SEMINAR PROFILE

H08 -
Western Civilization Revisited: A Meta-Narrative for World History

In this seminar we will reflect on the challenge of teaching the history of Western Civilization at Harvard and in high schools. For decades there has been growing embarrassment about history courses which �privileged� the European / white experience. But no serious account of world history since 1500 can deny the reality that Europeans and the descendants of European migrants came to dominate much of the rest of the world for the better part of the next 500 years. Professor Ferguson having recently experimented with a new course on �Western Ascendancy�, we will reflect on the possibilty of reconciling World History as a project with the fact of Euro-centrism.

Scholar:

Niall Ferguson

Location:

Harvard Hillel

Dates:

4/14/2010

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H08 -	Western Civilization Revisited: A Meta-Narrative for World History

	In this seminar we will reflect on the challenge of teaching the history of Western Civilization at Harvard and in high schools. For decades there has been growing embarrassment about history courses which �privileged� the European / white experience. But no serious account of world history since 1500 can deny the reality that Europeans and the descendants of European migrants came to dominate much of the rest of the world for the better part of the next 500 years. Professor Ferguson having recently experimented with a new course on �Western Ascendancy�, we will reflect on the possibilty of reconciling World History as a project with the fact of Euro-centrism.

		Scholar:	Niall Ferguson
		Location:	Harvard Hillel
		Dates:	4/14/2010