University of Connecticut
Department of
History - History 101:90
Modern Western
Traditions
Instructor: Steven H. Park
Telephone: 486-2315
e-mail: Steven.Park@uconn.edu
WebCT: http://webct.uconn.edu
Purpose:
This course is designed to introduce students to the history of political institutions, economic systems, social structures, and cultures in the modern Western world. This course meets the University's Group 5 Culture and Modern Society requirement for a WESTERN course. As far as I know, all of the schools/colleges at UConn accept History 101.
This course will combine a broad narrative sweep interspersed with close examination of the some emerging scholarship of persons traditionally excluded from historical narrative.
Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course students should be able to articulate orally, and in writing, the main themes of the development of the modern Atlantic World. Students should be able to critically examine the issues raised by the book author and the instructor. Work with primary documents will help students better understand the historian’s craft. The work of the historian is usually done through gathering evidence, analysis, writing, argument formation, and debate. These are the skills we be working on in this class.
Texts:
Spielvogel, Jackson J., Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Fourth Edition (Wadsworth Publishing: Thomson Learning, 2000)
If
you purchase a new copy of Spielvogel,
Western Civ Vol II Since 1550 (4e) at the COOP it comes bundled with a
password for supplemental study materials in WebCT.
If you purchase (or have) a previously-owned copy you may purchase the
WebCT password at http://www.webct.co
m/accesscodes.
Once you log on with this password, it will be “consumed” by the software
and you will only need your student ID number for future access.
$75 (book and access code)
$15 (access code only) Optional Course Pack available at the Avery Point COOP as well. Note: The instructor does not profit from the sale of any of these items.Term Paper and Class
Presentation:
Students will write a 6-8-page paper on one of the topics recommended by the instructor. Sinc e this is an introductory survey course, I am not expecting you to do extensive multi-archival research. But, you will have to acquire sufficient knowledge of your subject in order to make an intelligent 10-15 minute presentation to the class. This presentation must go beyond the basic information in the text. You are to formulate a thesis and support it with arguments. It will require some extra effort on your part, this is why there is no additional work during the last few weeks of the course. The instructor, on a first-come, first-served basis, will approve only one presentation per topic. A low-tech random-selection process will determine the date of your particular presentation. Please see WebCT for instructions for the proper completion of the paper.
Attendance:
Attendance is crucial in this class. Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the readings. If you must miss a class, let me know ahead of time. In an emergency, if you must miss a class; you are responsible to make-up work missed and to get the class notes from another student. A receipt from the doctor’s office or the tow-truck driver will serve as evidence.
Extra Credit:
I do not give “extra credit” assignments. I would prefer that you put all of your energies into the assigned work and do your very best at those tasks.
Grading:
Oral presentation and class participation 20%
Written Work (quizzes and paper) 30%
Mid-term exam 25%
Final exam 25%
Class
Schedule:
plan
your reading schedule (not
all weeks have exactly the same reading load)
Week One:
Introduction to the course
§ WebCT and supplemental readings
§ Practice Quiz
§ The Reformation
Week Two:
– Take quiz in WebCT
·
Ch. 14 - Discovery and Cris
is in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
·
Ch. 15 - Response to Crisis
: State
Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century
Spielvogel, pp. 392-458
· Watts, Pauline Moffitt, "Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiri tual Origins of Christopher Columbus’s 'Enterprise of the Indies'." The American Historical Review, Volume 90, Issue 1, Supplement to Volume 90 (Feb., 1985), 73-102
· Walzer, Michael, "Puritanism as a Revolutionary Ideology." History and Theory, Volume 3, Issue 1 (1963), 59-90.
Week Three:
– Take quiz in WebCT
·
Ch. 16 - Toward a New Heave
n and a
New Earth: The Scientific Revolution the Emergence of Modern Science
·
Ch. 17 - The Eighteenth Cen
tury: An
Age of Enlightenment
Spielvogel, pp. 460-514
· Austin, William H., "Isaac Newton on Science and Religion," Journal of the History of Ideas, Volume 31, Issue 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1970), 521-542.
· Howe, Daniel Walker, "The Decline of Calvinism: An Approach to Its Study." Comparative Studies in Society and History, Volume 14, Issue 3 (Jun., 1972), 306-327.
Week Four:
– Take quiz in WebCT
· Ch. 18 - The Eighteenth Cen tury: European States, International Wars, and Social Change
·
Ch. 19 - A Revolution in Po
litics:
The Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon
Spielvogel, pp. 516-579
· Nash, Gary B., “The American Clergy and the French Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Volume 22, Issue 3 (Jul., 1965), 392-412
· Calhoon, Robert M., “William Smith Jr.’s Alternative to the American Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Volume 22, Issue 1 (Jan., 1965), 105-118.
Week Five:
– Take quiz in WebCT
·
Ch. 20 - The Industrial Rev
olution
and Its Impact on European Society
·
Ch. 21 - Reaction, Revoluti
on, and
Romanticism, 1815-1850
Spielvogel, pp. 582-641
· Desan, Suzanne, “The Role of Women in Religious Riots During the French Revolution,” Eighteenth-Century Studies, Volume 22, Issue 3, Special Issue: The French Revolution in Culture (Spring, 1989), 451-468.
· Bolster, W. Jeffrey, “’To Feel Like a Man’: Black Seamen in the Northern States, 1800-1860,” The Journal of American History, Volume 76, Issue 4 (Mar. 1990), 1173-1199.
Week Six:-Take quiz in WebCT