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| History |
| A. |
AMERICAN HISTORY HONORS
Americans are fond of insisting that their society is unique for its cultural
diversity, openness, pluralism, and tolerance of immigration and alternative
life-styles. Indeed these advocates of American uniqueness insist that
America is the world's first and only "Idea Nation" and that anyone can
become a citizen as long as he adheres to basic principles of democracy.
The Honors course will explore the extent to which this benign picture
of American cultural diversity and toleration is an accurate depiction
of the American past. Students will read five books, each of which offers
insights into the subject of American identity and nationalism. Lind's
provocative reinterpretation of American history is essentially a manifesto
against cultural pluralism. Hofstedter's essays on nativist movements
in American history offer explanations for these periodic outbursts of
"un-American" intolerance. Gaddis' book on the Cold War seeks to explain
America's victory in the Cold War as, in part, a consequence of cultural
diversity. Mailer and Roth examine post-war American history through the
eyes of second generation Jews and provide insights into the experiences
of assimilation and acceptance. The course demands extensive prior knowledge
of American history and success in the eleventh grade course. Students
must be able to read advanced college level materials and use non-traditional
historical sources (film, literature, music).
Readings List:
Chafe, The Unfinished Journey, Oxford University Press
Gaddis, We Now Know, Clarendon Press
Hofstedter, The Paranoid Style, Havard University PRess
Lind, The Next American Nation, Free Press Inc.
Mailer, Armies of the Night, Signet
Roth, American Pastoral, Vintage International
By
permission of the department
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| B. |
AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
Advanced Placement European history is designed to prepare the student
for the AP examination as well as to cultivate an appreciation of significant
events and thoughts of post 18th century Jewish history. The overall chronological
period covered by the course is approximately 1350-1995. In the course
of the year students will be introduced to recent historical works in
the exciting new fields of demographics, gender-based history, and the
history of popular attitudes, as well as the more conventional schools
of social, economic, political, and diplomatic history. Aside from the
standard text, the class will also be assigned readings from primary sources
and problem-linked monographs.
Reading List:
Lerner, Meachem and Burrs, Western Civilization, W. W. Norton and
Co.
Gustafson, Discovering the Western Past II, Houghtin Mifflin
Weber, Western Tradition II, D. C. Heath
Stearns, The Other Side of Western Civilization II, Harcourt, Brace
Cipolla, Guns, Sails and Empire, Sunflower University Press
By permission of the department
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| C. |
ART HISTORY
This course offers a historical analysis of the development of art into
the twentieth century. The effect on art, in thought and in image, of
the political, economic, scientific, and social atmosphere will be explored.
The aim of the course is aesthetic as well as historic; students are taught
to analyze as well as to recognize. Schools of art to be studied include:
Neo-Classicism (the Academy), Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism, Impressionism,
Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism,
and the development of American art as the primary moving force in the
art world. Requirements will include at least three critical gallery reports,
a final examination, and a research presentation on one artist. (The material
presented in this course is on a college level)
This course is also listed under Art.
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| D. |
EXPLORING IDENTITY: PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
(Does not answer history requirement)
The course will focus on exploring psychological and philosophical perspectives
on human nature and motivation. The models that Freud, Erikson, Frankl,
Heschel and Rav Soloveitchik have developed to understand personality,
relationships, conflict and growth vary widely, and have dramatic ethical
and psychological implications. For example, the unconscious can be viewed
as a reservoir of sexuality or as a treasure of spiritual and existential
longing. The course will aim to strike a balance between analyzing twentieth-century
texts, and thinking through the psychological, philosophical and Jewish
implications of those texts. The primary assignments will include essays,
a paper/presentation, and tests.
Reading List:
Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis & Civilization and
its Discontents, W. W. Norton and Co.
Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, Washington Square Press
Erikson, Identity and the Life-cycle, W. W. Norton and Co.
Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith, Ktav Publications
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| E. |
GENDER RULES: WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY
This seminar provides an introductory chronological survey of social,
political, economic and cultural issues related to the historical analysis
of women in American history from colonial times to the present. Using
a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, students in this seminar
examine women's activities both within their immediate homes and communities
and beyond. Throughout the course, significant topics include the following:
acquisition and expansion of legal and political rights; women at the
extreme edges (immigration, westward expansion, poverty, wealth); and
shifting definitions of women's work, women's issues and equality. Particular
attention is paid to the history of women in medicine, law, education
and service professions. Within the context of New York City, the experiences
of Jewish, Roman Catholic and Protestant women over the last one hundred
years are closely examined. Individual student projects include family
history, biographies, and close analysis of images of women in literature
and various media.
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| F. |
THE HISTORY OF FILM AND FILM CRITICISM
Film remains the major art form of the contemporary world. This new course
will survey the history of American and foreign cinema with regard to
their parallel developments, their influences on each other, and the technological,
economic, historical and cultural backgrounds in which they developed.
An important goal of the course will be to teach students how to "read
a film." Students will learn about the basic tools of film making and
the film-maker's language, such as misè-en-scene, sound,
cinematography and editing, acting style, and color. They will also learn
about a variety of film genre and film movements. There will be at least
four mandatory after-school screenings of films and there is a basic textbook
for the course. There will be five written submissions; strong written
work will demonstrate that the student understands the course material
and is actively engaged with the film. Students will be graded on the
basis of their serious participation in class discussions, tests, and
the written submissions. This promises to be an exciting, enjoyable, but
demanding academic course.
Reading List:
Monaco, How to Read a Film, Oxford University Press
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| G. |
JEWISH POWER AND POLITICS
Students will learn about the myths and realities of Jewish power in America
and the world. They will become familiar with the array of organizations
and methods by which America's Jews express their group identity and protect
their most vital interests. At the same time, students will learn about
the conflicts and frictions that threaten to rend apart the Jewish community.
The course will be enriched with guest speakers and field trips to a variety
of institutions that comprise the formal Jewish community. |
| H. |
MIDDLE EAST HISTORY
Middle East History is designed to introduce the students to the history,
culture, and politics of this most important region of the world. Geographically,
the area which we will study stretches from Egypt in the west to Iran
in the east, and is bordered by the Mediterranean to the north and the
Indian Ocean to the south.
The Middle East has continuously affected the rest of the world in many
important ways which is why this course is structured topically. In this
way, students will best be able to acquire a sense of the complexities
which mark the internal social, cultural, economic, and political features
of the regions of the world, especially Europe. In this regard, students
who keep up with current regional developments by following events on
the net or by reading relevant articles found in the New York Times on
a daily basis, in the weekly Jewish press, and in monthly or quarterly
journals and periodicals will benefit most from this course.
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| I. |
THE TALMUD AND THE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
This course will explore the historical narrative from the perspective
of the Talmud and other traditional, Jewish religious and Rabbinic sources.
The purpose of this course will not be to critique the shortcomings of
the standard historical sources and certainly not to evaluate the veracity
of the Talmud. Rather, it will be to explicate from the text the vision
of history endorsed by the Talmud and other aligned sources and to explore
the differences and similarities between this vision and the one embraced
by Christian and secular sources and historians. As such, part of the
course design will revolve around the Talmudic vision of the historical
narrative as being neither a closed circle nor an endless evolution, but
a story which has a beginning, a middle and an end.
The course will be topical. It will cover the story of Chanukkah, the
Second Temple and its destruction, the period when Greece was in its glory,
the rise of Christianity, and the struggle against schismatics. The course
will also look at some modern issues revolving around Zionism and the
thirst for redemption. The methodology of the course will be standard,
social science analysis. The course will proceed from the Talmudic text.
Students interested in this course must be proficient in basic Talmud
skills.
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| J. |
WAR AND SOCIETY
War has been intrinsic to human society almost from its beginning and
may, in fact, have been a necessary if not sufficient cause for the rise
of civilization and the state. The purpose of this course will be to examine
the interaction between the Hundred Years War and the present with a special
concern for the role of the Jews in this ongoing process. Among the skills
that the students would develop in the course are an improved academic
command of cartography, philosophy, sociology, political science, art
appreciation, problem solving, and comparative history.
Reading List:
Chaliand, The Art of War in World History, University of California
Press
Paret, Making of Modern Strategy, Pittsburgh University Press
Rapp, War in the Modern World, John Hopkins Press
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