Course Description

Welcome! This site is for students, parents, teachers and anyone else interested in the tenth-grade World History 2 Course at Santa Fe Prep.

The overall course covers the history of the world from roughly 1500 to the present. The first quarter opens with the time when Asia was the center of world affairs, then traces European encounters with Asia and the Americas, and the complex interactions and consequences of the so-called "Columbian Exchange" between Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. The first quarter ends with a survey of the European Renaissance and Reformation, in both its local and global dimensions. The second quarter will focus on the rise of absolute monarchies and new ideas and practices, especially with the scientific revolution and Enlightenment. The second quarter ends with assessments of the legacies of the French Revolution, Napoleon and the emergence of the British Empire. The third quarter starts with the implications of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars in the wake of the Congress of Vienna, i.e., the discourse on rights, reaction, revolution and reform, the rise of new ideologies, in particular, Classical Liberalism, nationalism, and romanticism, and conservative reactions to the changes wrought by the American and French Revolutions. The course then examines the rise of industrialization and social change in 19th-century Europe, and the emergence of middle and working class cultures, followed by new iterations of liberalism and conservatism, the proliferation of more ideologies, e.g., socialism, communism, ultranationalism, social Darwinism, and antisemitism. Then the course examines the unification of the Italian and German nation states, and the creation of the modern welfare state. From there the course traces the rise of a new wave of Western imperialism, followed by the rest of the world's reactions to the rise of European empires and ideas, and in particular, the emergence of industrial Japan and their surprising victory over Russia. The third quarter ends with the outbreak of the First World War. The fourth and final quarter surveys the effects of the First World War, followed by the brief peak of classical liberal nation states and promises for peace, and the rapid rise of authoritarianism, in both communist and fascist variations, with a special focus on the rise of Nazism, the Nazi racial transformation of Germany and the Holocaust and Shoah of modern Europe. The fourth quarter concludes by looking at the causes and effects of the Second World War, the Cold War, the end of European empires in Asia and Africa, the emergence of the Modern Middle East and China, the end of the Cold War, history since 1989, all the way to the present, including current events.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Week 7 Reading Questions: The Renaissance



I. For Day 1, please read the following sections from "The Renaissance," in Western Civilization (The pink book), ed. Dennis Sherman:

1.    The introduction and "Using Primary Sources," pp. 3-5.
2.    Francesco Petrarch, "A Letter to Boccaccio: Literary Humanism," pp. 5-6.
3.    Peter Paul Vergerio, "On the Liberal Arts," p. 6.
4.    "Using Visual Sources," pp. 9-10.
5.    Raphael, "The School of Athens: Art and Classical Culture," pp. 10-11, including the painting (!)

Use these primary source readings and accompanying background information to answer the following question: What was the Renaissance?


II. For Day 2, please read the following sections from "The Renaissance," in Western Civilization (The pink book), ed. Dennis Sherman, and answering the accompanying questions:

1. Christine de Pizan, "The City of Ladies," pp. 6-7.
- What were the common assumptions and arguments about women?
- How does Christine de Pizan attack those arguments and assumptions?
- How does her writing embody the Renaissance?

2. Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince," pp. 7-8
- How does this work reflect the values and practices of the Renaissance?
- how might these same principles be applied to contemporary times?

3. The artwork of Jan van Eyck and Hans Holbein, pp. 11-14.
How might these paintings reflect a society and attitudes similar to those of the Middle Ages, or the themes of Renaissance humanism and individualism?


III. For Day 3, please read the following sections from "The Renaissance," in Western Civilization (The pink book), ed. Dennis Sherman, and answering the accompanying questions: 

1. "Secondary Sources," pp. 14-15.

2. Jakob Burckhardt, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy," p. 15.
- What most distinguishes the Italian Renaissance from the preceding Middle Ages according to Burckhardt?
- Is there any support in the primary documents for this argument?
- How might a medievalist respond?

 3. Peter Burke, "The Myth of the Renaissance," pp. 15-16.
- According to Burke, why is Burckhardt's idea of the Renaissance a myth?
- How might a supporter of Burckhardt respond?
Do the sources give greater support to Burckhardt's or Burke's interpretation of the Renaissance?


IV. For Day 4, please read the following sections from "The Renaissance," in Western Civilization (The pink book), ed. Dennis Sherman, and answering the accompanying questions:

1. Federico Chabod, "Machiavelli and the Renaissance," pp. 16-17.
- Why were Machiavelli's ideas so appropriate to the historical realities of his time? How does the selections from The Prince support this interpretation of Machiavelli?

2. Charles G. Nauert, "Northern Sources of the Renaissance," pp. 17-18.
- How did the Northern Renaissance differ from the Italian Renaissance?
- How does Nauert explain these differences? 

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