MMW 6 (Track B): The 20th Century and Beyond

Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 – 1:50PM in Center Hall, Room #101

Spring 2008 • Class website: http://dss.ucsd.edu/~ejhollan/classes.htm

Instructor: Ethan J. Hollander

Email:

Office: Social Science Building (SSB) #341

Office Hours: Thursday, 2 – 4PM or, for a nominal fee, by appointment.

Teaching Assistants. / • Amanda Birmingham <>
• Mark Culyba <>
• Sonal Desai <>
• Eli Elinoff <>

This course is a general introduction to the history of human civilization from World War I to the present. Considerable emphasis will be placed on understanding the current events of our day. If you don’t already do so, please familiarize yourself with these events. Personally, I recommend the New York Times (available on-line), the Jim Lehrer News Hour (weekdays at 7pm on KPBS-TV), All Things Considered – NPR News (weekdays at 3:00–5:30 pm on KPBS Radio, 89.5 FM), and The Economist magazine; however, almost any news source that doesn’t devote too much attention to Brittany Spears’ latest shopping spree or personal crisis will be sufficient for this purpose.

This syllabus is required reading for the course. It is your responsibility to know it well. Additionally, you will be held responsible for material from the following sources:

• Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin Books, 2006.

• Craig, Albert M., et al. Heritage of World Civilizations, Volume Two: Since 1500. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.

• MMW 6 (Track C) Course Reader. Available at Cal Copy.

Final grades will be calculated with reference to the following:

Research Question and Bibliography: 5%

Prospectus: 10%

Final Paper: 20%

Mid-term Exam (Thursday, May 1st, in class): 25%

Final Exam (Monday, June 9th, 11:30am - 2:30pm): 30%

Section Grade: 10%

Make-up exams will only be given in the most exceptional of cases. You are advised to take note of the class and exam schedule now and to notify your TA or professor of any potential conflicts as soon as they come to your attention. In the event that you miss an assignment or exam due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’, proper documentation (doctor’s notes, travel receipts, obituaries, scars and/or bandages) will be required.

In addition to these assignments, you may also be subjected to ‘pop quizzes’ or given the opportunity for extra credit. Typically, credit (or debit) for your performance on these assessments will be applied to the next exam or assignment. Please note that these pop quizzes may also test you on current events (not just things that we’ve covered in class) and world geography (so take a look at the maps in the course reader). If this bothers you, please consider watching the evening news or moving into another MMW track.

Much of the assigned reading for the class can be found in the MMW 6 (Track B) Course Reader (available at: Cal Copy; 3251 Holiday Ct. #103; La Jolla; (858) 452-9949). There will also be a few films (on video reserve at Geisel Library) and a few readings available on e-reserves (http://reserves.ucsd.edu). Unless otherwise noted, all readings should be completed by the dates specified in the schedule of classes.

Note: This syllabus is subject to change. You are responsible for all assignments given in class, regardless of whether they appear in the syllabus.

Schedule of Classes

Week 1: How we got here and where we’re going.

Readings: • Read this syllabus, the writing assignment prompt, and your TA’s section policy statement

• Reference maps (from: Current History) can be found at the beginning of your reader.

• Horace Miner: “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”

Week 2: The Great War (a.k.a, World War I) and its aftermath.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: pp. 861-877.

• Pierre Renouvin. “Background of the War: General Conclusion”

• Marc Ferro. The Great War (selection)

• Stephen Van Evera. “The Cult of the Offensive and the Origins of the First World War”

• President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” (January 8, 1918)

• John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace (selections)

• Robert Axelrod: The Evolution of Cooperation (selections)

• Gérard Chaliand & Jean-Pierre Rageau: “The Armenian Genocide”

Week 3: Turmoil and response in the inter-war period.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: pp. 880-903 (The Depression; fascism); 836-845 (Japan).

• Benito Mussolini: “Political and Social Doctrine”

• Roger Griffin: “Revolution from the Right: Fascism”

• Paul Preston: “The Great Civil War”

• Franklin D. Roosevelt: “First Inaugural” (March 4, 1933)

• William J. Barber: “Keynesian Economics”

Week 4: World War II and the Holocaust.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: pp. 907-933.

• A.J.P. Taylor: “Second Thoughts” (from The Origins of the Second World War, pp. 7-27)

• Nazi Party Electoral Results (from Michalka (p. 342) and Peukert (p. 209))

• “1938: ‘Peace for our time’ – Chamberlain.” BBC News Report, September 30, 1938

• Hannah Arendt: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Chapters 2, 6-7, 9-12)

• Christopher Browning: “One Day in Jósefów”

• NO-5810: “Letter from Turner to Hildebrandt” (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Berlin)

• PS-710: “Letter from Göring to Heydrich”

• NG-2586: “Minutes of the Wannsee Conference”

• George Orwell: “Revenge is Sour” (1945)

• Stanley Milgram: “Obedience” (45 minute documentary shown in class)

Week 5: Reflections on the first half of the 20th Century.

May 1, 2008: Mid-term Exam!

Week 6: The Cold War and the 1960s, at home and abroad.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: 937-942; 949-953 (The Cold War; the 60s and civil rights)

• Palmer: 865-884; 940-1; 996-1009 (Cold War)

• Ernest R. May: “America’s Berlin: Heart of the Cold War”

• John F. Kennedy: “ Ich bin ein Berliner’ Speech in Berlin” (June 26, 1963)

• W.H. Auden: “The Unknown Citizen”

• Bob Dylan: “Songs” (Selections)

• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: “Ohio”

• “Can America ever escape from the shadow of 1968?” Economist (January 5, 2008)

• Martin Luther King: “‘I have a dream’ Speech” (Washington, DC; April 28, 1963)

• Milton Friedman: “Capitalism and Discrimination”

• Gil-Scott Heron: “Whitey on the Moon” (1972)

Week 7: Nuclear Weapons, Détente, 1989 and Russia Today.

In-class movie: Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, director)

Readings: • Craig, et al.: 953-962 (The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to present)

• Michael Howard: “The Wars of the Technologists”

• George Orwell: “You and the Atom Bomb” (1945)

• Re-read Van Evera (pp. 107-8, esp. footnote #183)

• “Israel and Iran: How MAD can they be?” Economist (February 8, 2007)

• Robert Daniels: “The anti-Communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe”

• Masha Lipman: “Constrained or Irrelevant: The Media in Putin’s Russia”

• Fareed Zakaria: “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy”

Week 8: Self-determination in India, China and the ‘Third World’.

Readings: • Palmer: 915-925 (India and Pakistan); 908-913, 1030-1031 (China)

• George Orwell: “Reflections on Gandhi” (1949)

• H.A.L. Fisher: “British Rule in India”

• Pardesi & Ganguly: “The Rise of India and the India-Pakistan Conflict”

• Clifford Geertz. “After the Revolution: The Fate of Nationalism in the New States.”

• Samuel P. Huntington: “The Clash of Civilizations?”

• A. Tom Grunfeld: “The Question of Tibet”

Week 9: Pax Americana: Globalization and the U.S. role in a one-superpower world.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: 962-965 (Dissolution of Yugoslavia)

• Alan J. Kuperman: “Rwanda in Retrospect”

• Edward N. Luttwak: “Give War a Chance”

• Niall Ferguson: “Empires with Expiration Dates”

• David Dollar and Aart Kraay: “Spreading the Wealth”

• Buchanan vs. Samuelson on Protectionism (from Scott, Furmanski & Jones)

• Sidney Weintraub: “Scoring Free Trade: A Critique of the Critics”

Week 10: Terrorism, uncertainty and the world we live in.

Readings: • Craig, et al.: 1003-1010 (Middle East since 1945)

• Sarah Parkinson. “The Softer Side of Terror”

• Levitt: Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism (selections, including “Forward” by Dennis Ross).

• Michael Scott Doran: “Somebody Else’s Civil War”

• Thomas J. Barfield: “First Steps: The Afghan Elections”

• Ahmed S. Hashim: “Iraq: From Insurgency to Civil War?”

• Jeffrey W. Knopf: “Deterrence or Preemption?” (Current History (Nov. 2006): pp. 395-399)

• Alasdair Roberts: “The War We Deserve” (Foreign Policy (December 2007): pp. 45-50.)

• Tony Hoagland: “Hard Rain”

Class Bibliography

“1938: ‘Peace for our time’ – Chamberlain.” BBC News Report, September 30, 1938. (Available online.)

Auden, W.H. “The Unknown Citizen.” Another Time. Random House, 1940.

Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin Books, 2006.

Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books, 1984.

Barber, William J. A History of Economic Thought. Penguin, 1967.

Barfield, Thomas J. “First Steps: The Afghan Elections.” Current History (March 2005): pp. 125-130.

Browning, Christopher R. The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Chaliand, Gérard, and Jean-Pierre Rageau. The Penguin Atlas of Diasporas. New York: Viking, 1995.

Daniels, Robert V. “The anti-Communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989 to 1991” Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West. Ed. David Parker. London: Routledge, 2000. pp. 202-224.

Dollar, David, and Aart Kraay. “Spreading the Wealth.” Foreign Affairs (January/February 2002).

Doran, Michael Scott. “Somebody Else’s Civil War.” Foreign Affairs (January/February 2002).

Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan Lyrics, 1962-1996. Random House, 2006.

Ferguson, Niall. “Empires with Expiration Dates.” Foreign Policy (September/October 2006): 46-52.

Ferro, Marc. The Great War. London: Arc Paperbacks, 1987.

Fisher, H.A.L. A History of Europe. Fontana Library, 1960.

Friedman, Milton. Capitalism & Freedom. University of Chicago, 1962.

Geertz, Clifford. “After the Revolution: The Fate of Nationalism in the New States.” The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973.

Griffin, Roger. “Revolution from the Right: Fascism.” Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West. Ed. David Parker. London: Routledge, 2000. pp. 185-201.

Grunfeld, A. Tom “The Question of Tibet.” Current History (September 1999): pp. 291-295.

Hashim, Ahmed S. “Iraq: From Insurgency to Civil War?” Current History (January 2005): pp. 10-18.

Hoagland, Tony. “Hard Rain.” Hard Rain. Venice, CA: Hollyridge Press, 2005.

Howard, Michael. War in European History. Oxford University Press, 1993.

Huntington, Samuel P. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993).

“Israel and Iran: How MAD can they be?” Economist. (2/8/2007).

Keynes, John Maynard. Economic Consequences of the Peace. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1920.

Knopf, Jeffrey W. “Deterrence or Preemption?” Current History (Nov. 2006): pp. 395-399.

Kuperman, Alan J. “Rwanda in Retrospect.” Foreign Affairs (January/February 2000): pp. 94-105.

Levitt, Matthew. Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Forward by Dennis Ross.

Lipman, Masha. “Constrained or Irrelevant: The Media in Putin’s Russia.” Current History (October 2005): 319-24.

Luttwak, Edward N. “Give War a Chance.” Foreign Affairs (July/August 1999): pp. 36-44.

May, Ernest R. “America’s Berlin: Heart of the Cold War.” Foreign Affairs (July/August 1998): pp. 148-160.

Michalka, Wolfgang. [Hrsg.] Deutsche Geschichte, 1933-1945. Dokumente zur Innen- und Auβenpolitik. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1993.

Milgram, Stanley. “Obedience.” (Film documentary.) Yale University.

Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” The Sociological World. Ed. Ian Robertson. New York: Worth Publishers, 1987.

Mussolini, Benito. “Political and Social Doctrine.” Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. New York: Howard Fertig, 1968.

NG-2586. “Minutes of the Wannsee Conference.” Documents of Destruction. Ed. Raul Hilberg. Franklin Watts, 1971.

NO-5810. “Letter from Turner to Hildebrandt.” Nuremberg trial document found in the archives of the Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Berlin.

Orwell, George. “Reflections on Gandhi” 1949 (Available online.)

––––. “Revenge is Sour.” 1945. (Available online.)

––––. “You and the Atom Bomb.” 1945. (Available online.)

Palmer, R.R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer. A History of the Modern World. 10th ed. Alfred a Knopf, 2007.

Pardesi, Manjeet S., and Sumit Ganguly. “The Rise of India and the India-Pakistan Conflict.” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. 31:1 (Winter 2007): 131-45.

Parkinson, Sarah. “The Softer Side of Terror.” Internationalist: Journal of Culture and Currents. Vol. 3:1 (Autumn 2005): 54-60.

Peukert, Detlev J.K., The Weimar Republic. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993. Trans. Richard Deveson.

Preston, Paul. “The Great Civil War.” Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe. Ed. T.C.W. Blanning. Oxford, 1998.

PS-710. “Letter from Göring to Heydrich.” Documents of Destruction. Ed. Raul Hilberg. Franklin Watts, 1971.

Renouvin, Pierre. “Background of the War: General Conclusion.” The Outbreak of the First World War: Who Was Responsible? Ed. Dwight E. Lee. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1958.

Roberts, Alasdair. “The War We Deserve.” Foreign Policy (December 2007): pp. 45-50.

Scott, Gregory M., Louis Furmanski, and Ransall J. Jones, Jr. 21 Debated Issues in World Politics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Taylor, A.J.P. “Second Thoughts.” The Origins of the Second World War. Penguin Books, 1973. pp. 7-27..

Van Evera, Stephen. “The Cult of the Offensive and the Origins of the First World War.” Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. Ed. Steven E. Miller, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen Van Evera. Princeton, 1991.

Weintraub, Sidney. “Scoring Free Trade: A Critique of the Critics.” Current History. (February 2004): pp. 56-60.

Wilson, Woodrow. “Fourteen Points.” Speech before a joint session of Congress, January 8, 1918. (Available online.)

Zakaria, Fareed. “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy.” Foreign Affairs (November/December 1997).