Modern History

OFFERED 2024-2025

  • 2024-25 Time: Wednesdays, 12:15 – 1:45 pm Eastern
  • 2024-25 Tuition:
    • Seminar with writing tutorial: $80 per student per month (10 months, August – May)
    • Seminar only: $65 per student per month (10 months, August – May)
  • Location: Signal Mountain, Tennessee
  • Prerequisites: Writing II or equivalent writing skills AND, because the ideas covered in Modern History and Literature need to be understood in light of the ideas of the previous historical eras, one of the following options:
  • Dual Credit Option through Bryan College: 3 hours of college credit
  • Grades: 11-12 only; Students in the Humane Letters Diploma Program should take Moderns in their senior year
  • Pairing: You can pair this course with Modern Literature
  • Description: How has society come to be what it is today? What mistakes have been made? What lies have been believed? What heroes have opposed the rising evil? What treasures can we save from the shipwreck of modern Western civilization? Through careful study of influential books and documents, students will learn about the formation of the modern world since the Reformation era. The course will primarily focus on European history but will demonstrate the significance of events in Europe for the United States and the world as well as the influence of the United States and the world on Europe. Following the advice of C.S. Lewis in, “On the Reading of Old Books”, we will begin and end our studies with “the clean sea breeze of the centuries” – a review of ancient and medieval works, ideas, and culture.
  • Assessment:
    • All: Students must complete all readings and daily-work/commonplacing.
    • Writing tutorial only: Each term, students compose one essay, one other written piece, and one project – choosing between an academic/artistic portfolio and a history-related handcraft. (Students in both history and literature courses only create one project per term.) In December and May, students participate in Defense Day by giving a brief presentation on one of their essays and responding to questions from the audience.
  • Books Needed: Final book list will be posted by mid-summer but books will be the same as or similar to those listed below – (Hard copies are required; recommended editions/translations are listed below; For most of these books, we will not read the entire book but will look at key selections in context. Also, many of these books are not available online because they are still in copyright.)
    • Seventeenth-century CHOOSE ONE:
      • EITHER Milton, Areopagitica (Recommended ISBN: 978-0140439069, Penguin)
      • OR Locke, Letter Concerning Toleration (Recommended: ISBN: 978-0915145607, Hackett)
    • Enlightenment CHOOSE ONE:
      • EITHER Rousseau, Basic Political Writings: Origin of Inequality, Social Contract (Recommended ASIN: B01182G6KG, Hackett)
      • OR Smith, Wealth of Nations (Recommended ISBN: 978-0879757052, Prometheus)
    • Holocaust CHOOSE ONE:
      • EITHER Pilecki, Report from Auschwitz / The Auschwitz Volunteer (ISBN: 978-1607720102)
      • OR Szpilman, The Pianist (ISBN: 978-0312263768, Picador)
      • OR Mayer, They Thought They Were Free (ISBN: 978-0226525839, University of Chicago)
      • OR Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents, The Definitive Edition (ASIN: B00QPVMNNA, University of Chicago)
    • Totalitarianism and Language CHOOSE ONE:
      • EITHER Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” in Why I Write (ISBN: 978-0143036357, Penguin) AND Havel, “Power of the Powerless” in Open Letters (ISBN: 978-0679738114, Vintage)
      • OR Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents, The Definitive Edition (ASIN: B00QPVMNNA, University of Chicago)
    • ALL NEED: Lewis, Abolition of Man (ISBN: 9780060652944, HarperCollins)
    • ALL NEED: Machiavelli, The Prince (Recommended ISBN: 978-0140449150, Penguin) <= Needed for first week of class
    • ALL NEED: Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Recommended ASIN: B01FGKZB48, Penguin)
    • ALL NEED: Gilbert, Churchill: The Power of Words (ISBN: 978-0306821974)
    • ALL NEED: Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago, vol. 1 (ASIN: 0061253715, Harper)
    • ALL NEED: Jung Chang, Mao: The Unknown Story (ASIN: B017S2CLYK)
    • “The Clean Sea Breeze of the Centuries” EITHER:
      • Plato’s Republic (Recommended: Bloom translation/Basic Books, ISBN: 9780465094080)
      • OR Ramon Lull, Book of the Order of Chivalry – ‎Boydell, ISBN: 978-1843838494
      • OR Boethius — The Consolation of Philosophy (Recommended: Goins translation/Ignatius, ISBN: 9781586174378)

Image – World War II aircraft at an airshow, Terrell, Texas – (c) Grace Hughbanks, 2010