Although the new exam will have greater emphasis on the last 1000 years, early history will comprise 14 percent. Our students are formally taught the Roman Republic and Empire in the middle school years. But as I remain emotionally attached to the Romans, I plan a review of this history in the high school years by comparing Rome to China's Han Dynasty. Many of you may already make this classic comparison. The rise and fall of these two empires are remarkably similar and can set the stage for the study of the cyclical nature of other empires later in the course. This can easily be accomplished with a good standard World History text. We have an additional text on China and readings from college texts(see bibliography).

This year I added a new layer to the standard military, political and technological comparison. I wanted my students to begin thinking about what made a good leader? Not just historically, but also in light of the current presidential election. Using the categories of virtue, discipline, education, setting an example, and obligation to people, environment and country, students read outtakes from:

Doc. A-1 The Dialogues of Plato: The Seventh Letter. "Dialogue with a Statesman"
Doc. A-2 A Theory of Republican Government: "The Duty of the Individual" by Cicero
Doc. A-3 The Book of Lord Shang(Legalist Thought) by Shang Yang
Doc. A-4 Basic Writings of Han Fei Tzu (Han Fei Zi)
Doc. A-5 Huai-nan Tzu from Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. I

I am not a great creator of worksheets thus I wrote a chart on my overhead with the writers/philosophers on the top and the requirements for good leadership down the side. Students then found short phrases from each philosopher to support or not support these virtues. The discussion that comes from this assignment is a good foundation for later study of Machiavelli.