Syllabus

Prof. Eric D. Weitz
History Department
E-mail: weitz004@umn.edu
Office: SST 782 and 309
Office hours: T 12:30-2:00, Th 12:30-2:00, and by appointment
Office phone: (612) 624-7506

Teaching Assistants:
Gregory Halfond (sections 4 and 7): half0022@umn.edu
Christopher Marshall (sections 5 and 6): mars0321@umn.edu
Robert Stulac (tech TA and section 80): stul0021@umn.edu

History 1032
Western Civilization
1500 to the Present

Spring 2004
Lectures: TTh 11:15-12:05, Anderson 370

History 1032 introduces undergraduate students to the major themes of European history in the modern period. Topics will range from changes in marital practices to the rise of powerful states, from the shifting nature of work to the total wars of the twentieth century. The class will also explore western expansion around the globe, the evolution of religious forms, and the ideas and cultural practices Europeans have created in their effort to understand and shape the world around them. While learning about these topics, you will also gain an understanding of the practice of history, especially of the kinds of sources historians use and how they reconstruct and interpret the past.

The course consists of two lectures and two discussion sections per week, and is designed for both potential history majors and non-majors. You will read various kinds of works--a textbook; historical studies; fiction; and primary sources like memoirs, political pronouncements, and theories of human development. Serious attention will be given to writing skills. The sections will consist mainly of discussions, and a significant proportion of your grade will be based on classroom participation.

Each week you will have to complete approximately seventy to ninety pages of reading. It is essential that you follow the course outline and complete the assigned readings before the appropriate class session. In the course of the semester you will need to write two short papers and one five-ten page paper. In addition, there will be a midterm and a final exam, and periodic quizzes in the section. Your grades will be determined as follow:

• short papers           15%
  
• long paper             25%
  
• midterm exam           15%
  
• final exam             25%
  
• quizzes                10%
  
• class participation    10%

CLE REQUIREMENTS
HIST 1032 meets CLE requirements for Historical Perspectives, International Perspectives, and Intensive Writing.

In relation to Historical Perspectives, HIST 1032 focuses on a crucial period in the formation of European society, and introduces students to the kinds of questions historians ask about individuals and human societies: How were European governments structured? What were the roots of rivalries among European states? What role did individual men and women play in the political lives of their nations? How did ordinary men and women make a living? What role did religion play in private and public life? We will discuss not only what historians know about the past, but also how they know it. Historians use public and private documents of many kinds to examine diverse aspects of human existence at all levels of society, from the state, to the economy, to everyday life. Students learn that historical interpretation is an ongoing process in which every generation reexamines and reinterprets the historical record in search of knowledge that can illuminate and deepen our understanding of present concerns. Yet past societies must be understood on their own terms, and not with anachronistic preconceptions from the present. The delicate balance of empathy with the past and engagement with the present lies at the heart of historical inquiry. Historical study, broadly conceived, includes the totality of past human experience. It encompasses every human action and attempts to understand the context in which that action occurred. As such, it provides an essential underpinning for all of liberal education.

In relation to International Perspectives, major themes of HIST 1032 include the history of European colonialism and imperialism and the diffusion of ideas, institutions, and peoples from Europe to other parts of the world, and from the larger world to Europe. The course considers how European countries interacted with the different cultures they claimed to discover, and how they established domination over them through trade, slavery, colonial governance, and culture. It also addresses the resistance of colonized peoples to European imperialism, and Europe's growing multiculturalism in the present. The course explores the development of nationalism and nation-states, first in Europe and then in other parts of the world, and forms of national rivalries and cooperation within Europe. HIST 1032 also examines the diverse characteristics, religious, ethnic, political, cultural, of the peoples living within Europe.

COURSE READINGS
Note: Some of the readings will consist of primary documents taken from a variety of websites. These readings are not optional, and it is your responsibility to access the websites in a timely fashion.

Available for purchase:
Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization, vol. 2.
Atlas of Western Civilization (accompanies text).
Merry E. Wiesner, et al. Discovering the Western Past, vol. 2.
Natalie Zemon Davis. The Return of Martin Guerre.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Confessions.
Eberhard Jäckel. Hitler´s World View.

The primary but not exclusive web source collection we will use is:
"Modern European History Sourcebook"
www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
It also serves as a gateway to other useful websites.

COURSE OUTLINE
NOTE! The items marked with asterisks will serve as the major bases for discussion in the sections. However, the other readings are also required.

Europe and the World at the Onset of the Modern Era
1/20 Lecture: "First Contact"
     Section assignments:
       **Columbus (handout)

1/22 Lecture: "Silver, Sugar, and Slaves: Building a World System"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 368-99
       **Spielvogel, 378, 379, 381
       **Chart on the slave trade
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sl-trade.gif

Varieties of Religious Reform in the Sixteenth Century
1/27 Lecture: "Luther and Calvin and the Meaning of Protestantism"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 336-48
       **Spielvogel, 341, 344
       **Luther, "On the Freedom of a Christian"
         www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REFORM/FREEDOM.HTM

1/29 Lecture: "Reformations Royal and Radical"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 348-53, 356-59
       **Peasants´ Revolt in Wiesner, 1-7, 18-22
       **Anabaptist Schleitheim Confession
         www.anabaptists.org/history/schleith.html

Patterns of Social Life
2/3  Lecture: "The Early Modern Family"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 353-56
       **Davis, Return of Martin Guerre

2/5  Lecture: "Learning to Read in the Early Modern Era"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 507-21
       **Historical writing
       **Plagiarism

Emperors, Kings, and Parliaments
2/10 Lecture: "The Nature of Warfare in the Early Modern Era"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 359-67, 400-16
       **Spielvogel, 407
       **Absolutism in Wiesner, 38-46, 49-64
     FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT DUE

2/12 Lecture: "Varieties of Politics, West to East"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 416-37
       **Spielvogel, 420
       **Russian peasants´ revolt in Wiesner, 10-12, 25-27
       **Locke, Two Treatises of Government, sections 4-7, 77-79, 87
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1690locke-sel.html

From Science to Enlightenment: New Ways of Thinking
2/17 Lecture: "The Scientific Revolution"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 438-62
       **Scientific Revolution in Wiesner, 66-67, 79-80
       **Spielvogel, 444, 445, 446, 448, 455

2/19 Lecture: "Ways of Enlightenment"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 463-90
       **D´Holbach in Wiesner, 87-90
       **Rousseau, Confessions, 17-89, 130-70, 544-75

The Thunder of Revolution
2/24 Lecture: "The New Politics of the French Revolution"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 522-44
       **Wiesner, French peasants, 13-14, 29-31, 36-37
       **Wiesner, 14 July 1789, 116-20, 122-23, 126-27, 132-36, 139-42
       **Spielvogel, "Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen," 532
       **Spielvogel, "Declaration of Rights of Woman and Female          Citizen," 533
       **Spielvogel, Robespierre on revolutionary government, 540

2/26 Lecture: "What is Napoleon Doing in Egypt?"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 544-51
       **"Imperial Catechism"
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1806catechism-napoleon.html
       **Napoleon´s return from Elba in 1815
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1815napoleon100days.html
       **Spielvogel, 545, 546

Other Revolutions: Industrialization, Demography, and Society
3/2  Lecture: "The Factory System"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 553-65
       **Wiesner, demographic statistics, 95-97, 100-03, 107-15
       **Demographic statistics (handout)

3/4  MIDTERM EXAM

3/9  Lecture: "Living with the Factory"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 566-78
       **Child Labor in Spielvogel, 572-73
       **Work experiences in Wiesner, 143-48, 150-55, 161-77

3/11 Lecture: "Making Sense of the Modern World: From Smith to Marx"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 588-92, 603-10, 629-32
       **Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book 1, chaps. 1-2
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/adamsmith-summary.html
       **Tocqueville & Marx in Wiesner, 178-83, 187-89, 193-99, 204-05
       **Mill, On Liberty, in Spielvogel, 590

3/15-3/19 SPRING BREAK

Building Nations in the Nineteenth Century
3/23 Lecture: "Meanings of the Nation and Nationalism"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 579-88, 593-603
       **Mazzini in Spielvogel, 599
       **Garibaldi in Spielvogel, 618
       **Herzl in Spielvogel, 687
       **Herder, "Material for the Philosophy of Mankind"
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1784herder-mankind.html

3/25 Lecture: "The Unification of Italy"
     Section assignments:
       **Spielvogel, 611-30, 665-71
     SECOND PAPER ASSIGNMENT (DRAFT) DUE

Race, Nation, and Empire: European Imperialism
3/30 Lecture: "Forms of Imperialism"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 690-706
       **Imperialism in Wiesner, 247-68
       **Kipling, "White Man´s Burden" in Spielvogel, 694
       **Morel, "The Black Man's Burden" in Spielvogel, 695

Imperial Culture
4/1  Lecture: "Museums, Exhibits, and Travel"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 633-64, 672-90
       **Darwin in Spielvogel, 634
       **Lavasseur in Spielvogel, 645
       **Sanford in Spielvogel, 659

The Great War and the Birth of the Twentieth Century
4/6  Lecture: "Industrial Killing: The Great War"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 707-26, 732-38
       **World War I in Wiesner, 298-334

4/8  Lecture: "New Women, New Media: The Culture of the 1920s"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 762-70
       **New women in Wiesner handout, 335-40, 344-63
     SECOND PAPER ASSIGNMENT (FINAL VERSION) DUE

The Thunder of Revolution, part 2: The Soviet Experiment
4/13 Lecture: "The Bolshevik Revolution"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 726-32
       **John Reed in Spielvogel, 730
       **Lenin, on the "April Theses"
         www.dur.ac.uk/~dml0www/aprilths.htm
       **Decree establishing the Cheka
         www.dur.ac.uk/~dml0www/cheka.html
       **Kollantai in Wiesner handout, 340-44

4/15 Lecture: "The Stalinist System"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 758-63
       **Stalin, "Industrialization of the Country" (1928)
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1928stalin.html
       **"Hymn to Stalin"
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/stalin-worship.html

The Nazi Era in Europe
4/20 Lecture: "Adolph Hitler and National Socialism"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 739-58
       **Hitler, "Mein Kampf"
         www2.h-net.msu.edu/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/hitler1.html
       **Nazi documents in Wiesner, 335-64
       **Jäckel, Hitler´s World View

4/22 Lecture: "The Holocaust in Europe"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 771-90
       **Himmler, Posen speech to SS Group Leaders
         www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-posen.htm

From Total War to Cold War
4/27 Lecture: "World War II"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 791-802
       **Yalta Agreement
         www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/yalta.htm

4/29 Lecture: "A Continent Divided"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 803-24
       **Berlin blockade in Wiesner, 388-91
       **Churchill, Iron Curtain speech
         www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html

Culture and Politics in the Postwar Era
5/4  Lecture: "Dilemmas of Americanization"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 826-34
       **1968 in Wiesner, 403-434 (mostly cartoons)

5/6  Lecture: "New World Orders"
     Section assignments:
       Spielvogel, 835-68
       **European Union in Wiesner, 435-63
     THIRD PAPER ASSIGNMENT DUE

FINAL EXAM: Fri., 5/14, 10:30-12:30