Western Civilization since 1600

History 107 - Fall 2001

 

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the history of Europe (and the West) in this grand and cataclysmic age, from the early 17th century to the present. We will survey some defining episodes of European and Western history–the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the revolutions of 1848, the scramble for empire, the world wars of the twentieth century, the Holocaust, globalization. We will examine developments in society, culture and ideas–industrialization and urbanization, changing gender roles, the emergence of new aesthetic forms (from the novel to the film), scientific explanations of racial difference, mass culture and the birth of a consumer society. Throughout, we will ask: How were these developments experienced? How were they remembered and retold? What is their legacy? Course readings/viewings include a lively selection of original sources–recollections of revolution, classic political statements, soldiers’ accounts of the experience of war, a worker’s autobiography, novels, propaganda posters, newsreels, historical films. There are no prerequisites, but for a desire to escape "the most degrading of intellectual slaveries–that of the exclusive present."

There is simply too much history here; if we aimed to cover the principal political events of the major powers of Europe, we would be reduced to drawing schematic outlines. We will study the major political developments of the period, from a broad perspective. But we will focus our efforts upon a set of issues at the heart of modern European history, examining these in different times and places: the European experience of modernity, wars and revolutions, relations between Europe and a wider world, the search for solutions to the problems of modern development, cultural and intellectual reactions to change, and the continuing disenchantment with political panaceas.

Please note: details of the schedule may change during the semester. Check your Wooster email regularly for updates. I will also use email to send out guidelines for weekly response papers.

Requirements

• Attendance at all classes.

• Attentive reading of all assignments.

• Active participation in discussions.

• Occasional in-class quizzes.

• Weekly response papers. (1 page)

• Four short formal papers (3-4 pages)

• a midterm examination.

• A final examination.

 

Writing Assignments

• Weekly response papers. I will not accept these after the beginning of class.

• Paper 1 - The Tempest (3 pp)

• Paper 2 - The Enlightenment/French Revolution (4 pp.)

• Paper 3 - Nineteenth Century Social Change (4 pp.)

• Paper 4 - The Age of Total War (4 pp.)

 

Required Books

• Textbook: Donald Kagan, et al, The Western Heritage. Brief Edition

• Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

• William Shakespeare, The Tempest

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto

• Charles Dickens, Hard Times

• Joan Scott, The Glassworkers of Carmaux

• Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

NB: Additional reading materials will be provided as handouts or on reserve at the library.

 

Required Films

Three or four films are required viewing for the course. I will arrange an evening showing for the class. If, for some very important reason, you cannot make the class showing, you are responsible for watching the film on your own before the class discussion.

A Note on the Honor Code

A full statement of the Code of Academic Integrity is printed in the Scot’s Key. You are responsible for reading and understanding it. If you use the words or the ideas of another without attribution, you are committing the very serious academic crime of plagiarism.

Grading

Your grade will measure your effort, the level of your thinking and writing, as well as the progress you make across the semester. The following is offered as a very rough guide (and I reserve the right to change it): 15% of your grade is based on class participation and quizzes, 10% on weekly writing assignments; 10% on each of the two hourly exams, 15% on the final; 40% on the writing assignments.