History of European Civilization II

Spring 2020 AHIS 131 (8877)

Lectures: Mon and Wed 12:35-1:30, SS 256
Discussion Sections: Wed and Fri (see below for times and locations)

Prof. Nadieszda Kizenko

Office: SS 145
Office Hours: Mon 11-noon and Wed 10-noon, and by appointment
Discussion Section: W 1:40-2:35 (9243, BB07)
Phone: 442-5305
Email: nkizenko@albany.edu

Michelle Henault
Office: SS 060
Office Hours: Mon 10:30-noon and Wed 2-3:30
Discussion Sections: F 10:25-11:20, 11:30-12:25, 12:35-1:30 (Hu 130 and BB07)
Email: mhenault@albany.edu

Course Description and Purpose

As the title suggests, this is a general survey of the history of European civilization during the modern
period, roughly from 1715 to the present day. But that simple statement may obscure more than it
reveals.

People sometimes use Europe as a synonym for what they call ‘the West.’ Your textbook calls itself
‘The West: A New History.” But people still argue about what it means to be part of ‘The West.’

What is clear is that Europe ≠ ‘The West.’ Europe includes areas that have sometimes opposed
themselves to the ‘West.’ Right now, some European countries (like Poland and Hungary) are
deliberately opposing themselves to European Union policies they are a part of. England, so seemingly
securely a leading country in Europe and ‘the West,’ has voted to leave it. But, just as in the US, where
in the middle of the 19th century some states voted to leave the Union, opposition does not mean not
belonging. Many countries comprise Europe and these differing perspectives underscore the diversity
within. This class tries to convey something of that diversity, and what it means to be part of Europe.

One of our main goals will be to become familiar with this history—events, ideas, people, traditions,
cultures, and societies. By reading documents (including visual images and material objects) from
different periods, seeing how people described events at the time they happened, and how they depicted
it later, we start to understand that history is both learning about what happened—and how what
happened remained and remains important to people.

When we have finished this course, we will not only know more about the facts and figures of European
history from 1715 to the present. We will be in a better position to understand how the history of those
three centuries developed, and how the events of the period continue to shape Europe, Europeans, and
the world.
This course satisfies the International Perspectives category of the University at Albany’s General
Education Program (see the Undergraduate Bulletin for more details). To that end, students in the class
will learn not only about the distinctive histories of Europe and its peoples, but also about the place of
Europe in the broader history of the world as a whole, gaining a greater appreciation of the specific
identities of the continent and its cultures.
Skills Learned in This Course
The History Department has identified several general skills students in our 100-level courses will
acquire, skills that will help them in their higher-level coursework in History and beyond, that will lead
to academic success at the university more generally. Accordingly, as a student in this course you will:
 Become familiar with basic content and major themes in the geographic or thematic area: be able
to identify most significant events, people, ideas, concepts places of the era, place, or period they
are studying; have a sense of how they relate to one another and what makes them important
 Identify primary and secondary sources
 Begin to acquire competency in writing in the discipline
 Analyze primary sources (articulate the position and motives of the author, understand a
document’s intended audience, and explain a document’s significance in the context of other
readings and lecture presentations)
 Analyze and identify historical arguments
 Create coherent and well-organized paragraphs, complete with strong topic sentences,
elaboration with evidence, and explanation of significance
 Write clear and grammatically correct prose
 Craft a convincing historical argument
 Support a historical argument with specific evidence: events, names, dates, places (Note:
students need not memorize all names, dates, places, but they need to have the ability to know
where and how to find such evidence)
 Learn what plagiarism is and how to avoid it
 Acquire basic study skills: note taking, effective studying strategies, close reading of various
texts, listening comprehension, articulating and supporting a historical argument in writing
 Learn to discuss history content knowledgeably, orally as well as in writing and other media
 Contribute meaningfully to class discussion: provide specific evidence from a reading or lecture,
react to statement of a classmate, or ask a question
Text Required for Purchase:
Grafton and Bell, The West: A New History. Available for purchase at the UAlbany Bookstore.
Other readings for the course are accessible via the course Blackboard site.
Film
(Available via streaming video through Blackboard. You must have RealPlayer installed on your computer to view the films,
and you may download this player for free at real.com. You may also put the films in your Netflix queue, or even purchase
them, if you prefer.)
The Lives of Others (dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck).
Other films for the course are accessible via the course Blackboard site

Class Requirements and Grading

Grades will be based upon the completion of all of the following:
 Lectures and Discussion Section (50%)
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  Midterm (25%)
 Final Paper (25%)
Lectures and Discussion Section grades will depend upon quiz and in-class writing grades, attendance, and active
participation in discussions of the week’s assigned reading and/or viewing. Worth 50% of your final grade, this is
the essential element of the class. Discussion sections allow you the opportunity to work closely with an instructor
in smaller groups than in the larger lectures. Quizzes are simple, short reading comprehension tests, and are
designed to reward students who complete the assigned reading or viewing. Active engagement in discussions is
critically important to your overall success in both section and the class.

Accessing documents through Blackboard: You can do this from your MyUAlbany page. Once you log in, you
will see this course listed, and when you click on that, you will see various content areas for the course. These
will be labeled very clearly, and you will find the course syllabus, paper assignments, documents to read for
discussion section, links to films, and other materials here. Anything marked “BB” in the schedule below is
available via Blackboard. We can answer questions about course content on Blackboard, but please direct
technical questions about using the site to ITS: www.albany.edu/its/help-request.html, or 442-4288.

The midterm exam will consist of multiple choice and/or short answer questions that are largely interpretive and
thematic in nature. In other words, they will test not only your ability to remember facts and figures reviewed in
class lectures and assigned readings and films (who, what, where, when), but also—and more importantly—your
understanding of major themes and developments in European history (why and how).

The final paper will be 5-7pages in length, and will address a specific question focused on the assigned readings
or films. You will receive specific topics and guidelines a few weeks prior to the due date for the paper.

Grades will be determined, according to the weights given above, on an A-E scale: A=92-100; A-=90-92; B+=87-
89; B=83-86; B-=80-82; C+=77-79; C=73-76; C-=70-72; D+=67-69; D=63-66; D-=60-62; E=0-59.

One of the basic goals of a college education in the United States—and of civilization in the English-
speaking world—is to be able to write and speak in correct, fluent English. Therefore some of your
quizzes will address some of the aspects of written English that most seem to plague the American
population (see, for example, http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling).
If you cannot use correctly such words as its vs. it’s, theirs vs. there’s, your vs. you’re, lose vs.
loose, affect vs. effect—for example—, or if you cannot correctly write plurals—you cannot get an
A in this class.

Policies
 Attendance, at both lectures and discussion sections, is mandatory. Out of consideration for
your fellow students’ efforts to learn, and your instructor’s efforts to teach, you are required to
arrive on time for class and to remain seated (barring an emergency) until the class is finished.
For the same reasons, please turn off cell phones, and do not send or receive text messages, play
video games, read the newspaper, dance, sing, or otherwise and distract other people in the room.
Repeated violations of any of the above rules are grounds for sanction or dismissal from the
class. Please understand that these rules are not designed to make your lives difficult, but to
ensure that we all benefit from the courtesy, respect, and opportunity to learn and to succeed, to
which we are entitled.
 You must complete all of the assigned reading/viewing by the date indicated on the schedule
below. You must take quizzes at the beginning of class in your discussion section on the day
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 indicated on the schedule below. The paper is due on the date and time indicated with no
exceptions. Otherwise, late assignments will be penalized 10 points per day. Unless you have
made alternative arrangements, with formal approval from the instructor, you may not make up
missed quizzes.
 The policy of the Department of History on plagiarism is as follows: “Plagiarism is taking
(which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one's own
work. If in a formal paper a student quotes someone, that student must use quotation marks and
give a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas are to be identified by proper citations.
Plagiarism will result, at the minimum, in a failing grade for the assignment.” I will add that
plagiarism violates the educational mission of the University, the ethical foundations of the
scholarly endeavor, and the essential trust between instructors and students. Do not do it. If you
do, and I catch you, I will enforce the appropriate penalty, including referral to University
authorities for formal adjudication and sanction.
 As you may imagine, the University at Albany as a whole also takes plagiarism and other issues
of academic integrity very seriously. Please familiarize yourself with the Standards of
Academic Integrity published in the Undergraduate Bulletin
(http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/regulations.html).
 I will gladly make reasonable accommodations in this course for students with documented
disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring accommodation in this class, please
notify the Director of the Disability Resource Center (Campus Center 137, 442-5490). That
office will provide me with verification of your disability, and will recommend appropriate
accommodations.

Schedule
(Reading and/or viewing assignments—title, author, page numbers. etc.—due for each day appear after the topic of the day’s
lecture or discussion. TW followed by page numbers refers to the textbook, The West. “BB” indicates a reading on the
course Blackboard page.)

1/22: Introduction; Europe, “Western Civilization,” and History

Introductory discussion section #1: Introductions; Succeeding in This Class; Reading Primary
Documents

1/27-9: The Enlightenment and the Salon (TW, 504-36)

Discussion section: Wed 1/29 and Fri 1/31:
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IICdZuA97hY.

Come prepared to discuss the Saussure text on p. 515 (Coffehouses and Newspapers in the Age of
Enlightenment) and look at Lemonnier’s An Evening with Madame Geoffrin. Have answers for
‘the questions for analysis’ at the end of each.

2/3: The French Revolution (TW, 538-568)

Discussion section 2/5 and Fri 2/7:
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen; “Proclamation
on Saint-Domingue” and “Toussaint Louverture’s Final Proclamation”
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/293/
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 https://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Haitian_Constitution_of_1801_(English)
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/toussaint-louverture/1799/proclamation.htm

Many people form their impressions of historical events, individuals, and groups based on films,
television programs, and paintings they have seen. Many of the films are filled with stereotypes,
especially in the depictions of rich and poor. The film clips below show different representations
of these groups. What kind of image do you have of the aristocracy and of the poor after watching
these? Based on what you have read, what aspects are missing?

History of the World, Part I:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4uvLXCUhVg

the intricacies of bedchamber etiquette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOIlkCDzH4U

luxury and frippery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfyL8qAxvPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP30E1eWXXI

saving the aristocracy during the Terror. Watch the chase scene 12:06-23:56:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvtVrQb5DTY

Scarlet Pimpernel (1982): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtAM7YDap6o

2/5-
2/10: Napoleon and the War of 1812, in Europe and Beyond (TW, 570-599)
Discussion section Wed 2/12 and Fri 2/14: compare “The Retreat from Russia” (p. 588)
with War and Peace, Book 14, chapter 1, in http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600. Based on both texts,
how did the nature of war change under Napoleon? How did the common people reject
the “rules of war” and turn the tide in their favor?

2/12 The Industrial Revolution and Its Discontents (TW, 600-635)

Isms in Action: The Irish Potato Famine

2/17-19 Isms in Action: 1848

Romance and Revolution
Discussion section Wed 2/19 and Fri 2/21: “A Girl’s Life in the Mines,” “Industrial Promise
and Social Misery,” 609 and 616, and section 1, “Bourgeois and proletarians,” in
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf
How does Patience Kershaw’s description illustrate (or contradict) the others? Consider which
new technologies make new kinds of production and business possible, and think about how
employers started to treat their workers as a result of these technologies.

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2/24-6 Nationalism and Nation Building; European Imperialism
(TW 636-669)
Discussion Section
Wed 2/26 and Fri 2/28:
Jules Ferry, “Speech Before the French Chamber of Deputies, 1884”
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1884ferry.asp
Pears Soap ads (on Blackboard)
To discuss: what different kinds of racism are expressed here? How do you suppose the
European colonizers justified these attitudes to themselves?

3/2-4 The View from the East (Crimean War, Great Reforms)
Darwin, Religious Responses (Marian apparitions and infallibility) , Opera and the
Nation
Discussion section: Wed 3/4 and Fri 3/6
Compare “Limits of Emancipation” (p. 656), the Pankhurst, and the Fawcett (pp. 686-7) texts
with the ones from Campbell and Gandhi (p. 693). What kinds of arguments does everyone make
in arguing for representation for their group? How do they use arguments of equality versus
difference? What arguments do you find most compelling? Why might legislatures resist giving
women the vote? Why would British authorities first not see a problem with giving Indians rights
like voting, and then take those rights away? Does this remind you of parallels with what you
may know from US history, or from other places?

3/9: MIDTERM (No discussion sessions this week)

The New Imperialism and Global Power (TW 669-703)
The Glam New City
The Struggle for Africa; The Russo-Japanese War

MARCH 14-20—SPRING BREAK

3/23: Things Blow Up: Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922 (TW 703-39)
Many nations and individuals suffered during the war, but some more than others. The war was
particularly devastating for men from the highest classes, who signed up in large numbers. What might
that mean for how the war was remembered and commemorated? Consider the experiences of France,
Serbia, and Romania (how many people lost, what kind of warfare and how much of the war fought on
their territory). All were on the winning side. What would each side have wanted at the end of the war?

3/25: The Great War and the Russian Revolution

For Wed 3/25 and Fri 3/27

Discussion section:— The Bolsheviks claimed that they were bringing bread, land, and peace.
Almost immediately after the Bolsheviks seized power, however, people started to realize that what
they were getting was something different. Read the peasant letter on p. 734 (“Peasant Criticism of the
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 Bolsheviks”), the account of the Kronstadt rebellion on pp. 735-6, and the event described on pp. 741-
2. What actions by the new regime were the peasants and sailors protesting? Why did the new regime
go after so many people so viciously?

3/30-
4/1: Between the Two Wars: Economic and Political Crisis (TW 739-773)
Discussion section:—
Wed 4/1 and Fri 4/3
Watch the below clip on the Spanish Civil War:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05_tghbhlfM
Before taking this class, had you ever heard of this war? Why do you suppose it became a ‘proxy’ war,
with Abraham Lincoln brigades arriving from the United States and ‘advisors’ coming from the
USSR? Why did Germany and Italy get involved as well?

4/6-
4/8: Global War and Genocide (TW 740-80)

Discussion section:—
Wed 4/8 and Fri 4/10
Most American WWII films deal with the experience of men at the front. For many Europeans, and
especially Russians, the front extended to one’s own back yard. Compare these two film clips. One is
from a Russian film, the other from an English film. Both were made at the start of the war, when both
nations faced bombing and invasion, and it was not obvious who would win. Part of the goal of each
film was to galvanize the people at the home front to fight in their own way. What kind of patriotism is
stressed? Which do you think is more effective and why? Does the language used remind of you any
other language you have heard sides use in war? What would impel you to fight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1kif_36ndo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VmIIpLCw6g

4/13-
4/15: Recovery and Cold War: Rebuilding a Divided Continent, 1945-73 (TW 808-43)

Why did it seem so natural for the state to play a leading role in rebuilding Europe after May
1945? What kinds of benefits did the state offer? How were these benefits different from those in
place before the war? Why did labor unions agree to limit wage demands? Why did many people
want to have children? What do you suppose the postwar mood felt like? How is the period from
roughly 1950 to 1973 as a whole described, and why?

DISCUSSION:
Wed 4/15 and Fri 4/17

Read 824 and 831, “Europe’s Others write back.” The two writers are arguing against the idea
that one group is the default, and the other is the exception. Who gets to be the default/normal
and why? What does mean for the other group(s)? Why, according to Césaire, does some
people’s suffering get to seem worse than others’?

4/20-9: Reunion: European Unification and the End of the Cold War, 1973-99 (TW 843-75)
Margaret Thatcher, Solidarity, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the reunification of Germany
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 Discussion section:
4/22 and Fri 4/24
The Individual Against the State (p. 855), The Power of Lipstick (p. 857)
Film: The Lives of Others (BB)

4/29-
5/4: Europe and the World in the Twenty-First Century (WC, 696-717)
Discussion Section:
Wed 4/29 and Fri 5/1
Read the below article about New Year’s Eve 2015/16 and p. 881 for the assassinations of Pim
Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh. How do you think such events affected anti-refugee discourse? If
you lived in Holland or Germany, how might they have affected you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015–16_New_Year%27s_Eve_sexual_assaults_in_Germany

Final Paper due on Blackboard Friday 5/13, 1-3pm.