AP European History – this course has been audited and approved by the AP Standards board
Course Overview
AP European History at Adair County High School is a year long course taught on the trimester block (75 minutes). It is a lecture course that covers all the topics in the European History Course Description. The class is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors. We are a rural high school and our goal is to encourage students to take a difficult curriculum so enrollment in the class is open. It is recommended that students have at least a B average in World Civilization (Honors) but other students who have a strong interest in History or are motivated to do the work can enroll. Most students who enroll have already completed AP U.S. History. Students who enroll need to understand the importance of keeping up with the demanding reading load.
Our number one goal is to give students a deep understanding of European History. Our second goal is for the students to prepare for and successfully pass the AP European history exam. The course is also taught as a dual credit class through Western Kentucky University. Besides lecture and discussion students will also use historical data to support a position (analysis of numerous primary and secondary historical sources, charts, maps, and cartoons). Students will receive practice on the interpretation and writing of Document-Based Questions. Students will also contrast various schools of historiography. Students will receive six hours from W.K.U., equal to two college classes.
Coarse Text:
Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization, sixth edition (Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth, 2006).
My room is well stocked with historical series wall maps, reference books, and atlas. I also have a number of topical histories that I use as supplements and for student use. Many of my Documents come from Milton Viorst’s book The Great Documents of Western Civilization. Our school library is well stocked with important historical works and our students have access to our outstanding local college library at Lindsey Wilson College.
Teaching Strategies
Lecture and Discussion – supplemented with videos, DVDS, and technology.
Students are also tested on the chapters from Spielvogel’s Western Civilization to insure that they are reading each chapter.
Regular practice on free response questions.
Regular practice on the analysis of primary resources and the writing of Document-Based Questions.
This is my 18th year teaching in the A.P. program. It is my 13th year teaching A.P. European History. I love teaching the story of European Civilization. This class has helped many rural students to have educational opportunities that would have not been possible without Advanced Placement. Many students have gone on to selective admission schools (including Ivy League) and a lot of them are studying history. Our A.P. European History program has grown in numbers and in success over the passed 13 years. Our students have had excellent results on the A.P. test. For a rural school in south central Kentucky we feel this is outstanding.
Course Outline
Introduction: Prelude to the Modern World
Text, Spielvogel Western Civilization to 1500
Unit 1: Ancient Civilization
Text: Chapters 1-2
Content:
Emergence of Civilization in Mesopotamia
Egypt
The Hebrews
Weeks 1, 2, & 3 (15 days)
Unit 2: Ancient and Classical Greece
Text: Chapter 3-4
Content:
Ancient Greece
Classical Greece
Hellenistic Greece
Weeks 4, 5, & 6 (12 days)
Unit 3: Rome
Text: Chapters 4-5
Content:
Ancient Rome
Roman Republic
Roman Empire
Christianity
Weeks 10, 11, 12, & 13 (15 day)
Unit 4: Medieval World
Content:
Germanic Kingdoms
Christiandom
Age of Charlemagne
Rise of Towns
Rise of Nations
(20 days)
Unit 5: Renaissance – Reformation core-content:
Text, Chapters 12 – 14 SS-HS-5.3.1
(20 days)
SS-HS-5.3.2
Content:
Origins of Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance
Origins of the Reformation
The Conditions of the Church in the 15th Century
Luther
Calvin, Zwingli, and the spread of reform
The Radical Reformation
The Counter Reformation
The Religious Wars
Results of the Reformation
Europe and the Age of Discovery
Readings: Machiavelli, From the Prince
Pico Della Mirandola, From Oration on the Dignity of Man
Erasmus, From In Praise of Folly
Tetzel’s Instructions of Selling Indulgences, 1517
Luther, the Ninety-Five Theses
Loyola, From Rules for Thinking with the Church
Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage
Edict of Nantes
Activities: Slide show analyzing the great art works of the Renaissance
Writing Activity – Essay skills and techniques
Document Activity – Paths to Salvation in the Christian Church
Document Activity - Machiavelli
Unit 6: Absolutism and Constitutionalism core content:
Text, 15-16
(10 days) SS-HS- 5.33
Content:
Religious War, Instability and the Rise of Absolutism
Changes in the Art of War
Absolute Monarchy in France
Absolutism in Prussia and Austria
Absolutism in Russia and in other parts of Eastern Europe
The Rise of Constitutionalism in England
Background to the Scientific Revolution
Copernicus to Newton, Toward a New Heaven
Advances in Medicine and Chemistry
The Scientific Method and the Spread of Science
The Effects of the Scientific Revolution
Readings:
The English Bill of Rights
James I’s Claim of Divine Right, 1609
Copernicus, From On the Revolutions
Of the Heavenly Spheres
Galileo, From the Starry Messenger
Descartes, From Discourse on Method
Pascal, From Pensees
Primary Resource Activity:
Document Activity of Illustrations – Galileo and His Telescope
DBQ – Bacon and Descartes
Unit 7: Enlightenment, the French Revolution and Napoleon core-content:
Text, 17-19
(20 days) SS-HS-5.3.3
Content:
Pioneers of the Enlightenment – Newton and Locke
The Philosophes
The Effects of the Enlightenment on Society, Culture and Religion
18th Century Society
Enlightened Absolutism
Causes of the French Revolution
The Course of the French Revolution
Results of the French Revolution
The Age of Napoleon
Results of the Napoleonic Age
Readings: Content: Montesquieu, From “Of the Constitution of England Voltaire, From Candide
Rousseau, From the Social Contract
Wollstonecraft, From Vindication of the Rights of Women
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Decree to Abolish the Feudal System, 1789
Primary Resource Activity – Document writing activity - The English and French Philosophers
Document Activity - Denis Diderot’s Encylopedie
DBQ – The French Revolution and Human Rights
Unit 8: Reaction, Revolution and Nationalism core content:
Text, 21-22
(10 days) SS-HS-5.3.4
Content:
Congress of Vienna and the Conservative Order – The Age of Metternich
The “Ism”
· Conservatism
· Liberalism
· Nationalism
· Socialism
· Romanticism
Revolution and Reform
· Revolution of 1830
· Revolution of 1848
The France of Napoleon III
Unification of Italy and Germany
Science and Culture in an Age of Reason
Reading: Metternich, From Memoirs
John Stuart Mill, From On Liberty
Mazzini, From the Young Italy Oath
Marx and Engels, From the Communist Manifesto
Darwin, From the Descent of Man
Bismarck’s “Blood and Iron” Speech, 1862
Unit 9: the Industrial Revolution and Imperialism core content:
Text, 20, 23-24 SS-HS-5.3.3
(12 days)
SS-HS-5.3.4
Content:
Origins of the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
The Spread of Industrialization
The Social Impact of Industrialization
· Urbanization
· The New Social Classes
A Second Industrial Revolution 1871-1894
The Growth of Prosperity
The Women Question
Social and Cultural Change in the late 19th Century
The Growth of Political Democracy in Western Europe
The Old Order in Central and Eastern Europe
Marxism
Jews in Europe
The New Science
· New Physics
· Freud
· Impact of Darwin
· The Effect on Religion and Literature
The New Imperialism
· Causes
· Imperialism in Africa
· Imperialism in Asia
· Results of the New Imperialism
Readings: Eduard Bernstein, From Evolutionary Socialism
Freud, From Five lectures on Psychoanalysis
Kiplings, “The White Man’s Burden”
Free Response – Industrial Revolution and its effect on transportation, building, and warfare
DBQ – 19th and 20th Century Socialism
Primary Source Activity – The British Empire, In Illustration and Art
Unit 10: World War I and the Russian Revolution core content:
Text, 25 SS-HS-5.3.4
(8 days)
Content:
Origins of the War
The Outbreak of War
The Course of the War
The Home Front
The Russian Revolution
The Treaty of Versailles
Results of the War and the Russian Revolution
Readings: Remarque, From All Quiet on the Western Front
Treaty of Versailles
Writing Activity – Comparison of the French and Russian Revolutions
Primary Source Activity – Russia’s Revolution, In Illustration and Art
Unit 11: Between the Wars and World War II
Text, 26-27
(15 days)
Content: core content:
Europe in the Twenties SS-HS-5.3.4
Effects of the Great Depression SS-HS-5.3.5
The Democracies between the Wars
The Rise of Dictators
· Hitler
· Stalin
· Mussolini
· Franco
Radio, Motion Pictures and Leisure
Prelude to War 1933-1939
The Course of the War
The Holocaust
The Home Front
Results of the War
Readings:
Mussolini, From “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism”
Hitler, From Mein Kampf
From Hitler’s Secret Book
The Munich Agreement
The Atlantic Charter
DBQ – Hitler and how the doctrines of the Nazi Party evolved into the policy of genocide
Primary Source Activity – The Age of the Totalitarians, In Illustration and Art
Unit 12: Cold War and Beyond
Text, 28-29
(15 days)
Content: core content:
Origins of Cold War SS-HS-5.3.5
Eastern Europe SS-HS-5.3.6
Confrontation of the Superpowers
Cold War and Decolonization
The Soviet Union: From Stalin to Brezhnev
Western European Economic and Democratic Renewal
Postwar Society
· Cradle to Grave Welfare State
· Permissiveness
· Student Revolts
· The Arts and Philosophy
· Popular Culture
Gorbachev
· Glasnost
· Perestroika
The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe – 1989
German Reunification
The Soviet Union Collapses
Disintegration of Yugoslavia
Thatcherism
European Unification
The New World Order
The Age of Terror
Islam and Europe
Readings: Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech
Khrushchev, Address to the Twentieth Party Congress
Simone de Beauvoir, From The Second Sex
Gorbachev, From Perestroika
Vaclav Havel, Address to the People of Czechoslovakia
I have a large collection of primary sources and may substitute reading topics for those listed.