Purpose

This is the third and culminating year of World View spanning the period from the American Civil War to the Modern Era (c. 1850-Present). Students read primary works and analyze their impact on the formation of the modern mind and American culture. In this Socratic setting, students prepare for college level work through extensive reading, journaling, and current event discussion and analysis.

This is a 4-credit course: English, Modern Literature, American History, and Philosophy.

Process

Course work includes a reading journal, in-class essays, debate exercises, several short papers, and a major research paper. Class discussions will aim at moving beyond the details of the texts to their implications.

The books studied in World View III include, but are not limited to:

• Total Truth, Pearcey

• Origin of Species, Darwin

• Darwin on Trial, Johnson

• How Should We Then Live, Schaeffer

• Killer Angels, Shaara

• Up From Slavery, Washington

• Rites of Spring, Eksteins

• Modern Times, Johnson

• Letters and Papers in Prison, Bonhoeffer

• Citizen Soldiers, Ambrose

• Economics in One Lesson, Hazlitt

• Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway

• The Plague, Camus

• Screwtape Letters, Lewis