ASSIGNMENTS
Each assignment is due in the instructor’s mailbox during the week indicated below. Count Week 1 as the first week that classes begin and Week 15 as the final week of the term. Trimester dates are listed at the upper left hand corner of your registration form.
All papers must be typed, with footnotes and bibliographies where appropriate, and mailed in before the assignment deadline. Send in an extra copy, marked "For HUX Files," and keep a copy for yourself. Also, keep a copy of the title page of the paper returned by the instructor which contains your grade, comments, and date. Send a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope for the return of each assignment. If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, or mail in your questions.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1
Due: Week 5
Length: 5-7 pages
Format: All human groups (families, communities, cities, etc.) need to find ways to balance the conflicting needs of individuals and subgroups within them against the needs and common good of the group as a whole. The assigned readings for this part of the course all deal, in different ways, with the achievement of harmony in real and imagined cities: the ancient city of Thebes, 5th century Athens and the Republic. Discuss and synthesize these diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas of harmony, giving consideration to the relationship between the individual and society and efforts toward uniformity. Please include appropriate page references from the readings in your paper as evidence for your statements and conclusions.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2
Due: Week 9
Length: 5-7 pages
Format: In your first paper, you examined the idea of harmony in ancient Greece. In this paper, you are to take up a related issue, that of freedom in the Renaissance. In More’s Utopia, Shakespeare’s London and other Renaissance cities, how was freedom defined and manifested: who had it, how could you get or lose it, how was it expressed? Were the kinds of freedoms emerging in the Renaissance similar to or different than those of ancient Greece or the 20th century? Please include appropriate page references from the readings in your paper as evidence for your statements and conclusions.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3
Due: Week 15
Length: 7-10 pages
Format: Basing your answer upon the readings for the entire course, discuss the idea of progress and/or evolution in Western Civilization. Choosing a modern city (e.g., Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo), compare it with real and ideal cities of the past in terms of similarities and differences in respect to basic problems and values, as well changes that may have occurred. You may wish to consider the nature and function of cities along with ideas of harmony and freedom.