Syllabus: H114 (Subject to Change)
History of Western
Civilization II: Spring 2006
Class Number 8555
MW 11:00-12:15 (CA
215)
Professor Kevin Cramer Cavanaugh
503M
317-278-7744 Mon/Weds:
2-4
kcramer@iupui.edu and
by appointment
Required Texts:
Judith C. Coffin and Robert C. Stacey, Western Civilizations: Their History and
Culture: Volume II (15th edition; W.W. Norton, 2005)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics, 2002)
Candace Ward, (ed.) World War One British Poets (Dover Thrift Editions, 1997)
Frantz Fanon, The
Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, 2004)
Course Description
This course is intended to
provide an introduction to the process of modernization and state formation in
the western world during the two hundred and fifty years between the end of the
European religious wars in the 17th century and the end of World War
II and the beginnings of the Cold War. Framed by “big questions” and organized
around major themes, the emphasis will be on the rise and eventual decline of
European global dominance and influence and the interconnections between
technological change, intellectual innovation, and the development of modern
society. The problems associated with this development are explored in the
study of evolving social, economic, and political systems and the various
revolutions they inspired. Cultural, social, and ideological conflicts (as well
as two world wars), as both causes and symptoms of this process of
modernization, will also be examined. The course concludes with an examination
of the decline of European power in the face of an “Americanized” global
economic system after the end of World War II, the Soviet-American
confrontation of the Cold War, the emergence in the West of the social welfare
state, and the “New World Order” that was presumed to have emerged with the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Course Objectives
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.
Course Requirements
1.
Test One: 20%
2.
Test Two: 25%
3.
Book Essay
(format and questions TBA): 25%
4.
Participation in
three book discussion sessions: 15%
5.
General
Participation Grade (considers regular attendance and in-class
contributions/questions; includes submission of six “Document Response Papers):
15%
Grading System and Policy
Course work and your
final grade will be graded on the standard 100-point scale. In areas of
evaluation where the grade is not strictly calculable numerically (i.e.,
participation and response papers) the grade will be the highest within that
range (i.e., a B+ will be calculated as an 89). 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. You are graded and evaluated according to my
evaluation and judgment of your participation in class, your willingness to ask
questions during lectures(there are no stupid questions), the quality of your
preparation for, and fulfillment of, assignments, and your willingness to risk
thinking analytically and originally. You are not graded for "effort"
and merely showing up each day.
Course Policies
Timely notification of
emergencies that force you to miss class, tests, and assignment due dates is
required in order to make up tests and submit work assignments past deadline.
Unavoidable absences and missed assignments are always negotiable; as a good
faith gesture try to keep me informed reasonably in advance of circumstances
that will force you to miss lectures (via my office email or through Oncourse
email). 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 fulfill assignments will be noted as part of your participation grade. Late
submission (over 24 hours) of the book essay will be penalized a full letter
grade; essays submitted between 24 and 48 hours past the due date will be
penalized two full letter grades; essays submitted beyond 48 hours of the due
date will not be accepted (unless there are extraordinary and documented
circumstances that prevent timely submission). Late papers must be submitted as
hard copies; I will not accept late papers via e-mail attachments (when submitting
written work via e-mail always ask for confirmation of receipt; if you do not
receive this confirmation, notify me immediately). If you are having problems
fulfilling the requirements of the course contact me sooner rather than later.
Jennifer Thompson in the Student Advocate Office is also available when you
need help finding information or dealing with issues that affect your
attendance and academic performance. The Student Advocate’s office is in UC
2002. Ms. Thompson can also be reached at 278-7594 and via email at stuadvoc@iupui.edu. The Student Advocate
website can be found at http://www.life.edu/advocate.
Plagiarism
is usually defined as the deliberate theft of someone else's work and passing
it off as your own. But inattention, ignorance of scholarly citation
conventions, and sloppy note taking can also be construed as plagiarism, even
if it is unintentional. Cutting and
pasting from web-based sources is plagiarism. The penalty for plagiarism is an
automatic failing grade for the course. Please consult the IUPUI Campus Bulletin 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.jaguars.iupui.edu/handbook/2002/academicmisconduct.html.
Administrative Withdrawal
A basic requirement of this
course is that you will actively engage with your peers and instructor during
class and conscientiously prepare for and complete all assignments. If you miss
more than half our class meetings within the first four weeks of the semester
without contacting me, you will be administratively withdrawn from the class.
Our class meets twice per week; thus if you miss more than four classes in the
first four weeks, you may be withdrawn, which will make room for students on
the waitlist. Administrative withdrawal may have academic, financial, and
financial aid implications. Administrative withdrawal will take place after the
full refund period, and if you are administratively withdrawn from the course
you will not be eligible for a tuition refund.
Class Schedule and
Unit One: “How did
the idea of democratic government based on individual rights evolve?”
(Absolutism and Revolution, 1648-1815)
1.
Introduction (M 1/9): The Syllabus
2.
Lecture 1 (W 1/11):
Absolute Monarchy and the Search for Stable Government
Textbook
Documents: Bossuet and Filmer (537)
Document Response
Questions: “Why would Bossuet and
Filmer’s justification of royal authority be likely recognized as legitimate by
those living under absolutist rule?”
Week Two
Monday, January 16: No Class (Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day)
3. Lecture 2 (W 11/18): The Scientific
Revolution
Textbook
Documents: Galileo (582)
Document Response Question: “Why was Galileo’s explanation of how the planets
moved a serious threat to the authority of the church?”
4. Lecture 3 (M 1/23): The Enlightenment
5. Lecture 4 (W 1/25): The French Revolution
Documents: Raynal (606) Declaration of the Rights of Man (641);
de Gouges (642); Burke (646)
Document Response Questions: “In what ways did the Age of Discovery tend to
reinforce the Enlightenment belief in progress?” “What essential contradiction
or hypocrisy does de Gouges identify in the Declaration of the Rights of Man?” or “Why does Burke find the whole idea
of universal rights absurd?”
Book Essay Format and Discussion Questions for The
Communist Manifesto; Slide Presentation One Outline posted on Oncourse
6. Slide Presentation 1 (M 1/30): Revolution
and Public Space
7. Lecture 5
(W 2/1): The Impact of the French Revolution
Textbook
Documents: Ure and Engels (674-675)
Document
Response Questions: “What essential
transformation of pre-industrial daily life
do
both Ure and Engels acknowledge? Why does Ure
praise it and Engels condemn it?”
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)
8. Lecture 6 (M
2/6): The Restoration of Pre-Revolutionary
9. Book
Discussion 1 (W 2/8): Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
10. Lecture 7 (M
2/13): Nationalism and
11. Lecture 8 (W
2/15): Mass Society and Imperialism
Textbook
Documents: Mazzini; The Political Creed of the National Society
(758-759); Kipling (807); Zola (822)
Document Response Questions: “Why did Italian nationalists view a unified
nation-state as the best means of fostering human happiness and prosperity?”; “Kipling’s
poem advertises to non-European peoples the various benefits of western
civilization. What are they?” or “Why
is Zola convinced that consumer culture has become an irresistible force?”
Test One Format and Review Guide posted on Oncourse
12. Lecture 9 (M
2/20): Modernity and the Critique of Progress
13. Test One
Review (W 2/22)
Textbook
Documents: Drumont (832); Darwin (846)
Document Response
Questions: “How did anti-Semitism
serve as a catch-all expression of various anxieties about modern
civilization?” or “How could an
enlightened civilization apply
Unit Three: “How did radical ideologies
lead to war, genocide, and political conflict?” (The Violent Twentieth Century)
14. Test One (M 2/27)
15. Lecture 10 (W 3/1): World War One
Textbook
Documents: Brittain (879)
Document Response Question: “What is the biggest change Brittain sees the war
making on the world she lives in?”
Discussion Questions for World War One British
Poets posted on Oncourse
16. Film 1 (M
3/6): TBA
17. Lecture 11
(W 3/8): Peace and Revolution
Textbook
Documents: Map: Territorial Changes in Europe and the
Document Response
Question: “Studying the map of
post-1918 Europe, and comparing the territorial reorganization of Central
Europe with that of the Middle East, is any contradiction of one of
March 13 through March 19: Spring Break (no classes)
18. Book
Discussion 2 (M 3/20): World War One
British Poets
19. Lecture 12
(W 3/22): Democracy and Capitalism in Crisis
Discussion Questions for The Wretched of the Earth;
Slide Presentation 2 Outline posted on Oncourse
20. Slide
Presentation 2 (M 3/27):
21. Lecture 13
(W 3/29): World War II: 1939-1940
Textbook
Documents: Map of German Expansion (938)
Document Response
Question: “Studying the map of Nazi
Germany’s expansion in central
22. Lecture 14
(M 4/3): The Holocaust and Genocide
23. Film 2 (W
4/5): “Night and Fog”
24. Lecture 15
(M 4/10): World War 11: 1941-1945
25. Book
Discussion 3 (W 4/12): Frantz Fanon, The
Wretched of the Earth
Textbook
26. Essay
Review (M 4/17)
27. Lecture 16
(W 4/19): The Post-War Settlement and the Cold War
Textbook
Documents: The Atomic Bomb (963-964)
Document Response Question: “Regarding the decision to drop the bomb, who was
right, the scientists or President Truman?”
Test Two Format and Review Guide Posted on Oncourse
28. Lecture 17
(M 4/24): The
29. Test Two
Review (W 4/26)
Textbook
Documents: Vaculik (1028)
Document Response
Questions: “According to Vaculik, how
had Soviet Communism perverted the ideals of socialism?”
30. Test Two (M 5/1)