History 151: Modern and Contemporary European Civilization
Fall 2009
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 10-10:50
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Robert Schwartz |
Office Hours: Monday 11-12; Wed. 4-5:30, & by appt. |
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206 Skinner |
Phone: x2465
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Main Themes:
- Europe in the World: Encounters, Cultural Exchange, Empires, and Globalization.
- The rise and evolution of the European state and state system.
- Economic & Social Transformation through Industrialization.
- Changing Conceptions of Human Nature and Government.
This course treats Europe in the broader context of world history. In so doing, we explore some moments in the history European expansion, colonialism and imperialism from first encounters with the “New World” in the era of Columbus and Cortez to the global dominance of European empires in the late nineteenth century, and to retreat from empire after World War II.
This history of European empires continues to shape the present. It is fundamental to understanding current conflicts in the Middle East, in Latin America, in South Asia and elsewhere. To see this, I encourage everyone to bring what they’re learning in the course to a regular and critical reading of a good newspaper and news broadcasts on television and radio. There are interesting and often fierce debates as to whether the United States is an Empire and the possible successor to Great Britain’s Empire of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A knowledge of the European past is fundamental for an understanding the European Union, just as it is to an understanding of the French and German opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. Today, for example, the European Union is the evolving result of a history that included two catastrophic wars in the 20th century, and much of the motivation behind the building of European cooperation since 1945 was the desire to avoid war and keep the peace. And yet, now that the peaceful union of European nation states has been accomplished, there are new questions about where Europe is going next and whether the Union is weakening as it expands, as was evident in the rejection of the EU Constitution by France and the Netherlands in 2005. Our study of Europe’s past from 1500 to the present won’t lead to prediction but it will lead to a deeper understanding of how the past is reflected in the present and conditions the future.
Books: available for purchase at the Odyssey Bookshop
J.M. Roberts, The Penguin History of Europe, Penguin pb.
Richard Lim and David K. Smith, eds. The West in the Wider World. Sources and Perspectives. Vol.2 Bedford, St. Martin’s pb.
Françoise de Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman, MLA pb.
Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World, 2nd edition, Rowan and Littlefield pb.
Stephen Howe, Empire. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford UP pb.
Course Packet:
Krupabai Satthianadhan, Saguna : The First Autobiographical Novel in English by an Indian Woman, edited by Chandani Lokuge. (1st ed. New Delhi, Oxford University Press. 1998) Available outside Skinner 309.
Additional Required Reading on Ella is noted in the syllabus as (ELLA), including:
Course Requirements and Grading:
Attendance at each class. After one unexcused absence each subsequent one will detract from your participation grade.
20 percent for attendance and class participation via discussions, postings, and group projects. (See below under Discussion Groups. 10 percent of the 20 will be for a group abstract and presentation during the second half of the course.)
20 percent for in-class quizzes.
40 percent for two essays during the semester.
20 percent for a take-home final exam essay.
The class will divide into small groups, each of which will collaborate over the semester to prepare materials for 1) short presentations to begin a class discussion, and 2) abstracts of key readings. I will meet with each group from time to time to assist them. Credit for participation in your group will be determined by peer evaluation. This part of your course work will form a major part of the 20 percent of your final grade that is defined as attendance, class and group presentations.
Ella is on on-line system for electronic learning and discussion. It will host materials for the course and a discussion forum via a special site for History 151, Fall 2009.
· The internet address for this site is: https://ella.mtholyoke.edu/portal/site/HIST-151-01-F09
· You can also get access to the History 151 space by going first to the Ella home page:
https://ella.mtholyoke.edu/portal/
· You must Logon using your MHC email address and password to get access to Ella and the History 151 site.
GROUP PRESENTATIONS and ESSAYS:
· Twice during the semester, each group will prepare an abstract to post on ELLA and short presentation for class (8-10 MINUTES MAXIMUM). The abstract must be posted one day before their presentation so that members of the class can read it.
· Mr. Schwartz will meet with each group to help them prepare their abstract and presentation. He will read and comment on the group abstract before it is posted.
· One week after the presentation, each group member will prepare an essay based on the same subject, drawing on their collaborative work, the readings for that topic, comments from the class and Mr. Schwartz. Essays should be posted on the ELLA DROP BOX.
· Mr. Schwartz will provide a description of each essay topic.
Topics, Lectures, and Readings:
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Topics and Lectures |
Readings |
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Europe and the World 1492-1914 |
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Sept. 11 |
Historical Thinking |
Roberts, Europe , A New Age, pp. 233-249
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Sept. 14 |
Europe in Global Context, 1400-1600. |
Marks, Origins of the Modern World, 1-64 By Sunday evening at 9 p.m. ,post on the Ella Forum an Abstract of one chapter in Marks with 1) Two sentence summary of the main point or argument for the chapter 2) One example of factual evidence that supports the main point with page number 3) Two or three sentences describing how the main point or evidence that either relates to something you already know or have read about OR that prompts you to raise a question. 4) A sentence or two describing the most interesting thing that you found in the reading. |
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Sept. 16 |
Facing Each Other: Europeans and Amerindians in the “New World” 1492-1650 |
Lim, 1: “Two World’s Collide: Renaissance Europe and the Americas,” 1-3, documents 1-5 (including the images) Howe, Empire, 1-35 Questions for class discussion: How did Europeans variously view the peoples of the Americas? How did Aztecs view Europeans? |
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Sept. 18 |
Facing Each Other II: |
Lim, 1: 6-8. How did Sepúlveda and Las Casas differ in their characterizations of Amerindians and their proper treatment? Lim, 3, Jesuits in America, 57-67, documents 1-4 : Jean de Brébeuf; Marie de l’Incarnation; A Micmac Leader Compare the documents by Brébeuf and Marie de l’Incarnation with those of Cortés, Diaz, Sépulveda, and Las Casas? Note the dates and be prepared to discuss the extent to which the comparison reveals historical change or persistence in European attitudes toward Amerindians. Roberts, Europe, 250-72 |
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Sept. 21 |
Competition for Empire |
Marks, Origins of the Modern World, chap. 3, pp. 67-93 Howe, Empire, 50-61; |
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Sept. 23 |
The 18th Century Enlightenment: New Views of Nature and Human Nature
GROUP 1 PRESENTATION |
Graffigny, Letters from a Peruvian Woman, introduction, and pp. 1-80 Roberts, Europe, 316-342
Optional: Locke, Essay on Human Understanding (Ella) Locke, Some Thoughts on Education (Ella)
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Sept.25 |
The Enlightenment: New Views of the “Other”
GROUP 2 PRESENTATION |
Graffigny, Letters¸ complete. Lim 5: 104-5; Optional: Lim 5: Doc. 3 De Pau, Philosophical Inquiry into the Americas; Doc. 4, Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality |
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Sept. 28 |
The Emergence of European Hegemony, 1850-1914 |
Howe, Empire, 62-103 Marks, chapt. 4 Optional: Roberts, Europe, “World Hegemony,” 419-49 |
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Sept. 30 |
Imperialism and Civilizing Missions GROUP 3 PRESENTATION |
Krupabai Satthianadhan, Saguna, pp.xi-xv, (introduction optional) & chaps.1-2, pp. 79-80, 99-100 (CP) |
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Oct. 2 |
Living the British Empire: From the standpoints of an Indian woman and of “Mother Nature”
GROUP 4 PRESENTATION |
Krupabai Satthianadhan, Saguna, chaps. 8 & 9. (CP) Joachim Radikau, “Colonial and Post Colonial Turning Points in India’s Environmental History,” pp. 169-177 in his Nature and Power. A Global History of the Environment (2008) (Ella)
Optional: Documents from British Parliamentary Papers (Ella) Lim chap 9, “The First Opium War,” doc 1. “Letter to Queen Victoria by Lin Zexu,” doc. 2 “The Inequities of the Opium Trade with China” by Algernon Thelwell; “Responses to the Opium Wars,”pp. 223-4; doc. 8, “Machines as the Measure of Men” by Michael Adas. |
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Europe: States, Nations, Empires |
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Oct. 5 |
War Making: The Thirty Years’ War |
MEET at the Art Museum John Merrian, “The Thirty Years War” (Ella) “Tragical Relation of Plundering, 1630” (Ella)
Optional: Grimmelshausen, selections from Simplicissimus (1669) (Ella) “True and perfect Relation of a great and Bloudy Battell fought the 23 October” [1642] (Ella) |
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Oct. 7 |
Making States
GROUP 5 PRESENTATION |
Roberts, Europe, The Ancien Regime, pp. 272-315 Hobbes, Leviathan (Ella) Lim 4, 90-91; and Decrees of Peter the Great, 98-102 Optional: Bossuet, Politics Drawn from the Holy Scriptures (Ella)
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Oct.9 |
Making States II
GROUP 6 PRESENTATION |
R. R. Palmer Constitutional documents of the 1780s (Ella): “Catherine II’s Charter of Nobility, 1785;” “The Prussian General Code, 1791;” Rousseau, Social Contract & Letters from the Mountain (Letters 8 & 9) (Ella) Spielvogel, chapter 19 A Revolution in Politics: The Era of the French Revolution, pp. 522-3 (introduction),“Background to the French Revolution,” pp. 526-528 (Ella) Optional: Locke, The Second Treatise on Civil Government (Ella) Frederick II of Prussia, Memoirs & Essay on the Forms of Government (Ella) Catherine II of Russia, Letter of Baron de Breteuil, Proposals for a New Law Code; Decree on Serfs (Ella) Palmer, Constitutional documents, 1782-1791 (Ella), Sweden: The Act of Union and Security, 1789; Poland: The Constitution of May 3, 1791; France: The Constitution of 1791. |
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Oct. 14 |
The French Revolution
GROUP 7 PRESENTATION |
Spielvogel, chapter 19 A Revolution in Politics: The Era of the French Revolution, pp. 528-551 (Ella) Lim, 6 document 5 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
ADD SPIELVOGEL CHAPTER ON REVOLUTION Optional: “A Letter from Versailles,” October 6, 1789 on the Women’s March to Versailles (Ella) “The Capture of the Tuillery Palace, August 10, 1792” (Ella)
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Oct 10-13 |
Fall Break |
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Oct. 16 |
Nationalism, Human Rights & the Nation State |
Lynn Hunt, “The Revolutionary Origin of Human Rights” (Ella) Roberts, Europe, New Politics, 1789-1850, pp. 343-364
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Oct. 19 |
Industrialization and Social Transformation
GROUP 8 PRESENTATION |
Roberts, Europe, New Economies, pp. 365-393 Andrew Ure, Philosophy of Manufactures (Ella) Alexis de Tocqueville, “Manchester” (Ella) Optional: Lim, 8, pp. 179-81, documents 3-5: J Testimony for the Factory Act of 1833, Marx & Engels, Flora Tristan, Workers’Union. |
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Oct. 21 |
Making Nations: Germany and Italy |
Roberts, Europe, New Nation States, 393-418 Giuseppe Mazzini, “The Oath” from The Young Italy (1832) Karl Schurz, Reminiscenses of 1848 Otto von Bismarck, “Iron and Blood Speech, 1862” and selections from his Memoirs (Ella) |
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Oct. 23 |
The New Woman & Her Sisters: Gender and Class Experiences GROUPS 9 & 10 PRESENTATIONS |
Bonnie Smith, “The New Woman” (Ella) |
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War and Revolution in the Twentieth Century |
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Oct. 26 |
The Belle Epoch & the Arms Race |
Roberts, Europe, pp. 450-493; review pp. 419-449 on European Hegemony Music Hall songs (Ella) |
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Oct. 28 |
The "Great War" 1914-1918 |
Film: “All Quiet on the Western Front” Roberts, Europe, 493-534; Optional: Selections from Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front” (1929) (Ella) |
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Oct. 30 |
The Experience of War
GROUP 7 PRESENTATION |
Lim, 11, pp. 266-267, document 2, Anna Eisenmenger, Blockade Selections of War Poetry (Ella) Ernst Jünger, The Storm of Steel (Ella) |
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Nov. 2 |
The Russian Revolutions: (1917-1938)
GROUP 6 PRESENTATION |
Film: “October” Roberts, Europe, 527-532; Lim 11, documents 3 and 4: Lenin, Are You a Trade Unionist?; Churchill, The World Crisis |
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Nov. 4 |
The Russian Revolutions II
GROUP 9 PRESENTATION |
Lim, chap. 12 Ethnicity and Nationalism in Stalin’s Soviet Union, pp. 297-307: Stalin on the “Elimination of the Kulaks;” Antonina Solovieva, on work in the Komsomal communist youth movement; Miron Dolot on the famine in 1932-33. |
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Nov. 6 |
The Fascist Revolt & the Interwar Years |
Roberts, Europe, “Crumbling Foundations,” pp. 534-551; Last Years of European Illusion, pp. 551-563 Mussolini, The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism (Ella) |
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Nov. 9 |
The Fascist Revolt & the Interwar Years GROUP 10 PRESENTATION |
Robert Paxton, “Five Stages of Fascism” (Ella) |
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Nov. 11 |
Documentary film: “Stalin: The Despot” |
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Nov. 13 |
Hitler’s Germany |
Film: “Triumph of the Will”
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Nov. 16 |
Hitler’s Germany GROUP 5 PRESENTATION |
Lim 12, document 5 Adolph Hitler, selections from Mein Kampf
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Nov. 18 |
Hitler’s Germany
GROUP 4 PRESENTATION |
Philip Gibbs, selections from European Journey (1934) on “Hitler’s Germany” and “The Road to Remembrance.” (Ella) |
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Nov. 20 |
World War II and the Holocaust |
Roberts, Europe, 563-579 Lim, p. 314, “Extracts of the Minutes of the Wannsee Conference;” and selection 9, Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz. Leon Poliakov, selection from Harvest of Hate (Ella)
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Nov. 23 |
Continued |
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Nov. 25-29 |
Thanksgiving Break |
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Europe in a New Global Age |
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Nov. 30 |
Between the Superpowers: Cold War and Recovery |
Marks, chapts. 6 and Conclusion: “The Great Departure,” and “Change and Persistence.” Roberts, Europe, 599-626
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Dec. 2 |
Prosperity & Pop Culture: 1960s |
Pop songs (Ella)
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Dec. 4 |
Retreat from Overseas Empire
GROUP 1 PRESENTATION
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Roberts, Europe, 579-599 Lim, 11, Mahandas Gandhi, Indian Home Rule (1909), pp. 278-280. Lim, 13: ´documents on Algerian Independence, 4-8. |
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Dec 7 |
Decline and Discontent: 1970s and 80s |
Pop songs (Ella) Roberts, Europe, 599-626
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Dec. 9 |
The European Union
GROUP 2 PRESENTATION |
Roberts, Europe, 627-661 Lim 14, pp. 357-58; documents 1, 5, 6, 8: “Measuring Europe”; Margaret Thatcher, Speech at the College of Europe; François Mitterand, Speech to the European ParliamentI; Philippe de Scoutheete, The Case for Europe. |
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Dec. 11 |
The Fall of Communism |
Mikhail Gorbachev, “A Common European Home,” and “We Opened Ourselves to the World” (Ella) Optional: Paul Kennedy, “Worried about Putin’s Russia” (Ella) |
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Dec. 14 |
Review |
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