Study Materials – by Paul Brians
Reading About the World, Vol. I
Note: This document is presented here as a historical document. Paul Brians is retired and his courses are no longer offered by WSU.
Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan.
This anthology prints short selections sharply focussed on major topics of interest to beginning students of World Civilizations. It combines traditional historical sources with literary and philosophical selections.
By clicking on the hotlinks below you can access samples from Reading About the World, Volume 1. The third edition was published in 1999 by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.
Mesopotamia
- Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Epic
- The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Flood Story
- Three fragments describing evil spirits
- Sumer-Akkadian Hymn to Ishtar
- Hymn to the Moon God, Nanna
- The Code of Hammurabi, extracts
- Sumerian Proverbs
- Babylonian Proverbs
Egypt
- Hymn to Sekhmet-Bast
- Hymn to Osiris
- Three Love Poems from the New Kingdom
- Dialogue of a Man With His Soul
- In Praise of Learned Scribes
- Hymn to the Aton of Akhnaton
Judaism
Greece
- Homer: The Odyssey: Odysseus & the Cyclops
- Herodotus: The Histories: Xerxes at the Hellespont
- Tyrtaios: Spartan Soldier
- Sappho: To Anaktoria
- Sappho: Seizure
- Early Greek Philosophers, brief selections from the presocratics, etc.
- Socrates’ Defense, from Plato’s Apology
- Plato: The Allegory of the Cave
- Aristotle: On Happiness, from The Nichomachean Ethics
- Pericles’ Funeral Oration
- Limenios: Paean and Processional (Second Delphic Hymn)
Rome
- Lucretius: The Nature of Things
- Horace: We All Must Die
- Epitaph from the tomb of a Roman wife
- Ovid: Metamorphoses: Daedalus and Icarus
- Propertius: Like Ariadne lying on the shore
- Juvenal: On the City of Rome
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: The Meditations
Early Christianity
- The Christian Scriptures
- Tacitus: Nero’s persecution of the Christians
- The Apostles’ Creed
- St. Augustine
India
- Hymns from the Rig Veda
- The Chandogya Upanishad on Brahman and Atman
- The Upanishads on Karma and Reincarnation
- The Bhagavad Gita
- Sanskrit Poetry: Selections from the Treasury of Vidyakara
- Vidyapati: Love Songs to Krishna
- Kautilya: The Arthashastra
- The Buddha: The First Sermon (Sutta of Turning the Wheel of the Doctrine)
- Ashoka Maurya: Inscriptions
- The Pure Land Sutra
- Kalidasa: The Recognition of Sakuntala
China
- Confucius: Analects
- Ta-Hsüeh: The Great Learning
- Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
- Han Fei Tzu: Legalist Views on Good Government
- Ban Zhao: Lessons for Women
- Examples of Filial Piety
- Chinese Poetry: Tu Fu, Li Po, Po Chu-i, Fu Hsuan, Mei Yao Ch’en, Su Tung-p’o
- Li Po: Drinking Alone by Moonlight
- Old Poem*
- Liu Hsün’s wife: The Curtain of the Wedding Bed
- The Secret History of the Mongols: The childhood of Chingis Khan
- The Travels of Marco Polo: On the Great Khan, On coal, On paper money
Japan
- Japanese Creation Myth
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
- Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji
Japanese Poetry
- Japanese Poetry: from the Manyoshu and other early collections
- Imayo from the Heike Monogatari
- Various Japanese Poetry
- Lady Horikawa: Will he always love me?
- Kakinomoto Hitomaro: In the sea of ivy clothed Iwami
- Kakinomoto Hitomaro: I loved her like the leaves
- Lady Kasa: Six Tanka written for Otomo Yakamochi
The Islamic World
- The Qur’an
- Sa’di: Story from the Gulistan
- Sufi Verse: Hafiz, Rumi
- Nizami: Layla and Majnun
- Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi: The Dove’s Necklace
- Wallada: To Ibn Zaidun
- Firdausi: The Struggle Between Esfandiyar and Goshtasp
- Usamah Ibn-Mundqidh: The Character and Customs of the Franks
The European Middle Ages
- Hildegard of Bingen: Hymn to the Virgin
- Tommaso di Celano: Dies irae, dies illa*
- Stabat mater dolorosa
- The Wife’s Lament
- The Will of Wulfgyth
- Anna Comnena: The Alexiad
- Omittamus Studia from Carmina Burana
- La Comtessa de Dia: Estat ai en greu cossirier
- Provençal Dawn Song
- Dante Alighieri: The Inferno: Canto 3
- St. Thomas Aquinas: On Moral Principles & On Faith and Reason
- The Black Death: From The Chronicle ofJean de Venette
The Southern European Renaissance
- Pico della Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man
- Petrarch: A young lady beneath a green laurel
- Angelo Poliziano: Lament on the Death of Lorenzo di Medici
- Leonardo da Vinci: The Painter
- Giorgio Vasari: Michelangelo’s David
- Niccolò Machiavelli: The Prince:
Subsaharan Africa
- Bamba Suso: The Epic of Sunjata
- Ibn Battuta: Travels in Sub-Saharan Africa
Pre-Columbian America
- The Popol Vuh: The Mayan Creation Story
- Aztec Birth Rituals for Boys and Girls
- Aztec Poetry
- Christopher Columbus: Letter to the King concerning his first voyage
*Selections marked are supplementary readings omitted from the 2nd edition of Reading About the World.
Reading About the World, Volume 2
Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information: Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.
All other queries should be directed to Paul Brians at paulbrians@gmail.com.
This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.