Iran: An Undemocratic Democracy? and Iran's Women Set to Vote in Elections

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/world/middleeast/iran-presidential-election-democracy.html

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/irans-women-set-to-vote-in-elections

Test Study Guide For Tuesday

Final Modern European History Test (1920s-1960s)

• FOREIGN POLICY. We began this unit with the 1920s.  Governments had to confront the postwar devastation.  Reparations and war guilt clause imposed upon Germany.  A series of international agreements aimed at restoring stability to Europe (Dawes Plan, Spirit of Locarno, and Kellogg Briand Pact). The League of Nations was born of this decade. U.S. did not join. See McKay handout. 

• GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN ECONOMY. The Great Depression resulted from the stock market crash of 1929. It did not end until nation-states began mobilizing for World War II.  In class, we discussed a variety of measures taken by different countries over the 1930s including the United States, Scandinavia, France, etc. such as austerity, currency adjustments, Keynesian spending, public works agencies, and social welfare measures. Compare to the actions of fascist Italy and Germany to the Depression.  See McKay handouts.  Remember your economic theories from capitalism, socialism, communism, and fascism. 

• DOMESTIC POLICY. We examined the nature of fascism both as it served as a reaction to the loss of World War I in the 1920s in Italy and in Germany in the 1930s and as it broadened its appeal in the terrible economic conditions of the Great Depression.  See Perry handout. How can fascism serve as an example of the proper scope of government with respect to domestic and foreign policy?  

• INFRINGEMENT OF CIVIL RIGHTS.  We examined the trajectory of the infringement of the civil rights of Jewish citizens within Germany, the confiscation of businesses and real estate and other property, and the creation of the ghettos and the deportation to Jewish citizens to labor camps, concentration camps, and death camps. You may also examine Hitler's racial policies as they impacted Poland and Russia as well.  See Perry handout on the rise of Hitler and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum field trip exhibition. 

• FOREIGN POLICY. Consider Gopnik's argument that World War II teaches that searching for an accommodation with tyranny by selling out small nations only encourages the tyrant, that refusing to fight now leads to a worse fight later on, and that only the steadfast rejection of compromise can prevent the natural tendency to rush to a bad peace with worse men?" See Perry handout on the the policy of appeasement and the invasion of Poland in 1939, during which Hitler pushed for nothing short of the extermination of the Poles, from the Rape of Europa documentary. When should countries intervene militarily?  

• WAR AIMS. Consider the ethical conflicts in Rape of Europa documentary from the preservation of monuments at the cost of soldiers' lives to widespread bombing campaigns that destroyed cities from 1940 to 1945. What limits should government impose upon its military strategies during wartime? Consider the casualty figures in Perry.  Consider the debate between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia on where and when to open different "fronts" of the war.  

• FOREIGN POLICY AND PEACE TREATIES.  Consider the competing policies of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at the end of World War II, including the Marshall Plan, the dispute over whether to reunify Germany, the Truman Doctrine, and the U.S.S.R.'s policy to seize the industrial and military equipment as well as the arts works from Germany as well as create a "buffer zone" between Germany and Russia in the form of the Iron Curtain.  Consider the Perry handout and the Introduction to Cold War clip, not to mention the "Europe" that Winston Churchill foresaw in the absence of US' aid. 

• SUPRANATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.  Consider the growth of supranational organizations which combine the powers of several nation-states such as the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), the United Nations, and the Warsaw Pact.  How do governments reconcile these institutions with their national traditions developed over hundreds of years? How does the development of the atomic and hydrogen bomb technology change the course of history?  Consider the Perry handout, the Nuremberg War Crime trials held under the auspices of the United Nations, and the Churchill Zurich speech. 

• LEGACY OF IMPERIALISM. Consider how European nation-states responded to the cries for independence that issued from the imperialized zone in 1947: Freedom Now documentary.  Is it understandable that the U.S. mistook independence movements for armed communist minorities backed by the Soviets, which they viewed as a totalitarian threat akin to Nazism, in the period 1947-1967?  What duties, if any, did European nation-states owe their former colonies in terms of preparing for peaceful, stable transitions?  What duties, if any, does the Western world continue to owe today, such as with the refugee crisis, which features many fleeing war and poverty in North Africa, in addition those fleeing Syria and Iraq?            

People's Century Series

Series Guide

YouTube links 

Decolonization: People's Century 1947 Freedom Now

For more on the partition of India and Pakistan, see my Early World History blog.

For more on African independence movements, see the Story of Africa series.

THE ORDER OF LENIN: FIND SOME TRULY HARD PEOPLE

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/opinion/lenin-stalin-bolshevism-soviet-russia.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

World War II: Rape of Europa

http://www.rapeofeuropa.com/aboutTheStory.asp

We will be viewing Rape of Europa in all classes of AT European History, which examines the atrocities of the war with respect to the Holocaust, the policy to exterminate the Poles, and the horrific Eastern front, including the Siege of Leningrad. It zeros in on the confiscation of Jewish property, especially priceless works of art, such as Woman in Gold. Efforts today to continue to return expropriated property to descendants is discussed at length. A list is available here. repatriate expropriated property 

Macron and Merkel Meet and Pledge European Unity

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/world/europe/france-emmanuel-macron-edouard-philippe.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Feurope&action=click&contentCollection=europe&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront

The Fertile Ground of French Communism

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/communism-melenchon-french-election.html?mabReward=ACTM_TC4&recp=2&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Europe&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article

Year-Long Play Project

We have come to working solutions immediately to put into place to save the day and do justice to Jung Chang's memoir on the effect of Chinese Cultural Revolution on three generations of Chinese women. Revisions are currently being made to the working script to reflect the arc of communism based on feedback from Ms. Gerst and Mr. Janus.  We will take a positive psychology to this process, not focusing on could've, would've, should've or finger-pointing, but instead work cooperatively and positively as a team to ensure our play does Chang's beautiful memoir justice.  We encourage students with after-school availability to please sign-up to act in a major or minor role in the play, with approximately five major roles (De-Hong, Yu-Wu, Wang, Jung, Yu-Fang) to be filled immediately. Consider non-speaking parts or extras if you are busy after-school because we would only need you for the dress rehearsal.  

One reason the Laboratory Schools values experiential, inquiry-based learning is because it provides students with the ability not to learn only from successes but also from challenges, even mistakes. In the professional world, challenges arise frequently, sometimes daily in some circumstances. We would not be teaching you anything of value if we did not teach you how to respond in times of challenge, times of adversity. We will take it day-by-day, and by the end, we will all have a deep understanding of why Mr. Janus and I thought it important to spend our year-long project examining how communism changed the trajectory of the 20th century, particularly as we remember the anniversaries of the Russian Revolution and the Cultural Revolutions this year. 

Please see and use the Schoology Year-Long Project for all play-related business, including posting any and all working Google documents.  We again remind you not to use Facebook to discuss this school-related business.  

You may reach me or Mr. Janus in person or by email with any concerns. 

WHAT THE LAST NUREMBERG PROSECUTOR ALIVE WANTS THE WORLD TO KNOW

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-the-last-nuremberg-prosecutor-alive-wants-the-world-to-know/

WHY MACRON WON

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/07/world/europe/why-macron-won-france.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

What has failed in France?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/opinion/what-has-failed-in-france.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

Friday's Test: Study Guide on World War I and the Russian Revolution

Question: How should we begin to rewrite the history of World War I to help us make sense of its diplomatic failures that continue to haunt statesmen and generals (and pacifists) on the international stage today as they consider a disintegrating European Union, conflict with Russia, and chaos in the Middle East?  Consider the internal dynamic within Europe, the withdrawal of Russia and the entry of the United States, and the impact on the Middle East, not to mention the entire imperialized zone.  

An easy way to think about this essay is to consider what acronym you could create for the international lessons or legacy of WWI.  If MANIA (militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, and assassination) describes the causes of WWI, what acronym would describe its international lessons or legacy?

We began with the story of the war itself, considering whether it was inevitable or changeable.  (Marshall and Section 81)

We then looked at the events of the war (Gopnik's New Yorker article that discusses "lessons" of the war and the Craig article/Gerst lecture on strategic and diplomatic failures).

Ms. Gerst's classes looked at the war from the kaleidoscopes of the colonies, institutional racism in war policy, and the interactions of colonial soldiers and laborers with Western soldiers (Maguire).  

We then looked at the treaties that ended the war, focusing on the Versailles treaty consequences for Germany as well as the breakup of the Ottoman Empire (Section 86 and the reading entitled "Settlement of the Middle East Question").

We transitioned to a revolution partially caused by the war, namely the Russian Revolution (Perry handout), noticing how Lenin and the Bolsheviks emerge as the extreme faction after the Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky failed to pull Russia out of the war.

Our final discussion was of Lev Kopelev's memoir of his participation in the liquidation of the kulaks, which by some estimates terrorized 5 million people, which in turn led to famine in 1932 and 1933, killing additional millions (Kopelev and Stalin primary sources).