History 110-01
Professor
Weisensel
Office
Hours: 3:30-5:00 MWF and by Appointment
Telephones:
x6570; 222-5794
This course provides an introductory
survey to European history from the French Revolution to the present day. The
course will explain the transformation from an agrarian to an industrial
economy and society, and that transformation’s effect on change from a
monarchial to a mass-democratic government.
Rather than attempt to cover
everything we will focus on a broad but specific problem of historical
interpretation. We will be particularly interested in testing for the presence
of “progress,” a defining assumption of western culture, as we move through
modern European history. Our point of departure will be a critical state of mind,
which I think is essential for our profession. Taking a critical point of view,
we will study to see how much actual “progress” there has actually been, and
who have been its beneficiaries.
By the end of the term students will
have acquired a familiarity with the major personalities, institutions and
events of the period studied, but also an appreciation of what historians do
and how they do it. We will meet three times per week. On some Wednesdays and
on most Fridays, the class period will be devoted to discussion of the week's
"text." Most of the time the "text" will be a written
document of significance, which reflects the times in which it was written. But
for three weeks, the "text" will be films.
(Available at the
Kagan, et
al., The Western Heritage. Vol.
C: 1789-Present;
Voltaire, Candide;
Walter, Diary
of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier;
H. von
Kleist, The Marquis of O and Other Stories
Dickens, Hard
Times;
Haggard, King
Solomon’s Mines;
Remarque,
All Quiet on the Western Front;
Borowski,
This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen; and
Orwell, 1984.
(Some of
the weekly “texts” are reproduced from other books. They are available in this
course’s “course folder.” These readings are indicated in the syllabus as CF).
Our major activity in the term will be
the study and discussion of original, primary materials, which allow us to
encounter the past on its own terms. Each week some work of political,
literary, or film art will provide the focus for the discussion. These are the
“texts” mentioned above. We, however, will approach them less as art than as
historical artifacts, that is, as pieces of the past that tell us something
about the era in which they appeared. We should not, however, take them as
literal “truth,” but rather as statements of the worries, arguments and
imagined triumphs of each era. In a way they are fictional, but for us they
reflect real-world conditions of the time.
In preparation for the discussions and
writing assignments you will need to be familiar with these texts. Each week
you will want to ask yourself a set of questions as you read (or as you see,
since some weeks the "text" is a film) these materials:
1.
Conditions of creation; who made this?; when?; where? why? Is there anything to
be gained by the author in writing this way?
2. What
does the text (film, book, excerpt from a book) reveal of the social, economic
and political circumstances of the era?
3. What
are the cultural values of the writer of that age? Is the writer one who
accepts the dominant culture or does (s)he challenge it?
4. Is
there a dimension of this document which reveals “progress” in some sense,” or
some dimension which discloses a failure to “progress?”
The evaluation of each student's progress
will be based on:
a. four essays of 1000-1200 words (5-7 pp.
double-spaced pages) each (together 70%), prepared at home;
b. best 5 of 6 quizzes (10-15 minutes each) on
alternate Fridays (20%)
c. your contributions to class discussions
(10%).
You will be expected to come to class with the
materials read and ready to discuss them. Essay topics will be assigned a
couple of weeks before they are due. I will read and offer suggestions on
drafts, but the paper you submit on the due-date will be the one to get the
grade. Don’t turn in papers late as those papers will be penalized. All work
will be evaluated on the basis of how directly responsive to the assignment it
is, how clear and coherent the thesis is, and how substantive an historical
argument (i.e., how well you have mastered the factual data, considering the
lectures and readings) you provide in defense of your thesis.
1. Week
of Jan. 24-28.
Introduction.
“Ancien Regime” West and East. Scientific Revolution. The Enlightenment and “Progress.”
Voltaire,
Candide
2. Week
of Jan. 31-Feb. 4.
Kagan,
19;
Burke, Reflections
of the Revolution in France (hand-out);
Tom
Paine, The Rights of Man (hand-out).
Quiz #1.
Feb. 4th.
3. Week
of Feb. 7-11.
Napoleon
and the French Revolution.
Kagan,
19-20;
Walter, Diary
of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier;
Quiz #2.
Feb. 11th.
4. Week
of Feb. 14-18.
Revenge
of the French Revolution: Romanticism and Nationalism. Capitalism and the
Industrial Revolution. Where’s the
“Progress?”
Kagan, 20
(pp. 704-27), 21;
H. von
Kleist, "Betrothal in
FIRST
ESSAY DUE IN CLASS FEB. 18th.
5. Week
of Feb. 21-25.
"Dark
Satanic Mills." Comparative
Industrialization.
Kagan, 22 (pp. 765-83);
Dickens, Hard
Times.
Quiz #3.
Feb. 25th.
6. Week of Feb. 28-Mar. 4.
Conservatives
Up Against the Wall. Revolutions of1848. Socialisms.
Kagan, 22
(pp. 784-803);
Marx and
Engels, The Communist Manifesto (excerpts)(hand-out);
Mill, On
Owen, Address
(hand-out).
7. Week
of Mar. 7-11.
The Conservatives
"Wise Up": Napoleon III, Bismarck, Alexander II. Imperialisms and
European Values.
Kagan,
23-24;
Haggard, King
Solomon’s Mines.
Quiz #4.
Mar. 11th.
8. Week
of Mar. 14-18.
World War
I as Modernity. Revolution in
Kagan,
25-26;
Remarque,
All Quiet on the Western Front;
Film: "Grand Illusion" (Jean Renoir, director).
SECOND
ESSAY DUE IN CLASS MARCH 18th.
9. Week
of Mar. 21-27. SPRING BREAK
10. Week
of Mar.28-Apr. 1.
Liberal Democracy between the World Wars.
“Progress” in Modern Society. The Stalin Revolution.
Kagan,
27;
Ortega y
Gasset, Revolt of the Masses (hand-out).
Quiz #5. April
1st.
11. Week
of Apr. 4-8.
Fascist
Revolution in
Kagan,
28;
Film:
"Triumph of the Will" (Leni Riefenstahl, director).
12. Week
of Apr. 11-15.
World War
II and “Progress.” The Cold War and
Superpower Domination in
Kagan,
29;
Borowski,
This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
THIRD
ESSAY DUE IN CLASS APRIL 15th.
13. Week
of Apr. 18-22.
Postwar
Economics and Political Stability: The Modern Welfare State; French and German
Models of Worker-Employer Relations.
Kagan,
30;
Orwell, 1984.
Quiz #6.
April 22nd.
14. Week
of Apr. 25-29.
The Years
1968 and 1973 as Watersheds. Significance of the Economic
Kagan,
31;
Film:
“The Lost Honor of Katarina Blum.”
15. Week
of May 2.
The
Revolutions of1989-91. Individual
FOURTH
ESSAY DUE IN MY OFFICE (MAIN 307) by 5 p.m. on MAY 6th.