History 101
History of Europe Since 1700
This course surveys themes of European history from the 18th century to the present---a period when, together with its extension in North America, “western civilization” stood at the apex of its global power and influence. Some argue that it still stands there. The character and extent of that civilization have been subject to continuing and conflict-ridden debate. The course has three objectives:
- to examine this debate through lectures, tutorial discussions of readings, and essay writing;
- to introduce the intellectual interests of the Vanderbilt History faculty;
- to fulfill degree requirements of the CPLE in international history and culture, as mandated by the Faculty of the College of Arts and Science.
Course Requirements
1)format: Lectures and tutorials, as scheduled below. Attendance is expected; participation is rewarded. Reading the assigned readings before lectures and tutorials is the single best way to improve performance.
2)readings: Four books (one philosophical dictionary, two novels, one monograph), a Class E-Pak (see below), and a textbook. Books are available for purchase at VU Bookstore, and elsewhere. All are required reading, which will be the subject matter for essays, reading tutorials, and examinations. Please print hard copies when relevant.
3)reading tutorials and OAK Blackboard: Eleven tutorials are directed discussions of readings, a format similar to a first-year law school classroom. Tutorials give students, as individuals and a group, the responsibilities of reading, interpreting, organizing, and developing ideas in the course. A general question for each of the scheduled ten tutorials appears under its date in the syllabus. Read the assignment with this question in mind. Write a brief answer (one paragraph/page), and post a copy to History 101-01 OAK Blackboard Communication/Discussion Boards/History 101 Electronic Tutorials. Course members are encouraged to read each other's written comments on Blackboard and react to them. Midterm and final exam questions will be taken in part from these tutorials. [To be considered for "A" in class participation requires a minimum of nine OAK responses. As readers of these responses, Ms. Sanderson and I anticipate originality, and are less impressed by skimming/skipping the reading and agreeing wholeheartedly with the previous posting.]
4)three essays: Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary (use a documentary source to define the enlightenment mentality, 3-4 pages), due 1/28; Conrad, Heart of Darkness (use a work of literature to characterize European culture in an Age of Empire and Imperialism, 4 pages), due 3/28; and Gross, Neighbors. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (write a book review on a historical monograph that explores historical memory, 5 pages), due 4/20.
The Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ms. Mary Sanderson, will chair a voluntary writing seminar the week prior to the due date of each essay assignment, TBA. Participants will discuss drafts of their essays.
5)examinations: in-class mid-term, questions selected from study guide distributed prior to exam; comprehensive final, in-class or take-home versions. The take-home final will be distributed on the last day of class and be due at the later of the two scheduled examination dates for this course.
6)honor code: Honored; see especially ch. 8 of the Student Handbook regarding plagiarism. Failure to acknowledge any printed, electronic, or other media used in course writing (e.g., Cliff’s Notes, Sharp’s Notes, internet essay sites, google) is deliberate representation of another’s idea as your own. Honor Council penalties for plagiarism range from failure in the course to expulsion from the university. When in doubt, ask. Originality and creativity are the reasons any university exists. Be part of the project, not part of the problem.
7)grading and late policy: essays I, II, and III, 15% each; mid-term, 20%; final 20%; class participation, 15%.
PLEASE NOTE: For essays only, all course members have three late days to use at their discretion (all three on essay I, one day on each assignment, etc.). After an individual has used these days, however, late assignments will be graded down 1/2 grade (A, A-) per 24 hours, including weekends. All extensions beyond late days require written documentation from Dean Bergquist's office concerning medical or family emergencies, in which case we will cooperate fully.
READINGS
Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary [1764] (Penguin Classics/Putnam, 1972).
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days [1872] (Penguin Classics, 2004)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness [1902] (Trafalgar Square/Hesperus Classics, 2004)
Jan Gross, Neighbors. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (Penguin, 2002)
Lynn Hunt et. Al., The Making of the West. Peoples and Cultures. Volume II: Since 1560 (1st edition; Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001). This textbook has an excellent website, which you are encouraged to use as a resource. Some course readings will be available on this website through a link called DocLinks at http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/makingwest1e/.
Class E-Pak
These readings, as indicated in the syllabus, can be found as E-Reserves at the course website on OAK Blackboard [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/oak/], at DocLinks on the textbook website [http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/makingwest1e/], or at the website address listed in the syllabus. Please obtain hard copies of these materials for class discussion and writing.
1.King George III, "Proclamation of Rebellion," 1775
http://douglassarchives.org/proc_a52.htm
2."The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, in Congress, July 4, 1776"
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/declare.htm or OAK Blackboard
3."Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 26 August 1789" ERES or http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm
4.Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France [1790] OAK Blackboard or http://www.bartleby.com/24/3 [Read paragraphs 1-4, 55-71, 403-407]
5.Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women [1792]. http://www.bartleby.com/144. Read Introduction, all and Chapter 2, paragraphs 1-2, 59-71]
6.Karl Marx, from Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848] OAK Blackboard or http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ Read Intro and Part I. Bourgeois and Proletarians
7. Andrew Ure, from The Philosophy of Manufactures [1835], OAK Blackboard (listed as Introduction to Contemporary Civ)
8. Parliamentary Papers on Conditions in English Coal Pits, 1842
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1842womenminers.html
9.Johann Gottlieb Fichte, "To the German Nation," 1806
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1806fichte.html
10.Giuseppe Mazzini, "On Nationality," 1852
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1852mazzini.html
11.Ernst Moritz Arndt: “The German Fatherland”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/arndt-vaterland.html
12.John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, “Chapter I. Introductory” (1859)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/jsmill-lib.html
13.Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/lincoln2.htm
14.V. I. Lenin, "Report on the International Situation and the Fundamental Tasks of the Communist International" [1920], OAK Blackboard (listed as Second Congress of the Communist International) or
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/jul/x03.htm#fw1
15.Evgenii Zamiatin, “The Cave” [1922], OAK Blackboard
16. Elena Kozhina, from Through the Burning Steppe [1998] in OAK Blackboard (listed as 2 parts)
17. Atlantic Charter, 1941 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/atlantic/at10.htm; 18.Photo of Arrested Jews, 1941 http://www.dhm.de/gifs/sammlungen/bildarchiv/III/gronefeld/427_12.jpg;
19.Wannsee Protocol, 1942 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/wannsee.htm; 20.Account of the Firebombing of Dresden, 1945 http://timewitnesses.org/english/~lothar.html;
21.Yamahata, Photographs of Nagasaki, 1945 http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/journey1.html
22 Milton Friedman, from Capitalism and Freedom (1962) in OAK Blackboard;
23.Salman Rushdie, “Out of Kansas,” in Step Across This Line, Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002 in OAK Blackboard;
24.Peter Drucker, "Knowledge Work and Knowledge Society," (1994)
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ifactory/ksgpress/www/ksg_news/transcripts/drucklec.htm (DocLinks, ch.30)
Hunt textbook reading, chs.16-19
1/12 Introduction: The Known World
1/14 Society and Economy in the 18th Century
1/17 Old Regime Politics: An Age of War, Absolutism, and Empire
1/19 reading tutorial: Colonial Rebellion in the New World. On what grounds did the North American colonies of the British Empire declare their independence? Were their motivations philosophical, political, economic, or something else? As a historical document of the 18th century, what does the Declaration of Independence reflect about the political and economic order of the empire against which the colonies rebelled.
DocLinks for chapter 19: 1) King George III, "Proclamation of Rebellion," 1775
http://douglassarchives.org/proc_a52.htm; and 2)"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, in Congress, July 4, 1776"
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/declare.htm
Hunt textbook reading, ch.19
1/21 Eighteenth-Century Intellectual Life and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment
1/24 reading tutorial The intellectual outlook and perspective of the Enlightenment shaped the entire modern era down to the present day. Imagine yourself a person of the 18th century, perusing the headings of The Philosophical Dictionary. How do you characterize the enlightenment mentality?
Voltaire, pp.16-31, 49-58, 115-141, 207-235, 275-292, 334-338, 349-360, 386-400
Hunt textbook reading, chs.20-21
1/26 The French Revolution, 1789
read: Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the French National Assembly, 26 August 1789
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm
1/28 Revolutionary France, 1789-1799
Voltaire essay due
1/31 reading tutorial. Responses to Revolution. Modern Conservatism and Radicalism. Burke and Wollstonecraft generally are considered to be parents of modern ideologies: the former of conservatism, which privileged organicity and evolutionary change, and the latter of democratic radicalism, which sought to extend the era's ideas of individual liberty to every individual. Both Burke and Wollstonecraft wrote within five years of 1789. How did each view the age in which they lived? In particular, how did each view community and individual?
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France [1790] ERES or http://www.bartleby.com/24/3 Read paragraphs 1-4, 55-71, 403-407]
Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women [1792]. Only available at http://www.bartleby.com/144. Read Introduction, all and Chapter 2, paragraphs 1-2, 59-71]
2/2 Europe during the Napoleonic Wars
Hunt textbook reading, chs.22-23
2/4 The Industrial Revolution
2/7 reading tutorial: Nineteenth-Century Views of Industrial Capitalism. Both Karl Marx and Andrew Ure realize the revolutionary character of industrial capitalism. Compare and contrast their views.
Karl Marx, from Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848] ERES or http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ (Read Intro and Part I. Bourgeois and Proletarians); Andrew Ure, from The Philosophy of Manufactures [1835] ERES (listed as Introduction to Contemporary Civ); Parliamentary Papers on Conditions in English Coal Pits, 1842
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1842womenminers.html (in DocLinks, chapter 22)
2/9 Romanticism: Nature, Society, and Being
2/11 Looking to Western Europe from Eastern Europe: Politics, Society, and Cultural Life before 1848
2/14 The Springtime of the Peoples: The Revolutions of 1848
2/16 reading tutorial Nationalism and Liberalism. Both nationalism and liberalism were key ideologies by the middle of the 19th century. Both are idea systems, which construct visions of community. John Stuart Mill is a representative of classical liberalism. The other individuals are representative of varying views of nationalism. What liberal and nationalist understandings of community can you identify?
Johann Gottlieb Fichte, "To the German Nation," 1806
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1806fichte.html
Giuseppe Mazzini, "On Nationality," 1852
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1852mazzini.html
Ernst Moritz Arndt: The German Fatherland
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/arndt-vaterland.html
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, “Chapter I. Introductory” (1859)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/jsmill-lib.html
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/lincoln2.htm
2/18-21 European Politics after 1848: States, Nation-Building, and the National State
Hunt textbook reading, ch. 24
2/23 European Society and Culture in the Victorian Age
2/25 reading tutorial Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days. Define and discuss the key characteristics in the world view of a Victorian gentleman.
2/28 Science and Progress: Intellectual Currents during the Long 19th Century I (to be cont)
3/2 in-class midterm
3/4 no class
3/7-11 spring break; deficiencies due March 10
Hunt textbook reading, ch.25
3/14 Science, Anxiety, and the Irrational: Intellectual Currents during the Long 19th Century II
3/16 An Age of Imperialism
3/18 reading tutorial. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. How does Conrad’s short, but problematic novel assist your understanding of a European civilization, which, at the beginning of the 20th century, was at the apex of its power and influence? How is empire portrayed at the beginning of the 20th century? How do Europeans regard Africa and Africans, how do they comprehend something alien, “other,” non-European? How did race and color influence and organize the manner in which they understood that world? Who is savage and who civilized?
Hunt textbook reading, ch. 26
3/21 The Great War, The War To End All Wars, World War I
3/23 The Russian Revolution
3/25 reading tutorial: Two Early 20th-century Views of Communist Revolution in Russia. These two texts were written at the end of the Russian civil war (1918-1920). They offer two very different views of the new era that a communist revolution had opened in the 20th century. Identify and compare them.
V. I. Lenin, "Report on the International Situation and the Fundamental Tasks of the Communist International" [July 1920], OAK Blackboard (listed as Second Congress of the Communist International) or
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/jul/x03.htm#fw1
Evgenii Zamiatin, “The Cave” (1922) in OAK Blackboard
3/28 The Interwar Years: Recovery, Experiment, Depression, Twilight?
Conrad essay due
Begin reading Jan Gross, Neighbors. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (Penguin, 2002)
Hunt, chs.27-28
3/30 The Death of Liberal Democracy? Fascism, Nazism, Soviet Communism
4/1 Nazi Germany
4/4 Stalinism in the USSR
4/6 An Age of Cataclysm: Total War, 1939-1945 and after
4/8 reading tutorial. Ultimately, one aim of scholarly inquiry is the posing of questions. What categories of questions does the documentary evidence contained in the primary sources assembled here require us to ask? What would the engineer, the linguist, the historian, the economist, the musician (and so forth) want to know? What ought you, the first adult generation of the 21st century, ask about the age of cataclysm? Is that the proper word? Why?
Elena Kozhina, from Through the Burning Steppe [1998] in OAK Blackboard (listed as 2 parts); and in DocLinks, chapter 27
Atlantic Charter, 1941 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/atlantic/at10.htm; Photo of Arrested Jews, 1941 http://www.dhm.de/gifs/sammlungen/bildarchiv/III/gronefeld/427_12.jpg; Wannsee Protocol, 1942 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/wannsee.htm; Account of the Firebombing of Dresden, 1945 http://timewitnesses.org/english/~lothar.html; Yamahata, Photographs of Nagasaki, 1945 http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/journey1.html
4/11 Decolonization and the "Third World"
4/13 Cold War.
Hunt, chs.29-30
4/15 Politics and Society in the East: Eastern Europe after 1945
4/18 The Revolutions of 1989-91
4/20 reading tutorial: What is the thesis of Jan Gross’s Neighbors?
4/22 The European Union
Gross essay due
4/25 reading tutorial Conclusion American power, economics, political ideology, and cultural life today profoundly influence european and western civilization. What are some of the ways in which that influence makes itself felt in the early 21st century? Milton Friedman, from Capitalism and Freedom (1962) in OAK Blackboard; Salman Rushdie, “Out of Kansas,” in Step Across This Line, Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002 in OAK Blackboard; and Peter Drucker, "Knowledge Work and Knowledge Society," (1994)
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ifactory/ksgpress/www/ksg_news/transcripts/drucklec.htm (DocLinks, ch.30)
