AT European History
Course Syllabus 2013/14
AT EUROPEAN HISTORY
INSTRUCTORS: CHRIS JANUS, ANDREA MARTONFFY
INSTRUCTORS FOR EUROPEAN ART AND MUSIC: CYNTHIA NOBLE AND BRAD BRICKNER
THE RATIONALE
Those who consider themselves expert in the social sciences have increasingly questioned the value of teaching European history. There have been warnings about the dangers of a Eurocentric approach to Modern World history and calls for multiculturalism. Such warnings seem particularly appropriate at a school as diverse as ours and in a country that is becoming more ethnically varied. The cultural foundations of this country, however, remain European, and it is often forgotten that the origins of European civilization are diverse. Also, the most significant event in Modern World history (from 1500 onwards) is the expansion of Europe and its subsequent domination of the globe until after World War I.
THE NATURE OF THE COURSE
The most important focus of this introductory survey course is to improve your analytical, writing and research skills, largely through a series of biweekly exam essays and quarterly research papers. Some of the essays will be written outside of class, others on “test days”, when your objective knowledge of what we have covered will also be examined, and some essays will involve either summations or prompts of the art and music talks that we will hear throughout the year. In conducting our research, we will use William Manchester’s concept of historical understanding, which he outlines in an A World Lit Only By Fire. In an author’s note to this book, he argues that understanding the past is based on seeing the “chains of circumstance” or “catenas” that are always waiting to be discovered by those who delve deeply into a period. However, Manchester is aware, as we will be, of the limitations of even this deep historical “truth” that is based on seeing how events are linked. He notes that when experts shake their “kaleidoscopes” when looking at a period, they can see vastly different things. He cites as an example the Medieval Period, and his and Henry Osborn Taylor’s very different views of it. When Manchester shakes his kaleidoscope and looks at this period, he sees the “brutality, ignorance, and delusions” of the Age; Taylor sees the spirituality of the Middle Ages. In thinking about the nature of history, we will resist the idea that things occur inevitably, but stress the role of chance or what Machiavelli would call fortuna. We will also tend to see intellectual change occurring in a dialectical manner, moving from one perspective or model to another, with periods of extraordinary change in between. In some instances, when change occurs, individuals will play a vital role in shaping the course of history; in others, they will appear to be swept helplessly along by forces larger than themselves.
Another important focal point of the course is art and music as reflections of European history. Here we examine the intersection of art and music with European history beginning with the Medieval Period. To help us, Brad Brickner will give four lectures on the evolution of music in modern European history, and Cynthia Noble will give seven talks about the major periods in European art. She will also lead trips to the Art Institute during the autumn and winter quarters plus a tour of art galleries around Greek town during the spring quarter.
Finally, a unique aspect of the course is that each class is required to participate in a year-long student-led project. In past years that has generally been the creation of a New Yorker type magazine focused on some theme in European history. Three years ago each class was required to create a dramatic production at the end of the year either on nineteenth century imperialism or the process of decolonization after World War II. The former would be based on Paul Scott’s The Jewel and the Crown and the latter production on Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Shadow of the Sun. Ms. Martonffy’s class chose to make a film on nineteenth century imperialism and Mr. Janus’ class created a play on decolonization that included the Arab Spring. For the past two years each class for their year-long project dramatized some aspect of the intellectual revolution that occurred in late nineteen century Europe. And, we would like you to do the same this year because few periods in European history can claim the cultural and intellectual originality and vigor of the latter half of the nineteenth century when, for various thinkers of the time, God died, the proletariat and “the crowd” were born, the id was discovered, and the earth aged by 14 million years in a decade. (All of that will make sense to you before long…)
Scientists, philosophers and thinkers in the newly minted fields of sociology and psychology, along with a stunning number of writers, composers and visual artists, revolutionized the way man saw himself and the world around him. Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Max Weber (1864-1920), James Joyce (1882-1941), Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Edvard Munch (1863-1944), and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) are but a few of the extraordinary thinkers and artists at work during this explosive period. The fact that the quarter century preceding the outbreak of World War I (1890-1914) is known as the period of “Late Modernity” is indicative of just how revolutionary were the cultural and intellectual currents of the time. The work of these thinkers and artists still informs much of our contemporary notion of modernity.
Europe in this exhilarating and complex period will be the historical stage for the yearlong project of all three classes of AT Modern European history this year. Each class will work independently to create a final performance/presentation that deals with aspects of the thought and creative works of this era. The possibilities for where to focus are so great that there is little danger that the final presentations of the classes will be so similar to one another that each is not unique, informative and entertaining.
Each class, however, will face the difficult task of deciding on its focus. Would your class like to produce a play that highlights developments in the visual arts, in psychology and sociology, in music, or in political and philosophical thought? Might you choose to create a salon where thinkers conversant in all these fields gather to discuss the cultural and intellectual currents of the day? How will you incorporate the equally revolutionary political and economic developments of the time? Will you decide to focus on a particular part of the period from 1865-1914 or a specific theme?
We will devote class time early in the year to discussing the project and determining the approach of each class. All three AT Euro classes will come together for the culminating activity of the year –the actual staging of the three presentations for ourselves and the rest of the Lab Schools. The presentations will take place in mid to late May –well after the scheduled Advanced Placement Exam in Modern European History that some of you may decide to take.
It is clear that we have to start doing some work on the project early in the year, despite the fact that our course –which begins in the Renaissance in the fifteenth century and proceeds chronologically– will not actually reach the late nineteenth century until winter quarter. That means that each of you must begin in fall quarter to study some aspects of the period on your own in order to even be able to brainstorm about the form you would like your class’ project to take. So many remarkable works of art, literature, and philosophy are products of the period that you might fruitfully start by viewing, listening or reading excerpts from some of these works and exploring biographies of their creators.
The brief chapter entitled “Nineteenth-Century European Civilization”(p. 338-352) in Birdsall S. Viault (Modern European History) will give you a general idea of the major fields of thought and the leading individuals who changed the European cultural and intellectual landscape in the period from about 1850-1914. Chapter 15, Sections 75-76 in Volume 2 of your Palmer text discusses some of the important thinkers of the period in greater depth. We will also assign a brief but key cultural overview of Late Modernity by historian Marvin Perry early in fall quarter and require a research and writing assignment that will begin your exploration of the period. Your class might start by divvying up the responsibility to report about thinkers and artists in various fields whom you can each study individually and then share with your group when you begin to work on the script for the project.
Each class will devote one of its long periods early in Fall Quarter to discuss the Perry reading and to identify other materials that you might read that will be helpful in your research. We will devote a few other class periods throughout the year to work on the project, however, you should plan to do most of your work outside of class.
We realize that there are many demands on your time in this course and with so many other obligations ongoing, we certainly don’t expect you to devote great amounts of time in fall quarter to the project. We would just like you to be aware that you must each begin to do some serious work on it in the fall. This might entail researching materials that will be used in script writing, beginning to study the music, food, dress or furniture of the period, and conducting fund raising activities. To do things well, the project requires a yearlong effort.
Note that the project will be completely student directed. Each class will elect a chair or co-chairs to oversee its entire project, as well as individual class members who will direct each of the project’s various components. Of course, how you divide responsibilities will depend greatly on the type of project your class decides to do. A theatrical performance of any sort, for example, might involve putting individual class members in charge of the various assignments listed below:
-Coordinating all research for the project
-Coordinating script writing
-Directing the performance
-Music
-Costumes
-Make-up
-Staging and scenery (backdrops, props, lighting)
-Filming and/or film editing
-Food to be served at the performance
-Fund-raising
-Publicity and programs, and
-Filming the final presentation
Each student will be expected to be active in at least two or three aspects of the planning and presentation of the project and to carry an approximately equal share of work and responsibility for the finished product In other words, this must be a true group effort that involves everyone’s pitching in wherever needed to make the project a success. Know that your project work will be an important part of your final grade in AT Modern European History.
Of course, Mr. Janus and Ms. Martonffy will be available throughout the year to meet with each class as a group, as well as with individual students to discuss your plans and progress, and to help you to solve any problems that may develop. Please feel free to come in to talk to either of us whenever you would like.
AP EXAM
This course will help prepare you for the AP exam in European History that is given during the second week in May, though, we do NOT encourage you to take it because this course is now an AT or advanced topic class and, thus, is not focused on the exam, and because we will not be through the AP curriculum by the time the exam is given. For those who insist on taking the AP test, it has a multiple choice section, a document -based section, and an interpretive essay portion that has two sets of three essays where you are asked to write on one topic from each set. These topics are drawn from three broad themes for the period 1450 to the present around which the Development Committee of the AP European History Board now structures the exam. These themes are 1) political and diplomatic, 2) intellectual and cultural, 3) social and economic. A hefty AP review packet is available made up of review material that previous European students have created to help them study for the test but there will be no formal review in class for the exam.
TEXTS FOR THE COURSE
We would like you to purchase from the online bookstore the two volumes of R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton’s A History of the Modern World (10th edition), a review text, Modern European History by Birdsall S. Viault as well as Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, and Ryszasrd Kapuscinski’s The Shadow of the Sun. If money is an issue, you need only purchase the first volume of Palmer and the Viault review text this quarter.
EVALUATIONS
TESTS AND PAPERS: There will be biweekly essay tests with some essays done outside of class and others on a test day. You will generally know the essay questions in advance. These evaluations will also include summations of art and music talks and a brief objective section. In addition, you will have a quarterly research paper of five to six pages.
TEACHER: Grades are a reflection of the standard of excellence that we set for BOTH student and teacher. Grading will be TOUGHER at the beginning of the year, especially on essays. We will also be more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt on your final grade than on your quarter grades. Further, we want to make very clear to you now that how well your assignments are written will be as important as their content when determining your grades.
In addition to your grades on biweekly essays and research papers, class participation will be a significant part of your grade. This will be particularly true when your discussion is original and when it displays evidence that you have read assigned work carefully. The final consideration that we use in determining grades is to check how many times you have been absent and LATE. we will keep a running record of both.
STUDENT: Throughout the year one of our rules will always be to keep our evaluation of your work private. We expect you to extend to us the same courtesy. We ENCOURAGE you to talk to us about your grades, how you think the course might be improved, or how a specific assignment might be changed. However, we would like you to do this in private and not in front of the class. We would also expect you to discuss any problems you are having with your teacher before you bring in a third party. We will extend to you the same courtesy.
HOW THE CLASS WILL BE CONDUCTED
Many classes will be conducted by a student facilitator while several other students will observe how well the facilitator runs the class. This is the Harkness Method that is practiced at Exeter. One observer will simply note interactions among the participants using a form that we will provide. The other observer will evaluate the quality of the discussions, again using a form that you will be given. The following criteria will serve as the basis for evaluation:
Evaluating the Facilitator:
1. Do you lead the discussion by asking thoughtful questions rather than lecturing on what is in the reading?
2. Are you capable of answering the questions that you ask and those that the students ask?
3. Do you involve most of the students in the class or just a few bright, eager ones?
Grading the Facilitator:
1. A “C” is a poor lecture.
2. A “B-” is a good lecture.
3. A “B” is good questions but no real command of the material.
4. A “B+” is good questions that you know the answers to, however, you have difficulty answering questions that students raise.
5. An “A” is good questions, good command of the material, and good board or screen work.
BOOKS AND NOTEBOOKS
One characteristic of most good students is their ability to assimilate, organize, and to be inquisitive about the material they read for the course. We wish to encourage these tendencies in all of you. Therefore, you are expected to bring book(s) we are studying and a European History notebook to class every day.
Documenting Sources
In this category you will find a Citation Guide, an Annotation Guide, and Bibliographical Information–Turabian. You must use footnotes and a bibliography with any work you do outside of class. You will be marked down a full grade if you do not.
MUSIC IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
(brief synopsis)
LECTURE ONE:
The Medieval Period (ca. 500 CE to ca. 1400)
Main Musical Ideas
o Gregorian Chant or Plainsong
o Beginnings of standardized notation
o Use of standardized and systematic pitches (solfege)
o Rhythmic Freedom
o Introduction of simple polyphony (organum) in the 12th century
o Almost all written music intended for use in worship
Important Names and Composers
o Guido de Arrezzo
o Hildegard of Bingen
o Leonin
o Perotin
o Guillaume de Machaut
o Guillaume Dufay
The Renaissance Period (ca. 1400 to 1600)
Main Musical Ideas
o Greater use of consonant intervals (3rds and 6ths)
o Increased use of imitative parts (parts “following” or imitating one another)
o More instrumental music, particularly brass and string instruments
o Music notation continues to develop
o Emergence of the madigral and the motet as musical forms
o The development of opera
Important Names and Composers
o Johannes Ockeghem
o Giovanni Palestrina
o Orlando de Lassus
o Giovanni Gabrieli
o John Dowlan
o Claudio Monteverdi
LECTURE TWO:
The Baroque Period (1600 to 1750)
Main Musical Ideas
o Use of figured bass
o Polyphony
o Harpsichord as one of the main instruments in use
o Pipe Organ
o Complex musical forms such as the fugue
o Importance of rhythms imported from the world of dance
Important Names and Composers
o Johann Sebastian Bach – one of the most important composers of all time
o George Frederic Handel
o Johann Pachelbel
o Arcangelo Corelli
o Antonio Vivaldi
o George Philip Telemann
LECTURE THREE:
The Classical Period (1750 to 1825)
Main Musical Ideas
o Homophony – one melody with an accompaniment
o The invention of the piano around the year 1700
o Development of the symphony orchestra as we know it
o Development of sonata form
o The invention of the string quartet
o The beginning of public concerts and ticket sales
Important Names and Composers
o Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
o Franz Joseph Haydn
The Romantic Period (1825 to 1900)
Main Musical Ideas
o Interest in nature as well as the supernatural
o Program music – music that tells a story
o Nationalism
o Musicians and composers as artists rather than craftsmen
o Expansion of musical forms
o The stretching of traditional harmonies
o Larger orchestras and choirs
o Increased technical demands on musicians
o The rise of the soloist
LECTURE FOUR:
Twentieth Century (and beyond) Music
Major Characteristics
1) The abandonment (almost) of tonality
a. Traditional major and minor harmonies had been stretched almost to the breaking point in the Romantic era. Many twentieth century composers stopped using major/minor harmony altogether
b. The rise of atonal music. All twelve pitches of the chromatic scale are equally important.
c. The rise of serial music, music in which all aspects - pitch, melody, harmony, dynamics, etc., are predetermined by graphs and charts.
2) The rise of new technology
a. Electronic music.
b. Use of pre-recorded electronic tapes either by themselves or in conjunction with live performers.
c. Synthesizers.
d. Most importantly – the rapid development of recording technology from early acetone and vinyl, to digital technology at the end of the century.
3) New forms and types of musical ensembles
a. Traditional orchestras still used, but with different combinations and numbers of instruments
b. Smaller ensembles prevalent during and immediately after World War I.
Musical Characteristics
1) Diversity is key. There is no single dominant school of composition during the century.
2) Musical styles include:
a. Impressionism
b. Expressionism
c. Serialism
d. Neo-Classicism
e. The New Romanticism
f. Nationalism
g. Minimalism
Major Composers
1) Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – Impressionism
2) Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1958) - Serialism
3) Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) – Perhaps the most important, and versatile, composer of the twentieth century
4) Bela Bartok (1883-1945) – Important Nationalistic composer
5) Edgar Varese (1883-1965) – Used pre-recorded electronic sounds as well as a staggering amount of percussion instruments in his compositions.
6) Anton Webern (1883-1945) – Student and follower of Arnold Schoenberg
7) Alban Berg (1885-1935) – Student of Arnold Schoenberg who worked in what is called the Expressionist style, maximum impact with minimum amount of material
8) Aaron Copland (1900-1990) – Great American composer, famous for his use of folk music in his compositions
9) Elliott Carter (b. 1908) Famous for his dense, difficult music, and still going strong at age 100.
10) Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) – Pioneer of electronic music
11) Steve Reich (b. 1936) – Developer of Minimalist music
12) John Adams (b. 1947) – American composer writing in a more accessible style.
ART HISTORY SEGMENT OF AT MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY 2013-14
Cynthia Noble
Contact: cynthia@noblearttours.com
Description
In the art history segment of the AT Modern European History course, you will study the major historical movements in European art from late Medieval and Renaissance to contemporary art through visual and contextual analysis. In visual analysis, you will learn to describe what you see (the principles of design, aka formal elements) and be able to explain how the totality of the elements creates meaning (content) for you as the viewer. In other words, you will learn to elaborate your opinion about a work of art beyond “I know what I like ” in order to stand on firm intellectual ground in matters of taste. More importantly, we will employ contextual analysis to understand how the formal elements may have impacted the viewers in the historical period in which the artwork was created and how particular works are expressions of and contributors to the historical social, economic, political and religious conditions.
The art history discussions, assignments and readings will engage a major theme of the overall course: modernity--from its inception in the Renaissance arising from a growing secularism to its expression in the avant-garde movements of the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries. We will discover: 1) how the role of artists and patrons have evolved; 2) how artists expressed new conceptions of physical reality; 3) how Europeans came to accept a new understanding of artistic tradition, including new subject matter and a tendency toward greater subjectivity; and 4) how the avant-garde culture developed. Emphasis will be placed on Late Modernity (1865-1914) to stimulate ideas for your year-long project. In the late spring, we will set up points of departure for you to explore beyond modern art.
Underlying our discussions about modernity in European art are issues of style. Questions to consider include: What is style? How are ideologies embedded in style? Is it valid to claim that a style is the expression of a certain historical period? If so, how does one account for the exceptions to style within a historical timeframe? Is style personal or cultural? What factors contribute to a shift in style? Why has there been a (perceived?) proliferation of styles in more recent history and in contemporary life?
Short Readings and Assignments
Readings should be completed before the art history class to which they pertain. There is a writing assignment of 3-4 pages to be completed after each art history class. More details will follow for each assignment.
Resources
Understanding Visual and Contextual Analysis/Learning to Interpret Art
Cartwright and Sturken. Practices of Looking , “Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics,” Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
D’Alleva, Anne. Look! The Fundamentals of Art History, “The Fundamentals of Interpretation: Formal and Contextual Analysis,” Prentice Hall: 2004.
Sayre, Henry M. Writing About Art, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall: 1999.
Taylor, Joshua C. Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1957.
Art History Surveys
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History, vol. 2. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, revised second edition, 2005.
(Note: Art History by Gardner is another common survey text but the Stokstad is preferred.)
Assigned Readings and Other Special Topics (list may be expanded as necessary)
Baudelaire. “The Painter of Modern Life,” in The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, trans. J. Mayne, Phaidon, 1964.
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” New York: Schoken Books, trans. Harry Zohn.
Gleizes and Metzinger, “Cubism” in ed. Herschel B. Chipp. Theories of Modern Art, University of California Press, 1968.
Greenhalgh, “What is Classicism?” in Critical Perspectives on Art History, eds. McEnroe and Pokinski, Prentice Hall, 2002.
Haskell, Francis, “The Mechanics of Seventeenth-Century Patronage” in Viewpoints: Readings in Art History, ed. Carole Gold Calo, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001.
Hughes, Robert. The Shock of the New, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Matisse, Henri. “Notes of a Painter” (1908), in ed. Herschel B. Chipp. Theories of Modern Art, University of California Press, 1968.
Zerner, “Classicism as Power,” in Critical Perspectives on Art History, eds. McEnroe and Pokinski, Prentice Hall, 2002.
Field Trips
There will be at least two field trips: one to the Art Institute of Chicago and one to the contemporary art galleries in the West Loop arts district.
Art History Segment Course Outline
10/4 RENAISSANCE
Historical correspondences: 15th-16th centuries, Growing secularism, Humanism, Age of Exploration, Science
Assignment: How do the two images express the historic changes that marked the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early Renaissance? (Images can easily be found through an online image search.) (Use Sayre’s Writing About Art inside cover questions as an aide.)
Cimabue. Virgin and Child Enthroned, c. 1280
Giotto di Bondone. Virgin and Child Enthroned, c. 1305-10
Reading: Greenhalgh. “What is Classicism?” and Zerner, “Classicism as Power”
10/25 BAROQUE
Historical correspondences: 17th-century, Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reformation/Counter-Reformation
Assignment: Describe an image or images from the Hubble telescope in terms of the Southern Baroque style. Why do you think scientists chose Baroque conventions (i.e. artistic standards) for creating the images? What messages are implicit in the Southern Baroque style?
Reading: Haskell, “The Mechanics of Seventeenth-Century Patronage”
11/1 ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO FIELD TRIP
Assignment: Student writing and presentations in the galleries
Reading: D’Alleva, Anne. Look! The Fundamentals of Art History, “The Fundamentals of Interpretation: Formal and Contextual Analysis,” chapter 2.
11/15 ROCOCO, NEOCLASSICAL and ROMANTICISM
Historical correspondences: 18th- early 19th-centuries, Enlightenment, Age of Revolutions and Napoleon
Assignment: How do the Rococo, Neoclassical and Romantic styles appear in our contemporary visual culture (art, architecture, design, fashion, advertising, etc.)? Choose an example for each of the three styles from contemporary visual culture and describe why you think it pertains to that style. It is best to include the images.
Reading: Cartwright and Sturken. Practices of Looking, “Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics,” pp. 10-35.
12/6 REALISM and IMPRESSIONISM
Historical correspondences: mid-late 19th-century, Positivism, Industrial Revolution, Revolutions and also the Consolidations of Nation-States, Population Growth and Urbanism (“birth of the crowd”)
Assignment: Cézanne quipped, “Monet was just an eye, but what an eye!” Choose a painting by Monet, explain what you think Cézanne meant based on the painting. Be sure to include a visual analysis of the painting.
Reading: Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life”
1/10 POST-IMPRESSIONISM, SYMBOLISM, EXPRESSIONISM
Historical correspondences: late 19th-early 20th-centuries, Subjectivity, Industrial Revolution, Science (relativity), Psychology)
Assignment: Focusing on Matisse’s Bathers, from the Art Institute’s permanent collection, write a visual and contextual analysis of this work. What is the cultural “story” that that this painting tells?
Reading: Matisse. “Notes of a Painter” (1908)
1/24 CUBISM, DADA and SURREALISM
Historical correspondences: early – mid-20th-century, Subjectivity, World War I, Psychology (Freud and Jung)
Assignment: Picasso said, “Academic training in beauty is a sham. . .The beauties of the Parthenon, Venuses, Nymphs, Narcissuses are so many lies.” How did Picasso subvert the classical notions of beauty? Choose a Cubist painting by Picasso upon which you will base your writing. Be sure that your arguments are rooted in the “visual facts” of the painting, i.e. a visual analysis.
Reading: Gleizes and Metzinger, “Cubism”
2/7 ART SINCE 1945
Historical Correspondences: Post-World War II, Social Change/Identity Politics, Decentralization of cultural centers, Postmodernism
Assignment: TBA
Reading: Hughes. Shock of the New chapter TBD
3/7 FILM AND VIDEO ART
Historical Correspondences: Social Change/Identity Politics, Proliferation and Critique of Mass Media and Social Communication
Assignment: TBA
Reading: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
4/4 CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY VISITS
PRINCIPAL HISTORY TOPICS OF THE YEAR BY QUARTER PLUS SELECTED QUESTIONS, EVALUATIONS, AND SOURCES
FIRST QUARTER:
1. The nature of Historical Understanding
2. The Twelfth Century Awakening and the Renaissance
3. The Reformation and Counter Reformation
4. Religious Conflict and the Commercial Revolution
5. The contrasting development of Western and Eastern Europe
6. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
7. The French Revolution and Napoleon
SECOND QUARTER:
1. Europe, 1815-1848: Revolution and Counterrevolution
2. Europe at the “Top of its Game”: the“Civilized World.”
3. Europe, 1848-1914: An Age of Contradiction: Progress and Breakdown
4. Modern Consciousness: New View of Nature, Human Nature and the Arts
5. World War I
6. The Russian Revolutions
7. Post war depression and other ills
8. The False Hope: the “Spirit of Locarno”
9. The Great Depression
10. The Decade of Appeasement
THIRD QUARTER:
1. World War II
2. Rescuers versus Obedience
3. Reconstruction and the Cold War
4. The difficult process of Decolonization
5. From Benelux to the European Union
6. Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
7. The Transformation of Communism: Deng versus Gorbachev and Yeltsin
8. Finish reading Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday and prepare for the salons.
FIRST QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.
Selected Questions: How does William Manchester use the concepts of a catena and a kaleidoscope to create an idea of historical understanding? Was the Renaissance a distinct period? Did women have a Renaissance? Did women play a significant role in creating Renaissance culture? What distinctions can be made between virtue and virtu? What impact did Luther’s childhood have on his understanding of Christianity? What impact did the Reformation have on the emergence of Modernity? What role did religious toleration play in the emergence of the Dutch and Spanish nations? What is the Commercial Revolution and why is it so significant? Why ultimately was the Glorious Revolution’s brand of Parliamentary government more successful than Louis XIV’s Absolutism? What is the “problem of knowledge”? Why was its solution key to European progress and to the emergence of modernity? Why was it necessary for a new “space” to be created for the Enlightenment to succeed? Based on the Enlightenment, how dangerous are “reformers” to the established political order? How did the Enlightenment change the concept of human nature? Why is the idea of self-interest such a key concept of the Enlightenment? How was the idea of evil transformed by the Enlightenment? Who has a more accurate idea of Rousseau’s concept of the general will, Marvin Perry or Paul Johnson? What is a Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution? How is it accurate, how not? How does it contrast with the theory of the notables? Do you agree with Simon Schama that violence was the “motor of the Revolution”? How do you answer Marvin Perry’s question, Was Napoleon, “the preserver or destroyer of the Revolution?” Might the origins of political correctness be traced to the German reaction to Napoleon’s occupation?
Selected Evaluations: You will write a “chains of circumstance” research paper this quarter as a way of improving your idea of historical understanding. You can use as a model the four developments of the Kennedy Administration that William Manchester links together, i.e. the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy’s confrontation with Khrushchev in Vienna, the razing of the Berlin Wall, and the commitment of ground troops to Southeast Asia or Michael Rose handout about the British Empire. The paper will be due on Friday, Dec. 7, though, you will be asked to provide an opening paragraph that includes a robust thesis before then. Your finished product should be five to six pages long, have footnotes and a bibliography, and you should use some primary sources. The key to a good paper will be a thesis that illustrates some original and surprising links among events in history that are backed up by solid evidence that you have discovered. The topic of your paper should fall within the chronological limits from the beginning of our course (i.e. the Late Middle Ages) through the Scientific Revolution. You will also have your biweekly evaluations that will include a series of short “linkage questions” and two to three essay questions that we will decide on in advance of the test. You should make careful outlines of each of these essay questions. On one of these evaluations you will be asked to write a DBQ in addition to one other essay. Finally, as I suggested above, several of the essays during the course of the term may refer to material in the art lectures.
Selected Sources: A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester; The Wealth and Poverty of Nations-Why Some are so Rich and some are so Poor by David S. Landes; Oration and the Dignity of Man by Pico della Mirandola; Petrarch, The First Man of Modern Letters by Robinson; Renaissance and Renaissances by Edwin Panofsky; The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559, by Eugene F. Rice; The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt; The Prince and The Discourses by N. Machiavelli; Women, History, and Theory by Joan Kelly; “The Family in Renaissance Italy” by David Herlihy; In Praise of Folly by Erasmus; Christianity by Rolland Bainton; “On Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther; “The Price of Conversion”, Francisco de San Antonio and Mariana de los Reyes; “Fictions of Privacy: House Chapels and Spatial Accommodation of Religious Dissent in Early Modern Europe” by Benjamin J.Kaplan; The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir; Elizabeth I by Christopher Haigh; The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert; Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe by Geoffrey Scarre; On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres by N. Copernicus; Novum Organum by Francis Bacon; Principia Mathematica by Issac Newton; Intellectuals by Paul Johnson (the essay on Rousseau); The Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes; Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke; The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations, ed. by Frank Kafker and James Laux; A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, ed. by Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf; Questions of the French Revolution by Jacques Sole; and Citizens by Simon Schama; Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind by J. G. Herder; “Addresses to the German Nation” by J.G. Fichte.
SECOND QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.
Selected questions: Was Romanticism a continuation or reaction to the Enlightenment? Why was the early nineteenth century an age of isms? Why did the Congress of Vienna ignore “the fundamental problem” of the nineteenth century? Why was the process of political reform more successful in England than on the Continent? Why did the revolts of 1848 spread so rapidly and end so quickly? Was the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly of great significance in European history? What were the consequences of the shift to a new “toughness of mind” or Realism at mid-century? Who has a better understanding of Marxism, Palmer or Paul Johnson in his essay, “ Karl Marx, ‘Howling Gigantic Curses.’”? What in your view was the most successful example of national consolidation in the latter part of the nineteenth century? The least successful? What did Europeans “lose” through the process of industrialization? What did European civilization look like in the latter part of the nineteenth century? Could the argument be made that European civilization was in fact a superior civilization, at least based on quantitative indices? How violent was the process of imperialism? Was it an inherently racist institution? What were its benefits? How is the imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries still shaping our world today? What distinctions does Marvin Perry make between Early Modernity (the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment) and Late Modernity (that begins with Romanticism)? Why did the forces of irrationalism, uncertainty and anomie grow stronger in the latter half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century? What catenas can you draw among the fields of philosophy, sociology, biology, psychiatry, art, politics, and science in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century? How does Freud change our conception of ourselves? What does Nietzsche mean when he says that, “God is Dead”? What does he mean when he writes that, “The you is older than the I”? Finally, what does Nietzsche suggest when he says, “Truths are illusions that we have forgotten are illusions”? Was World War I all but inevitable, as Palmer suggests, or do you agree with S. L. A. Marshall, that “But for the murder at Sarajevo there might never have been a war. Men can speculate to the contrary. They cannot know.”? What are the specific instances of failure of leadership that Gordon Craig cites in the “Political Leader as Strategist” that might lead one to conclude that World War I became a Late Modernity War? Were the treaties that ended the First World War “peace” treaties? Why might it be argued that the 1920s was among the cruelest and most deceptive of decades because of the false hopes that it engendered? Would Marx have been pleased with the Russian Revolution and its aftermath? How did the Great Depression increase our understanding of economics? Why is the 1930s known as the decade of appeasement?
Selected Evaluations: You will probably be asked to hand-in your first draft of the dialogues for the yearlong project, and your initial background sketches and ideas for music, food and costumes by the chair of the project. The key evaluation this quarter, other than the biweekly exams, is a research paper on Late Modernity that will buttress your knowledge for the yearlong project. . The evolution of the concept of Modernity as described by Marvin Perry in his text Western Civilizaton is probably the most important intellectual idea in the course. In this paper, I want you to find linkages between at least two Late Modernity thinkers such as Freud and Nietzsche or Le Bon and Mussolini and develop a thesis based on these concatenations. Your paper should be based on primary sources and should be five to six pages long.
Selected Sources: The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx; “Karl Marx: Howling Gigantic Curses’” from Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals; Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson; The Four Volumes of Collected Short Stories (many of which take place in Asia during the Colonial Period) by Somerset Maugham; The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott; Staying On by Paul Scott;Burmese Days by George Orwell; Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen Sowing by Leonard Woolf; King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild;Mr. Johnson by Joyce Carey; “Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, Human Nature, and the Arts” in Western Civilization by Marvin Perry et al.; Nietzsche and the Death of God,translated and edited by Peter Fritzsche; On the Origins of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. Or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin; Marx-Darwin correspondence 1861-73; Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg; Discussions with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics by Niels Bohr; The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon; Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle by Rosa Luxembourg; On Proletarian Culture by V.I. Lenin; Communist Policy Towards Art by Leon Trotsky; Art and Politics Are Inseparable; National Socialist Art both by Adolf Hitler; Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc by Arthur Miller; “’Decent’ vs. ‘Degenerate’ Art: The National Socialist Case” by Mary-Margaret Goggin; Freud-Einstein Correspondence, 1931-32; Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, 1915 by Sigmund Freud; Good and Evil; Fascism and Science; Why Do they Hate the Jews; The Religious Spirit of Science all by Albert Einstein; World War I by S.L.A. Marshall; “The Big One” by Adam Gopnik; Makers of Modern; Strategy: from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, edited by Peter Paret.
THIRD QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.
Selected Questions: What were the causes of World War II? Did Fascism capture as much of the human condition as Adam Smith did through his concept of self-interest? How credible is the German defense that they were just following orders when confronted with the Holocaust? Who were the rescuers? Did they share a set of common characteristics that might be described as human goodness? What is existentialism? How is it related to World War II? What were the arguments pro and con for dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan? The second atomic bomb? How successful were the various peace conferences associated with World War II? What were the origins of the European Union in the aftermath of World War II? If you looked at the evolution of what has now become the European Union at any particular moment in time, how successful an organization would you say it has become? If you looked at this same organization from the larger perspective of European history, would you have a different assessment? How successful have the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund been over time? Henry Kissinger often argued that the United States never really conducted its foreign policy through any kind of conceptual framework; does the Truman Doctrine or policy of containment belie that view? Could the Vietnam War be viewed as a failure in an overall successful policy of containing communism? How realistic was the optimism surrounding independence in the newly freed colonies? Could it be argued that formerly colonial universities made the transition to independence more successfully than the political or economic systems of these countries? What is the state of many of these universities today? How did the stagflation of the 1970s change our understanding of economics? What is your assessment of Reagan’s supply side economics? Why was Eastern Europe freed so suddenly? Why did the Soviet Union collapse so suddenly? Why was the problem of apartheid in South Africa resolved so quickly? What role did leadership play in these events? Other causes? Compare the leadership of Gorbachev/Yeltsin with Deng? Was Deng right to confront the students at Tiananmen Square?
Selected Evaluations: We will continue to have our biweekly tests to help prepare you for the AP exam. You will be asked to write a short piece of historical fiction. In this assignment, we would like you to get the broad historical facts right—that is have some evidence for them. However, you may make up dialogue among historical figures and even create minor figures out of whole cloth. You may want to link this assignment to the yearlong project. This work should again be about five to six pages long; we want to see a draft with footnotes and a bibliography to make sure your work is well-grounded.
Selected Sources: Article in Italian Encyclopedia by Benito Mussolini on Fascism; The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir; The Rescuers by Gay Block and Malka Drucker; the film, Obedience as well as the interview with Stanley Milgram; Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, by Margot Strom and William Parsons; “Why Men Love War” by William Broyles; The Community of Europe: a history of European Integreation since 1945 by Derek W. Urwin; The Cold War: 1945-1963 by Michael Dockrill; The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski;The Coup by John Updike A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul;; Women in European History by Gisela Bok; Becoming Visible: Women in European History ed. by Bridenthal, Koonz, and Stuard; Russia and the West: Gorbachev and the Politics of Reform by Jerry Hough; and The Grand Failure: the Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
BIWEEKLY WORK BLOG POSTING
Every other Monday Ms. Martonffy and Mr. Janus will post a copy of their assignments for the next two weeks (though the first handout will cover four weeks) on the European History Blog. You are responsible for being aware of these assignments and checking the blog periodically for any other updates about the course.
THE FIRST MONTH OF ASSIGNMENTS
KEY DATES:
1. On Friday, Oct. 4 Cynthia Noble will give her first art talk on the Renaissance.
2. During the second class period of the week of Oct. 7 you will have an in-class TEST on the Renaissance. The test will have three essays and a linkage section of short answer questions. You will be expected to complete the short answer section and write on TWO of the three of the following essays: 1. How do catenas, kaleidoscopes and periodization aid in your understanding of Medieval and Renaissance cultures? 2. What is Machiavelli’s view of human nature? Is it persuasive? 3. How persuasive is David Herhily’s view of the Renaissance family? Why?
WORK FOR THE WEEKS OF SEPTEMBER 9 16, 23 and Sept. 30, 2013
EYE-OPENER FOR THE MONTH: Petrarch showed his time its future self. Bolgar
The week of September 9
CLASS ONE: The course introduction will be handed out and we will discuss the Exeter Harkness method that will often be used in this class. Ms. Martonffy and I will lead tomorrow’s discussion to show you how it works, and then we will expect students to fulfill the roles of discussion leader and observers. We will also be available if the student leader /facilitator wishes to meet with us before the discussion. HOMEWORK: Read the course syllabus, the author’s note in the Manchester reading (very important).
CLASS TWO: We will go over the course introduction and then Ms. Martonffy and I will lead discussions on the homework. We will focus on the nature of historical understanding, paying particular attention to the ideas of catena, kaleidoscope, and periodization. We will use the extra half hour to focus on the European sovereign debt crisis. HOMEWORK: please read the Rice handout.
CLASS THREE: We will discuss the Manchester reading. HOMEWORK: Please read pages 3-28 in the Manchester handout.
CLASS FOUR: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the Manchester reading. Please read the handout by David Landes, The Invention of Invention. We will assign a facilitator for this reading as well.
The week of September 16
CLASS ONE: Sophomore Retreat
CLASS TWO: Sophomore Retreat
CLASS THREE: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. Are your ideas of catena, kaleidoscope and periodization influenced by the reading? HOMEWORK: review our last two readings to determine which of them is more truthful.
CLASS FOUR: A facilitator will lead a discussion on whose view of the Medieval World is strongest, Manchester or Landes. HOMEWORK: Please read pages 49-69 in History of the Modern World to 1815 and the handout, Oration on the Dignity of Man by Pico della Miranddola.
The week of September 23–extra half hour in long period: elect officers for Late Modernity project.
CLASS ONE: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the readings and, in particular, Pico’s view of the nature of man–a major theme in the course. HOMEWORK: Please read The Family in Renaissance Italy by David Herlihy and Women in the Renaissance by Carole Levin.
CLASS TWO: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. We will focus on the key question that Herlihy and Levin address: Did women have a Renaissance? HOMEWORK: Please read the handout on Machiavelli that is chapters 15-19 from The Prince.
CLASS THREE: A facilitator will lead a discussion on Machiavelli and his analysis of human nature and the role of evidence in his conclusions. HOMEWORK: Finish the Manchester handout; pages 76 to the top of 88 and then pages 69-77 in Palmer.
CLASS FOUR: A facilitator will lead a discussion on Machiavelli and his analysis of human nature and the role of evidence in his conclusions. HOMEWORK: Finish the Manchester handout, pages. 76 to the top of 88, and then pages 69-77 in Palmer
The week of Sept. 30–extra half hour in long project: assign background papers for the Late Modernity Project.
CLASS ONE: A student will lead a discussion on the Manchester and Palmer readings. HOMEWORK: We will lead a discussion on the question of how catenas, kaleidoscopes and periodization aid in your understanding of Medieval and Renaissance cultures?
CLASS TWO: The student who outlined our first essay will lead a discussion on it. HOMEWORK: We will assign a student to outline the second essay question, What is Machiavelli’s view of human nature? Is it persuasive?
CLASS THREE: The facilitator will lead a discussion of Machiavelli’s The Prince and Modernity. HOMEWORK: We will assign a facilitator to outline our third essay question, How persuasive is David Herhily’s view of the Renaissance family? Why?
CLASS FOUR: Cynthia Noble will give her first lecture. The topic will be Renaissance art. Her assignment is due during your first class period next week. The Renaissance test will be during the second class period of next week.
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