HIS 102
HISTORY OF MODERN WESTERN
CIVILIZATION, 1815 - 1991
Semester: Fall 2009
Time: Section A (TTh 1:00 - 2:20)/ Section B (TTh 2:30 - 3:50)
Place: Main 104
Web Page: http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj/
Professor: Dr. Clayton Whisnant
Office:  Main 105
email:    whisnantcj@wofford.edu
phone: x4550
office hours: MWF 10:00-11:30
  or by appointment
   

 

 

CONTENTS         

Course Description Texts Grading Attendance Policy
Late Policy Other Remarks Class Schedule

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Goals

In this course, students will study significant aspects of Europe’s political, social, and cultural history after the French Revolution until the collapse of the Soviet Union.  We will cover several basic themes:

 

 

While covering these themes, we will also examine specific defining moments in the evolution of European history: revolutions and wars; eras of prosperity and those of economic depression; political movements and major cultural figures.

 

Course Objectives

 

To meet the goals of the course, students will take three exams which will test their knowledge of a) key ideas, movements, and historical figures associated with the modern era since 1815; b) important events and trends that helped to give shape to Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century; and c) the cause & effect relationships that help to explain the flow of events from the end of the French Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Students will also write one short paper, in which they prove that they have read and grappled with one book dealing with a single dimension of the early modern period.

 

Technology Skills

Students will need some basic knowledge of web browsers in order to be able to find and utilize material on the on-line version of this syllabus.  They will also need some basic working knowledge of using a computer word-processor in order to write the short paper in this class.

 

Instructional Format

This course will be largely a lecture-based course, with some time set aside for discussion of the text material.

 

 

TEXTS

The readings listed under each day should be done before the assigned day.

GRADING

Attendance and Participation:

10%

Quizzes:

5%

2 Tests: 

20% each

5-page essay:

20%

Final exam:

25%

 

There will 4 quizzes: one map quiz, and 3 quizzes on the three books that we will discuss in class.  There will be no make-up for the quizzes; one quiz will be dropped from the grade, which should cover any absences.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Students are permitted one unexcused absences.  Additional absences will lead to a lower participation grade which can seriously hurt the final grade.  Too many absences may also lead to an attendance warning and forced withdrawal from the class.

 

Excused absences are those due to approved college-related activities (e.g. sporting events), documented illness, and family emergencies.  Students have the responsibility to make up missed work.

 

LATE POLICY

Students with a doctor’s excuse (or another suitable excuse) can make up the exam up to a week after the exam date.  There will be no make-up for quizzes.

 

OTHER REMARKS

All cell phones must be turned off at the beginning of class.  Do not, of course, take phone calls during class.  Please be on time.  If you must arrive late or leave early, do so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.  Finally, all work must be yours.  Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment.

Of course, all work must be yours.  Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment.  Plagiarism, we should note, is defined in the following way according to Wofford College's Honor Code:

(1) the verbatim repetition, without acknowledgement, of the writings of another author.

(2) Borrowing without acknowledging the source.

(3) Paraphrasing the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement.

(4) Allowing any other person or organization to prepare work which one then submits as his or her own.

You should pay close attention to the third definition, especially when referring to ideas borrowing from a website.  For more information, please reference my handout "Living by Wofford's Honor Code".

  

CLASS SCHEDULE

Part I: The Bourgeois Century

Day Class Assignment

Week 1
9/8 Introduction  
9/10

Political Groundwork of the Nineteenth Century

Find my website!

Read "Living by Wofford's Honor Code".

Five readings on e-reserve:

1) John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"

2) David Ricardo, "Essays on Profit"

3) William Cobbett, "Government, Laws, and Religion"

4) Giuseppe Mazzini, "The Call for Italian Unity"

5) Joseph de Maistre, "Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions"

Also, start reading Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind (preface, Chs. 1-4, 8-10, 13-14 only)

Week 2
9/15 The Dual Revolutions of the Nineteenth Century

WC, Ch. 20

Reading Guide: Chapter 20
9/17 The Social Order of the Nineteenth Century

WC Ch. 19

Reading Guide: Chapter 19  

Week 3
9/22

The Notion of Progress in the Nineteenth Century

Map Quiz

 WC, Ch. 22

Reading Guide: Chapter 22
9/24

 

Religion in the Nineteenth Century

 

 Keep reading Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind

Week 4
9/29 Catch up

Keep reading Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind
 
10/1 Discuss Houghton's The Victorian Frame of Mind.

Quiz

 Finish Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind

Helpful Handouts for Paper:
History Department Grade Rubric
Tips for Writing History Papers
Developing an Introduction
Stages of Revising and Editing
Using Chicago Style and Endnotes

Week 5
10/6 Critics of Bourgeois Society WC, Ch. 23

Reading Guide: Chapter 23

Start reading Strachan, The First World War
10/8 The European State Structure at the end of the Nineteenth Century WC, Ch. 21

Reading Guide: Chapter 21

Week 6
10/13

 

Sick Day

 

  

Part II: The Years of War & Totalitarianism

10/15

Exam #1

 Study for Exam

Week 7
10/20 Modernism: Origins of Twentieth-Century Ideas

 Continue Strachan, The First World War
10/22 Discuss Test WC, Ch. 24

Reading Guide: Chapter 24

Paper on Houghton Due

Week 8
10/27 World War I

Discuss Strachan

Quiz		 Finish Strachan
10/29 The Russian Revolution Sheila Fitzpatrick, "1917: The Revolutions of February and October" (on library e-reserve)

Week 9
11/3 The Interwar Era WC, Ch. 25

Reading Guide: Chapter 25

Modris Eksteins, "Night Dancer" (on library e-reserve)

 
11/5 Stalin's Russia

Quiz

Read Koch & Keep, Stalinism (on library e-reserve)

Week 10
11/10 Hitler' Germany Start reading Suri, Power and Protest
11/12 World War II & the Holocaust WC, Ch. 26

Reading Guide: Chapter 26
Week 11
11/17 World War II & The Holocaust, cont. Keep reading Suri.
11/19 Test 2 Study for Exam

Part III: Europe in the Twentieth Century

Week 12
11/24 Cold War Western Europe WC Ch. 27

Reading Guide: Chapter 27
11/26 Thanksgiving Read Suri

Week 13
12/1 The New Face of Western Europe Read Suri
12/3

Discuss Suri's Power and Protest

Quiz

 Discuss Suri

Week 14
12/8 The Slow Decline & Collapse of Communism WC, Ch. 28

Reading Guide: Chapter 28
12/10 Europe after the Cold War WC, Ch. 29

Reading Guide: Chapter 29

 

Final Exam: Section A (Tuesday, Dec 15, 2-5 PM); Section B (Thursday, Dec 17, 2-5 PM)

 

Essay Themes for the Final Exam; Dates to Know for Exam