Haverford College

Department of History

Section 1: Linda Gerstein

Section 2: Paul Jefferson

History 111b: Introduction to Western Civilization

This course--designed primarily for freshmen and sophomores--has several objectives this semester: first, as always, to introduce students to the craft and practice of history, to the ways in which historians imagine and [re]present the past; second, to survey the development of the modern European world over the past half-millenium; next, to explore the "languages" [of religion, politics, and science--for example] in which the West has come both to understand and to celebrate its "modernity"; and, finally, by reconsidering the factors that explain the "rise of the West," to better appreciate how the past influences the present.

Information

Time & Place: [Section 2] T Th 11:30am-1:00pm, Hall 201
Office Hours: By Appointment, 1 College Lane, Apt. 1 or Faculty Lounge, Hall Building.
Phone/Email: [610] 649-7841; pjeffers@haverford.edu

1) Close reading and careful discussion of the assigned texts;

2) [Take Home] Hour exams *due* February 17th and April 21st.

3) One short [5-6 pp.] paper *due* March 24th.

4) One long (7-9 pp.) paper *due* May 12th.

Texts

Peter Dear, Revolutionizing The Sciences
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Margaret C. Jacob, The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents
Primo Levi, Survival In Auschwitz
John Locke, The Second Treatise on Civil Government
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
R. R. Palmer, Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer, A History of The Modern World (ninth edition)
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on The Western Front
Sources on Modern Europe
#Xeroxed texts to be handed out in class#

Calendar of Readings

Week 1 - The Expansion of Europe.

January 17: Opening Remarks.

January 19

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 11, 14-16
Sources on Modern Europe, section 1 [Las Casas]

Week 2 - Commercial Expansion and the Scientific Revolution

January 24

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 12-13
Dear, Revolutionizing The Sciences, ch. 1-3 (pp. 1-65)
Sources on Modern Europe, section 2 [The Scientific Revolution], pp. 8-16

January 26

Dear, Revolutionizing The Sciences, ch. 4-8
Sources on Modern Europe, section 2 [The Scientific Revolution], pp. 25-31

Week 3 - The English Revolution and its Critics

January 31

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), section 19
Sources on Modern Europe, section 4 [The Puritan Revolution]

February 2

Hobbes, Leviathan, Introductions and chapters 10; 11; 13-14; 17-19, 21; 29- 31,
Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), section 35, pp. 288-291

Week 4 - Absolutism and its Critics

February 7

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 17, 21-22
Sources on Modern Europe, section 3 [Louis XIV]

February 9

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 20; 35, pp. 291-293
Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government, chs. II-V, VI (only 54,55, 57,58, 63), VII; VIII (only 95-99, 106-107, 111-112); IX-XI; XIV-XV; XVII-XIX.

Week 5 -The Enlightenment.

February 14

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 29, 37-38
Margaret C. Jacob, The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents, pp. 1-33, 46-72

February 16

Jacob, Enlightenment, pp. 73-93, 114-116, 125-135, 156-159, 177-201, 202-208

Take-home Hour Exam due Friday February 17, 2006 at 4:00 p.m in Hall 101

Week 6 - The French Revolution

February 21

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 41-43
Sources on Modern Europe, section 5, pp. 67-69, 73-82

February 23

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 44-46
Sources on Modern Europe, section 5, pp. 86-91

Week 7 – Conservatism and the Specter of Napoleon

February 28

Sources on Modern Europe, section 6 [Burke]

March 2

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 47-51

Spring Break: March 4-March 12, 2006

Read Charles Dickens, Hard Times in its entirety over Spring Break

Week 8 – The Industrial Revolution, Liberalism, and its Critics

March 14:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 52-53, 57
Sources on Modern Europe, section 7 [Adam Smith and J.S.Mill]

March 16:

Dickens, Hard Times

Week 9 - Marxism and the Revolutions of 1848

March 21:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), chapter 12, pp. 475-476; section 61
Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Introduction, Prefaces and Section I

March 23:

Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Sections II-IV

Short Paper (5-6 pp.) due Friday March 24, 2006 at 4:00 pm in Hall 101

Week 10 - Nationalism and Imperialism: Europe Comes of Age

March 28

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), section 50 (pp. 409-413), sections 63-65, 71-73
Sources on Modern Europe, section 8 [Nationalism and Imperialism], pp. 164-175, 189-192

March 30

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 77-78

Sources on Modern Europe, section 8 [Nationalism and Imperialism], pp. 176-185

Week 11 - World War I

April 4

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 85-86, pp. 666-669.
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on The Western Front

April 6:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 88-90

Sources on Modern Europe, section 9 [Peacemaking, 1918-1919]

Week 12 – The Russian Revolution and the Faces of Fascism

April 11:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 67; 75, pp. 592-596; 87, pp. 674-675; 91-93
Sources on Modern Europe, section 10 [Leninism]

April 13

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 97-98, 103-104
Sources on Modern Europe, section 11 [Fascism and Nazism], pp. 207-217
#"The Nuremberg Laws, 1935"

Week 13 – Surviving Fascism, Soviet Communism, and the Cold War

April 18:

Primo Levi, Survival In Auschwitz

April 20:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 94-96, 105, 108-113
#Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism, second edition, selection 16

Take-home Hour Exam due Friday April 2, 2006 at 4 pm in Hall 101

Week 14 - The Communist World Disintegrates

April 25:

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 120, 122, 124-125
#Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism, second edition, selections 21, 26, 27-28#
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern

April 27: Summing Up

Palmer, Colton, and Kramer, History of the Modern World (ninth edition), sections 126-127
#Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism, second edition, selection 53#
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern, Afterword

Final Paper (7-9 pp.) due May 12, 2006 at 12 noon in Hall 101