Syllabus H114 (subject to change)
History of Western Civilization II: Summer I 2004
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Professor Kevin Cramer Cavanaugh 503m
317-278-7744
Mon/Tu/Th: 4-6 and by appointment
Required Texts:
Course Description
This course is intended to provide an introduction to the process of modernization and state formation in the western world during the five centuries between the opening of the
The aim of this course is to increase your understanding of how the social, political, cultural, and economic foundations of your world were created. The course is also designed to provide you with an introduction to the skills required by the university's "Principles of Undergraduate Learning” (for details and further information on the PUL go to www.iupui.edu/~history/principlesundergradlearning.htm). Lectures and exams will introduce you to facts, concepts, themes, and terms that will allow you to understand the importance of this period while giving you the historical context for a better understanding of how your society and world works. The writing assignments, based on readings of primary sources, will enable you to develop your reflective, critical, and analytical abilities. In-class participation and discussion will enable you to sharpen your communication skills as well as your capability to efficiently and spontaneously summarize, categorize, interpret, and evaluate information. This part of the course also allows you to make a vital and necessary contribution to how topics and issues are brought into focus in each class.
Tests, quizzes, and other course work will be graded on the traditional 100-point scale. An A-range grade evaluates work that goes substantially beyond the formal outlines of the assignment by showing marked originality, creativity, and strength of argument, organization, and conception. A B-range grade evaluates work that fulfills the assignment with noticeable, but not thorough, attention paid to these ideas. Such work might also include flawed reasoning and organization as well as stylistic problems (sentence structure, spelling, vocabulary, use of scholarly conventions, etc.). A C-range grade evaluates work of genuine effort that largely fulfills the assignment but displays substantial weaknesses in several of the above areas. D-range work is evaluated as meeting the bare minimums of the assignment in a perfunctory fashion. Obviously, an F grade indicates complete failure to fulfill the assignment.
Course Policies
Make up tests and quizzes will only be offered in emergencies (and given on the next class day) and when I am notified no later than the morning of the test or quiz class day. Keep me informed reasonably in advance of circumstances that will force you to miss lectures. Lecture outlines, writing assignments, test reviews, film and slide notes, discussion questions and other important information and course material will be posted on Oncourse, so check it regularly. To log on or get help go to https://oncourse.iu.edu. All assignments must be completed for your final grade to be accurately calculated (an A+ on the introductory test, for example, does not give you the option of skipping the map quizzes). Failure to turn in assignments or take tests and quizzes will be noted as part of your participation grade. Late submission of the term paper will be penalized a third of a grade (e.g. B to B-) for papers not turned in on the due date, one full grade for the first week overdue, and two full grades for two weeks overdue. Unless there are extraordinary and documented circumstances that prevent timely submission, papers overdue by more than two weeks will not be accepted.
Plagiarism is usually defined as the deliberate theft of someone else's work and passing it off as your own. But inattention, ignorance of citation conventions, and sloppy note taking can also be construed as plagiarism, even if it is unintentional. Please consult the IUPUI Campus Bulletin (2001-2002) for further guidelines and information on plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. For details and further information, also see “Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct” at www.hoosiers.iupui.edu/studcode.
Unit One: “How did the idea of democratic government based on individual rights evolve?”
(Absolutism and Revolution, 1589-1815)
Map Quiz 1 announced.
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “The Court at
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “Voltaire on Religion” (pp. 626-627).
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “Revolution and Women’s Rights” (pp. 722-723).
Unit Two: “How did the nation emerge as the preeminent form of political, social, and economic organization?”
(The Rise of the Nation-State, 1815-1918)
Week Three
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “The Testimony of Young Mine Workers” (pp. 752-753).
Slide Presentation 1 Notes posted on Oncourse; Map Quiz 2 announced.
Slide Presentation 1: “Romanticism”
Mid-Term Format and Review Guide posted on Oncourse.
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “Faith in Democratic Nationalism” (pp. 784-785).
Questions for Book Discussion posted on Oncourse; Map Quiz 3 announced.
Monday, 5-31: Memorial Day
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “Middle-Class Youth and Sexuality” (pp. 820-821) and “A French Leader Defends Imperialism” (pp. 884-885).
Unit Three: “How did radical ideologies lead to war, genocide, and social conflict?”
(The Violent Twentieth Century, 1914-1989)
10. Lecture 8 (M 6/7): “World War I and Revolution”; Map Quiz 3
Primary Source Discussion and Questions: “The Experience of War” (pp. 918-919).
Slide Presentation 2: “The Modern Vision: Impressionism and Expressionism”
12. Book Discussion: (Th 6/10): Darkness at
13. Lecture 10 (6/14): “World War II, 1936-1941”
Documentary 1: “The World at War: Barbarossa, June-December 1941”
Final Exam Format and Review Guide posted on Oncourse
14. Lecture 11 (6/15): “World War II, 1942-1945”
Documentary 2: “The World at War:
Documentary 3: “The World at War: The Final Solution”
17. Last Class (T 6/22): Final Exam