After considering a number of the topics that we've covered throughout the semester (consult your course outline if you don't remember the topics), tell me IN YOUR OWN WORDS, but using specific examples to support your information, What have you learned in this course? Of course, while this might sound like an open-ended question, I would like you to reflect on specific case studies that were of most interest to you, or those events that led you to reexamine your own world view. Address the following questions in formulating your response:
- Has your perspective toward one particular topic, event or era in the history of Western Civilization (as we've studied it) changed at all? If so, in what way has it changed? Rely on specific examples to support your response.
- What, in your opinion, are some of the most significant changes that have occurred in Western Civilization since the era of the Renaissance and in what areas do you feel have we not progressed as we should? Provide specific examples.
- Based on the topics we've examined in this course, do you believe that there will still be a distinctly "Western" world in the twenty-first century, or will the West "shrink" as a result of globalization? Provide specific examples to support your conclusions.
- After considering the various "isms" we've examined in this course that have been applicable at various points in history, what, in your opinion, is the most significant force in the 20th century, globalism or nationalism? In your response take care to define the ideology and use at least one specific example of the application of the ideology to justify your response.
- At the conclusion of this course, how do you see yourself as a student of history? Do you feel differently about yourself, history (in general), or the place of the United States in the much larger "Western" world than when you began the course and, if so, in what ways? Be specific in your response.