Spring 2008

Instructor: James R. Munson
Office: E. Ruffner 226A
Office telephone: 395-2218 
Office hours:
MWF 3-4
TR 10-11
and by appointment.
E-mail: munsonjr@longwood.edu 

         Image courtesy of the Metropolis Multimedia Archive

Contents

Course Description:  A survey of the development of modern Western Civilization from the age of Absolutism to the present, with emphasis upon the political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual attributes which have marked its rise to world-wide influence in the twentieth century.

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Texts:

Coffin, Judith, and Robert Stacy, Western Civilizations, Volume 2. New York: Norton, 15th edition, 2005.

Brophy, James M., Steven Epstein, Cat Nilan, John Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, eds.,
Perspectives from the Past:  Primary Sources in Western Civilization, Volume 2.  New York, W.W.
Norton, Third edition, 2005.

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Course Objectives:

The goal of this course is for students to develop the following:

1. An understanding and appreciation of history and historical enquiry.

2. A sense of what constitutes the civilization of the West and its world-wide impact.

3. An ability to think critically, analytically and systematically.

4. An ability to organize different types of source materials, relate them to each other by means of critical analysis, and use them in a way that produces greater insight into the complex subject matter of the course.

5. A sense of history as combining a variety of disciplines and approaches.

6. An appreciation for the contribution that an historical perspective can bring to other disciplines.

7. A greater ability to express oneself clearly and concisely on paper and orally.

8. A greater understanding of the human condition and experience by examining the dilemmas and challenges faced by men and women of the past.

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Class Schedule:

Week 1 (Jan. 14-18)

Introduction: Course Information and Requirements
Europe in 1648 I

Readings: Coffin, pp. 574-595.
Brophy, pp. 254-258, 268-272.

Reminder: Add/Drop deadline is Jan. 22.

Europe in 1648 II
The Scientific Revolution
The Enlightenment

Readings: Coffin, pp. 597-624.
Brophy, pp. 337-341, 289-297.

Map Quiz: Thursday.

Royal Absolutism in Theory and Practice: France in the Age of Louis XIV
The Failure of Absolutism: the English Revolution

Readings: Coffin, pp. 500-522. 
Brophy, pp. 182-187, 220-231.

Prospectus due by Thursday at 5 p.m.

Quiz on reading for weeks 1-3, Thursday.

Competition for Empire
The Coming of the French Revolution

Readings: Coffin, 531-572.
Brophy, pp. 238-246, 313-322.

Prospectus critiques due by Thursday at 5 p.m.

Review

Mid-Term Exam: Thursday, Feb. 14.

Readings: Coffin, pp. 629-664.
Brophy, pp. 357-359, 364-368.

The French Revolution and the Rise of Napoleon
The Defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna
The Rise of Capitalism

Readings: Coffin, pp. 666-702.
Brophy, pp. 370-374, 378-383, 389-392.

The Industrial Revolution
The Rise of Liberalism
Nationalism and the Breakdown of the Metternich System

Readings: Coffin, pp. 699-733.  Readings: Coffin, pp. 705-741,
Brophy, 400-406, 485-492, 470-474.

Reminder: The final withdrawal deadline is March 3.

The Revolutions of 1848
Revolution and Reaction
The Emergence of the Nation-State: The Unification of Italy

Coffin, 743-774.
Brophy, pp. 478-480, 518-522, 529-536.

Quiz on readings for weeks 4-8, Thursday.

Week 9 (March 17-21)

The Emergence of the Nation-State: the Unification of Germany
The Second Industrial Revolution

Coffin, 817-856.
Brophy, pp. 579-585, 604-610.

Karl Marx and the Rise of Socialism
Great Britain and France in the late Nineteenth Century.

Readings: Coffin, pp. 777-814. 
Readings: Brophy, pp. 612-615, 417-425, 435-440.

Germany and the Habsburg Empire, 1867-1914
Review

Brophy, pp. 562-572.

Mid-Term Exam and Map Quiz: Thursday, March 27.

The New Imperialism
World War I
The Russian Revolution

Readings: Coffin, pp. 858-910.
Brophy, pp. 636-640, 659-673.

Paper due by Thursday at 5 p.m.

The Treaty of Versailles and Europe Between the Wars
The Rise of Hitler
Nazi Germany and the Road to War

Readings: Coffin, pp. 910-969.
Brophy, pp. 677-685, 705-708, 723-728.

World War II and the End of European Dominance
The Post War World
Review

Readings: Coffin, pp. 971-1008, 1011-1040.
Brophy, pp. 771-774, 795-798.

Quiz on readings for weeks 9-14, Thursday.

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Course Requirements: Two mid-term exams, a final exam and a paper are the written requirements for this course. Failure to complete any of the requirements will be regarded as a failure to complete the course, and will therefore result in a failing grade. In addition, there are five short map and reading quizzes, with one unannounced bonus quiz in the course of the semester. Papers received in the seven days after the respective due dates indicated on the weekly schedule will be marked down up to one full grade. Absolutely no assignments will be accepted after the seven-day grace period – this will result in an F for the entire course, not a "0" for the individual assignment.

Exams and quizzes must be taken when scheduled. Make-ups will be scheduled only by prior consent of the instructor, and only for compelling reasons (as determined by the instructor). If a student, without gaining prior consent, is unable to take an exam Because of sudden illness or some other extraordinary event, the instructor must be notified immediately. If I cannot be reached directly or by phone, leave a message with the History Department. A doctor's note or other written documentation must accompany a student's request for a make-up exam.

Exams: The first mid-term exam will consist of multiple choice questions. The second mid-term and the final may also be multiple-choice, but I reserve the right to change the format of those exams to all essay or a combination of essay and short answer in format.  Part of the the final exam will be comprehensive (covering the entire course). As a study aid, class time will be set aside for review sessions as indicated on your weekly schedule, but the exams may contain material not covered in these sessions. The exams will be designed to test acquaintance with the lectures and the assigned readings. Taking careful notes in class and on the readings, therefore, is strongly recommended. The instructor will be looking for evidence of general knowledge, and an organized and analytical approach to that knowledge. In the case of essays, the instructor will also be looking for an ability to combine the raw materials of the course -- text, lectures, and documentary sources -- into pertinent and meaningful insights, and will also be evaluating your ability to communicate those insights. In the essays, points will be taken off for run-on sentences, grammatical errors, spelling errors, poor punctuation, illegible handwriting or any other problems that, in the opinion of the instructor, affect comprehension of the student's work. Strive above all for clarity. The two mid-terms will be fifty minutes long, the final will be two and a half hours.

Papers: This will be the subject of a special handout. The primary source materials from Brophy will be the point of departure for these assignments, but you will be required to find longer selections from primary source collections in the library and on the internet (see section on sources below). Early in the semester, each student will prepare a prospectus, which will contain a topic statement, a thesis statement, a brief statement of how the paper's argument will be structured, and a bibliography.  The prospectus will be reviewed by another student in the class before being reviewed by me. Each student, therefore, will be responsible for a written critique. This critique will not be graded, but failure to complete it on time will result in a deduction of seven points from the final grade. All prospectuses,  critiques and final papers must be printed on a word processor, in a standard font of 10 or 12 pitch (courier or Times Roman 10 or 12 is preferred), with double-spaced text, a title page, and one inch (and no more than one inch) margins. The text of the prospectus (not including title page) should be no less than 1 full page and no more than 2 in length.  The final analysis (not including bibliography, title page and endnotes page) should be no less than 4 full pages and no more than 6 in length. All citations should be in the form of endnotes (in a separate section at the end of the paper). Your name, the course name and number, section number and the date must be on the title page. It must include a bibliography of all sources cited. Bibliography and endnote citations must conform to the proper style, as defined in the "Department of History and Political Science Style Sheet" on the departmental web page at  http://www.longwood.edu/history/HDPTSTS2.htm. More in-depth coverage of style questions can be found in the latest edition of Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Do not use MLA, APA, parenthetical footnotes or any alternative style current in other disciplines. Unless you wish to see the instructor fly into a blind rage, make a particular point of not using parenthetical notes. All papers should be saved to disk in at least two separate locations (hard disk and memory stick, hard disk and floppy, two floppies, etc.), so that a new copy may be immediately printed in case the original hard copy is misplaced.

The type of material that must be documented (i.e. endnoted) includes: controversial or distinctive arguments and opinions, facts that are not a matter of broad general knowledge, statistics, all quotes, and paraphrases or summaries of an author's argument. All direct quotes over fifty words in length must be indented and single-spaced as described in the departmental style sheet. You should have at least one footnote or endnote per full page of text.

It is imperative that you document source material, but your own points, observations, and arguments must be expressed in your own words: excessive use of quotes or lengthy paraphrasing of sources will not be accepted, and leads easily to the grievous sin of plagiarism. The final papers must be submitted to www.turnitin.com as a Word file for the purpose of generating an originality report before being submitted to me in hard copy. On plagiarism, see below.

Sources:  In addition to the primary sources you find in Brophy and elsewhere, you must utilize at least two other secondary sources from the library. These sources must include a scholarly study of article or book length. You may use no more than two Internet sources (one as a primary source, one as a secondary source). Some useful web sites containing primary sources are:

The Internet Modern History Sourcebook -- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
(the best and easiest to use -- it contains both excerpts and full-text on-line editions of important sources)
The Hanover Historical Texts Project -- http://history.hanover.edu/project.html
The Avalon Project --  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
The Historical Text Archive --  http://historicaltextarchive.com/ (useful mainly for links)
The Michigan Electronic Library -- http://web.mel.org/mer/SPT--BrowseResources.php?ParentId=357  (also a collection of links, organized by category)
The Voice of the Shuttle --  http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2713#id877 (be sure to browse the special topics as well)
E-Server --  http://eserver.org/history/ (for selected topics)
EuroDocs --  Main Page - EuroDocs  (use both time period and national history links)
G-text -- http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/ -- for German history
Internet Marxist archive -- http://www.marxists.org/archive/ -- not just for Marxism, this is one of the best sites for primary sources in modern history on the web
Prof. Joseph O'Brien's web page -- http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/ -- contains links to many documents under "Reference Documents"

All of these web sites require extensive searching to get to the documents you want, so be prepared to spend some time
browsing.  In many, if not most, cases, books will be easier and less time-consuming to access, especially if they contain a good
index.  This listing is not exhaustive, nor can I vouch for the accuracy of everything contained in them.  

All of these web sites require extensive searching to get to the documents you want, so be prepared to spend some time browsing.  In many, if not most, cases, books in the library will be easier and less time-consuming to access, especially if they contain a good index.  You may use encyclopedias and other reference works for background information on the documents you are using in the first analysis -- in fact, these are a good place to start -- but these are not to be cited and will in no way be considered a replacement for a more substantial outside source. Never cite a textbook or encyclopedia in the final document analysis.  Double-dipping (submitting an assignment for this course that is substantially the same as a paper submitted for any other course, past or present) is not permitted.

 To research form

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Grading: The mid-terms, the final, and the research project (the two document analyses taken together) are worth 90 points each. The five quizzes are worth eight points each, for a total of 40 points. Your final grade will be determined by the total number of points you gain out of a maximum of 400. I do not grade on a curve. Attendance, evidence of progress or lack thereof in the course of the semester, and class participation, will be used to decide half grades and borderline cases (which, experience shows, means most students). Serious attendance problems or misconduct in class can result in a lowering of grade. The grading scale is as follows:
 
 

Extra-Credit Assignments: Extra-credit assignments may be arranged with the instructor. These assignments must be approved in advance by the instructor on or before March 3, and will not be accepted unless so approved. They are worth a maximum of 40 points. Under no circumstances will an extra-credit assignment be accepted as substitute for any other written requirement in the course. An extra-credit assignment can only elevate a student into a higher grade bracket (for example, from a B to an A) if the student has scored the higher grade on at least one of the three major exams or on the paper. The assignment must take the form either of an analytical book review (not a book summary) 3-5 pages in length, or a research paper 5-7 pages in length, and must utilize sources not assigned in this course. The topic and sources must be substantially different from the required analyses. Style of text, footnotes, bibliography and title page must conform to the guidelines of the departmental style sheet. If you decide to do an extra-credit assignment, it must be turned in no later than April 11 for you to receive credit.

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Attendance Policy: Class attendance is a requirement of this course. Repeated unexcused absences will lead to a reduction of grade. Unexcused absences totaling 25% or more will result in an automatic F for the course. The instructor will excuse a student only under the most extraordinary circumstances. Chronic lateness will also be penalized, since it presents a class disturbance. If a student arrives after roll is taken, it is the student's responsibility to place his or her name on the class roll no later than the end of that class period. Failure to do so will result in an unexcused absence.

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Honor Code and Plagiarism: Students are expected to observe the honor code. All work for this course must be pledged. Students found to have cheated on an exam or to have plagiarized material in a paper will be subject to the maximum penalty under college rules. For those in doubt about the definition of plagiarism, it consists of copying passages from a source without both attribution and quotation. If you have reproduced the language of your source, you have committed plagiarism whether or not you have cited the source and the page number. This includes passages that a student may have modified: for example, changed verb tenses, omission or replacement of occasional words, reshuffling of phrases, sentences or paragraphs, combining of different plagiarized sources. Writing a bad paper in your own words is far better than writing a good one using the words of someone else. One suggestion for avoiding inadvertent echoing of your texts and sources: close all books when writing, and consult them only for specific facts or direct quotes. Also, proofread your paper with plagiarism specifically in mind. For more on plagiarism, see the departmental style sheet.  

Tape-recording and Class Decorum: Tape-recording of lectures is not permitted. Students who are excused from class by the instructor must make arrangements with the instructor or with other students to cover the material missed. Students who skip class without permission are responsible for making their own arrangements with other students (not with the instructor) for the material covered in class.

Students are expected to observe class decorum. Students engaging in behavior bothersome to other students or to the instructor (for example, eating or drinking, talking in class, text messaging, the use of personal stereos, MP3 players, cell phones or other electronic devices) will be asked to leave and marked as absent. By order of the department chair, food and drinks are not permitted in the classroom.

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Bibliography:

References required of all students:

Coffin, Judith, and Robert Stacy, Western Civilizations, Volume 2. New York: Norton, 15th edition, 2005.

Brophy, James M., Steven Epstein, Cat Nilan, John Robertson, Thomas Max Safley, eds.,
Perspectives from the Past:  Primary Sources in Western Civilization, Volume 2.  New York, W.W.
Norton, Second edition. 2002.

Other references:

Consult the bibliographies in the required texts, the library catalog and the instructor for the outside references to be used in your research paper.

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