Syllabus for LDR-324



Leaders in History focuses on historical perspectives on leadership: first, on real leaders over thousands of years who demonstrated leadership within multiple contexts (including politics, reform movements, diplomacy, military, business, church, sports, and art); second, on writers/scholars/leaders from different historical eras and contexts who wrote about leadership and whose writings provide a means of understanding leaders acting in history. Together, these two elements of the course reinforce each other and provide students with the opportunity to reflect on links between leadership practices and leadership concepts across a broad spectrum of world history. The course introduces a diverse group of historical leaders: men and women, leaders of different races and ethnicities, and persons from varied national/cultural backgrounds.


After completing this course, you should be able to:

  1. Discuss how particular leaders from varied historical periods and contexts practiced leadership.
  2. Describe how concepts about leadership developed over time and how they affected leadership practices during various historical periods and within particular historical contexts.
  3. Assess the ways in which leaders in history exemplified leadership concepts.
  4. Analyze how leadership practices have changed over the course of history, and how leaders have challenged, shaped, and/or changed history.
  5. Draw conclusions about why a consideration of history and leaders in history is important to an understanding of leadership today.
  6. Analyze the ways in which the characteristics/qualities of leaders interact with the culture/social mores of their historical periods.
  7. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of leaders in their historical periods and contexts, and explain why strength or weakness in one period or context may not be strength or weakness in another.
  8. Connect components of leadership practices and leadership concepts that may be common across all periods of history, and contrast those that are distinctly different from one period to another.
  9. Analyze ways leaders in history differ because of factors such as gender, race, or national/cultural background.
  10. Assess how the notion of "followership" has changed over the course of history.
  11. Write cogent, coherent, and substantially error-free essays or papers.



ISBN-13: 978-0684801384

ISBN-13: 978-1843761518

Online Writing Sources and Tutorial Options





For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written activities, and complete a final project. See below for more details.

Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Discussion Forums

In addition to an ungraded Introductions Forum, Leaders in History requires you to participate in graded class discussions, one in each module.




Deadlines for posting responses to the discussion questions are given in the Course Calendar.

Written Assignments

Leaders in History has two types of written assignments. Each of these is described more fully in the module details.

For the assignment topics and questions, see the module details in the topic list of the course Web site. Due dates for each assignment are listed in the Course Calendar.

Your answers to the assignment questions should be well developed and convey your understanding of the readings and concepts. They should also adequately answer the questions posed. If you need help in writing, consult the writing resources listed under Course Materials.

Also, formulate responses in your own words. Do not merely copy answers from your reading materials. When quoting or paraphrasing from the text or other sources, be sure to cite the source of information properly according to APA guidelines. If you have further questions, your mentor will guide you in accordance with the correct style of documentation.



Final Project

This course does not have a midterm or a final examination. Instead you will be required to write and submit a final paper to your mentor. This paper incorporates readings from throughout the course and will describe how you, as a contemporary leader who learns from the past, can challenge the status quo today (at work, in the community, or otherwise) and make a positive difference.

A full description of the paper and the requirements for completing it are found in the Final Project section of the course Web site.

Your final paper should be well developed and convey your understanding of the readings and concepts. Your paper should be organized, coherent, and unified; it should also be free of spelling and grammatical errors. If you need help in writing, consult the writing resources listed under Course Materials.

If you have questions about the requirements of the paper, be sure to discuss them with your mentor well in advance of the final submission. Consult the Course Calendar for this paper's due date. It must be submitted by the last day of the semester.


Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:































Below 60



First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:




Academic Dishonesty











Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism 

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase

Writing Assistance at Smarthinking

Originality Report Checking at Turnitin


Disciplinary Process

