Paper assignment: Please do take the time to come by and see me about the paper assignment.

• What I am looking for is a discussion of an urban culture that had a clear and recognized "golden age" similar to that of Classical Athens, Renaissance Florence or Weimar Berlin.  Here are some suggestions (please do not misunderstand this list, I am giving examples here that I know will work, but there are other cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America that may work equally well).
  • The Venetian Republic
  • Netherlands/Amsterdam in the 16th Century
  • Fin de siecle Vienna (1900)
  • Fin de siecle Paris (1900)
  • Elizabethan London
  • Victorian London
  • Paris (1790-1835)
  • Rome of Augustus
  • LA in the 1930s
  • NY
  • Islamic Cordoba.
  • Islamic Damascus
  • Alexandria
• In particular, I want you to do two things:
  • In first section you will have to defend your choice that the age in question is truly a "golden age".  That is you need to explain the achievements in art, music, literature, civic life, architecture, ritual, etc.
  • In the second section identify the factors that you consider most relevant to the creation of this golden age. How did culture, economics and politics intersect to generate that achievement? Think carefully about the forces at work in stimulating the development of a golden age.  Can we attribute the success to a sense of participation?  or freedom? What kinds of contraints were there on government? Was there a recognizable sense of toleration of diverse opinions?  Was commercial/economic growth a key component?  To what extent did the legal system encourage or hinder the cultural development?  What was the role of religion? You may not be able to answer all these questions.
• Here are some general yet important suggestions:
  • Apply the concepts we developed in class to help explain the success of the city you were examining. When and where you can make use of the models we have discussed for Athens, Florence or Berlin and identify some underlying concepts that could explain the success of a City. Connections need to be made explicit. Note: your success in writing papers in other classes will at least in part be graded on how well you can make such connections. Consider how your city fostered empathy and recognized the humanity of others; what was the role of reason and science? How did thes qualities play our in the cultural life and achievement of your city?
  • It is not enough just to cite your modern authority as evidence for a proposition. The scholar has to rely on evidence; and you need to build your case around the evidence. It is appropriate to acknowledge what the authority has contributed. Bear in mind that Thornton rested his case on the discussion of passages from Solon and from the writers of Greek tragedies; so too did we try to explain the issues in Berlin by discussing individual works of art (Dix and Gross), and by discussing the poem of Brecht.
  • Consider how empathy, SSR, humanity are valued in your societies. I do realize I am repeating in different words what I wrote above.
• Fell free to make liberal use of the sources --literary, visual, musical, political-- to substantiate your case for the golden age.
• Length: Maximum 1200 words. The paper may be submitted electronically or in paper form. If the paper is submitted electronically, it must be attatched as an .rtf (rich text format) file. If you don't know what the .rft format is, then please ask one of the assistants. The papers should be submitted to nic.coursework@gmail.com by midnight of the first class after Thanksgiving.