Honors History 112

Western Civilization

From the 17th Century Through Modern Times

Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30-12:18, Baker Systems Engineering, Room 136

The Ohio State University

Spring Quarter 2004

 

Professor Jennifer Siegel

220 Dulles Hall

2-0314

siegel.83@osu.edu

http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/siegel83/

Office Hours:  Thursdays, 12:30-2:00 p.m., or by appointment

 

 

This course will cover Western Civilization from 1600 to the present.  Topics will include the Thirty Years War, absolutism and state-building, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, industrialization, liberalism, Marxism, German unification, colonialism and imperialism, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, Nazism and the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.

As an honors course limited to 25 students, this course requires the active participation of each and every student, and will be conducted primarily as a seminar and discussion class.  The course will provide students the opportunity to develop their reading, writing, oral presentation, and analytical skills. 

 

 

Course Requirements:

 

Late work will not be accepted without prior agreement of instructor.  Failure to complete any one requirement will result in automatic failure of the course.

 

¤       Attendance:  You are required to attend the weekly lectures and be responsible for the material covered in them.  Please come to class on time so that you do not cause unnecessary disruption for your fellow classmates.  Please also do not leave class before the class is dismissed.  Attendance will be taken.  If you miss more than two sessions over the course of the quarter, your final grade will be dropped 1/3 of a letter grade for each additional day missed.  More than five total absences will result in automatic failure of the course.  The only exceptions to this policy will be made for medical or legal emergencies.  In accordance with departmental policy, the student will be expected to present proof of the emergency, such as an official statement from the University Medical Center. 

¤       Active participation in in-class discussions covering the readings and assignments.  This course is designed as a discussion seminar, and our sessions will consist primarily of discussions concerning the readings.  Your participation grade will be based on attendance, quizzes, in-class writing assignments, and regular informed contributions to class discussion.

¤       Short essays:  You will write three out of four possible (your choice) short essays relating to the four works of literature we will be reading over the course of the quarter.  The questions for these essays will be available one week before the essay is due.  The essays will be 2-3 pages in length, and will be due 13 April, 6 May, 13 May,  25 May at the beginning of class.

¤       Tests:  There will be two tests of equal weight, on 4 May and 3 June.  The tests will consist of a number of identification.

¤       Presentations:  At the end of every chapter in the Kagan, et al., textbook, there are review questions.  Each student will be assigned one chapter for which they will be responsible.  On the day of their presentation, the student will chose two review questions in response to which they will present for 10-15 minutes, combined.

 

Tests:  40%;  Essays:  30%;  Presentations: 10%;  Participation: 20%;

 

 

 

Course Policies:

 

¤       Grade complaints must be made in writing and only after 24 hours have passed after grades are distributed.

¤       Academic dishonesty:  Papers and exams must represent the work of the student alone.  Plagiarism or cheating will result in a failing grade on the assignment and other penalties determined by university regulations.  Students are encouraged to consult with the professor if they are uncertain about the proper use of sources. 

¤       In accordance with departmental policy, all students must be officially enrolled in the course by the end of the second full week of the quarter.  No requests to add the course will be approved by the department chair after that time.  Enrolling officially and on time is solely the responsibility of each student.

¤       Please turn of cell-phones at the beginning of class.

 

*All students with disabilities who need accommodations should see me privately during my office hours to make arrangements.  Please do so by the third week of class.*

 

 

 

Readings available for Purchase:

All readings for purchase available at SBX and on reserve in the Main Library

 

Achebe, Chinua.  Things Fall Apart: A Novel. New York: Anchor, 1994.

Exploring the European Past.  Mason, OH: Thomson Learning Custom Publishing, 2004.

Kagan, Donald, Steven Ozment and Frank M. Turner.  The Western Heritage.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004.

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz.  New York: Touchstone Books, 1995.

Remarque, Erich Maria.  All Quiet on the Western Front.  New York:  Ballantine Books, 1987.

Voltaire.  Candide.  Trans. and ed. by Daniel Gordon.  Boston: Bedford/St. MartinÕs, 1999.

 

 

 

 

Course Sessions and Readings:

 

Week I:

30 MarchÑIntroduction

 

1 AprilÑThe Thirty YearÕs War and New Directions in the Seventeenth Century

Reading:     Exploring the European Past, pp. 1-25.

                     Kagan, et al., pp. 416-62.

                    

 

Week II:

6 AprilÑNo Class

Reading:     Start Candide.

 

 

8 AprilÑPower and the Ancien RŽgime

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 480-549.

                     Continue Candide.

 

 

Week III:

13 AprilÑThe Age of Enlightenment

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 588-623.

                     Finish Candide (including introduction and related documents) for discussion.

 

 

15 AprilÑThe French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 624-703.

 

 

 

Week IV:

20 AprilÑReaction vs. Reform in the Nineteenth Century

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 704-763.

 

 

22 AprilÑNationalism and the Revolutions of 1848

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 764-767.

                     Exploring the European Past, pp. 65-94.

                     Exploring the European Past, pp. 27-63.

 

 

 

Week V:

27 AprilÑ The Age of Nation-States

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 778-813; 852-83.

 

 

29 AprilÑThe Long Fuse

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 814-51; 884-892.

                     Start Achebe

 

 

 

Week VI:

 

4 MayÑTest #1 (covering through 27 April)

 

6 MayÑ Imperialism

Reading:     Finish Achebe.

 

                

 

Week VII:

11 MayÑ World War I: Origins and Outcomes

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 892-931.

                     Start Remarque.

 

 

13 MayÑ The Great War

Reading:     Finish Remarque.

 

 

 

Week VIII:

18 MayÑ The Twenties and Thirties

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 932-93.

 

 

20 MayÑ The Second World War

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 996-1035.

                     Start Levi.

 

 

 

Week IX:

25 MayÑThe Holocaust

Reading:     Finish Levi.

 

 

27 MayÑThe Cold War

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 1036-1083.

 

 

 

Week X:

1 JuneÑFrom the Cold War towards a New Era

Reading:     Kagan, et al., pp. 1084-1120.                                                                                                         .

 

3 JuneÑTest #2 (covering from 29 April)

 

 

 


Honors History 112

Western Civilization

From the 17th Century Through Modern Times

 

 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

FOR PAPERS AND WRITEN ASSIGNMENTS

Spring 2004

 

 

 

All papers and assignments must be turned in at THE BEGINNING OF CLASS on the day they are due, unless you are otherwise instructed.  Papers and assignments that are submitted after the professor has begun teaching will be considered late, with no exceptions.  Late work will be penalized one-third of a letter-grade per day.  Electronic submissions will not be allowed without the prior agreement of the professor.

 

You will always be graded on your writing style and grammar as well as the content of your work.  Be sure to proofread and edit thoroughly before turning in your assignments.  Margins should not be smaller than one-inch.  Fonts should be serif and 12 point.  Lines must be double-spaced.  Your pages must be numbered (no number on the first page of text) and for papers there must be a separate title page.  Your paper must have a bibliography and footnotes, when appropriate, (not parenthetical citationsÑif you do not know what this means, ask) and your citations must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.  Guidelines for the use of the Chicago style can be seen at the following websites (the first is for notes, the second is for bibliographic entries):

http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/PORT/Port7c.intextChHu.html

http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/PORT/Port7c.bibliographicChSS.html

 

I urge you to always be extremely vigilant in crediting your sources.  As The Ohio State University Code of Student Conduct outlines:  ÒPlagiarism is the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own; it includes the unacknowledged word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas.Ó  Plagiarism is considered to be academic misconduct, which will result in disciplinary action.  Anything that is not an original idea, the product of original research, or common knowledge (such as ÒWorld War I began in 1914Ó) needs documentation, including information that you have gleaned from your class notes.

 

The University Committee on Academic Misconduct has provided the following page, which contains numerous websites dealing with plagiarism and how to avoid it:

http://oaa.osu.edu/coam/prevention.html

 


Presentations

 

1)    8 April, Chapter 15

2)    8 April, Chapter 16

3)    13 April, Chapter 18

4)    15 April, Chapter 19

5)    15 April, Chapter 20

6)    20 April, Chapter 21

7)    20 April,  Chapter 22, questions 1-5

8)    27 April,  Chapter 23

9)    27 April, Chapter 25

10) 29 April, Chapter 24

11) 11 May, Chapter 26

12) 18 May, Chapter 27

13) 18 May, Chapter 28

14) 20 May, Chapter 29

15) 27 May, Chapter 30

16) 1 June, Chapter 31