Fall Semester 2007 Professor Geoffrey J. Giles

Office hours M 3-4.30 p.m./T 10.30 a.m.-12 noon Office 208 Keene-Flint Hall

Phone: 392-0271 Ext. 245

Website: www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles

EUH 2002

Western Civilization:

From the French Revolution to the Present

This course offers an introduction to the history of the modern Western world, starting with the upheaval felt everywhere, resulting from the French Revolution. The aim is to provide you with a contextual understanding of how political, social and cultural developments shaped the policies of the leading countries in Europe both internally and with each other.

It is important for historians to be able to interpret documents, and in order to teach some of these working skills in a case study, special attention will be given to the First World War.

Plenary sessions: M & W, 7^th period (1.55-2.45 p.m.), Fine Arts Building B, Room 105

Discussion sections:
Teaching Assistant Will Greer (wvg@ufl.edu)
Office hour Friday 5th period, FLI 009

Section 5279 F 7^th period (1.55-2.45 p.m.), Keene-Flint 115

5282 F 6^th period (12.50-1.40 p.m.), Keene-Flint 115

5285 F 4^th period (10.40-11.30 a.m.), Keene-Flint 115

Teaching Assistant Daniel Julich (djulich@ufl.edu)
Office hour Friday 4th period, FLI 009

Section 5272 F 7^th period (1.55-2.45 p.m.), Keene-Flint 121

5280 F 6^th period (12.50-1.40 p.m.), Keene-Flint 113
5514 F 3^rd period (9.35-10.25 a.m.), Keene-Flint 121

The course provides both Humanities (H) and International (N) general education credit, and is a 2000-word Gordon Rule class.

Required books

1) Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary & Patricia O’Brien, Civilization in the West. Sixth edition. Volume C: Since 1789 (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006)

2) Mark Kishlansky (Ed.), Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization. Sixth edition. Volume II: From 1600 to the Present (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006)

Please note that these two books have a special ISBN (0205553982), and when bought together as a package, give you a 50% discount off the reader.

That purchase also entitles you to free access to Longman’s online MyHistoryLab resource site with extra documents, images, maps, study guides and practice tests, from which further class reading assignments will also be given. You MUST buy the two books shrink-wrapped together at one of the Gainesville bookstores, in order to obtain the special password to MyHistoryLab for this particular UF course.

3) Émile Zola, Germinal [Penguin Classics, 2004. ISBN: 0140447423]

4) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich [Penguin Modern Classics, 2000. ISBN: 0451527097]

Grades

Each of the following will count toward the final grade:

· Four 500-word summary papers of issues in the readings, assigned by the TAs [20%]

· A mid-term examination (short essay and short questions) [30%]

· A final examination (short questions—cumulative for whole semester) [40%]

· Participation in discussions (10%)

Please note:

• Attendance at every class and discussion session is mandatory. Non-attendance will lower your final grade. If you are unable to attend on medical grounds, you must provide documentation.
• A make-up examination is only ever granted by prior agreement with me before the exam takes place.
• Cell-phone policy: If I hear a cell phone ringing during class, I will immediately suspend the class and give a pop quiz on the readings for that week to the entire class, the grade for which will be figured into everyone’s final grade! You can imagine how unpopular this will make you with the other students. So please learn to respect your peers, in order to avoid this equally unwelcome intrusion. Make sure that your cell phone is turned off before entering the classroom!
• In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else’s work.  Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please review the University’s honesty policy at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.php
• Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time during the semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation for disabilities must first register with the Dean of Students Office (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/).  The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then pass this on to me.

Course outline

August

27 Introduction and Sources for History

29 Using “My History Lab”; The Enlightenment K 89-96

September

3 Labor Day—no classes KGO 20

5 French Revolution and Napoleon K 97-99

10 Industrial revolution KGO 21

12 The working class and the poor K 100-103

17 Imperial ambitions and the Concert of Europe KGO 22

19 Ideologies and revolutions K 104-107

24 The growth of nationalism KGO 23

26 Russia and Britain contrasted K 108-115

October

1 Crisis of culture KGO 24

3 Life at the fin-de-siècle K 116-120

8 Imperial tensions KGO 25

10 The Balkan question K 121-125

15 MID-TERM EXAMINATION

17 The First World War KGO 26/ K 126-129

22 A different kind of war

24 The cartoon war Zola

29 The collapse of the old order KGO 27

31 Inter-war years K 130-136

November

2 Homecoming—no discussion sections

5 World War Two KGO 28

7 The Holocaust

12 Veterans’ Day—no classes

14 Postwar Europe and the Cold War KGO 29

19 The workers’ paradise?

21 Readings on repression

22-23 Thanksgiving Holiday—no discussion sections Solzhenitsyn

26 Discussion of readings

28 The 1960s K 145-148

December

3 End of the Cold War KGO 30

5 Turning points of history?

T 11 FINAL EXAM (10.00 a.m.) in FAB 105

This syllabus prints out beautifully if you use a Mozilla browser on campus.
If you use a Internet Explorer browser (as I prefer to do at home), the formating is all messed up!