This course is designed to provide an overview of the roots
and early development of what later will become western civilization.
Along the way, the student will have the opportunity to acquire
a superficial familiarity with civilization in the early Middle East,
classical Greece and Rome, and the European middle ages. At the
same time, the course will suggest some of the factors that have
affected and continue to affect the way societies work and people live.
By the end of the course it is hoped that each student will have
gained some sense of the cultural and historical roots of contemporary
human societies as well as an appreciation of the universal character
of human history.