History Offers Western Survey

Harvard's newest history course moves at a slightly faster pace than most of the department's other offerings--160 years on the average, each and every week.

History 1a, "Western Societies, Politics and Cultures," marks the first time since the late 1960s that Harvard has offered an introductory survey course in European civilization and it attempts to cover Europe from ancient Greece to the English revolution.

Professor of History Steven E. Ozment, who teaches the course said yesterday he hopes it will give history concentrators a more solid grounding in the discipline.

"None of them will ever have sand kicked in their faces again over a point of historical fact," said Ozment.

However some students may find the course's speed a little disconcerting. The Italian Renaissance is covered in a day. The Byzantine Empire and Islam also get a day--shared.

The difficulties that such a fast pace can create have not escaped the attention of its instructors. Associate Professors of History James Hankins who gave one of this week's lectures called attention to the problem in his opening remarks.

"Until about 80 years ago, most people spent up to 90 percent of their education examining Greco-Roman culture," Hankins said. "Now we're reduced to 50 minutes."

Survey courses like History 1a and its spring counterpart History 1b, were once a staple of college curriculums but fell out of favor in the late 1960s. In recent years however, many educators have criticized American college for failing to ensure that students learn the basics of Western civilization.

However, such courses have also drawn angry protests from students at several colleges who contend that the courses ignore the viewpoints of minorities and women. Stanford University last year revamped its required "Western Culture" course in the face of overwhelming student opposition.

But although the course catalogue describes History 1a and 1b as the normal point of entry for concentrators it is still not a requirement. And Harvard's Core Curriculum, introduced in 1979, is designed to introduce students to the major "approaches to knowledge" in fields of study rather than any particular body of knowledge.

History concentrators are required to take a sophomore tutorial which coverstopics such as American slavery and theRenaissance, but offers no comprehensive view ofany area of history.

According to Assistant Professor of HistorySusan G. Pederson, it is difficult to ensure thatstudents have a good background in history throughsophomore tutorial.

"I think it's fairly safe to say there is a lotof discontent with the sophomore tutorial as thefoundation course," said Ozment.

The reading for History la includes most of thetraditional canon of philosophers, includingPlato's "Apology" and "Crito" Thomas Aquinas'"Moral Life and Ethics," and John Locke's "EssayConcerning Human Understanding."

When asked whether a course devoted exclusivelyto Western civilization might be too ethnocentric,Ozment noted that the course includes somelectures on other civilizations. In addition, hesaid that the West has "grown and developed eitherby other cultures invading it or by it beinginvaded by other cultures."

"The West has never been a hermetically sealed,narrow culture," Ozment said, adding that chargesof ethnocentricity are often based "on lack of afull understanding of the nature and culture ofWestern civilization."

Several students expressed positive reactionsto the course yesterday.

"I'm really enjoying it," said Sheila Kannappan'91 a physics concentrator. "It's bringing a lotof stuff together for me"

Thomas Page '93 described the course as"fascinating." He said that it gives him a chance"to develop a base for studying other things,"which he did not do in high school