Dr. Doug Campbell, docampbell@nvcc.edu,Office: LC- 320
Office Hours
In LC-320: Mondays 11 am-12:30pm, Wednesdays, 10-11am ,or by
appointment.
Office Hours via Zoom Appointment: Tuesdays, 12-1:30 pm,
Thursdays, 6-7pm;
Email me at least 24 hours in advance to schedule an appointment
if you need to consult during office hours.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, NOVA and the state of Virginia
mandates everyone wear face coverings while indoors on campus
for everyone's safety. Free masks are available at the campus Parking
and NOVACard office. You are also encouraged to take
advantage of one of the several safe and effective vaccines
against COVID-19 which help protect both you and those around
you. NOVA also offers a $250
incentive for all vaccinated students, and a $75 incentive
for booster vaccinations. Thanks for your help!
If the situation with the ongoing pandemic deteriorates, the in
person class meetings may be moved to synchronous Zoom sessions
at the professor's discretion.
You just happen to be lucky enough to have enrolled in a class on
the history of western civilization. Seriously. History is
enormously interesting, and I love teaching it. If I
do my job correctly, you will love learning about it. And of
course, not only is history fascinating, but it's also valuable in
an intellectual sense. Learning about how people lived in
the past can help broaden your horizons, making your outlook less
parochial and more cosmopolitan. It's sort of like traveling
to a foreign country without the discomfort of a long,
uncomfortable plane ride. History, of course, can also in
your understanding of the present by showing you the deeper
roots of problems and trends in the contemporary world. And
finally, a well-taught history course is chock full of practice in
all sorts of useful skills that employers are interested in, such
as critical thinking, analyzing documents, and crafting
well-written arguments based on evidence. So history can be
fun, can enrich your intellectual life, and make you more
money. What could be more awesome?
One thing to keep in mind with this course, however, is the fact
that learning is not a spectator sport. You can't just sit
back passively and expect to get anything near the full benefit of
this class. You need to be actively engaged in your own
education. I certainly have to play my part, and I
promise to do my best to present an interesting and dynamic class
which offers you all sorts of opportunities to learn cool
stuff. The actual learning is your job, though. To put
it another way, I can cook the most delicious banquet imaginable,
and set the table in the most attractive way possible, piling it
high with all sorts of fabulous delicacies. But in the end,
you're the one who actually has to eat the meal. So if
you're going to take this class, I'll ask you to make a conscious
decision to engage in all of the opportunities available to you,
and to commit to coming to all of the class sessions, to
participating in an active and thoughtful manner in all of our
class discussions, to completing all of the assigned readings, and
to submitting all of the required assignments. If you do, I
promise it will be worth your while. Your place at the table
is set, and you are invited....
Stuff the College makes me include:
Course
Description
Examines the development of western civilization from
ancient times to the present. Part II of II. Lecture 3
hours per week.
General Course Purpose
Surveys the general history of the Western world from
about 1600 CE to the present and allows students to reach a
basic understanding of the characteristic features of the
Western world's historical development in that span of time.
Students will learn about some of the important political,
economic, social, intellectual, cultural and religious changes
that shaped the development of West in this period of time.
Course objectives
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
- Establish a
chronology of historical events in the Western world since
1600 CE.
- Explain the
changing geopolitical structures of the Western world up
since 1600 CE.
- Define the
importance of key individuals and developments in Western
civilization before 1600 CE.
- Identify the
social, economic and political forces at work in the
evolution of modern Western history.
- Recognize and
describe the significance of some of the cultural
achievements of modern Western civilization.
- Analyze complex
historical sources and materials and reach conclusions
based on interpretations of those materials.
Course Prerequisites: None
Our primary goal is to investigate what it means to be human by
looking at what humans were like in the past. To that end, this
class is going to use several themes as "lenses" through which to
examine the human past. The themes are:
Ideology:
What is ideology? What role does it play in human societies?
Which systems of ideas are most beneficial to human societies?
Which are most harmful?
Government: What are the
origins of human governments? What are the various forms
that government has taken over the centuries? Which forms work
best? Which are worst?
Gender: Are different social
roles for men and women essential or arbitrary? How have human
opinions on gender, marriage, and sexuality changed over time?
Social Class: Are
inequalities in wealth and power an inherent part of human life
or an evil to be overcome? On what basis should wealth and power
be allocated?
There are of course plenty of other lenses through which to look
at the past, but these are a good start and should give plenty of
interesting questions to examine for one class.
There are no books you need to purchase for this class. We will be
making use, as much as possible, of Open Educational Resources
(OER) which are available online for free.
Even though we have left the more traditional paper
textbook-oriented model of a history class behind, however, this
course still requires you to do a great deal of reading, writing,
and, above all, thinking. You should take the course
readings seriously, and make sure to keep up with the reading
assignments described below in the Class
Schedule.
Course readings should be completed BEFORE you come to the first
class session of the week for which they are assigned, and you should have access to them in
class, either by printing them out, or through an
Internet-enabled device with a large screen (a smart phone
probably won't cut it). It is especially important to read the
documents listed as "Primary Sources to Read" as we will
definitely be discussing those in class. Taking
notes on them, marking the most important passages, and
jotting down any questions you might have is highly encouraged.
Your overall grade for the class will consist of the following
elements. Assignments which are not turned in will not receive any
points. No work for the course
other than the Final Exam will be accepted after April 29-- no
exceptions!
Scores will be posted on Canvas, and will be accompanied by
general comments about the strengths and weaknesses of your work.
If you would like a more
detailed description of aspects of the assignment which could be
improved, just ask me and I will be happy to provide one.
Grading
Scale
Your final grade for the course will be calculated according to
the scale below.
Points
|
Final
Course Grade |
| Above 90% |
A |
| 80-89% |
B |
| 70-79% |
C |
| 60-69% |
D |
| 59% and Below |
F |
You will need access to the internet and to word processing
software for this class. You should be familiar with using
Canvas (the College's learning management system) in order to
submit assignments and view your grades, and you should regularly
check your NOVA email account, which is the only way I have of
getting in touch with you outside of class.
Guidelines
for Conduct During Class Meetings
You are responsible for being present and attentive during
class. Late arrival to class may result in being marked as absent
for the class session.
Disruptive
Behavior: Please be considerate. Disruptive behavior
will not be tolerated. Private conversations during
lecture or class discussions all distract and disturb your
instructor and your classmates, and will count against your
participation grade. Repeated instances of rude behavior
may result your removal from the classroom. If you have
a question or a comment on the course material, please raise
your hand.
Announcements: If there is something I need to
communicate to the class, I will post an announcement to the
course Canvas page. It is the your responsibility to check the
course's Canvas page and your College email account in a timely
manner in order to receive information on the substitute
assignment and when it is due. You should adjust the settings of
your Canvas account to make sure that you are promptly notified.
Abuse: Any student who
seems to be under the influence of alcohol or intoxicating drugs,
or who is abusive or violent will be referred to the appropriate
College authorities.
Course Content Warning: Lectures and course materials may
contain disturbing content, including, but not limited to:
violence, sexual assault, war crimes, genocide, mental or physical
illnesses or disabilities, discrimination or persecution on the
basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and/or sexual
orientation, etc. If you have been personally impacted by one or
more of these topics and suffer from PTSD, please email the
professor if you would like prior notification of lectures
containing discussions of the effecting topics.
Accommodations: Students
requiring special accommodations for assignments or exams should
have the appropriate forms from the Disability
Support Service (DSS). Forms should be given to me no
fewer than 7 days before the date the assignment or exam requiring
the accommodation is due, and preferably at the very beginning of
the semester.
Guidelines for
Written Work
Formatting: Papers
should be double spaced, using 12 point Tahoma font and one inch
margins. All papers must be word processed and submitted
through Canvas as files in .doc, .odt, .pdf, or .rtf format (No
.pages format submissions, please!). E-mail submissions will not be
accepted. See this rubric
for a more detailed description of how you will be graded.
Style and Grammar: All of
your work for this class must present a main argument or thesis
which addresses the question(s) posed by the assignment, should
support that argument with evidence, and should be written in
grammatical and stylistically correct English. Make sure to
proofread and use spell-check. For information on writing papers
for this class, make sure to read my Tips for
History Papers page. You also might want to consult
the following handy websites:
NVCC
Loudoun's Writing Center
Patrick Rael, "Avoid
Common
Mistakes In Your History Paper"
Steven Kreis, "Writing the
Short Essay"
Citations: You MUST include a formal
citation any time you refer to a specific passage in a text, even
if you do not quote the text directly. The required method
for citing sources in this class is the Chigago
Manual
of Style's format, which is the standard for the discipline
of history. According to this format, at the end of any
sentence or paragraph drawn from a specific part of a source, you
insert superscript number which corresponds to a footnote at the
bottom of the page with the appropriate bibliographic
information. Number your footnotes consecutively. Consult
the previous web link for more detailed information on citations
in this format. You also might find this video on "Inserting
Chicago Style Footnotes and Endnotes Using Microsoft Word"
helpful. EVERY PAPER you complete for this class should include a
bibliography at the end listing all of the sources you consulted
(even if the list includes only one source). Your
bibliography page does not count toward the page length of your
assignment.
Plagiarism: Any
student caught plagiarizing or cheating in this course will be
subject to appropriate disciplinary action, including at a minimum
no credit whatsoever for the assignment or exam in question (No
exceptions!!!). Particularly flagrant instances of
cheating or multiple instances of plagiarism will result in a
grade of "F" for the course. Procedures for disciplinary measures
and appeals are outlined in the NOVA
Student Handbook.
Please note that even copying a sentence or two from another
source without citing it is enough to trigger a plagiarism
penalty. Likewise, changing a word here or there from
content which you copy is still plagiarism. Your work should
be entirely in your own words except for the passages which you
quote and appropriately cite.
For a bit more discussion on why you will probably get caught if
you try to use the web to plagiarize, see "How
Dumb
Do They Think We Are?" by Jonathan Malesic. All of
your papers for the class will be checked for plagiarism by
Turnitin software.
Late Work: Late papers
and assignments will receive a one letter grade late penalty. The
Attendance and Participation activities associated with our class
meetings depend on your active interaction with your classmates,
and cannot be completed late. No late assignments will be accepted
after April 29.
Guidelines
for E-Mail Communication
The easiest way to contact me outside of class is through
e-mail. In order to receive a response to your message,
however, your e-mail must contain the following elements:
- Your full name, the
name of the class, and the day and time when it meets in the
title of your message.
- Appropriate salutations
and
signatures.
- Correct grammar and
punctuation.
Messages sent using "text-ese" or rude or abusive
language will be ignored (b/c it makes u look ignorant d00d)!
I have on average between 150-200 students a semester, so you need
to provide me with as much information as possible if you want a
timely answer to your message. Please allow at least 48
hours before following up. If you haven't received a
response within a couple of days, however, feel free to nag me.
| Description of Course Elements |
Attendance
and Participation
Your attendance and
active participation is expected at every class meeting.Given the
fact that participation is part of your grade, your attendance is
expected at every class meeting. You are allowed two
unexcused absence for the semester. You will only receive
credit for attending a class session if you are present when I
take roll at the beginning of class. Please note that you
should definitely not come to class if you suspect you may have an
infectious illness. Let me know and I can excuse the absence--
thanks!Preparedness: You should make sure that you have completed
the assigned readings and any required assignments BEFORE you
attend the class session for which they are assigned, especially
the readings labelled as "Discussion Readings." You may be
asked to discuss both readings and assignments, so you should have
access to them during class.
You are expected to treat your fellow students with respect and a
spirit of generosity and good-will. If you have a problem with one
of the other students that you are unable to resolve on your own,
please contact the professor for guidance and assistance.
Discussions in smaller groups will be a frequent feature of the
class. At least 2 times over the course of the semester,
each student will serve as the leader of their group for class
discussions. The group leader is responsible for noting which
group members are present and participating in the discussion, and
should help guide the group's conversation so that the form
associated with that particular discussion has been completely
filled out. The group leader will also share the group's findings
with the rest of the class, if applicable, for that particular
class session. Finally, the group leader should also turn in the
appropriate completed form through Canvas at the end of the class
session, and should submit a brief paragraph describing what they
did to prepare and how they helped to facilitate the discussion.
Conservatism
and Socialism Paper
Read the excerpts from Edmund Burke’s Reflections
on the Revolution in France and Karl Marx’s The
Communist Manifesto, and then write a paper at least
two double-spaced pages long (approximately 500 words) which
answers the following questions: How did the conservative Edmund
Burke and the communist Karl Marx view the prospect of revolutions
differently? Why did Burke think revolutions were so dangerous?
Why did Marx think that revolutions were necessary and inevitable?
How might each have critiqued the views of the other? What might
they have agreed with one another about?
You should make sure to cite specific examples from the documents
in order to support your arguments, and to cite them using Chicago-format
footnotes, including page numbers. Please follow the guidelines
for written work in this class, and make sure to check the "Tips for
History Papers" page before turning in your final draft.
See this rubric
for a more detailed description of how you will be graded.
You must find a Wikipedia
page dealing with a topic related to the topic of your Final
Project and compare it to a scholarly article written within
the past 50 years on the same basic subject from a
history-focused
scholarly
journal (see below for more detailed
information on how to find a scholarly journal article).
Then in a 2 page, double-spaced paper write a comparative analysis
of the two articles as sources of historical
information. You may not complete this assignment
unless you have received approval for your sources. Your proposed sources
for the Source Criticism Paper should be uploaded for approval
using this form.
Make sure to check the professor's feedback to see if your sources
were approved, or if you need to resubmit the form.
Once your sources are approved, you should write a paper at least
two double-spaced pages long with a main argument which answers
this major question: "Which
of these sources is more useful to a scholar researching this
particular subject?" Your analysis also ought to address the following
secondary questions:
- Is the author of
each article identified? If so, what is his or her level
of expertise with the subject matter?
- What is the
main argument or each source?
- Does each article
specify its evidence or sources of information? If
so, what sorts of evidence are cited?
- Given what you know
about the subject matter from reading your textbook and
attending class, how reliable and accurate is each article?
- Which article seems
to be more useful as a resource?
You should mention the
title of the website and the title of the article, the name of the
journal, and the name of the author of the scholarly journal
article in the introduction of your paper. You should also include
the full bibliographic citations for each in a bibliography page.
Please follow the guidelines
for written work in this class, and make sure to check the "Tips for
History Papers" page before turning in your final draft.
See this rubric
for a more detailed description of how you will be graded.
How To Find A Scholarly Journal Article:
A scholarly journal is a periodical which contains
research-based articles and reviews by established scholars in a
given field. These sorts of journals are geared towards a
professional or academic audience, and are intended to serve as
an intellectual resource rather than to earn a profit for the
publisher. In order to have an article published in
a scholarly journal, an author must submit it to the
editorial board of the journal first. The editors then
will have the prospective article reviewed by other scholars in
the field. Only an article which passes through this
process of evaluation by recognized experts ("peer review") can
be published in a scholarly journal. All scholarly journal
articles meticulously document their sources of information and
contain ample foot or endnotes. While some scholarly
journals make some or all of their content available on the web,
a genuine scholarly journal is also always published in paper
form so it can become part of the collections of
research-oriented libraries. Consult the NOVA Library's
page on scholarly journal articles for more
information on what distinguishes a scholarly journal from other
sorts of periodicals.
Just a few
examples of some of the most prominent scholarly journals
dealing with modern Western history include The American Historical Review, The Journal of Modern History, Central European
History, The Russian Review, French Historical Studies,
Historische Zeitschrift, Journal of British Studies,
and VIctorian Studies (This is not a
complete list-- there are many, many more!). Please note
that magazines like History
Today, National
Geographic Magazine, and American History certainly contain
interesting material, they are intended for a popular audience
rather than a professional academic one, and hence do not
qualify as scholarly journals.
Not too
terribly long ago, the only place one could go to access a
scholarly journal was an academic library. These days,
however, many journals allow readers to access their contents
online. The best place to start is JSTOR, a service which
provides the full text of articles from several hundred
different scholarly journals. You can use JSTOR for free
by accessing it through the NVCC Library's site.
You can access
JSTOR from the NOVA library's homepage. Go to http://www.nvcc.edu/library/
Click on the "Articles" tab;
then click
"Databases by Subject";
the click
"History (HIS)";
then click
"JSTOR" and login with the same id you would use to access My
NOVA.
Once in JSTOR,
you should select the "advanced search" option, scroll down to
"Narrow by Item Type" and click the "Articles" box, and then
scroll down again to "Narrow by discipline and/or publication
title:" and click the "History" box.
Then plug in your search topic and see what comes up.
You also might want to consult the Research
Guide for this class prepared by the College research
librarians.
An annotated
bibliography is an organized list of sources. It differs from a
straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed
by a paragraph length annotation. The Annotated Bibliography is
part of your Final Project. You should provide annotations
for the sources that will then be used in the Final
Project. Sources should be directly related to the Final
Project’s topic. Annotations should be a brief paragraph
(about 100 words) long.
Part 1 of your Annotated Bibliography should include:
- At least 5
Primary Sources (either online or in print).
For primary sources, you should be looking for documents which
were originally written during the time period you are trying
to study. While architectural or archaeological remains
certainly do qualify as primary sources which can be used by
scholars to reconstruct the past, they are problematic for an
assignment like this. Written documents from the past should
be your focus!
See the description of the
Final Project below for a list of sites to begin finding relevant
primary sources.
For each of
the Primary Sources in Part 1 your annotation should include:
- Bibliographic
information according to Chicago style.
- The name and
background of the author, if known.
- The date the
document was originally written, if known.
- The author’s purpose
in writing the document and its historical context.
- Any bias displayed
by the author.
- The significance of
the document (ie, why should anybody in the present care?).
Part 2 of your Annotated
Bibliography should include:
-
At least 5 Secondary Scholarly Sources,
including:
- At least 1
Scholarly Journal Article (you learned about these in your
Source Criticism Paper)
- At least 1
Scholarly Monograph (A book length scholarly study by one
author)
- For the other 3
secondary sources, you should use high quality scholarly
sources, and avoid using the textbook, encyclopedia
articles, or anonymously authored websites.
For each of the Secondary Sources in Part 2 your annotation should
include:
- Bibliographic
information according to Chicago style.
- The name and
scholarly background of the author (education, publications,
university appointments, etc.)
- The author’s main
argument (note, this is not the same thing as a simple
description of the subject matter-- what is the author trying
to say about this subject?).
- The specific types
of evidence used to support the author’s main argument (are
they primary sources? Scholarly secondary works?)
- How
successful/convincing is the author’s argument?
Please follow the guidelines
for written work in this class.
The capstone assignment for this class is
the Final Project. For this assignment you should select one of
the following option. No matter what option you choose, you will
need to produce the equivalent of 6 double spaced pages worth of
text (approximately 1250 words), and to draw upon at least 5
primary source documents (text, not images) and 5 scholarly
secondary sources. See below for more detailed descriptions of
what each option requires:
- Do Your Own
Thing (If You Can Convince Me): You can
also propose your own format for a Final Project, but you
will need to explain why you think this particular format
is interesting and a good way to discuss your particular
topic. If I agree, I will approve the proposal; if not,
you will need to pick one of the other Final Project
formats. The format also will need to meet the same
requirements as the others in terms of both page
length/word count and number and types of sources used.
Power Point or other slide-based presentations are
extremely boring, and definitely will not be approved.
Sources:
In terms of
evidence, you should feel free to draw from sources you have
already considered for your other course work. At a
minimum, however, your paper must refer to and correctly cite:
- At least 5 Primary
Sources (either online or in print). Your primary
sources should be roughly evenly divided between the two
societies which you are examining.
- At least 1 Scholarly
Journal Article (you learned about these in your
Source Criticism Paper)
- At least 1
Scholarly Monograph (essentially a book by a scholar
focused on one narrow historical subject relevant to your
research topic)
- At least 3 Other
Secondary Sources (either online or in print)
For primary sources, you might consult the
following resources (some of these sites also contain secondary
sources as well):
Directory
of
World History Primary Sources
The relevant due dates and point worth of the various elements of
the Final Project are as follows:
| Final Project Element |
Description |
Due Date |
| Proposal |
You should
submit a Final Project Proposal using the relevant link in
Canvas which describes the option and topic. You may not
turn in an Annotated Bibliography or a finished Final
Project without getting your Topic Proposal approved in
advance.
|
Feb. 4
|
Annotated
Bibliography, Parts 1 and 2
|
You should submit a
bibliography of the sources which you intend to use for
your Final Project. The bibliography should include at
least 5 primary sources (historical documents from the
past) and 5 scholarly secondary sources (including at
least one scholarly journal article and one scholar
monarch). Each source should be accompanied by a brief
paragraph of analysis (See the Annotated
Bibliography assignment description for more
detailed information).
|
Part 1: April 1
Part 2: April 8
|
Finished Final
Project
|
You should submit a Final
Project using the appropriate link on the course Canvas
page. See below for complete descriptions of the various
Final Project Options.
|
April 22
|
Research Paper Option:
For this option you will write a
Research Paper which is 6 double spaced
pages (approximately 1250 words) long, and which draws
upon and correctly cites at least 5 primary source
documents (text, not images) and 5 scholarly secondary
sources.Your paper should attempt to answer
a specific question relevant to the subject matter of the
course
which deals with one or more of the themes of the course
(ideology, government, gender, and social class) and discuss
how it/they have changed over time.
You should make sure to refer to or quote specific
examples from the sources in order to support your arguments,
and to cite them using Chicago-format footnotes.
Please follow the guidelines
for written work in this class. See this rubric for a more detailed
description of how you will be graded.
The themes themselves
are too broad to be the focus or your paper, so your topic
should narrow the focus down in some way (For example, the
topic, "Religion in Western Civilization" is too broad).
On the other hand, I would like you to pick a topic that
allows you to examine changes over a considerable span of
time. Here are some sample research questions as examples.
You are free to pick one of these, to modify one (for
example to change the region on which the question focuses),
or to suggest your own entirely new topic.
- What role did
religion play in European society during the 20th century?
(theme: ideology)
- How have attitudes
toward sex and sexuality changed in the Western world during
the past century?(theme: gender)
- What does the rise
of spectator sports in Europe between 1900-2000 reveal about
ideals of masculinity? (theme: gender)
- What was life like
under communism behind the Iron Curtain,
1945-1989? (theme: government and ideology)
- How did
conservatism help shape the development of Europe since the
end of World War II? (theme: government and ideology)
- What was middle
class life like during the Industrial
Revolution? (theme: social class)
- What was working
class life like during the Industrial
Revolution? (theme: social class)
- How and why did
Fascism become popular in Interwar Europe? (theme:
ideology)
- How and why has
the relationship between liberalism and democracy changed
during the 20th century? (theme: ideology)
- What role did
racism play in justifying Western imperialism? (theme:
ideology)
- What role did
Anti-Semitism play in leading to the rise of Nazi Germany
and the Holocaust? (theme: ideology)
- What impact did
modernist culture have on European society between 1850 and
1950?(theme: ideology)
- How did the ideas
of modern science affect the course of the 20th
century? (theme: ideology)
- How did feminism
change the way women lived in the modern era? (theme:
gender and ideology)
- What was the
impact of Enlightenment ideas on the French
Revolution? (theme: government and ideology)
- To what extent was
the French Revolution the product of the aspirations of the
rising middle class?(theme: government and social class)
“Day In The Life” Video Option:
For
this version of the Final Project you will need to choose a
time period and region relevant to some aspect of the subject
matter of this class. Then select three different people to
portray. They can be either specific individuals from history,
or different types of people (ie, from different social
classes, professions, nationalities, ethnicities, genders,
etc.).
Once your characters have been approved, you
should craft a video of approximately 5 minutes (so 15 minutes
total), where each character introduces themselves and
discusses what their daily life is like. Consider discussing
topics such as the character’s work, living conditions, family
relationships, food, political and social opinions, etc. The
idea is to provide as vivid, interesting, and historically
accurate portrayal as possible. Feel free to use appropriate
accents or slang if you like. You can use friends or family
members in your videos if you like, as long as you are the one
who writes the script.
Important stuff that you shouldn’t forget:
-
Your video should advance a clear, specific argument or
thesis about what the lives of the three people portrayed
reveal about the particular era in which they lived.
-
You also should include a list of all of your sources at the
end of the video.
-
All final project videos must be posted on YouTube
or Vimeo.
You must upload the link for the instructor to grade. Do not
set your video to “private” or select any other access
restrictions. It must be public for the instructor to grade.
-
In order to receive a grade for the Final Project, you must
submit your written script and a link to the video using the
appropriate link in Canvas.
Here are some suggestions for software to use when editing
your videos:
-
iMovie
-
Movie Maker
-
Final Cut Express
-
Camtasia
-
WeVideo
Travel Log Website Option:
For this version of the Final Project you will need
to choose a time period and region relevant to some aspect of
the subject matter of this class. Then select at least five
specific geographic sites or events to discuss. These can be
specific buildings or monuments, neighborhoods, dwellings,
shops, taverns, battles, revolutions, speeches, spectacles,
festivals, ceremonies, etc.
Once
your choice has been approved, you should craft a written
narrative in which you visit each of the sites in turn,
describing what you witness at stop along your journey. Make
sure to mention what you see, hear, small, taste, do, etc. The
idea is to provide as vivid, interesting, and historically
accurate portrayal as possible. It is up to you whether you
adopt the persona of a traveler from the time period in
question, or travel back in time in some manner. You’ve got a
lot of leeway here-- be creative!
Your
finished product should be in the form of a website which is
posted online, and which is viewable by anyone. The website
should be a visually interesting as possible, and should include
a variety of (correctly sourced and cited) images and/or maps.
Important stuff that you shouldn’t forget:
- Your
Travel Log website should advance a clear, specific argument
or thesis about what the sites visited and/or events
witnessed reveal about the nature of life at that particular
place and time in history.
- You
also should include a list of all of your sources somewhere
in the website.
- The
website should be publicly viewable, and should not require
a password to access.
- In
order to receive a grade for the Final Project, you must
submit the weblink for your Travel Log website as well as a
.pdf, .doc, or .rtf file containing the text of your Travel
Log (so it can be checked for plagiarism) using the
appropriate link in Canvas.
Here are some suggestions
for free public web hosting for your website:
- Google
sites
- Blogger
- Wix
- Weebly
- WordPress
- TravelDiaries
There
are two unproctored exams for this course which are to be
completed at home and submitted through Canvas. You can use any
notes, course readers, or other resources you wish as long as
you cite them (simply listing the bibliographic information or
web address at the end of the question is sufficient-- no need
to include footnotes). All of your responses should be in your
own words rather than quoted from other sources. If you use any
additional sources without citing them, you will not receive any
points for the exam.
Midterm
Exam. You should submit a file through Canvas with
your responses to the following questions:
1) Time Line (10 Paragraphs):
Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what
you think are the ten most important events in the history of
the West from 1600-1900. No more than two of your examples
should be drawn from United States history. Each
item on your Time Line should be a paragraph long and should
contain the following information:
- What
happened.
- When
it happened (approximate dates are okay).
- Why
it happened.
- The major Consequences
of the event.
- How the event
helps us understand what life was like in the past.
2) Theme
Analysis (4 Paragraphs): Select and describe four
important events, changes, or developments from Western
History from 1600-1900, one for each one
of the four class themes (government, ideology, gender and
social class). Each one of your four theme analyses should
be a paragraph long, and should refer to a specific
primary source document we have read for the class. Again,
make sure to think about causes, consequences, and context
for each.
Final
Exam. You should submit a file through Canvas with your
responses to the following questions:
1) Time Line (10
Paragraphs): Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological
order what you think are the ten most important events in the
history of the West since 1900. No more
than two of your examples should be drawn from United
States history. Each item
on your Time Line should be a paragraph long and should
contain the following information:
- What
happened.
- When
it happened (approximate dates are okay).
- Why
it happened.
- The major Consequences
of the event.
- How the event
helps us understand what life was like in the past.
2) Theme
Analysis (4
Paragraphs): Select and describe four important events,
changes, or developments from Western History since 1900, one for each one of the
four class themes (government, ideology, gender and social
class). Each one of your four theme analyses should be a
paragraph long, and should refer to a specific primary
source document we have read for the class. Again, make sure
to think about causes, consequences, and context for each.
Week 1.
Week 2.
Week 3.
Week 4.
Week 5.
Week 6.
Week 7.
Monday, February 28: Nationalism
|
Discussion Readings:
Documents of the Paris Commune, 1870-1871- "The
Fatherland Is In Danger!," "Manifesto
of the Paris Commune," "The
Pantheon's About To Blow Up!"
Brooks, Chapter
4: The Politics of the Nineteenth Century
|
Wednesday, March 2:
Cultural Modernism |
Discussion Readings:
Selection
of Love Letters from Oscar Wilde to Alfred "Bosie"
Douglas (1892-1897); Oscar Wilde, Selected
Prison Writings (1897); Douglas O. Linder, "The
Trials of Oscar Wilde: An Account (secondary
source)"
Brooks, Chapter
5: Culture, Science, and Pseudo-Science
|
| Assignments to Complete: |
Conservatism and Socialism
Paper due by 11 pm, March 4 |
March 7
and 9: No Class Spring Break
Week 8.
Week 9.
Week
12.
Week 13.
Week 14.
