HIST 331A
Course covers the history of the Greeks from prehistory to the successor states of the Macedonian empire. Topics range across all of the Greek world and all areas of culture, from the ‘invention’ of the alphabet and rise of the polis to the spread of Greek culture in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander of Macedon. Special attention is given to working with the primary sources, in particular with the narrative histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, in order not only to teach you how to handle the source material for ancient history but also to introduce you to the origins of history as a discipline and its continuing self-appraisal of its methods. The course is Writing Intensive and as such uses written assignments to help you master the subject.