High School 2009-2010

American History I

This class follows American History through the 1830s. A review of the Crusades and the Reformation provides a European context before moving to Spanish exploration and conquest. Our study of colonial North America begins with accounts of Native American culture before examining English settlements, including Virginia and Puritan New England and the structure of colonial life.  We follow the causes, course, and results of the American Revolution, read the nation’s founding documents, and learn about life in the early republic amid the social and economic changes of the early nineteenth century, with special interest in the expansion of slavery. Longer readings throughout the year include Calvin, Columbus, Diaz, Bradford, Edwards, Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, and Douglass.

American History II

The second half of our study of American History begins with Andrew Jackson and the Second Party System and moves to the present day. It follows the political developments of the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries, including the election of presidents, national growth, the passage of legislation, and the fighting of wars. Lincoln and his speeches receive longer attention. The course also focuses on social and economic changes, the development of modern American life, and the changing roles of women, minorities, and immigrants. The goal is to understand historical developments, to question historical actors, and to think critically about ideas, political results, and historical judgments.

European Intellectual History

This course is an examination of European History from the High Middle Ages to the present. Its focus will include central primary texts of European intellectual history following the development of European political, religious, social, scientific, and philosophical thought.  Political history forms the background structure of this study, with issues of social development and intellectual change filling in the foreground of our examination. Questions that will be addressed include: What are the origins of the modern state? How do ideas change culture and culture change ideas? What were the origins of and alternatives to democracy and to capitalism? What roles did religion and scientific discovery play in this history? How do individual rights emerge? How did life change for the average person? The goal will be to understand and evaluate ideas in historical context and the ideas of historians attempting to explain that context.