这是一门全英文教学课程，已经在学堂在线国内版国际版、学习强国、智慧树、英华学堂、中国高校外语慕课平台和国家高等教育智慧平台上线（国家级慕课），入选第一批中国国际慕课，16万人在线学习，包括美、英、法、巴西、马来西亚、刚果和印尼等20个国家8千外国学生。被评为北京市教改创新项目、北京市优质课程、优质教材课件和课程思政示范课。本课教材The Light and the Darkness：A Brief History of Western Civilization《光明与黑暗：西方文明史》北大出版社即将出版，将成为国内第一部英文版西方文明通史。

主讲教师刘俊阳教授，国际关系学院文化与传播系主任。美国玛瑞埃塔大学、丹麦奥尔堡大学访问学者。国际关系学院公共外交与文化传播专业硕士导师、丹麦奥尔堡大学国际关系专业硕士导师。国际关系学院中丹合作中国与国际关系研究中心研究员、国际关系学院《国际安全研究》英文版翻译团队成员。教育部中外语言交流合作中心（原汉办）项目评审专家。

本课程系统介绍西方文明发展史，要求学生系统掌握西方文明史基本知识、全面客观理解其成就、特征、发展脉络及其负面影响，培养胸怀祖国、放眼世界的人文情怀。通过全英文教学培养学生在全英文环境下学习与思考、阅读文献资料和网络搜索的能力。主要内容为：希腊罗马文明、中世纪、文艺复兴与宗教改革、17与18世纪西方文明。

No civilization is superior to others. Diversity is the beauty of this multicivilizational world. Confucius says all the people are brothers. All civilizations should coexist peacefully and learn from each other. The history of the west is full of glories but there are dark pages too. Let's start from ancient Greece. It will be a long journey of WOWs.

In the ancient times, all civilizations thought they are the center of the world, their race and culture are superior to others and all others are barbarians. This attitude is natural and understandable during that time. However, as the contacts and communication between civilizations have become more extensive and deeper this attitude became foolish. If one civilization uses this attitude of superiority as an excuse to conquer and convert others that will be disastrous, western colonization in the past is a horrible example.

1. PROFESSOR

Professor Liu, Junyang, Chairman of the Department of Culture & Communication, University of International Relations, Beijing, China. Visiting scholar at Marietta College, U.S. and Aalborg University, Denmark. Teaching 3 other courses in English: Chinese Traditional Culture and Philosophy, Soft Power and Clash of Civilizations, and American Culture.

Teaching Assistant：Zhao Shihao, graduate student, class of 2022, Department of Culture & Communication, University of International Relations.

2. COURSE INTRODUCTION

It is an introduction of the History of Western Civilization before the 19th century. Students are required to apply Critical Thinking to explore the development, characteristics, achievements and dark sides of the Western Civilization.

It is a massive open online course taught in English, open to all university students and anyone interested in it across the world. It can be a general course for all majors or a specialized course for liberal arts majors.

3. REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

(1) Length of study: 16 weeks. It requires 10 hours of study per week. The video is 638 minutes long, consists of 8 chapters and each chapter has 5 sections.

(2) Required Exercises: 2 single choice questions and 3 right/wrong questions in each section. Each week has 2 discussion topics. Please finish them on time.

(3) Optional Exercises: 5 keywords in each section and 3 questions in each chapter. It doesn't count as a grade and doesn't require to be done online.

(4) The Final Exam has 50 questions, 2 points for each and 100 points in total, including 20 single choice questions, 20 right/wrong questions and 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. The repetition rate of the final exam questions and section exercises is 30%.

(5) Final Grade = watch video 30% + text study 10% + exercises 20% + discussion 10% + final exam 30%.

4. TEACHING IN ENGLISH

If you're not a native English speaker, this class maybe a little bit challenging. But what we are doing in the university? It is to face and overcome all the challenges. I suggest before watching the video you should read the text which is the transcription.

I am not teaching English, I am teaching in English. I used to work as an English interpreter and an English speaking tour guide. I used to live in Europe and U.S. as visiting scholar. English has been my working language for 30 years. From my learning, teaching and working experiences, I found many students have the same problem I called it Walking Stick Dependency Syndrome. Learning English, most students can reach the intermediate level, but going further seems very difficult. Selinker’s Interlanguage theory called this phenomenon fossilization which means the progress of learning stopped and fossilized like dinosaurs. Interlanguage means your English is not pure English but a mixture of your native language and English. Our brain has enough room for two languages stored and operate separately. Computer and cell phone can work in your native language or English but never bilingually. By the way, maybe you can try to change the working language of your phone and computer into English. Believe me that will be fun. You can’t always rely on your native language to help your English. Walking Stick is your native language. If you are strong enough you don’t need a stick to walk. Get rid of it. Don’t say your English isn’t good enough to take this class. No, I don’t think so. Your English is good enough because you have been learning English for so many years and you are university students now. Your English is good enough.

The purpose to learn a second language is to use it to broaden our horizon. If you have been learning English for more than 10 years, it is shameful to read English books in the translation of your native language. You should have the ability to read, to think, to search online, and to find sources in English.

5. TEACHING SCHEDULE

Altogether 8 chapter, each chapter needs two weeks.

Week 1-2. Chapter One: Early Greece

1.0. Introduction

1.1. Greek Bronze Age and Dark Age

1.2. Greek Gods

1.3. Archaic Greece

1.4. Athens and the Persian Wars

Week 3-4. Chapter 2: Classical and Hellenistic Greece

2.1. War and Politics in the Fifth Century BC

2.2. Greece in the Fourth Century BC

2.3. Classical Greek Philosophy

2.4. Athenian Drama

2.5. Alexander the Great and Hellenistic World

Week 5-6. Chapter 3: Ancient Roman Civilization 1

3.1. Roman Kingdom

3.2. Early Republic

3.3. Mid-Republic

3.4. Late-Republic

3.5. End of the Republic

Week 7-8. Chapter 4: Ancient Roman Civilization 2

4.1. Pax Romana 1

4.2. Pax Romana 2

4.3. Crisis of the Third Century and Constantine

4.4. The Victory of Christianity

4.5. The Fall of the Roman Empire

Week 9-10. Chapter 5: Middle Ages

5.1. Early Middle Ages

5.2. Carolingian Dynasty

5.3. High Middle Ages

5.4. Late Middle Ages1

5.5. Late Middle Ages2

Week 11-12. Chapter 6: Renaissance and Reformation

6.1. The Renaissance

6.2. Protestant Reformation

6.3. Italian Wars and Rise of Russia

6.4. Age of Discovery

6.5. French War of Religion and Russia’s Time of Trouble

Week 13-14. Chapter 7: West in the Seventeenth Century

7.1. The Thirty Years War

7.2. English Revolution

7.3. Three Absolute Monarchs

7.4. Dutch Golden Age

7.5. Science and Culture in the 17th Century

Week 15-16. Chapter 8: West in the Eighteenth Century

8.1. The United Kingdom

8.2. The American Revolution

8.3. The French Revolution

8.4. Age of Enlightenment

8.5. West in the 19th and 20th Century