Volume I:
I. FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (3500 B.C.E. TO 500 C.E.).
1. Civilization in the Ancient Near East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Israel. Mesopotamian Civilization.
The Code of Hammurabi. The Epic of Gilgamesh. The Biblical Flood. The Mesopotamian View of Death. A Prayer to the Gods of Night. Egyptian Civilization.
The Authority of the Pharaohs.
Building the Pyramids, Herodotus.
Mummification, Herodotus.
Ramses the Great. The Architectural Foundation.
The Great Pyramids of Egypt. Egyptian Values.
Instructions of Kagemni Love Song: "Would You Then Leave Me?" Love Song: "I Am Your Best Girl."
Egyptian Religion.
The Pyramid Texts. The Book of the Dead: Negative Confession. Against the Grain: The Amarna Revolution.
Hymn to the Aten, Akhenaten.
Hebrew Civilization.
Origins, Oppression, and the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt.
The Creation of the World. The Cultural Intersection: Yucatan: 1550.
Maya Origins: The Creation of the World. Paradise and the Fall from Grace. The Hebrew Bondage. The Burning Bush. The Mission of Moses. The Departure of the Israelites. Covenant and Commandments.
The Ten Commandments. The Covenant Code. The Omnipotence of Yahweh: "Clothed in Fearful Splendor" (Job 37-40).
The Reflection in the Mirror: The New Covenant of Jeremiah.
"Deep Within Them I Will Plant My Law."
2. The Glory of Greece. The World of Early Greece.
The Trojan War: Homer's
Iliad. The Wrath of Achilles, Homer.
The Death of Patroclus, Homer.
The Death of Hector, Homer.
Greek Values: The Odyssey of Homer.
The Adventure of the Cyclops, Homer.
Odysseus in the Underworld, Homer.
The Return of Odysseus, Homer.
The Heroic Age.
The Poetry of Sappho, Sappho.
The Olympic Ideal, Pindar.
Works and Days, Hesiod.
Early Greek Philosophy.
Thales of Miletus: Water Is the Primary Element, Aristotle.
Anaximenes: "The First Principle Is Infinite Air," Hippolytus.
Pythagoras on the Transmigration of the Soul, Diodorus.
The Classical Era: The Golden Age of Athens.
Greek Tragedy.
Oedipus the King (430 B.C.E.), Sophocles.
Antigone (441 B.C.E.), Sophocles.
Medea, Euripides.
The Architectural Foundation.
The Theater of Dionysus.
The Peloponnesian War and the Decline of Athens (431-400 B.C E.).
The City-State of Athens: Funeral Oration of Pericles (430 B.C.E.), Thycydides.
The Melian Dialogue (416 B.C.E.), Thucydides.
The Reflection in the Mirror: Hubris: The Conceit of Power.
The Trojan Women (415 B.C.E.), Euripides.
Women and War: Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.), Aristophanes.
The Trial of Socrates (399 B.C.E.), Plato.
The Death of Socrates, Plato.
The Fourth Century and the Hellenistic Age.
Allegory of the Cave, Plato.
Against Communism, Aristotle.
On Education, Aristotle.
Virtue and Moderation: The Doctrine of the Mean, Aristotle.
The Cultural Intersection: China: 350 B.C.E.
The Basis of Humane Government, Mencius.
The Leadership of Alexander the Great, Arrian.
Epicureanism: Golden Maxims, Epicurus.
The Artistic Vision: Hellenistic Sculpture.
The Dying Gaul, Epigonos.
3. The World of Rome. The Roman Republic.
Roman Values.
The Foundation of Rome/The Fall of Tarquin, Livy.
"Hannibal Is At the Gates!": The Defense of Rome, Livy.
Scipio's Dream, Cicero.
The Fall of the Roman Republic (100-31 B.C E.).
Catiline Plots Revolt, Sallust.
"The Enemy Is Within," Cicero. "The Assassination of Julius Caesar (44 B.C.E.), Plutarch.
Against the Grain: Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile.
"The Attraction Was Something Bewitching," Plutarch.
"She Was No Weak-Kneed Woman," Horace.
Late Republican Thought and Literature.
The Way Things Are, Lucretius.
Poetry Selections, Catullus.
The Art of Love, Ovid.
Imperial Rome.
The Age of Augustus.
The Transition from Republic to Principate, Tacitus.
The Peace of Augustus, Horace.
"To Spare the Conquered and Crush the Proud," Virgil.
Dido and Aeneas, Virgil.
"All Roads Lead to Rome."
The Glory of the City, Strabo.
The Dark Side of Rome, Juvenal.
The Magnificence of the Baths, Lucian.
The Bathing Establishment, Seneca.
The Architectural Foundation.
Pont du Gard. "Bread and Circuses," Fronto.
"The Give and Take of Death": Gladiatorial Combat, Seneca.
The Stoic Philosophy.
"How Will I Die," Epictetus.
"What Is the Principle Thing In Life?" Seneca.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius.
The Artistic Vision: The Good Life in Pompeii.
"Portrait of a Man and Woman"/Fresco.
Caesar and Christ.
The Message of Jesus.
The Baptism of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount. The Good Samaritan. The Mission of Jesus.
Instructions to the Twelve Disciples. Peter: The Rock. Suffering, Persecution, and the Son of Man. The Final Judgment. The Work of Paul.
Paul's Answer to the Intellectuals. On Faith. The Resurrection of Christ. On Love. The Reflection in the Mirror: The Decline of the West.
Decline and Christianity, Edward Gibbon.
II. THE CONSOLIDATION OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (500-1400).
4. Icon, Scimitar, and Cross: Early Medieval Civilization (500-1100). Byzantine and Islamic Civilization.
Byzantine Spiritual Foundations.
Heresy: The Threat of Arianism, Eusebius. "The Nicene Creed (325), Eusebius.
Iconoclasm and Orthodoxy: The Second Council of Nicaea (787).
The Architectural Foundation.
Hagia Sophia. The Religious Tenets of the Qur'an'.
The Heritage of Islam. The Qur'an on Women. The Love of Allah, Al-Ghazzali.
The Islamic Worldview.
"We Begin Our Voyage": The Adventures of Sinbad. "0 King, If You Believed In Allah": Islamic Conversion, Al-Bakri.
The Dawn of the European Middle Ages.
Against the Grain: Augustine: From Sinner to Saint.
The Confessions, Saint Augustine.
"By the Skin of Our Teeth": Germanic Values and the World of Charlemagne.
Beowulf: The Germanic Hero. Charlemagne: The Moderate and Progressive King, Einhard.
Viking Onslaught: The Siege of Paris (806).
The Song of Roland. The Cultural Intersection: Japan: 1650.
The Training of a Samurai, Kumazawa Banzan.
Education and the Scriptures, Charlemagne.
Carolingian Scholarship (790), Charlemagne.
The Artistic Vision: Illuminated Manuscripts.
The Book of Kells. 5. The Sword of Faith: The Medieval Synthesis of Western Civilization (1100-1400). Power and Faith in the High Middle Ages.
The Crusades: "It Is the Will of God!"
The Speech of Pope Urban II at Clermont (1095), Robert the Monk.
The Fall of Jerusalem (1099).
An Islamic Perspective of the Crusades, Usamah Ibn-Munqidh.
Medieval Monasticism.
The Rule of Saint Benedict. The Canticle of Brother Sun (1225), Saint Francis of Assisi.
Against the Grain: Giotto at the Creative Edge.
Christ's Deposition from the Cross/Ecstasy of St. Francis/Vasari selection.
The Great Cathedrals.
The Love of God, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. "Faith and the Construction of the Cathedrals (1145), Abbot Haimon of Saint-Pierre-Sur-Dives.
The Power of the Virgin Mary, (1275).
An Inventory of Saintly Relics in Canterbury Cathedral (1346).
The Architectural Foundation.
La Alhambra. Mind and Society in the High Middle Ages.
The World of Thought.
The Existence of God, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
The Dialectical Method: Sic et Non, Peter Abelard.
Selection, Hildegard Von Bingen.
The Artistic Vision: The Art of Stained Glass.
Examples from Cathedrals.
The Literary Initiative.
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer.
The Inferno, Dante.
Sonnet Selections, Petrarch.
The Reflection in the Mirror: The Black Death.
"A Most Terrible Plague," Giovanni Boccaccio.
Medieval Art and the Black Death. The Medieval Woman.
The Tragedy of Abelard and Heloise. Chivalric Ideals: The Function of Knighthood, John of Salisbury.
To His Love Afar, Jaufre Rudel.
Courtly Love Selection, Christine De Pisan.
III. TRANSITIONS TO THE MODERN WORLD (1400-1650).
6. The Age of the Renaissance. The Humanist Movement.
A Humanist Education, Leonardo Bruni.
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), Pico Della Mirandola.
The Soul of Man (1474), Marislio Ficino.
The Artistic Vision: The Human Insight of Donatello.
"David" /
"Saint Mary Magdalen".
The Life of Florence.
The Rule of Cosimo d'Medici, Vespasiano.
Precepts of Power: "Everyone Sees What You Seem to Be, Few Perceive What You Are," Niccolo Machiavelli.
The Cultural Intersection: China: 1662.
A Plan for the Prince, Zhang Tingyu.
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti: The Competition for the Gates of Paradise, Vasari.
The Architectural Foundation.
Brunelleschi's Dome. Renaissance Arts and Manners.
The Development of Art (1550), Giorgio Vasari.
Against the Grain: I, Leonardo.
The Notebooks of a Universal Man, Leonardo Da Vinci.
Book of the Courtier (1518), Baldassare Castiglione.
On the Nature and Purpose of Women and Men, Baldassare Castiglione.
7. The Reformation Era. Northern Humanism and the State of the Papacy.
The Praise of Folly (1509), Desiderius Erasmus.
Utopia, Thomas More.
Against the Grain: The Genius of Albrecht Durer.
"The Garden of Earthly Delights" (1504).
The Lutheran Reformation.
"How Many Sins Are Committed in a Single Day?" (1517), Johann Tetzel.
Salvation Through Faith Alone, Martin Luther.
The Architectural Foundation.
Saint Peter's Basilica. Address at the Diet of Worms (1521), Martin Luther.
The Edict of Worms (1521), Emperor Charles V.
On Celibacy and Marriage, Martin Luther.
The Reformation in the Wake of Luther.
On the Necessity of Reforming the Church (1544), John Calvin.
Predestination: Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), John Calvin.
The Enforcement of the Elizabethan Settlement (1593):
" Divine Service According to Her Majesty's Laws." The Jesuits: Spiritual Exercises (1548), Ignatius Loyola. "The Tridentine Index of Books (1564).
The Reflection in the Mirror: The Bloody Wars of Religion.
The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572):
"A Thousand Times More Terrible Than Death Itself, The Duke of Sully.
The Thought and Literature of the Age.
Cannibals, Michel De Montaigne.
Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes.
The Artistic Vision: El Greco and the Mannerist Style.
"The Burial of Count Orgaz" (1586) /
"Christ on the Cross Adored by Donors" (1590).
Hamlet/Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare.
