History 1401E: Modern Europe, 1715 to the Present:  Conflict and Transformation

Course Description

History 1401E examines events and forces that shaped the lives of Europeans over the past three centuries.  Societies that were largely rural, illiterate, and ruled by traditional elites became mostly urban, with mandatory school attendance, mass political parties, and new forms of political loyalty.  Ethnic and religious minorities and women were, in varying degrees, emancipated.  In the eastern part of the continent serfdom was abolished.  But the history is also one of class and ethnic hatreds and conflicts, of global imperialism, of disastrous attempts at domination and social reordering in Europe, of total wars and genocide.  We will examine all of these subjects.

The class begins with an analysis of the origins and consequences of the French and industrial revolutions, both of which influenced European history in fundamental ways.  Conflicts between those who wished to change and improve European societies and political structures and those who longed to preserve existing institutions dominated the politics of the nineteenth century.  We examine the content of these debates and conflicts.  The last part of the course examines the causes and consequences of the First World War, the experience of communism in the Soviet Union, Nazism and the Second World War, decolonization, and post-war efforts at European integration.

Required Texts

PALMER R. R., Joel COLTON, and Lloyd KRAMER, A History of the Modern World, 10th edition (New York, McGraw-Hill, 2007)

PERRY Marvin, Joseph R. PEDEN, and Theodore Von LAUE, Sources of the Western Tradition, vol. 2 (From the Renaissance to the Present), 8th edition (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2012)

RAMPOLLA Mary Lynn, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 6th edition (Boston, Bedford / St Martin=s, 2007).

Students will also select one of the following two texts to serve as the basis for the book analysis due in week eleven:

FLAUBERT Gustave, Madame Bovary, trans. by Margaret Mauldon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), or

De TOCQUEVILLE Alexis, The Old Regime and the Revolution, trans. by Alan Kahan, Vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

Evaluation

Tutorial participation:  15% - based on attendance, active participation in discussions, and five short Text Analyses, due throughout the year

Mid-term Test I:          10% - written in your tutorial, week 8

Book Analysis:            15% - approximately 1500 words, due in tutorial, week 11

Final Essay:                 30% - approximately 2500-3000 words, due in tutorial week 22 (Proposal and discussion with TA required in January)

Final Examination:      30% - Examination Period, April 2012.

YOU MUST PASS the Final Examination to PASS THE COURSE

 

 

 

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