the microtheme, you should seek to answer the meaning of the primary sources: what argument or worldviews were the authors/artists seeking to put forward?  How was this a product of the time and place in which they were living?  Importantly you are also to relate the sources to one another.  How do these sources help us understand western civilization?  What problems and opportunities do they articulate?  What larger issues are they wrestling with?  You are free to chose any two sources from the course—you may find it easiest however, to chose two within a similar theme (i.e. "the place of religion and society," "the growth of the individual," "voyages of discovery," etc.).  Several possible combinations and topics are listed on the last page of the syllabus. 

 

This paper is to take place in several stages: 

 

1)  Choose the set of primary sources to frame your paper—you should think in terms of a larger question that you are seeking to address.  You must submit your choice and the topic that they will address in class September 22nd. 

 

2)  Visit the Library  for a tour of potential sources and databases.  This will be done in class on October 1st.

 

3)  Refer to at least three printed scholarly, detailed works (namely, not electronic from the internet or CD-ROM and not tertiary such as the textbook, handbooks or encyclopedias).  These sources should be the basis of your preliminary bibliography.  These sources should be history books and/or journal articles written by professional historians and which closely examine the person.  If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of your professional sources, please see the instructor.  Your preliminary bibliography is due in class on October 20th.

 

4)  By the middle of October you should have some idea what you will be arguing in your paper.  How are you reading the sources?  How does your understanding fit with other scholar's interpretations?  You will need to hand in a brief thesis statement that will set the tone for your paper outlining the major claim that you will be making in your paper.  A thesis is an argument based on an intelligent reading of sources (and something that intelligent informed people should be able to disagree with).  To this end your thesis should include both your argument and a counterargument.  You should also produce a working outline detailing the major points and sources that you will be using in your paper.  This is due in class October 27th.

 

5)  Visit the Writing Center to review your work and think about revisions.  You must visit the center before November 19th and have the reader-reviewer stamp your draft or outline.  Your rough draft is due in class on November 19th.

 

6)  Rest, review, and revise repeatedly.  Then write a final draft to be turned in on December 10th. 

 

Please turn in all of the material from all of the steps to this assignment together with the final draft on December 10th.

 

Microthemes

 

Five times during this semester you will be responsible for writing a 1-2 page microtheme on the assigned primary source material covered during that time.  These microthemes are intended to allow you the opportunity to analyze and write about these sources historically and should consist of two parts: first, you should summarize the argument of the sources—you should ask and elucidate what the author, director or artist was trying to say.  Second, you should place the piece and argument within the larger context of the history of the Western Civilization.  What themes and trends is the artist or author tapping into?  How does it relate to larger issues in the class?  How are we to make sense of the work historically?  You will need to chose one primary source to write on that deals with the material we are covering in class.  Please check the list below for due dates and sources.

First Microtheme due September 15th

Sources:

1) Caves of Lascaux
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

2) Code of Hammurabi, 18th Century BCE
http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/hammurabi.html

3) Exodus 20, “The 10 Commandments”
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Exodus+20

4) Genesis 15, “The Covenant of Abraham”
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Genesis+15:1-12,17-18

5) Genesis 11: 1-9, “The Tower of Babel”
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=42785207

6) Thucydides, “Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” from The Peloponnesian War, c. 430-395 BCE
http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassicalStudies/CLCV102/Thucydides--MelianDialogue.html

7) Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogue,” from The Peloponnesian War, c. 430-395 BCE
http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pericles.html

8) Herodotus, “Reports of India and Aryavarta,” from The Histories, c. 430 BCE
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/greek-india.html

9) Plato, “Apology of Socrates,” c. 400 BCE
http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Plato/Apology/APOLOGY_p9.html

10) Sharepoint: “Greek Statuary”
Second Microtheme due September 29th

Second Microtheme due September 29th

 

Sources:
1) Pliny the Elder, “The Grandeur of Rome,” from Natural History, 75 CE
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-natihist-rome.html

2) Sharepoint: “The Fayoum Portraits" &  “Roman Architecture”

3) The Gospel According to John
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=44941529

4) The Gospel According to Mary
http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

5) Early Church Councils (excerpts):  The Nicene Creed 325, A.D.; The Definition of the Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D.; and the Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D.
http://www.uvawise.edu/history/wciv1/councils.html

6) Sharepoint: Byzantium and Barbarians

7) Readings from the Glorious Qu'ran 1,47
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/koran-sel.html

8) From the Sunnah
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sunnah-horne.html

 

Third Microtheme due October 13th

Sources:
1) Einhard, “The Life of Charlemagne,” (excerpts), c. 817-830
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/einhard1.html

2) Sharepoint: "Medieval Art"

3) Gregory VII, Dictatus Papae, 1090
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-dictpap.html
 

Fourth Microtheme due October 29th

Sources:

1)  Excerpts from the Book of Margery Kempe, late 1430s

    a)  "The Birth of her first Child and Her Vision"
        http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/kempe1.htm
    b)  "Her Pride and Attempts to Start a Business"
        http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/kempe2.htm
    c) "Margery and her Husband Reach a Settlement"
        http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/kempe3.htm
    d) "Pilgrimage to Jerusalem"
        http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/kempe4.htm

2) Urban II, Speech at Council of Clermont according to Fulcher of Chartres, 1095
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-fulcher.html

3) Soloman bar Samson, The Crusaders in Mainz, May 27, 1096
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews-mainz.html

4) The Confession of Agimet of Geneva, , October 20, 1349; Jacob von Königshofen (1346-1420); Chonicle;  The Epitaph of Asher aben Turiel, Toledo, Spain, 1349
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.html

5) "The English Peasant Revolt" from Froissart's Chronicles, 1381
http://www.uvawise.edu/history/wciv1/civ1ref/peasvolt.htm

6)  Leonardo da Vinci, The Painter and Linear Perspective, c.1490
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/leonardo.html

7) Sharepoint: "Leonardo da Vinci  Sketches" & "Renaissance Art
 

Fifth Microtheme due November 17th

Sources:

1) Martin Luther, 95 Theses, 1517
http://www.uvawise.edu/history/wciv1/95thes.html

2)  Martin Luther against the Peasants
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/peasants1525.html, 1525

3)  Bartolome de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html

4) The Crime of Galileo: Indictment and Abjuration of 1633
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.html

5) Duc de Saint-Simon, The Court of Louis XIV (excerpts),
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/17stsimon.html

6) Voltaire, A Treatise on Toleration, 1763
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/voltaire.html

7) J. S. Bach, Fugue No. 4: C Sharp Minor, 1747
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc/i04.html

8)  Declaration of the Rights of Man
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp