Noble and Greenough School Course Catalog

All Class IV students are required to take Global History I. This course seeks to develop in students an understanding of the complex roots (ancient, economic, political, social, religious, and cultural) of contemporary civilizations and global society. Students develop the skills of research, reading comprehension, note taking, public speaking, collaboration, problem solving, and analytical writing. Experiential learning serves as a cornerstone of GH I, as the curriculum includes multiple hands-on activities and simulations. World religions comprise the content of the first quarter. An examination of empire building, imperialism, nationalism in South Asia, the Middle East, and China round out the year's content.

All Class III students are required to take Global History II. This course builds on and expands the skill set introduced in GH I, and lays the foundation for more advanced skill development in United States History. GH II is organized around the following essential question: Why, in what ways, and with what results do the histories of Europeans, Africans and Americans interact/intersect from the 15th to 21st centuries, and to what extent do these intersections influence and shape the development of the modern world? Students also learn how to research, assess and write about the history of the Atlantic World from both the wide-ranging perspectives of those who experienced it first hand, and the different ways in which historians and scholars have explained it.

All Class II students are required to take U.S. History. This course integrates five major topical themes in American History: sectional conflict and the Civil War; social mobility and the Gilded Age; the growth of federal power and the New Deal; race relations and the Civil Rights Movement; the world wars and the rise of American globalism. The first semester stresses the essential skills of critical reading, note taking and analytical writing. Students write frequent short primary and secondary source-based essays. The second semester emphasizes independent inquiry and the skills of research, information literacy and oral presentation. Students complete research essays on topics of their own design, and conclude the year with group research and debate projects examining the historical roots of contemporary American economic, social, political and diplomatic affairs.

This course is designed to introduce students to the overriding economic issues that confront a nation: growth, inflation, and unemployment. No mathematical ability is needed beyond the rudimentary skills of mathematics. Students are first introduced to the basic economic concepts of scarcity, efficiency, production possibility frontiers, and the laws of supply and demand. Students next examine national income, the components of aggregate demand, the Keynesian multiplier model, money and banking, the stock market, fiscal and monetary policy, the Federal Reserve system, aggregate supply, and the different macroeconomic schools of thought. The course incorporates recently published news articles and opinion pieces culled from the nation's leading publications to bring to life the theory that we are studying.

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental principles of economics. No mathematical ability is needed beyond the rudimentary skills of mathematics. Students are first introduced to the basic economic concepts of scarcity, efficiency, production possibility frontiers, and the laws of supply and demand. Students then investigate more advanced economic theory: elasticity, production theory and business organization, cost analysis, perfect and imperfect competition, game theory, and selected topics in labor economics. The course incorporates recently published news articles and opinion pieces culled from the nation's leading publications to bring to life the theory that we are studying. The course concludes with student-designed projects that apply microeconomic theory to the analysis of public policy.

Political philosophers have debated questions about justice, power, freedom, and community throughout history. Modern thinkers have added a concern with individualism, rights and equality. Our goals in this class will be both to appreciate the complexity of various classic texts and to use them to illuminate enduring political problems and contemporary ethical issues. The current political landscape will serve as a fitting backdrop by which to test long-held and debated theories about the state of nature, the nature of the state, the relationship between means and ends, and the role of ethics in politics.

In this course, students will learn how to take entrepreneurial ideas or innovations from the idea stage into reality. Areas of focus will include customer and market research, writing, public speaking, working within a team, and gathering and using data to inform decision-making. In the first half of the course, students will engage in the process of learning how to use the Business Model Canvas and Lean Launchpad methodology to develop their ideas. They will learn techniques for innovation, analytical approaches to research, and evidence-based systems for decision-making. Students will learn skills such as observing, interviewing, discovering problems and forming solutions using rapid prototyping. This process will include a series of readings and discussions about entrepreneurship. Students will also work with local entrepreneurs to develop real solutions to existing problems. In the fourth quarter, students will work in teams to develop their own innovations and entrepreneurial ideas using the methodologies learned during the first half of the course.

Homer’s Odyssey sings of a famous journey home and inspired one of the most familiar tropes in literature. Herodotus’ Histories is one of the first forays into the crafting of history. Together, they represent monumental treatments of the Aegean world and continue to speak to us today as we endeavor to understand the world around us. As classicists, we aim to piece together plausible understandings of the ancient world from careful consideration and combinations of imperfect sources. In this course, we examine various sources that evoke the ancient world–literature, history, topography, and the treasures of the archaeological record, including pottery, statues, coins, and architecture. In addition to close readings of Homer and Herodotus, we also engage archaeological questions with hands-on activities. How do we appreciate the words of the authors within the world around them? What can we still learn about the natural world, human interactions, and a life well lived? And, as we use the technology of today to connect with the past, we also have to ask: are we growing closer to the world of the Ancient Greeks with every passing year?

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to (1) the causes, course and consequences of genocide in the twentieth century and (2) the reasons why the United States responded as it did to genocide during that time. We will start by defining the term, studying its history and discussing the questions and patterns scholars have proposed about it – i.e., What are the politics surrounding the term? Why do states commit genocide? How do they mobilize citizens to become perpetrators? How and why do other states respond? What happens to societies in the aftermath of genocide? We will then spend most of the course exploring four case studies: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia, and Rwanda. Finally, we will learn how scholars from different disciplines study genocide, and we will compare their methods, motives and conclusions. As a final assessment, students will undertake a research project about a genocide from before or after the twentieth century.

We The People: History of American Government is an intensive study of the formal and informal structures of the government and the processes of the American political system. This course includes the study of various institutions, e.g., political beliefs/parties, branches of government, and interest groups/media to become acquainted with the variety of theoretical perspectives and explanations for various behaviors and outcomes in government and politics. The course will also explore the intersection of race, specifically, in the context of these government structures. Additionally, students will then analyze and interpret “issues” in society to understand how government at different levels (local, domestic, global) identifies, examines and proposes solutions. Examples of topics covered include: counter-terrorism, opioids, sex and human trafficking, cybersecurity, education and poverty.

This course explores the evolution of American political thought from the Revolutionary period through the early Republic, examining how the ideas that fueled the Revolution shaped—and at times conflicted with—the drafting of the Constitution and the new nation's political framework. We begin by studying the period between the Seven Years' War and the outbreak of the Revolution, analyzing the political and philosophical arguments that justified rebellion. Special attention will be given to diverse perspectives on the war, including those of women, Native Americans, and Black Americans, to assess whose interests the Revolution served. We will then turn to the formation of the U.S. Constitution, asking to what extent the radical ideals of the Revolution—liberty, equality, and self-governance—were upheld or compromised in the new political system. Through an analysis of Enlightenment influences, Madison’s notes from the Constitutional Convention, and the debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, we will consider how the Revolution’s principles shaped the structure of government, and where they fell short. Finally, we will explore the contested nature of the early republic, culminating in the "Revolution of 1800" as a test of whether the United States would remain true to its revolutionary foundations. Taking full advantage of our location in Greater Boston, we will visit historic sites central to the Revolution, using them as case studies to assess the meaning and legacy of the revolutionary and constitutional debates. Through field trips, primary source analysis, and engagement with historical scholarship, students will critically examine the extent to which the ideals that sparked the Revolution continued to define—or challenge—the new republic.

Often remembered as a distant standoff between superpowers, the Cold War was also experienced intensely in places across the globe where ideology, revolution, and superpower intervention collided. Latin America contains several of these places that became critical battlefields in the Cold War. Through case studies such as Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, and Argentina, this course examines how Cold War pressures and ideologies led to the unfolding of revolutions, coups, military dictatorships, civil wars, and U.S. intervention, reshaping political systems and everyday life throughout Latin America. Using speeches, declassified documents, memoirs, film, and historical scholarship, students are asked to grapple with complexity, competing perspectives, and the lasting consequences of Cold War decisions that continue to shape the present.

Race and American History is an intensive study of ‘race’ beginning with its creation as a social construct and then exploring the various manifestations and interpretations of ‘race’ over time. This course includes the examination of ‘race’ during specific historical epochs and the many lenses in which ‘race’ has been adopted, utilized, defined, and/or constrained. Examples of these periods include: enslavement, Reconstruction/Jim Crow, Civil Rights Movement, Post-Civil Rights. Using overarching themes, students will become acquainted with writings that then attempt to analyze, discuss and discern ‘race’ and all of its implications. Themes include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) historicity versus history of ‘race’; (ii) societal conceptions of ‘race’; (iii) legal conceptions of ‘race’; and (iv) modern ‘race’ matters. Examples of potential scholars include: Harriet Jacobs, WEB DuBois, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Toni Cade Bambara, Cornel West, Michelle Alexander, and Tricia Rose among others.

Advanced Topics in European History is designed to offer students an introduction to some of the most important events and ideas that have shaped Europe—and, in many respects, other continents and peoples—during the past five centuries. Interdisciplinary in nature, this course exposes students to not only events such as the Renaissance, French Revolution, and World War II, and the ideas put forth by intellectual giants such as Luther, Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Shelley, Curie, and Einstein, but also how scholars from various disciplines and traditions have asked and answered historical questions. Our inquiries will require students to think, at times, like a theologian, political scientist, sociologist, physicist, economist, or practitioner of some other scholarly discipline; for this reason, the themes, ideas, and methods raised in this course should offer students an intellectual foundation that will serve them well in many of their future scholarly, professional, and personal endeavors.

Students may register to take this course for the full year or for the fall semester (circa 1500-1800) or the spring semester (1800-present). Preference will be given to students who sign up for both semesters.