Hist 143 Europe and the Modern World

History 143 Spring Semester 2017 History 143 Spring Semester 2017 History 143
logo

Class Schedule

For a given day, the readings listed should be read in full by the class time. All readings are potentially the subject of reading quizzes, but the quizzes for the outside readings (such as Martin Guerre) are worth three regular reading quizzes.

Unit One: Europe from 1500 to 1789
Jan 31--Introduction.
Feb 2--Popular Culture in 1500.
Read the Intro of Nicolas Copernicus's great work at http://www.bartleby.com/39/12.html To get background, before you read the intro, look at the Copernicus entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

Feb 7--Technology, Economy, State.
Wealth and the new states:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Debasement
Read an original account of Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth:
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1519magellan.asp
On Jakob Fugger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Fugger
and read from the Wikipedia entry on "Ireland"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland
BUT on this one--only the sections under "History" called "Norman and English Invasions" and "Kingdom of Ireland"

Feb 9--Religion and State. Read the Wikipedia article on the "Protestant Reformation":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation
http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english233/Luther-Diet_of_Worms.htm
and an excerpt from the superb 2003 film, Luther: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5P7QkHCfaI

Feb 14--The Scientific Revolution
    Read in Wikipedia about Andreas Vesalius:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesalius
and about
William Harvey:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harvey
(to read today a bit ahead of the curve:
For the Wikipedia article on the Thirty Years War, just peruse it thoroughly. Perusing is somewhere between skimming and reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War
also a primary document pertaining to the war:
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=4396

Feb 16--For class, finish reading The Return of Martin Guerre. Be able to comment on the SOURCES of the Martin Guerre story in particular.

Feb 21--The State Emerges: Habsburgs, Tudors/Stuarts, Romanovs, and Others--Crisis and Warfare.

Feb 23--Absolutism
    Bossuet on kingship:
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/bossuet.htm
accounts of Louis XIV:
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/louisxiv.html
and these contemporary accounts of the Russian Emperor, or Tsar, Peter the Great
http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/petergreat.asp

Feb 28--Responses to Absolutism
Read Etienne de la Boetie, Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. This is the whole book in pdf form: http://mises.org/rothbard/boetie.pdf. You need read only pp. 7-12 of Rothbard's intro and pp. 39-45 of the text itself.
also:
John Locke, Second Treatise: Of Civil Government. Sections related to rebellion and tyranny:
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch3s2.html
        Peasant and regional protest:
The Cornish revolt of 1497: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_Rebellion_of_1497
The seventeenth-century "croquants" in southern France: http://mises.org/daily/4572

Mar 2--The Enlightenment
Optional: look over the Wikipedia entry on Stoicism, as a background for the following material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism
not optional:
From Lady Wortley Montagu's letters, 1717: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/montagu-smallpox.asp
From the Italian philosophe Cesare Beccaria, on crime an punishment: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/18beccaria.asp
Voltaire on Sir Isaac Newton, etc., 1778: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1778voltaire-newton.asp
BBC on the Scottish Enlightenment http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/23632255
From Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776): http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1776asmith-mercsys.asp
a selection of passages pertaining to the great French "salons" of the Enlightenment: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/18salons.asp
Wikipedia on Thomas Jefferson and religion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_religion
Also, look over Tooley Info sheet:
http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/htooley/Hist1431650to1789.html

Mar 7--The Coming of the French Revolution.
Tooley Info sheet: http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/htooley/Hist143FrenchRevHdt.html
Robert Nisbet on the idea of Progress, 1979
Cahier de doléances from Carcasonne: http://history.hanover.edu/texts/cahier.htm l
Tennis Court Oath: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/tennis_oath.html
Mar 9--Midterm Exam

Unit Two: Europe From the French Revolution to the Present

Mar 21-- The French Revolution.
    The Bastille: (ONLY the first page with all of its supporting links): http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap4a.html
    The National Convention outlaws monarchy. http://history.hanover.edu/texts/natcon.html
    The Levée en masse: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1793levee.asp
    Edmund Burke (1729-1797) on the execution of Marie Antoinette: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/burke.htm
    Short essay (only 2 pp, but look at the supporting links to the left; please explore all of them):
             "Slavery and the Haitian Revolution" http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap8a.html

Mar 23--Napoleon and After: Europe from 1800 to 1830.
Wikipedia: Napoleon
from the memoirs of Madame Remusat

Mar 28--Romanticism
Read the lyrics of Schiller's/Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"
http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/romanticperiodsymphonies/qt/Beethovenjoytxt.htm
and William Wordsworth's poem "We Are Seven"
http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww124.html

Mar 30--The Industrial Revolution:
Read Lewis Hackett's chapter on the Industrial Revolution: http://history-world.org/Industrial%20Intro.htm
AND
Read all of Dickens, Hard Times. Reading quiz for this will of course count double.

Apr 4--Liberals, Conservatives, Socialists. Read
the excerpt from The Law, by classical liberal Frederic Bastiat
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G005
(read from "Life is a Gift from God" to the end of "The Results of Legal Plunder")
Also read the first section of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, just the section including the short preface and the first “chapter” called “Bourgeoises and Proletarians” http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html

Apr 6--Nations, Peoples, and Nationalisms, 1815-1900.
Tooley Info sheet: http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/htooley/Hist143NatHdt.html
Arndt, "Where is the German Fatherland?": http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/arndt-vaterland.asp
Proclamation of the Irish Republic, Easter 1916: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1916proc.jpg
Read the Gilbert and Sullivan song lyrics:
http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=oM06KzsYIMo%3D

Apr 11--The New Imperialism. Three readings:
Tooley Info sheet: http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/hwc301jmtht/NewImperialismhdt.html
the Wikipedia article on "Imperialism" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
and an article by Headrick called "The Tools of Imperialism." You will need to use JSTOR for this. Begin with the Abell Library site. Then navigate to JSTOR (if you are not on campus you will have to log in when that is called for). Search for the terms above.
Also, two brief letters from British missionary folks, urging extension of empire. http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1883hebrides.asp

Apr 13--Beginning of Class, Map Quiz no. 2.
World War I. Read the entire Wikipedia entry on World War I: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

Apr 18--Paris Peace and Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik Revolution and the Rise of Stalin.
and a short chapter from Bryan Caplan's "Online Museum of Communism" at George Mason University:
http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/museum/his1g.htm
and some fascinating photos of Stalin: please look at these carefully for discussion:
http://www.stel.ru/stalin/joseph_1935-1953.htm

Apr 20--The Totalitarians.
look carefully at Tooley Info sheet:
InfoTotalitarians
Read the entire Wikipedia entry on World War II: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_II

Apr 25--War and Holocaust:
Reading: Beginning of Class: 4x RQ on Dry Tears AND discussion.
Read Himmler’s “Posen speech”: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/himmler-heinrich/posen/oct-04-43/ausrottung-transl-nizkor.html

Apr 27--Cold War and Decolonization.
Tooley Info sheet: http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/htooley/ChronEurPost45.html

May 2--The West--Beginning of class, Map Quiz no. 3.
Readings:
A lecture on de Gaulle by Yale historian John Merriman (no need to start before 4:48) (warning, there is still over 42 minutes' worth to watch):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXyKr-6sek
Paris 1968, with contemporary protest music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbar529zc9Y
Swinging London:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_London
David Bowie, "London Bye Ta Ta"; The Kinks, "Waterloo Sunset"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo6aq0Cu_BU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M8hrmGQOHk

May 4--The Fall of Communism and the Brave New World of the nineties. Please explore the CNN page on the fall of the Berlin Wall and related issues. Take about thirty minutes exploring the links:
Also read the entire Wikipedia entry on Gorbachev:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev
Tank Man at Tienanamen Square:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrQqDqOx3KY

Return to main page of the History 143 Syllabus