World, War and the West

Syllabus

Course Description

The curriculum of this comprehensive European History course is based on the Core Curriculum, Power Standards and Learner Goals as dictated by the Kentucky Department of Education. Extensive writing, analysis of text and non-text sources, in-class and individual note-taking skills, and an ability to read quickly with comprehension and retention is needed. The primary focus of this course is the transition of a regionally divisive world to the interconnected global society of today. Additionally, other elements of society will be looked at such as trends in: culture, religion, government, economics and other elements as needed.

Course Objectives/Learner Targets

(to reflect Kentucky Core Content)

Students will:

  1. Understand the democratic principles of justice, equality, responsibility and freedom and apply them to real-life situations.
  2. Accurately describe various forms of government and analyze issues that relate to the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
  3. Observe, analyze, and interpret human behaviors, social groupings and institutions to better understand people and the relationships among individuals and among groups.
  4. Understand economic principles of current and past European History.
  5. Recognize and understand the relationship between people and geography.
  6. Understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends and issues to develop historical perspective.
  7. Use, interpret and apply data from primary and secondary sources.
  8. Use historical data to support an argument or position.
  9. Work in group settings to produce projects

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Course Texts and Readings:

Main Texts

Kagan, Donald, Ozement, Steven and Turner, Frank. The Western Heritage since 1300. (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2010)

Supplemental Texts

Elizabeth Ellis and Paul Burke. World History: The Modern Era. (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2007).

Margaret King. Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2000)

Howard Spodek. The World’s History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2001).

John P. McKay et al. A History of Western Society. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1999).

John Merriman. A History of Modern Europe. (New York, Norton, 2004).

Lynn Hunt et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. (Boston, Bedford/St. Martins, 2005).

Richard Bulliet et al. The Modern Era (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2007).

Mark Kishlansky et al. Civilization in the West (New York, Longman, 2001).

Patricia Ebrey et al. East Asia: A Cultural, Social and Political History (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

Cheryl Martin et al. Latin America and Its People. (New York, Pearson, 2008).

Marilyn Stokstad. Art: A Brief History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2007).

Ernst Breisach. Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1983).

Various Readings from:

Alfred Andrea The Human Record (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2005)

Kevin Reilly Reading in World Civilizations (New York, St. Martins, 1995)

Eugene Weber The Western Tradition (Lexington, Mass., DC Heath, 1995)

Richard Tarnas The Passion of the Western Mind (New York, Ballantine, 1991)

Merry Wiesner et al. Discovering the Global Past (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2002)

World History Series

Rise of Christianity

Course Purpose:

The purpose of this course is two-fold:

a. To provide you with the skills and information that will allow you to meet high school graduation requirements, and

b. To prepare you to successfully complete the Advanced Placement European History Course and exam at RCSHS.

Organization:

This class will be taught as a primarily sophomore-level class, will utilize general high school level/College Level materials but will have college-level expectations of students. This means students will share responsibility for learning through in-class work and outside readings, projects and reports. You will not be able to succeed in this class by merely reading, listening to lectures, and feeding back information on a test. You will be expected to learn to think, not just memorize.

A variety of teaching and learning strategies will be used, including but not limited to: lecture-discussion, group and individual work, projects, presentations, reading, writing, tests and other activities.

The course will be divided into Four units/eight sub units, generally corresponding to the Kagan text in the following manner:

Unit I Toward the Modern Age

Part A Conservative Order, Reform and Social Contract

Part B Nation States to European Supremacy

Part C Imperialism to World War I

Unit II Global Conflict, Cold War and New Directions

Part A World War II

Part B Cold War and Modern History

Within the given time-Periods, the subject matter will be loosely categorized into political, economic, social and foreign affairs/intellectual history. As can be told by the unit time-periods, the chronological approach will be the guiding force in the organization of the course. However, within the chronological presentation of materials, there will be times when a thematic approach may be utilized, particularly in relation to such topics as:

·  Religions

·  Art

o  Students will have the opportunity to study several pieces of art throughout the class. Among the periods we will look at are but are not limited to:

§  Romantic

§  Impressionism

§  Realism

§  Naturalism

§  Cubism

·  Various Literature Case Studies

·  Various in-class Simulations

An attempt will be made to provide students with a syllabus for each of the eight units.

Each syllabus will contain:

·  Unit

·  Readings

·  Unit Outline

·  Essential Questions

·  Major Assignments and Assessments

However, the syllabus will not necessarily limit the content or conduct of the class. Adjustments can and will be made depending on the needs of the class.

You will be required to take notes during class discussions, lectures, from reading assignments and from presentations by class members and others. These notes will make up the major portion of your notebook requirements, but more importantly will form the basis for review for Exams.

Tests will consist of multiple-choice questions, open response questions and document based questions (DBQ). On occasion, you will be required to interpret maps, charts, graphs and political cartoons. Open response and DBQ’s must be written in blue or black ink. There will be both chapter and unit exams. Unit exams will deal with all material assigned during study of a unit (text and non-text). Unit exams will usually consist of both multiple choice and essay questions. Chapter tests will be multiple choice and short answer, numbering generally from 30-40 questions.

According to school policy, there will be a semester final exam at the end of the semester and will cover all material from the semester. Practically all units will have a regular assortment of reading excerpts, map work, artistic analysis, historiography, quizzes and practice DBQ’s. It can be assumed that these will be general assignments and thus not listed under the Major Assignments and Assessments section.

Teaching Strategies

When using primary sources for analysis, students will be using a Primary Source Analysis Worksheet developed with the assistance of and based on the Fred Brown model. It includes the following: Document Title, Author, Date of Document, Historical Era, Identification of Thesis, Identification of the purpose/agenda, Evaluation of the document’s point of view and Identification of the audience for which the document was created.

Many times a year, students will be instructed in and take part in grading activities with DBQ’s and FRQ’s (see writing section below for particulars). We will be analyzing the 9-point scoring guides and students will then be given a chance to critique each other’s work on the DBQ/FRQ’s. They will identify Thesis Statements, main points and various other writing points. Afterward, there will be class debriefing.

Students will be analyzing art work from different periods on a consistent basis. They will be shown various works of art and expected to note the major differences in style and substance of the several periods as outlined in the organization section above.

Using specific pieces of art students will generally be using an art analysis worksheet that follows these basis lines: What do you see (a literal view of the work with listing), What do you think you see (add in your emotional take on the work), What hints do you find (are there any historical clues in the work that give you an idea of the background), What questions do you have (what would you need to have answered to make a decision on the work’s purpose) and What do you have (make a decision about what you are looking at, purpose, audience, statement, etc.).

Historiography will be addressed regularly in class. Students will be reading additional text from Breisach’s Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern work. This will help to understand the changing nature of historical interpretation during the passing of eras. Focus will of course be on the periods starting in the Renaissance and continuing forward. Historians looked at in the various readings will range from Bede to Burckhardt, Hegel to Marx and Boorstin to Zinn.

Additionally, the class will utilize various methods of lecture, power points, documents, documentary films and secondary source readings to supplement learning.

Writing: Students will be expected to write on many topics and at several levels during the semester. During which they will follow these guidelines:

I.  Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

II.  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

III.  Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.

IV.  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

V.  Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

VI.  Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

VII.  Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

VIII.  Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

IX.  Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

X.  Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Course Outline

Unit I Toward the Modern Age 1850-1939

Part A Nation States to European Supremacy

Part B Imperialism to World War I

Readings:

Kagan: Chapters 22-26

Primary Source Readings: Zola, Emmeline Pankhurst, Pope Leo XIII, H.S. Chamberlain, Herzl, Virginia Woolf, T.B. Macaulay, Churchill, Bismarck, Lenin, etc.

Breisach-Chapters 16-19

Historians as Interpreters of Progress and Nation II

A First Prefatory note to Modern Historiography

History and the Quest for a Uniform Scheme

The Discovery of Economic Dynastics

Unit Outline:

I.  The French Revolution

  1. The Crisis of the French Monarchy
  2. The Revolution of 1789
  3. The Reconstruction of France
  4. The End of Monarchy: A Second Revolution
  5. Europe at War with the Revolution
  6. The Reign of Terror
  7. The Thermidorian Reaction

II.  The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism

  1. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
  2. The Consulate in France
  3. Napoleon’s Empire
  4. European Response to the Empire
  5. The Congress of Vienna and the European Settlement
  6. The Romantic Question
  7. Romantic Questioning of the Supremacy of Reason
  8. Romantic Literature
  9. Romantic Art
  10. Constable-Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadow
  11. Delacroix- Liberty Leading the People, Death of Sardanapalus
  12. Religion in the Romantic Period
  13. Romantic Views of Nationalism and History

III.  The Conservative Order and the Challenges of the Reform

  1. The Challenges of Nationalism and Liberalism
  2. Conservative Governments: The domestic Political Order
  3. The Conservative International Order
  4. The Wars of Independence in Latin America
  5. The Conservative Order Shaken in Europe

IV.  Economic Advance and Social Unrest

  1. Toward an Industrial Society
  2. The Labor Force
  3. Family Structures and the Industrial Revolution
  4. Women in the Early Industrial Revolution
  5. Problems of Crime and Order
  6. Classical Economics
  7. Early Socialism
  8. 1848: Year of Revolutions

VI The Age of Nation-States

  1. The Crimean War
  2. Reforms of the Ottoman Empire
  3. Italian Unification
  4. German Unification
  5. France: From Liberal Empire to the Third Republic
  6. The Habsburg Empire
  7. Russia: Emancipation and Revolutionary Stirrings
  8. Great Britain: Toward Democracy

VII The Building of European Supremacy: Society and Politics to World War

a. Population Trends and Migration

b. The Second Industrial Revolution

c. The Middle Class in Ascendancy

d. Late-Nineteenth-Century Urban Life

e. Varieties of Late-Nineteenth-Century Women’s Experiences

f. Jewish Emancipation

g. Labor, Socialism and Politics to World War I

VIII The Birth of Modern European Thought

a. The New Reading Public

b. Science at Midcentury

c. Christianity and the Church under Siege

d. Toward a Twentieth Century Frame of Mind

1. The Coming of Modern Art

  1. Manet-A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
  2. Monet- Haystack, Water Lilies
  3. Pissaro-Boulevard Montmartre at Night
  4. Renoir-Le Moulin de la Galette
  5. Degas-several of his ballet dancers, Woman Combing her hair, Women Ironing
  6. Seurat-A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
  7. Cezanne- Pyramid of Skulls, The Lake at Annecy
  8. Van Gogh-Self Portrait (1887), Starry Night
  9. Gauguin- On the Beach 1891
  10. Picasso-Guernica, The Old Guitarist
  11. Braque- Violin and Palette

e. Women and Modern Thought

IX The Age of Western Imperialism

a. The Close of the Age of Early Modern Colonization

b. The Age of British Imperial Dominance

c. India- The Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire

d. The “New Imperialism” 1870-1914

e. Motives for the New Imperialism

f. The Partition of Africa

g. Russian Expansion in Mainland Asia

h. Western Powers in Asia

  1. Tools of Imperialism
  2. The Missionary Factor
  3. Science and Imperialism

X Alliances, War and a Troubled Peace

a. Emergence of the German Empire and the Alliance Systems

b. World War I

c. The Russian Revolution

d. The End of World War I

e. The Settlement of Paris

Major Assignments and Assessments:

DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topic

·  Literacy and Education in the 16 to 19th Century