History 304 F08
Kathleen Addison (kathleen.addison@csun.edu)
Sierra Tower 606, Office
Hours MW 10:30-11:30 and by appt
818-389-7915; main office of history dept 677-3566
Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the future, controls the present. -- George Orwell
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe – H.G. Wells.
The point is not to observe history; the point is to change it. – Karl Marx
History bears the scars of our civil wars – Guns n’ Roses
Topics in Western Civilization: Revolutions in European History
This course is a study of the revolutionary periods in western civilization from 1500 to the present. The concept of revolution takes several forms: It is not only the political revolutions that overthrow existing governments, but dramatic changes in society through culture, intellectual ideas, popular consensus, technology and ways of life. This era is an extremely dynamic period in history that has seen some of mankind’s greatest accomplishments in terms of humanism, via the creation of art, technology, science and medicine. Conversely, it is also the period containing what are arguably some of the bloodiest, most savage acts of cruelty towards all humanity of recorded time. Indeed, as Dickens noted, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In this class we shall explore the transition from medieval/Middle Ages Europe with its unravelling in the age of Reformation, its transition to a “World Superpower,” the onset of modernity through various processes, into the post-modern era of the global community.
My philosophy to history is that it is not comprised of names and dates; there are plenty of those. History is about how things change and why; and my emphasis on teaching the class is to see the "big picture" importance of these events. Your emphasis as a student does require some knowledge of the names and dates, as these do represent a necessary part of your working vocabulary. However, your preparation guideline should be to ask the question, why is this important? Context is everything.
Exams: There is a midterm, two short (5 page/each) paper and a final. These are essays that will be done in class; you will only write one essay per exam. I do not give the questions out ahead of time. My study guides will include “directed topics” for your focus, but will be along the lines of “wars of religion” and similarly broad topics. Your paper will be on responses comparing selected readings from the class, and handouts will be provided to allow you breadth of choice from these works. The final will be comprised of a takehome to be answered over a weekend, 10 pages, and must be submitted through turnitin.com; and an in-class portion of ID's from the scope of the class, written in a bluebook at one paragraph per term.
Grades: I grade on a straight 90-80-70 basis with plus/minus breaks at 93-90-87. Curving the exam is detrimental to those at the high and low ends; if you make a 93%, you get the A, regardless of whether there are more than 10% who should be assigned an A according to a calculated curve.
Grade breakdown of class:
Midterm Exam: 25%
Paper from readings
25%
(Final 40% (30% for takehome, 10% in-class)
Attendance and participation: 10%
Participation means that you
are prepared in your reading and can actively discuss the topics in class. Attendance is expected and obviously you
cannot participate if you are not here.
Participation grades are NOT given for sitting in the chair wishing
class was over.
Please note that all books are on reserve in the library for your use (in-library only, two hours at a time). I will post articles for you on the class website that are required readings as well.
Academic Honesty, behavior in the classroom, or an object lesson in the Social Contract: Please turn off all cell phones and pagers when in classroom (unless you are awaiting an organ transplant or birth of a child). Interruptions of class will be subject to your dismissal or a negative impact on your grade. Or this. Interruption of an exam will result in your immediate removal from the classroom and an F on the test. I am serious. Equally serious: Academic honesty. Be familiar with the terms and definitions of your expected behavior in this regard as found in the school catalog. This includes collaborative efforts on work, cheating, plagiarism, turning in work for a previous class, or the dissemination of any work represented as original which is attributable to anyone else (with or without their permission). If you have a question, ask ahead of time. Thieving isn’t acceptable, be it of material objects or intellectual property. Academic dishonesty will be dealt with in the strongest terms possible: your case will be forwarded to the dean, and you will receive an F for the class which is not subject to ‘do-over.’ The reasons for your F will be noted on the transcript, and that looks really bad when you’re applying to law school. You are also subject to suspension or expulsion, even if you’re a graduating senior with a fabulous job or grad school ahead of you. Please don’t risk it; I will be glad to show you the file of student works (names deleted) of seniors who were all set to graduate, and didn’t. I will show no mercy. As noted above, you may not use any internet sources, cited or otherwise, for your written work unless it represents an archived, scholarly journal, i.e., J-STOR. There are some sites which are useful for instructional enhancement, study exercises, etc, and I leave that to your judgment.
Office Hours: The hours are noted above. You are welcome to come by and discuss problems or questions you have with the class, history in general, or chat about happy things that won’t depress me. If you need to consult with me in an off-hours period, chances are if it’s MWF, I am probably there anyway; if I am busy at that exact moment I will tell you but generally if I can, I will make the time. In terms of generally contacting me, while you do have my cell phone, it is almost always on voice mail and truthfully, because I really hate phones (nothing personal), I may not always know where it is. So if you need an immediate response to something, your best bet is to email me.
Exiting the class: If for any reason you decide this is not the class, for you, or your reading load is too much, etc, you must do so the college drop deadline (friday of third week); that is the last day to withdraw from the class. The Dean of Students has gotten very strict about these dates and will now only approve late drop forms for the “most extenuating circumstances” – which do not include changes in work schedule, poor performance in a class, problems with transportation, childcare, etc. I will be required to assign a grade for the class after this date, however I might sympathize with your plight.
Textbooks for this course:
Davies,
Kramnick, Issac, Editor. The Portable Enlightenment Reader (New York: Penguin, 1996)
(note: you may use any publication of the following)
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (available online without charge at www.marxists.org)
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
various, Online
All readings except the Portable Enlightenment reader are available on reserve at the Oviatt Library.
Course Objectives: In accordance with the department's Student Learning Outcomes objectives, the work and assignments in this class will require students to accomplish the following:
1. To identify and analyze problems of historical interpretation
2. To identify the various approaches to historical analysis.
3. To analyze and interpret historical sources.
4. To demonstrate familiarity with the history of a region or culture over a period of time.
Schedule of Lectures and
Proviso: These are subject to revision and represent a suggested guideline; it may be modified accordingly
(Website readings are linked)
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Week 1 |
RELIGIOUS REVOLUTIONS |
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8/25-29 |
Preconditions, Renaissance, Reformation; background of
nationalist disputes within Outline: Ren-Ref; Dynastic Chart |
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Read: Davies chap 7; |
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Week 2 |
Wars of Religion & Nationalism, Stuart England; HOLIDAY MON. 9/1 |
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9/1-5 |
Read: D, chap 7; Online 95 Theses Martin Luther’s 95 Theses |
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Week 3 |
COMMERCIAL REVOLUTIONS: Early Modern |
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9/8-12 |
Powerpoint: Louis XIV |
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Read: D, chap 8, Enlightenment Reader: Kant: What is the Enlightenment; Dumarsais, Definition of a Philosophe; Condorcet, Future Progress |
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Week 4 & 5 |
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION: The Scientific Revolution and
Enlightenment -- discussion of docs from your reader all of Part II; Part
III's Locke, Read Online: (1) Galileo Galleli's Letter to Duchess Christina as well as (2) Indictment of Galileo; Powerpoint Sci-Rev; PPT Enlightenment ; just for fun: Cambridge during the Sci-Rev Bonus: |
|
9/15-19; 9/22-26 |
Read: D, chap 8, plus Enlightenment Reader [ER]; All section Four, Part Five Reason: Turgot, Rousseau, Voltaire, Condorcet; ALL of Politics and State; also, just for fun, The Russian Enlightenment at History House |
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Week 6 |
FRENCH REVOLUTION Outline French Rev; Video |
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9/29-10/3 |
D, chap 9; discussion of documents Read: Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen |
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Week 7 |
AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL, DEMOGRAPHIC REV |
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10/6-10 |
Industrialization Maps: |
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week 8 |
Industrialism and the social problems of modernization; Review MIDTERM 10/17 PPT: Napoleon |
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10/13-17 |
Read: D, chap 10; Study Guide for Exam; Read in ER part V: Smith, Wealth of Nations |
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Week 9 |
DIPLOMATIC REVOLUTION, A MODERN WORLD |
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10/20-24 |
Napoleon, Congress of Vienna, Romanticism and reactions to change Socialism and Political Change |
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WEEK 10 |
Socialism, Communism and Liberalism, Oh My! |
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10/27-31 N |
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Online Documents inc. Communist Manifesto (or Marx excerpt) What is Property? ; St. Simon’s views on Utoptianism Mill on Liberalism; Read Adam Smith [in ER] (review); and part V War and Peace (pp. 546-560) |
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Week 11 11//3-7 |
Revolution from Below: PPT 1848 Revolutions POLITICAL, PART III: Unification
of Women’s Movements in late 19th c. (handout) |
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Week 12 |
2nd SCIENTIFIC REV., Growth of Nationalism and Imperialism |
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11/10-14 |
Continue with D; read ER Three of the following: Part V Gender and Race: Rousseau, Duties of Women; Kant, The Fair Sex; Wollstonecraft's Vindication; Hume's "Negroes...naturally inferior to Whites"; Kant's Difference between the Races; Gibbon "Of Empires and Savages"; Jefferson "On Indians and Negroes" and Priestly's The End of Empire. |
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Week 13 |
CULTURAL REVOLUTION: Modernization & Imperialism Read: Fichte, German Nation, Mazzini, On Nationality |
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11/17-21 |
Start now on Solzhenitsyn’s Ivan Denisovich
PAPER due Friday Nov 21, hard copy and via turnitin.com |
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Week 14 11/24, 26 |
WORLD REVOLUTION: The advent of WWI and Russian Revolution (handout on WWI and Rus Rev); Rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism Note: Holiday
11/27-28 |
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D. Chap 11; Online: Timeline of Russia;
Read: Mussolini's
What is Fascism?; Lenin's What
is to be Done?, Nazi'ism's 25
Points, Stalin: On
Leninism and Trotskyism; Orwell's Homage to
Catalonia |
|
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Week 15 |
WORLD REVOLUTION II: World War II and Globalization ppt |
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12/1-5 |
D. Chap 12; Read: Solzhenitsyn (One Day); Decolonization Map; handouts Restrictions of Jews in Interwar Germany by Nazi Gov't Hitler's 1939 Speech at Berlin; Stalin's Implementation of the Five Year Plans (1928); Stalin's "Dizzy with Success" response from Pravda, 1930 |
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Week 16 (partial) 12/8, 10 |
Decolonization, Cold War, an International Community; Pink Floyd was right |
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FINAL EXAM |
Wednesday 12/17 at 12:45 (note the different time) |
No alternate time will be arranged for the final so please plan accordingly.