Internet History Sourcebooks: Modern History

Internet Modern History Sourcebook

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| Modern History Sourcebook | Term Paper | Stylesheet|

Paul Halsall Fordham Rose Hill/ HSRU 1000 /Spring 1998 The West: Enlightenment to Present Class Hours: Keating214 Tue, 2:30-3:45pm, Fri, 1-2:15pm

CONTENTS

	Course description
	Textbook and Readings
	Class Requirements
	Class Handouts, Projects and Guides
	COURSE OUTLINE - with links to online lecture notes and primary sources
	Class Schedule - in Table Form

The Course

This course is an introduction to the events, ideas, and developments that have created modernity since the 17th century. In world historical terms this has been the period of the achievement and collapse of European political and cultural hegemony. Although we shall look at other areas, our concentration will be on the changes that took place in the European World in the 18th and 19th centuries, the rise of European powers to world domination, the crises of politics and culture in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the emergence of a bipolar world after 1945. Political and economic elites in America and Russia, the successor powers to European empires, have long been involved with, and contributed to, European developments. Accordingly we shall not ignore how developments in those countries have contributed to the modern world.

Textbook

The textbook (in a new edition for this semester - do not buy older editions!) for the course is:

Donald Kagan, et al., The Western Heritage, Volume II: Since 1648, 6th Edition, (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998)

It must be emphasized that your main reading is to consist of the primary source texts indicated in the course outline.

Sources and Other Readings on the World Wide Web

Students are required to do a varying amount of assigned reading outside class. By the end of the course you should be able to evaluate for yourself the varied interpretations given to the past. To this end a significant proportion of class time will be given to discussion of the readings. Disagreement with the instructor is strongly encouraged.

All the primary source readings for each class are on the World Wide Web. If you are reading the online version of this syllabus all you need do is to select [often by "clicking"] the texts in question, which are listed under each class. You can then read on screen, or print out the document. [For the computer-phobic copies may be made available in the library reserve room.] This option puts you, as Fordham students, on the cutting edge of technology.

The Internet is now a valuable research tool for students. Accordingly I shall also make this syllabus, course outline, and other class handouts available on the Web.

You must acquire a CIMS account for this semester. You can access this account from any VAX terminal at Fordham, from the new net terminals, from terminals in the library, and from home if you have a modem.

The World Wide Web browser available at Fordham on the older VAX terminals is called LYNX. To invoke the "pages" for this course simple sign on and type

lynx http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/HS1000.html

LYNX will only let you see the texts in a plain text mode. If you access the page from home, and have a web browser such as Netscape or the one that comes with AOL, you will find a much more attractive graphical presentation.

Those with graphical browsers should just use the URL [web address]

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/HS1000.html

Students are strongly recommended to provide themselves with the following reference works:-

Class Requirements

All class requirements must be met in order to earn a final grade.

The Term Paper (6-8 pages) will be a serious attempt (i.e. an essay) to deal with a historical problem chosen by each student. I will offer suggestions. On Oct 28 you must hand in brief statement of your topic. By Nov. 11 you must hand in a developed thesis statement, outline, and an annotated bibliography of at six-eight items. The paper must be handed in on time, Dec 2. It must conform to a standard term paper style, preferably Turabian since this is a history class, but I will accept MLA style. Papers with D and F grades may be resubmitted if submitted on time.

Class Policies

Students are encouraged meet the instructor to discuss papers
and/or issues raised in class.

Class Handouts, Projects and Guides

	Map Exercise [This is a Microsoft Word document, it will not display on some browsers]
	Term Paper
	Stylesheet
	How to Write a Paper
	How Papers Are Graded
	How to use the World Wide Web

COURSE OUTLINE

	Introduction
	I: The Ancien Regime
	II: Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
	III: American and French Revolutions
	IV: The Industrial Revolution
	V: The Century of Ideology and Power
	VI: The End of European Hegemony
	VII: World Since 1945

Introduction:

lecture 1: Introduction

lecture 2: Roots of Western Civilization

Section I: The Ancien Regime

Structures of Politics - Absolutism

lecture 3: Everyday Life during the Ancien Regime

Kagan, 545-61, 570-75

lecture 4: The Rise of Absolutism

	Kagan, 449-51, 463-76, [513-36]
	Cardinal Richelieu: Political Testament, 1624, [At Hanover]
	Bishop Jacques Bossuet: Political Treatise on Kingship, [At Hanover] Reading Guide
	Duc de Saint-Simon: The Court of Louis XIV, from Memoires
	The Duchess of Orleans: Versailles Etiquette, 1704
	Jean Baptiste Colbert: Memoirs - On French Finances, [At Hanover]
	Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Leviathan, 1651, extracts

England, Holland, and America - Alternative Polities and Economies

lecture 5: Another Way: England, Holland and America

	Kagan, 451-63, 504-09
	Petition of Right, 1628, [At The American Revolution Site]
	Statement of the Levellers, 1649, [At WSU]
	Radical Women During the English Revolution
	John Eveleyn: Diary, 1666-1689
	Declaration of Right, February 1689, [At Hanover]
	English Bill of Rights, 1689
	John Locke (1632-1704): Second Treatise on Government, [At Hanover] Reading Guide
	William Temple: Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands

The Early Modern World System

Back to Index

Section II:The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

The Scientific Revolution

lecture 6: Origins of the Scientific Revolution

lecture 7: The Scientific Revolution in the Seventeenth Century

	Kagan, 481-93, 498-504
	Nicholas Copernicus: Dedication of The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543, [At Clinch Valley College]
	Johannes Kepler: Laws of Planetary Motion, [At Hawaii] A web page illustrating the laws in diagrams
	Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Letter to the Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615 Reading Guide
	Réne Descartes: Discourse on Method, 1637, extracts, [At WSU]
	Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727): Mathematical Principles of Natural Philopsophy On the rules of reasoning in philosophy.
	Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): Experiments with Balloons, 1783
	Thomas S. Kuhn: Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962, [At BGSU] Summary of theories of an important modern theorist of the idea of scientific revolution.

The Enlightenment

lecture 8: The Rebirth of Philosophy

lecture 9: The French Enlightenment

	Crib Sheet: Rebirth of Philosophy: Empiricism and Rationalism
	Crib Sheet: Enlightenment Political Thought
	Kagan, 609-29
	Adam Smith (1723-90): Wealth of Nations, 1776, chapter 1, [At WSU] On the division of labor.
	Jean La Rond D'Alembert: Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot, [At WSU]
	Voltaire (1694-1778): A Treatise on Toleration, 1763, [At WSU]
	Voltaire (1694-1778): Selections from the Philosophical Dictionary, [At Hanover]
	Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689-1755): Persian Letters, No. 13, 1721
	Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755): The Spirit of the Laws, 1748
	Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): Second Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, 1755
	Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): The Social Contract, 1763, extracts
	Condorcet (1743-94): On the Future Progress of the Human Mind, 1794 Reading Guide
	Cesare Beccaria: An Essay on Crimes and Punishments
	Paris Salons in the 18th Century On Enlightenment society hostesses.
	David Hume (1711-1776): On Miracles from Human Understanding
	Enlightened Despotism

Back to Index

Section III: American and French Revolutions

American Independence

lecture 10a: The American Revolution

	Kagan, 579-602
	J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813): Letters From An American Farmer: Letter 3: What is an American, 1782, [At UVA]
	Edmund Burke: On conciliation with America, March 22, 1775, [At The American Revolution Site]
	Declaration of Independence, 1776, [At Yale]
	United States Constitution, 1787, [At Yale]
	James Madison:Speech proposing the Bill of Rights, June 8, 1789, [At The American Revolution Site]
	Bill of Rights and the Amendments to The Constitution, [At The American Revolution Site]
	Alexis De Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Book II: Chapter 8: Book III, Chapters 3, 4
	Chief Black Hawk (1767-1838): Autobiography
	Smallpox, Indians, and Blankets

Slavery

Liberal and Radical Revolution in France

lecture 10: The French Revolution: Origins

lecture 11: The Liberal Revolution

	Kagan, 644-59
	Abbé Sieyes: What is the Third Estate? Reading Guide - Early French Revolution
	The Tennis Court Oath, June 20, 1789, [At Clinch Valley College][With facsimiles of the Document]
	Declaration of the Rights of Man, 26 August, 1789, [At Yale]
	Decree Abolishing Feudalism, 1789, [At Hanover]
	Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 1790, [At Hanover]

lecture 12: The Radical Revolution

Reaction, Napoleon, and Romanticism

lecture 13: Reaction and the Rise of Napoleon  

lecture 14: Napoleon and Romanticism

Back to Index

Section IV: The Industrial Revolution

Events

lecture 15: Causes of the Industrial Revolution  

lecture 16: The Industrial Revolution: Technology and Social Effects  

	Kagan, 761-72
	The Revolution in the Manufacture of Textiles
	The Revolution in Power The Steam Engine [At Toronto] A short modern account of how a steam engine works, and what was improved in the 18th century. Thomas Newcomen: The Newcomen Engine, [At exeter.ac.uk] [Sketch picture] James Watt (1736-1819): The Steam Engine, c. 1769, [At Museon.nl] [Picture] James Watt (1736-1819) and Matthew Boulton: An Industrial Steam Engine [witha 64 inch bore!], 1820, [At Kew Bridge Steam Museum] [Picture] Richard Guest: Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture, 1823 On the application of steam power to cotton looms and the social effects. William Radcliffe: Origin of...Power Loom Weaving, 1828 On the application of steam power to cotton looms. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859): The S.S. Great Britain, 1839, [At Digiweb][Picture+text] or Another Picture [At wlihe.ac.uk] The first ocean-going steam propeller ship. Curt Anderson: The Two Countries That Invented the Industrial Revolution, [At Darex.com][Modern Article] An explanation of the different functions of invention in Briatin and the United States.

Literary Response

	William Blake: Preface to 'Milton', 1804, [At Clinch Valley College]
	William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Excursion, 1814
	Charles Dickens: Hard Times, Chapter 2, [At Mt Holyoke]
	Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South, 1855, [At Clinch Valley College]
	Emile Zola: Germinal, 1885, extracts, [At WSU]
	Andrew Carnegie (1835­1919): The Gospel of Wealth, 1889

Back to Index

Section V: The Century of Ideology and Power

The Congress of Vienna System and Challenges

lecture 17: The Congress of Vienna System and Challenges

lecture 18: 1848: The Course of Events and 19th-Century Liberalism

lecture 19: Nationalism and the Decline of Cosmopolitanism

Power and Ideology in the US: North vs. South

Responses to Economic Growth: S
Socialism and Marxism, Trade Unionism

lecture 20: Socialism, Marxism, and Trade Unionism

Responses to Economic Growth:
Imperialism

The Second Industrial Revolution and Advanced Capitalism

lecture 21: Spread and Social Results of Industrialization

	George Friedrich List (1789-1846): National System of Political Economy
	Robert Franz: The German Banking System, 1910
	The Chemical Industry
	Electricity
	Automation and the Assembly Line
	The Modern Corporation

Contradictions of the Enlightenment:
Darwin, Freud, Einstein and Modern Art

lecture 22: Modernism: Late 19th/Early 20th Century Cultural Conflicts

Religion in the Face of Modernity

Back to Index

VI: The End of European Hegemony

World War I

The Russian Revolution

An Age of Anxiety?

Economic Problems and the Depression

Nazism and World War II

The Holocaust

Back to Index

VII: The World Since 1945

A Bipolar World

Europe, Yalta to Malta

Decolonization

Social Movements

Post-World War II Religious Thought

Back to Index

Class Schedule

	Tuesday	Friday
Week 1	1/13 First Class	1/16
Week 2	1/19 MLK - No Class	1/23
Week 3	1/26	1/30
Week 4	2/3	2/6 Paper topic due
Week 5	2/10	2/13
Week 6	2/17 Monday Schedule - No Class	2/20
Week 7	2/24 Midterm Exam	2/27
Week 8	3/3	3/6 Annotated Bibliography due
Week 9	3/10	3/13
Week 10	3/17	3/20 Paper Thesis and Outline due
Week 11	3/24	3/27
Week 12	3/31	4/3 Paper Due
Week14	4/7	4/10 Good Friday - No Class
Week 15	4/14 Easter Monday - No Class	4/17
Week 16	4/21	4/24
Week 17	4/28 Last Class	4/29-30 Reading Days
Week 18	May 1-8 Finals Week

Back to Index

(c) Paul Halsall January 1998
[email protected]

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