The High School History Curriculum PDF Print E-mail

World History I: Ancient Greecesamplecourseplan

Honors Designation Available

Course Texts:

  • Herodotus: The Histories. Tran. Aubrey De Sélincourt. Penguin Books: London, 1996. (T7820)
  • Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War. Tran. Rex Warner. Penguin Books: London, 1954. (T7815)
  • Plutarch, The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives. Tran. Ian Scott-Kilvert. Penguin Books: London, 1960. (T7819)
  • Xenophon: The Persian Expedition (Anabasis). Tran. Rex Warner. Penguin Books: London, 1949. (T7816)
  • Plato, Great Dialogues of Plato. Trans. W.H.D. Rouse. Signet Classic: New York, 1984. (T3451)
  • King, Abigail. Classics Conference The Greeks. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2002. (K2662 or K2664), Optional
  • Kolbe Academy Weekly Quiz Book for Greek History. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2002. (T7825)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Herodotus. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2005. (T7820A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Thucydides . Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2005. (T7815A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Xenophon’s Persian Expedition & Plutarch’s Rise and Fall of Athens . Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2005. (T7816A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Great Dialogues of Plato. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2000. (T3451A)

Course Description:

This course examines the great civilization of ancient Greece, beginning around 600 B.C. with the rise of the Lydian state, and concentrating on the rise and fall of Athens. The course reads the great ancient histories of the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. It then examines Plato’s view of the ideal state. Plato’s state can be compared to the actual Greek states and to modern day Republics.The study of ancient Greece is vital to any genuine understanding of the movement and progress of History in the West. The personalities and events from this prominent era in history have largely influenced those of later times.This course will enable the student to observe the timelessness of human relations and the similarities of man’s responses to the conditions in which he finds himself, across time periods; discover the similarities of and difference between ancient Greek and Christian ideas of virtue; trace the cause and effect of political developments in the ancient world and, by extension, in the modern; identify the periods of ancient history and major characters of the period; become familiar with the map of the ancient world and the seeds of modern conflicts; and relate modern historical situations and documents to their ancient antecedents.

World History II: Ancient Romesamplecourseplan

Honors Desgination Available

Course Texts:

  • Livy: The History of Rome from Its Foundations: The Early History of Rome. Tran. Aubrey De Sélincourt. Penguin Books: London, 1960, 2002. (T7830)
  • Livy: The History of Rome from Its Foundations: The War with Hannibal. Tran. Aubrey De Sélincourt. Penguin Books: London, 1965. (T7839)
  • Plutarch, Makers of Rome. Trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert. Penguin Books: New York, 1965. (T3672)
  • Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome. Tran. Michael Grant. Penguin Books: London, 1977. (T7835)
  • St. Augustine: City of God. Tran. Henry Bettenson. Penguin Books: London, 1972, 2003. (T2779)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Livy’s Early History of Rome. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2006. (T7830A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Livy’s War with Hannibal. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2006. (T7839A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Plutarch. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2006. (T3672A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Tacitus. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2006. (T7835A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to St. Augustine. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2006. (T2779A)

Course Description:

This course examines the pre-Christian and early Christian world as seen through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. It covers highlights of Roman history from the mythical founding of the city in 753 BC, the fall of the Republic in the first century BC, to the fall of the Empire in 476 AD. St. Augustine provides background on the conflict of Catholicism with paganism in Roman society.

The study of ancient Rome is vital to any genuine understanding of the movement and progress of History in the West. The personalities and events from this prominent era in history have largely influenced those of later times.

This course will enable the student to Become familiar with the political and religious developments of this period; know and understand the significance of the important events, dates, persons and places in the Western Europe of 753 BC-476 AD; trace the cause and effect of political developments in the ancient world and, by extension, in the modern; observe the timelessness of human relations and the similarities of man’s responses to the conditions in which he finds himself, across time periods; identify the periods of ancient history and major characters of the period; and become familiar with the map of the ancient world and the seeds of modern conflicts

World History III: The Era of Christendomsamplecourseplan

Honors Designation Available

Course Texts:

  • Kolbe Academy 11th Grade History: The Era Of Christendom Reader. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7860)
  • Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilization Seen through Contemporary Eyes, Geanakoplos, Deno. (T7859)
  • Viking Portable Medieval Reader, Penguin (T7857) Chronicles, Froissart, Jean. (T7858)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Kolbe World History III: Quarter 1. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7860A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Kolbe World History III: Quarter 2. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7857A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Kolbe World History III: Quarter 3. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7858A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to Kolbe World History III: Quarter 4. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7859A)

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to the post-Pagan Roman world (which encompassed the province of Britannia, in the west, to the Kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia in the east), and to the expansion and transformation of that world, i.e. the new lands won for Christ by missionaries and the renewal or abolition of many western and central European institutions and traditions. More than this, the Kolbe 11th grade History Course is an attempt to present as an elaborate thriving organism, an often slandered or overlooked period in which the Christian ideal shaped and inspired the social and political order.

Students will study this era through its sources, occasionally comparing them against the judgments of modern historians, in order to form an impression that is marred neither by the pejoratives of progressives nor the sense of vindication often voiced by Catholics. Students will be able to identify the greater themes of this era and to distinguish between the vagaries of life in this (or any) era, the anomalies of this era, and its ideals. An over-emphasis on particulars—a trick of progressive and anti-Catholic historians—is misleading. Similarly, the person who passes judgment on this era with reference to only the political formulations issued by popes and the recorded aspirations saints will have obscured or overlooked a very complex culture. In short, our goal is to let this era manifest itself to the student, while supplying occasional readings or glosses that put the readings in proper context.

For this very reason the Kolbe 11th Grade curriculum is entitled “the Era of Christendom”, rather than the “Middle Ages Curriculum” or “Dark Ages Curriculum”, for the designations “medieval”, “Middle ages” and “Dark Ages” are shamefully derogatory and unscientific, as the historian Theodor Ernst Mommsen observed. We feel it is important therefore that even something so seemingly insignificant as the title of the course suggest a fresh approach to this subject.

United States and Modern Historysamplecourseplan

Honors Designation Available

Course Texts:

  • Kolbe Academy Modern History Reader, 2 Volumes; Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7884)
  • A Documentary History of the United States, Richard D. Heffner, 1999. (T7872)
  • The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Madison, Jay (T7873)
  • Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, abridged edition, 1984. (T7876)
  • Modern Times: The World from the 20’s to the 90’s, Paul Johnson, 1992. (T7875)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to the US & Modern History Course, Quarter 1. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7884A)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to the US & Modern History Course, Quarter 2. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7884B)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to the US & Modern History Course, Quarter 3. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7884C)
  • Kolbe Academy Study Guide to the US & Modern History Course, Quarter 4. Kolbe Academy Press: Napa, 2008. (T7884D)

Course Description:

Thought shapes history. Man’s thoughts are shaped by his beliefs, his habits (be they virtue or vice), his society, culture, custom, environment, experience, and education. Man shapes history through his choices, which are rooted in those soils of his thought. As you read the pages of modern history you will see that man’s thought—beliefs and philosophies—are some of the most powerful forces on earth.

This course studies the major ideological trends of modern Western Civilization and their effects on the world. In this course students will be asked to examine the work of a number of thinkers—philosophers, scientists and theologians — in conjunction with their study of historical events and documents. In essence this is both a course in history and in political philosophy. It will be most fruitful to seriously consider the power of an idea to shape history.