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High School - Great Books Program
Readings
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Below you
will find the four year reading list for our Great Books
Program for the current academic year, beginning with the Greek year
of the program. In addition
to the readings and two hour discussions each week, the
students write papers which are evaluated, marked, and
returned to them. For students on our regular track
the papers are generally
about 800 words in length and there are two assigned
each semester. Our college track students write one
1500 word essay each semester in addition to weekly
writing assignments pertaining to each week's reading. Reading and
discussing great works is tremendously helpful to students
in the development of their ability to write well. |
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Please note in
the lists below that some of the selections are marked with an
asterisk. We read selections from those texts rather than the
entire work.
Eighty percent [80%] of the
weekly readings can be found in Britannica's Great Books of
the Western World 60 volume set. You can purchase this
set and/or the individual works and our Great Books Study
Guides from the
Academy Bookstore here.
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YEAR 1 - 2008/09
Great Books Program
First Year - The Ancient Greeks |
|
Week |
First Semester |
|
NOTA BENE: |
Reading before
the second class:
Theogony
- Hesiod; Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus |
| 1 |
Orientation: (Sept.
3) Intro to the Great Books & Socratic Discussion.
The Great Conversation,
Adler |
| 2 |
Theogony
- Hesiod
Prometheus Bound - Aeschylus (Sept. 10)
|
| 3 |
The Iliad
- Homer
(Sept. 17) |
| 4 |
The Iliad
- Homer
(Sept. 24) |
| 5 |
The Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 1] |
| 6 |
The Odyssey
- Homer (Oct. 8) |
| 7 |
Agamemnon, Libation
Bearers -
Aeschylus Eumenides - Aeschylus (Oct. 15] |
| 8 |
Trojan Women,
Alcestis
- Euripedes
(Oct. 22)
|
| 9 |
Aesop's Fables -
Aesop
(Oct. 29) |
| 10 |
Oedipus Rex, Oedipus
at Colonus -
Sophocles
(Nov. 5)
|
| 11 |
Antigone -
Sophocles,
Hippolytus -
Euripides
(Nov. 12) |
| 12 |
Histories* -
Herodotus (Nov.
19) |
| 13 |
Histories* -
Herodotus
(Nov. 26) |
| 14 |
Histories*
- Herodotus
(Dec. 3) |
| 15 |
Lycurgus, Solon,
Pericles, Alcibiades
- Plutarch (Dec. 10) |
| 16 |
Oral Exams
(December 10-23)
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|
Week |
Second Semester |
| 17 |
Medea, Bacchae
- Euripedes (Jan. 21) |
| 18 |
Peloponnesian War*
- Thucydides (Jan. 28) |
| 19 |
Peloponnesian War *
Thucydides
(Feb. 4) |
| 20 |
Fragments*
- Presocratic
Philosophers (Feb. 11) |
| 21 |
Ion, Meno -
Plato
(Feb. 18) |
| 22 |
Gorgias -
Plato
(Feb.
25) |
| 23 |
Republic
- Plato (Mar. 4) |
| 24 |
Symposium - Plato (Mar. 11) |
| 25 |
Apology, Euthyphro -
Plato (Mar. 18) |
| 26 |
Crito, Phaedo -
Plato
(Mar.
25) |
| 27 |
Poetics, On the
Heavens*,
On the Soul* - Aristotle (April 1) |
| 28 |
Spring Break - April 5-19 |
| 29 |
Spring Break - April
5-19 |
| 30 |
Ethics*,
Metaphysics* - Aristotle {April 22) |
| 31 |
Aristides, Alexander
- Plutarch (Apr. 29) |
| 32 |
The Oath, On Ancient
Medicine, On Airs, Waters, Places - Hippocrates (May 6) |
| 33 |
Elements,
Euclid
(May 13)
|
| 34 |
Oral Exams
(May 18-29) |
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*Selections Only |
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YEAR 2 - 2008/09
Great Books Program
Second
Year - Roman Readings |
|
Week |
First Semester |
| 1 |
Aeneid -
Virgil
(Sept. 4) |
| 2 |
Aeneid -
Virgil
(Sept. 11) |
| 3 |
Livy*
(Sept. 18) |
| 4 |
Livy*
(Sept. 25) |
| 5 |
Plutarch:
Romulus,
Numa Pomulus, Coriolanus, Caesar
(Oct. 2) |
| 6 |
Conquest of Gaul
-
Caesar
(Oct. 9) |
| 7 |
Plutarch:
Cato the Younger, Antony, Brutus, Cicero
(Oct. 16) |
| 8 |
On Friendship
- Cicero
(Oct. 23) |
| 9 |
On Duties
- Cicero
(Oct. 30) |
| 10 |
Annals*
- Tacitus (Nov. 6) |
| 11 |
On the Nature of
Things* -
Lucretius
(Nov. 13)
|
| 12 |
Discourses*-
Epictitus;
Meditations* -
Marcus Aurelius
{Nov. 20) |
| 13 |
Thanksgiving Break
{Nov. 27) |
| 14 |
Almagest -
Ptolemy (Dec.
4) |
| 15 |
On the Natural
Faculties
- Galen
(Dec.
11) |
| 16 |
Enneads* -
Plotinus (Dec. 18) |
17
Oral exams - Dec. 10-23 *Selections Only |
|
Week |
Second Semester |
| 18 |
Old Testament -
Genesis
(Jan. 22) |
| 19 |
New Testament*
(Jan. 29) |
| 20 |
Apocalypse
(Book of
Revelation)- John (Feb. 5) |
| 21 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 12) |
| 22 |
Confessions
- Augustine (Feb. 19) |
| 23 |
Consolation of
Philosophy
- Boethius
(Feb. 26) |
| 24 |
Qu'ran*;
Muhammed (Mar.
5)
|
| 25 |
Two Lives of
Charlemagne; Le Cid
- Corneille (Mar.
12) |
| 26 |
History of the
English People
- Bede [Mar.19) |
| 27 |
Sir Galahad
- Tennyson
Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight
(March 26) |
| 28 |
Memoirs of the
Crusades; Crusade of
St. Louis -
Al-Makrisi
(Apr.
2) |
| |
Spring Break
- (Apr.5 - 19) |
| 29 |
Spring Break
- (Apr.5 - 19) |
| 30 |
Song of Roland
(Apr. 23) |
| 31 |
The Divine Comedy
- Dante (April
30) |
| 32 |
The Divine Comedy -
Dante
(May 7) |
| 33 |
The Divine Comedy
- Dante (May 14) |
| 34 |
Oral Exams (May
18-29) |
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YEAR 3 - 2008/09
Great Books Program
Third
Year - Medieval Readings |
|
Week |
First Semester |
| 1 |
Canterbury Tales
(Sept. 5) - Chaucer |
| 2 |
Canterbury Tales
(Sept. 12) - Chaucer |
| 3 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 19) |
| 4 |
Aquinas*
(Sept. 26) |
| 5 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 3) |
| 6 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 10) |
| 7 |
Aquinas*
(Oct. 17) |
| 8 |
The Prince
- Machiavelli
(Oct. 24) |
| 9 |
Utopia - Sir
Thomas More
(Oct. 31) |
| 10 |
Praise of Folly
- Erasmus
(Nov. 7) |
| 11 |
On the Revolutions
of the Heavenly Spheres*
- Copernicus
(Nov. 14) |
| 12 |
Institutes of the
Christian Relgion* -
Calvin (Nov.
21) |
| 13 |
Thanksgiving Break - (Nov.
28) |
| 14 |
Essays*
-
Montaigne
(Dec. 5) |
| 15 |
Don Quixote*
- Cervantes (Dec. 12) |
| 16 |
Don Quixote*
- Cervantes (Dec. 19) |
| 17 |
Oral
Exams - (Dec. 10 - 23) |
*Selections Only |
|
Week |
Second Semester |
| 17 |
Comedy of
Errors,
Shakespeare
(Jan. 23) |
| 18 |
A Midsummer's Night's Dream;
Shakespeare
(Jan. 30) |
| 19 |
The Taming of the
Shrew -
William Shakespeare (Feb. 6) |
| 20 |
Coriolanus -
Shakespeare (Feb. 13) |
| 21 |
Julius Caesar
- Shakespeare
(Feb. 20) |
| 22 |
Dialogues Concerning
Two New Sciences* - Galileo
(Feb. 27)
|
| 23 |
The Merchant of
Venice
- Shakespeare
(Mar. 6) |
| 24 |
Henry V
- Shakespeare
(Mar. 13) |
| 25 |
The New Atlantis and
Novum Organum*
-
Bacon (Mar. 20) |
| 26 |
Leviathan*
-
Hobbes (Mar.
27) |
| 27 |
Rules for the
Direction of the Mind*, Discourse on Method*, Meditations-
Descartes - (Apr. 3) |
| 28 |
Spring Break
(Apr.5
- 19) |
| 29 |
Spring Break
(Apr.
5
- 19)
|
| 30 |
Paradise
Lost -
Milton
(Apr. 24)
|
| 31 |
Paradise
Lost -
Milton
(May 1) |
| 32 |
Pensees*
-
Pascal
(May 8) |
| 33 |
Romeo & Juliet
- Wm. Shakespeare (May 15) |
| 34 |
Oral Exams
- (May 18-29) |
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YEAR 4 - 2008/09
Great Books Program
Fourth
Year - Modern Readings |
|
Week |
First Semester |
| 1 |
Hamlet
- Wm. Shakespeare (Sept.2) |
| 2 |
Othello -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 9) |
| 3 |
MacBeth -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 16) |
| 4 |
King Lear -
William Shakespeare (Sept. 23) |
| 5 |
The Tempest
- William
Shakespeare (Sept. 30) |
| 6 |
Tartuffe -
Moliere;
Phaedra,
Racine
(Oct. 7) |
| 7 |
Gulliver's Travels
- Jonathan Swift
(Oct. 14) |
| 8 |
Essay Concerning
Human Knowledge*, Second Essay on Civil Government*, Letter on
Toleration*
-John Locke
(Oct. 21) |
| 9 |
Essay Concerning
Human Knowledge*, Second Essay on Civil Government*, Letter on
Toleration*
- John Locke
(Oct. 28) |
| 10 |
An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding*, Treatise of Human Nature*, Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion*
-
David Hume (Nov. 4) |
| 11 |
The Social
Contract*, On the Origin of Inequality*
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(Nov. 11) |
| 12 |
The Federalist
Papers*; - Q 105, Art. 1
- Aquinas (Nov. 18) |
| 13 |
U.S.
Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, & Constitution (Nov.
25) |
| 14 |
Democracy in America*,
-
De Tocqueville;
Representative Government*,
J.S, Mill (Dec.
2) |
| 15 |
Emma
- Jane
Austen (Dec. 19) |
| 16 |
Oral Exams (Dec. 10 -
23) |
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*Selections Only |
|
Week |
Second Semester |
| 17 |
Critique of Pure
Reason*, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals*
-
Immanuel Kant (Jan. 20) |
| 18 |
Faust
- Goethe, (Jan.
27) |
| 19 |
Philosophy of
Right*, The Philosophy of History*
- Georg Hegel
(Feb. 3) |
| 20 |
War and Peace*
- Tolstoy (Feb.
10) |
| 21 |
War and Peace
-
Tolstoy (Feb. 17) |
| 22 |
The Brothers Karamazov -
Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky
(Feb. 24) |
| 23 |
The Brothers
Karamazov
-
Fyodor Mikailovich Dostoevsky
(Mar. 3) |
| 24 |
Wealth of Nations*
- Adam Smith;
Communist
Manifesto
- Karl Marx
(Mar. 10) |
| 25 |
1st & 2nd
Inaugural Addresses, Gettysburg Address; Emancipation Proclamation -
Abraham Lincoln (Mar. 17) |
| 26 |
Walden, Civil
Disobedience
-
Henry David Thoreau
(Mar. 24) |
| 27 |
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
- Mark Twain
- (Mar. 31) |
| 28 |
The Origin
of Species* -
Charles Darwin
(April 21)
|
| 29 |
Spring Break
(Apr. 5 - 19) |
| 30 |
Spring Break
(Apr. 5 - 19) |
| 31 |
Nineteen Eighty Four -
George Orwell
(April 28) |
| 32 |
Relativity: The
Special and General Theory -
Einstein (May
5)
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My Antonia
-
Willa Cather (May 12) |
| 33 |
Oral Exams (May 18 -
29) |
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"This has
been a wonderful year on-line for Jack and Emily. I have
enjoyed all the topics and the discussions were so impressive.
Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this."
M.T., California
"Our entire family is so
pleased with your program. You and the whole staff are
wonderful."
D.K.G., Pennsylvania
Enroll Now!
Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Plato, Augustine, Chaucer, Aesop,
Stevenson, Virgil, Twain, Cervantes, Milton, More, Aristotle,
and many more are your children's
inheritance.
Give
your students the experience of reading and discussing, with
their peers from all over North America as well as with
students who live abroad, the best that has
been written.
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