SWARTHMORE COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
HISTORY 3A: MODERN EUROPE, 1789-1918
THE AGE OF REVOLUTION AND COUNTERREVOLUTION
FALL 2010
Bob Weinberg Office Hours: Mondays: 1-3
Trotter 218 Wednesdays: 1-3
Telephone: 8133 By Appointment
This course introduces you to the impact of the French Revolution on European politics, society, and culture from the late eighteenth century to the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. Topics include the revolutionary tradition; industrialization and its social consequences; the emergence of liberalism, feminism, socialism, and conservatism as social and political movements; nationalism and state building, imperialism, the rise of mass society; and world war. I make no attempt to narrate the entire history of the period. Instead I will focus on a variety of themes and problems in order to illustrate certain key features of European history since 1789. The course also introduces you to history as an academic discipline and exposes you to the various ways practitioners of history write about and interpret the past.
I mix lectures and discussions, and it is imperative that you keep up with the assigned readings so you can participate actively in class.
All articles and documents are available on Blackboard. In addition, the following books are on reserve in McCabe and available for purchase:
Gay Gullickson, Unruly Women of Paris: Images of the
Commune
Alistair Horne, The Age of Napoleon
Adam Hochschild, King Leopolds Ghost
Joan Neuberger and Robin Winks, Europe and the Making of Modernity, 1815-1914
Mark Steinberg, Voices of Revolution
Course Requirements:
Attendance and active participation in class discussions (10%)
Two five-page papers (20% each)
One five-page book review (20%)
Final examination (20 %)
Surprise quizzes (10%)
Five-page papers due:
September 28
November 4
Book review due:
December 6
All students are expected to read the Colleges policy on
academic honesty and integrity that appears in the Swarthmore College
Bulletin. The work you submit must
be your own, and plagiarism will be penalized. Any work suspected of containing plagiarized material will
be subject to prosecution by the College Judiciary Council. When in doubt, check with me.
In addition, I will not accept late papers and will assign a
failing grade for the assignment unless you notify me and receive permission to
submit the paper after the due date.
Class attendance is required, and unexcused absences will result in a
lower grade (perhaps failure) in the course.
August 30:
What is Europe
September 1: Europe in the Eighteenth Century
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 1-9
E. P. Thompson, The Moral Economy of the English Crowd
September 3 The Enlightenment
Alan Lightman, In Gods Place
September 6: 1789, The Year of Revolution
Abbe Sieys, What is the Third Estate?
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Malcolm Gladwell, Historical Outbreaks of Panic Linked to Rye Bread
Selection from Lynn Hunt, et al, The Making of the West,
(read this selection for an overview of the French Revolution from 1789
to 1799)
September 8: The Radicalization of 1789
Documents on the Sans-Culottes
September 10: The Radicalization of 1789
Maximilien Robespierre, The Republic of Virtue
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
September 13: Women and the Rights of Citizenship
Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
Documents on Women and Citizenship
September 15: Jews and the Rights of Citizenship
Documents on the Emancipation of Jews
Robert Darnton, What was Revolutionary about the French
Revolution?
September 17: The Age of Napoleon
Alistair Horne, The Age of Napoleon
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 11-40
September 20: The Industrial Revolution
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 64-92
E. P. Thompson, Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism (recommended)
Samuel Smiles, Self Help
Andrew Ure, Decent Working and Living Conditions
September 22: The Age of Ism--Conservatism and Liberalism
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 41-51 and 125-139
Edmund Burke, Prejudice, Religion, and the Antagonist World
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and Of Property
Konstantin Pobedonostev, The Falsehood of Democracy
September 24:The Age of Isms--Socialism before Marx and
Engels
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 93-124 and 139-152
FIRST PAPER DUE ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 BY 4 PM
September 27: The Age of Isms--Marxism
Steven Marcus, Marxs Masterpiece at 150
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
September 29: The Age of Isms--Nationalism
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 57-63
Giuseppe Mazzini, Conversion to Nationalism, Young Italy, and To the Young Men of Italy
Ernest Renan, What is a Nation?
October 1: Crisis at Mid-Century--The Revolutions of 1848
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 153-182
October 4: Russia at Mid-Century
October 6: State and Society in the Nineteenth Century
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 183-228
October 8: Library Tutorial
Come to classroom for tutorial by Melanie Maksin, Social
Sciences Reference Librarian
October 18: The Jewish Question and Antisemitism
Wilhelm Marr, The Victory of Judaism over Germandom
Edouard-Adolphe Drumont, Jewish France
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
October 20: Visualizing the Jew in the Nineteenth Century
October 22: Women and Revolution--The Paris Commune
Gay Gullickson, Unruly Women of Paris: Images of the Commune
October 25: Mass Society and the Challenge to Liberalism
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 229-245
Fyodor Dostoevskii, Notes from the Underground
October 27: The Expansion of Europe
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 257-288
Chien Lung, Letter to George III
The Letter of Commissioner Lin to Queen Victoria
Jules Ferry, Speech Before the French National Assembly
Royal Niger Company, Standard Treaty
Jawaharlal Nehru, British Rule in India
October 29: Europe at Its Best
Adam Hochschild, King Leopolds Ghost
FILM: Congo
((90 minutes)
November 1: Solving Social and Political Problems
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 289-336
Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism
Rosa Luxemburg, Social Reform or Revolution
SECOND PAPER DUE ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4 BY 4 PM
November 3: The Womans Question
Emmeline Pankhurst, Why We Are Militant
Hubertine Auclert, La Citoyenne
Alexandra Kollontai, Women and the Family in the Communist State
November 5: The Russian Revolutionary Tradition
Vladimir Lenins Theory of the Party
November 8: The Cataclysm of War--Europe Loses Its
Innocence
Neuberger and Winks, pp. 337-358
Denis Winter, The Strain of Trench Warfare
Ernst Junger, The Storm of Steel
November 10: The Cataclysm of War
Overview of World War I
Norman Naimark, The Armenians and the Greeks of Anatolia
FILM: The Grand Illusion (115 minutes)
November 12: The Meaning of War
Omer Bartov, The European Imagination in the Age of Total War
Discussion of The Grand Illusion
November 15: Russias First Brush with Revolution
Leon Trotsky, The Peculiarities of Russias Development
November 17: The Bolsheviks Come to Power
Ronald Suny, Revising the Old Story
November 19: No Class
November 22: The Meaning of Revolution
Mark Steinberg, Voices of Revolution, pp. 37-79, 149-182, and 251-273
November 24: The Meaning of Revolution
Mark Steinberg, Voices of Revolution, pp. 1-35 and Selected Documents
November 29: The Fate of the Revolution
Emma Goldman, My Disillusionment in Russia
Alexandra Kollontai, Make Way for Winged Eros
BOOK REVIEW DUE ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 6 BY 4 PM
December 1: The Future of Europe
Sigmund Freud, A World Without Peace
December 3: To be Determined
FINAL EXAM DUE ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 15 BY 4 PM