COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will take up a series of case studies in the history of political violence-esp., but not exclusively, violence labeled terrorist and anarchist-focusing upon Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Topics will include: nineteenth-century theories of political violence, the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, French anarchists and "propaganda by the deed" in the 1890s, anarchists in turn-of-the-twentieth-century London and Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent, politicized street violence in Weimar Berlin and 1930s Paris, the IRA, youth rebellion and the Baader Meinhof gang in the 1970s. With each case, we will examine the motivations, the justifications, and the meanings of violence.
Some of the larger questions we will consider: How should we define terrorism? Is one man's terrorist really another's freedom fighter? If so, how do we escape the "weary relativism" that follows? How can we distinguish terrorism from other forms of political violence? Is state terrorism a useful category, or a needless confusion? What is anarchism, and what is its relation to violence? How have anarchism and terrorism been explained and justified and how have they been criticized? What can we learn about our contemporary experience of terrorism from the history of political violence in nineteenth and twentieth-century Europe?
This course is a writing course. It fulfills, in part, the writing requirement for graduation. You will be required to turn in written assignments almost weekly. You will write (or revise) six short papers and one longer paper. In addition, a series of short written assignments will cultivate the varieties of writing and research that college-level history courses require. Students will learn: how to research a topic; how to develop an interpretation out of a primary source; how to write about a secondary work of history. A significant amount of classroom time will be spent discussing writing.
This course is also a discussion seminar. Aside from occasional lectures and student presentations, the format for the course will be discussion. This depends on your doing the reading and being prepared to talk about it. Come to class with a copy of the reading for that day, your notes, and something to say.
REQUIREMENTS:
o Attendance at all classes.
o Careful reading of all assignments.
o Active participation in class discussions.
o Occasional in-class quizzes.
o Six formal papers.
o A series of short written assignments.
o Two in-class presentations.
READING LIST
o Martha Crenshaw, ed.,Terrorism in Context. Pennsylvania
State Univ Pr, 1995.
o Barbara A. Engel (Editor), Clifford N. Rosenthal (Editor), Five
Sisters: Women Against the Tsar. 1987.
o Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent. The Modern Library,
1998.
o Tom Vague, Televisionaries. Rev. Update Edition, A K
Press.
o Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide To Writing In History.
3rd ed., Virginia, 2001.
NB: Additional reading materials will be provided as handouts
or on reserve at the library.
REQUIRED FILMS
There will be three required evening films; they are an integral part of the course. If, for some important reason, you cannot make the class showing, you are responsible for watching the film on your own before the class discussion.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment 1. Definition of Terrorism
Assignment 2. The History of Anarchism
Assignment 3. Proposal for Final Paper with Bibliography
Assignment 4. Draft of Final Paper
Assignment 5. Peer Review-comments and suggestions on a classmate's
draft
Paper 1. "Battle of Algiers" (3-4 pp.)
Paper 2. Historical Analysis of A Russian Revolutionary Life (3-4
pp.)
Paper 3. Revision of Paper #1 or #2
Paper 4. The Secret Agent and topics TBA (4 pp.)
Paper 5. "Love and Anarchy" and topics TBA (3 pp.)
Paper 6. Final Paper (6-8 pp.)
Presentation 1. Group Presentation on Russian Anarchist/Terrorists
Presentation 2. Individual Presentation of Final Paper
A NOTE ON PLAGIARISM
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, in your written assignments (and this includes both the "papers" and "assignments"), you use the words or the ideas of another without attribution, you are committing the academic equivalent of high treason. Serious cases will result in a failing grade in the class and referral to the Dean of the Faculty.
You are always free to consult outside sources (textbooks, monographs, web resources) when you write your papers and assignments. You must, however, properly cite any work from which you borrow ideas. If you borrow the words of others, you must place them in quotation marks and properly cite the work. Failure to properly cite and quote is plagiarism.
COMMUNICATION
I will use electronic mail to distribute announcements, reading questions, paper suggestions, and more. You are responsible for checking your Wooster email regularly. (Note that you can have your Wooster email forwarded to another email account if that is more convenient.)
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). It assumes a good faith effort on all assignments: 25% of your grade is based on class participation (and in-class quizzes), 60% on the formal papers, 10 % on assignments, 5 % on presentations.
COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
Mon 1/14 Introduction. Terrorism, Anarchism, Political Violence
Wed 1/16 Terrorism Today
"Understanding Terrorism: A Harvard Magazine Roundtable,"
Harvard Magazine, January-February 2002.
Thurs Evening FILM. "The Battle of Algiers"
(dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1962, 125 min.)
Fri 1/18 Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?
Timothy Garton Ash, "Is There a Good Terrorist?"
New York Review of Books, November 29, 2001, 30-33.
Kelly Cogswell, "The Secrets of War" at "The Gully"
http://www.thegully.com
DISCUSS "Battle of Algiers
WEEK 2
Mon 1/21 Definitions of Terrorism
** ASSN. 1 DUE. Definitions of Terrorism **
Wed 1/23 Viewing Terrorism Historically
Martha Crenshaw, "Thoughts on Relating Terrorism to Historical
Contexts," in Terrorism in Context.
Fri 1/25 European Terrorism in Retrospect
Martin A. Miller, "The Intellectual Origins of Modern
Terrorism in Europe," in Terrorism in Context.
WEEK 3
Mon 1/28 Doing History Primary Sources and Secondary
Sources. Evaluating Sources
** PAPER #1 DUE. Battle of Algiers **
Wed 1/30 Secondary Sources. Political Violence in Broad
Perspective
Franklin Ford, "Reflections on Political Murder: Europe
in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," in Wolfgang Mommsen,
ed., Social Protest, Violence and Terror in 19th and 20th c.
Europe (1982)
Eric Hobsbawm, "Political Violence and Political Murder:
Comments on Franklin Ford's Essay," in Mommsen, Social
Protest, Violence and Terror
Fri 2/1 Primary Sources. Political Violence in the 19th
c.
Walter Laqueur, "Introductory Note" to "Part
II: The Origins of Modern Terrorism," Terrorism Reader.
Karl Heinzen, "Murder," in Laqueur, ed., Terrorism
Reader.
Mikhail Bakunin, "Revolution, Terrorism, Banditry,"
in Terrorism Reader.
Sergey Nechaev, "Catechism of the Revolutionist,"
in Terrorism Reader.
WEEK 4
Mon 2/4 Anarchism in Theory and Propaganda
Peter Kropotkin. "Anarchism", from The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1910. At Anarchy Archives.
Kropotkin, "An Appeal to Youth" (1880). At Anarchy
Archives.
Choose one figure from the Anarchy Archives cynosure and prepare
a brief presentation of his or her biography.
Wed 2/6 Anarchism in the 19th c.
James Joll, "Mikhail Bakunin and the Great Schism,"
The Anarchists (1964).
Fri 2/8 Anarchism in the 19th c.
** ASSN. 2 DUE. Web Research The History of Anarchism
**
Anarchist biography, doctrine, propaganda, events, movements,
and critics
WEEK 5
Mon 2/11 Russian Revolutionaries
Barbara Engel and Clifford Rosenthal, eds., Five Sisters:
Women Aainst the Tsar, preface, introduction, and start Vera
Figner.
Wed 2/13 Russian Revolutionaries
Vera Figner, in Engel and Rosenthal, eds., Five Sisters
Fri 2/15 NO CLASS. But prepare for Monday Presentations
WEEK 6
Mon 2/18 Russian Revolutionaries
** PRESENTATIONS. Group Presentations on Russian Anarchists **
Wed 2/20 Russian Revolutionaries
Philip Pomper, "Russian Revolutionary Terrorism,"
in Terrorism in Context.
Fri 2/22 From the People's Will to the Russian Revolution
** PAPER #2 DUE Historical Analysis of an Autobiography
from Five Sisters **
WEEK 7
Mon 2/25 Anarchist/Terrorism in France of the 1890s
Richard Sonn, "The Anarchist Movement" in Anarchism
and Cultural Politics
Octave Mirbeau, "Ravachol"
Other documents: excerpt from Emile Henry's speech and more
Wed 2/27 Discuss Paper Revisions
Fri 3/1 The Image of the Anarchist/Terrorist
IN-CLASS: Excerpts from "Germinal" (dir. Claude
Berri)
WEEK 8
Mon 3/4 Anarchism and Terrorism
James Joll, "Terrorism and Propaganda by the Deed,"
in The Anarchists
** PAPER #3 DUE Revision of Paper 1 or 2 **
Wed 3/6 The Culture of Anarchism
Max Nettlau, "An Anarchist Manifesto"
Additional documents on anarchist propaganda by the deed.
Fri 3/8 Anarchism and Violence in the U.S.
IN-CLASS: Documents from Emma Goldman, Haymarket Square, McKinley
assassination
3/9-3/24 SPRING BREAK
WEEK 9
Mon 3/25 Anarchists and the Bomb in Turn-of-the-Twentieth Century
London
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
Wed 3/27 The Secret Agent
Fri 3/29 The Secret Agent
WEEK 10
Mon 4/1 Interpreting Terrorism
IN-CLASS: Documents from Walter Laqueur, Terrorism Reader
** PAPER #4 DUE "The Secret Agent" **
Wed 4/3 Fascist Violence in Weimar Germany
Peter Merkl, "Approaches to Political Violence: the Stormtroopers,
1925-33," in Mommsen, ed., Social Protest, Violence and
Terror
Fri 4/5 Fascist Violence in Italy
Adrian Lyttelton, "Fascism and Violence in Post-War Italy:
Political Strategy and Social Conflict," in Mommsen, ed.,
Social Protest, Violence and Terror
WEEK 11
Mon 4/8 The Hapless Anarchist. Lina Wertmuller's "Love
and Anarchy"
Mon Evening FILM "Love and Anarchy" (dir.
Lena Wertmuller, 1973, Italian with English subtitles, 120 mins.)
Wed 4/10 Discuss: "Love and Anarchy" and Interpretation
Selection from the following TBA:
Mira Lehm, Passion and Defiance: Film in Italy From 1942 to
the Present, US, 1984.
Annabella Misculgio "An Affectionate and Irreverant Account
of Eighty Years of Women's Cinema in Italy", in Off Screen:
Women and Film in Italy, ed. G.Bruno, M. Nadotti, 1988.
Ally Acker, Reel Women: pioneers of the cinema, 1896 to the
present, Continum, 1991, USA.
Fri 4/12 Discuss: Interpretation of Film
** PAPER #5 DUE "Love and Anarchy" **
WEEK 12
Mon 4/15 Late 20th c. Euro-Terrorism - Italy
Donatella della Porta, "Left-Wing Terrorism in Italy,"
in Terrorism in Context.
Wed 4/17 Late 20th c. Euro-Terrorism - Germany
Peter Merkl, "West German Left-Wing Terrorism,"
in Terrorism in Context.
Fri 4/19 Discuss: Final Projects
** ASSN. 3 DUE Final Paper Proposal with Bibliography
**
WEEK 13
Mon 4/22 The Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof Gang
Tom Vague, Televisionaries. Rev. Update Edition, A
K Press.
Wed 4/24 More on German Terrorism
Discuss Vague, Merkl, and Introduce "Marianne and Julianne"
Wed Evening FILM "Marianne and Julianne" ("Die
bleierne Zeit," dir. Margarethe von Trotta, 1981, German
with English subtitles, 106 mins.)
Fri 4/26 Discuss: "Marianne and Julianne"
** ASSN. 4 DUE Draft of Final Paper **
WEEK 14
Mon 4/29 Final Paper Presentations
Wed 5/1 Final Paper Presentations
Thursday Evening Session 5/2 Final Paper Presentations
Fri 5/3 Final Paper Presentations
** ASSN. 5 DUE Peer Review **
5/4-5/5 READING DAYS
5/6-5/10 EXAMS
5/10 ** PAPER #6 DUE - FINAL PAPER **