History 366-01 Spring 2006

EUROPE IN THE AGE OF UPHEAVAL

David Itzkowitz: OM 301 ((H) 699-1014; (O) x6216 * itzkowitz@macalester.edu

Office Hours: Mon. and Wed., 4-5; Tues, 10-11. Other times by appointment

In this course we will look at the history of Europe from around 1789, the year of the outbreak of the French Revolution, to around 1850, shortly after the revolutions of 1848. During these sixty-odd years, European society underwent a series of wrenching changes, and it is no accident that the period began and ended with violent political revolutions. Although the beginning and ending dates for the period covered by this course are drawn from political history, it is one of the themes of this course that it is impossible to understand political developments without also understanding a number of other factors including social and cultural change.

REQUIRED BOOKS:

Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman

Honore de Balzac, Pere Goriot

Deborah Valenze, The First Industrial Woman

Karl Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

All of the above are available at Macalester Textbooks, as well as at libraries. Many of them are “standard” eighteenth- and nineteenth-century “canonical” authors, so there are multiple printed editions of their works as well as e-texts in some cases. You are not required to acquire the particular edition that I have ordered, but if you have no particular reason to acquire a different edition, you might as well get the one I have ordered so as to allow us to have classroom discussions with uniform pagination. There will also be some other reading assigned during the term that will be available in reprint form.

There is no textbook for this course. Students who want to consult some general works on European history should consult the instructor for suggestions.

BUREAUCRATIC EXPECTATIONS:

We will meet MWF from 2:20 to 3:20 for lecture and discussion. Although formal attendance will not be taken beyond the first few weeks, attendance is expected and class participation will be considered in assigning grades. I also expect that the reading, which may be considerable, will be completed on time, and the class sessions will be based on the assumption that about 1/2 of the weeks' reading will be completed on Monday and the remainder on Wednesday. (There may be some exceptions to that pattern and, if so, they will be clearly marked on the syllabus.

All students will be required either

a. To write a series of three analytical papers. These papers are due February 22, March 24, and April 24..

-- or –

b. To write the first of the three papers and to substitute a longer paper for the remaining two.

Students who choose option b. must meet with the instructor to discuss this no later than one week after getting the first paper back. THERE CAN BE NO EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE.

Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, learning, and psychological disabilities. Please contact the Disability Services Office located at Macalester Health Services, 696-6275, to discuss accessing accommodations.

COMPLETION OF ALL WRITTEN WORK IS A REQUIREMENT FOR PASSING THIS COURSE.

EXCEPT IN TRULY SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, THERE WILL BE NO INCOMPLETES GRANTED IN THIS COURSE.

SCHEDULE

As befits our study of upheaval and revolution, this schedule is subject to radical and sudden change

Week of:

January 23 Introduction to the course and to the French Revolution

Read: Jack Censer, "Commencing the Third Century of Debate," American Historical Review, December 1989, pp. 1309-1325. Available through http://www.jstor.org/