Welcome to History 101, the history of the Western world.  This course covers the
history of the West from about 3000 bce to 1600.  My name is Charlie Evans, and I will
be your instructor for the course.

In this course, you will learn about some of the important political, economic, social,
intellectual, cultural and religious changes that have occurred over this long period of
time and reach an understanding of how these changes have shaped civilization in the
West.  Although it might seem like there is much detail to remember in undertaking
such a study, that is not precisely the case, and you will see that as you proceed with
the course.  You will also quickly see that most of the course assignments are based on
the analysis of specific historical documents.  This gives you the opportunity to read
primary sources and reach your own historical interpretations, and it will also give you
the opportunity to improve your critical writing skills.  This is a web-based course, and it
uses the web as a medium of instruction (It allows me to transmit to you instructions for
the assignments and information for those assignments.) and as a source of
information that allows you to successfully complete assignments.

To succeed in the course, you do need to follow closely all directions in the course for
the assignments.  You should try to submit the assignments in the order indicated, but
there is some flexibility in when you submit your assignments.  For example, if you
cannot get to a testing center for some time, you can continue to submit other
assignments.  I do ask that all assignments be submitted electronically, but please
submit no more than one assignment per day.  If there are any questions about any of
the assignments or any of the materials, please contact me.  The best way to reach me
is by e-mail, and all of my contact information is listed on my letter of introduction that
you will be reading this week.  Before you actually begin submitting assignments, you
should scan everything in the course (all the assignments, all the web pages) to make
sure that you get a clear overview of what will be required of you.