World, War and the West
Syllabus
Course Description
The curriculum of this comprehensive European History course is based on the Core
Curriculum, Power Standards and Learner Goals as dictated by the Kentucky Department
of Education. Extensive writing, analysis of text and non-text sources, in-class and
individual note-taking skills, and an ability to read quickly with comprehension and
retention is needed. The primary focus of this course is the transition of a regionally
divisive world to the interconnected global society of today. Additionally, other elements
of society will be looked at such as trends in: culture, religion, government, economics
and other elements as needed.
Course Objectives/Learner Targets
(to reflect Kentucky Core Content)
Students will:
1. Understand the democratic principles of justice, equality, responsibility and
freedom and apply them to real-life situations.
2. Accurately describe various forms of government and analyze issues that
relate to the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
3. Observe, analyze, and interpret human behaviors, social groupings and
institutions to better understand people and the relationships among
individuals and among groups.
4. Understand economic principles of current and past European History.
5. Recognize and understand the relationship between people and geography.
6. Understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends and
issues to develop historical perspective.
7. Use, interpret and apply data from primary and secondary sources.
8. Use historical data to support an argument or position.
9. Work in group settings to produce projects
.
Course Texts and Readings:
Main Texts
Kagan, Donald, Ozement, Steven and Turner, Frank. The Western Heritage since
1300. (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2010)
Supplemental Texts
Elizabeth Ellis and Paul Burke. World History: The Modern Era. (Boston, Prentice
Hall, 2007).
Margaret King. Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History. (Upper Saddle
NJ, Prentice Hall, 2000)
Howard Spodek. The World’s History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2001).
John P. McKay et al. A History of Western Society. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin,
1999).
John Merriman. A History of Modern Europe. (New York, Norton, 2004).
Lynn Hunt et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. (Boston,
Bedford/St. Martins, 2005).
Richard Bulliet et al. The Modern Era (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2007).
Mark Kishlansky et al. Civilization in the West (New York, Longman, 2001).
Patricia Ebrey et al. East Asia: A Cultural, Social and Political History (Boston,
Houghton Mifflin, 2006).
Cheryl Martin et al. Latin America and Its People. (New York, Pearson, 2008).
Marilyn Stokstad. Art: A Brief History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2007).
Ernst Breisach. Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. (Chicago, University
of Chicago Press, 1983).
Various Readings from:
Alfred Andrea The Human Record (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2005)
Kevin Reilly Reading in World Civilizations (New York, St. Martins, 1995)
Eugene Weber The Western Tradition (Lexington, Mass., DC Heath, 1995)
Richard Tarnas The Passion of the Western Mind (New York, Ballantine, 1991)
Merry Wiesner et al. Discovering the Global Past (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin,
2002)
World History Series
Rise of Christianity
Course Purpose:
The purpose of this course is two-fold:
a. To provide you with the skills and information that will allow you to meet high
school graduation requirements, and
b. To prepare you to successfully complete the Advanced Placement European
History Course and exam at RCSHS.
Organization:
This class will be taught as a primarily sophomore-level class, will utilize general
high school level/College Level materials but will have college-level expectations of
students. This means students will share responsibility for learning through in-class work
and outside readings, projects and reports. You will not be able to succeed in this class
by merely reading, listening to lectures, and feeding back information on a test. You will
be expected to learn to think, not just memorize.
A variety of teaching and learning strategies will be used, including but not
limited to: lecture-discussion, group and individual work, projects, presentations,
reading, writing, tests and other activities.
The course will be divided into Four units/eight sub units, generally
corresponding to the Kagan text in the following manner:
Unit I
Toward the Modern Age
Conservative Order, Reform and Social Contract
Nation States to European Supremacy
Imperialism to World War I
Unit II
Global Conflict, Cold War and New Directions
Part A
World War II
Part B
Cold War and Modern History
Part A
Part B
Part C
Within the given time-Periods, the subject matter will be loosely categorized into
political, economic, social and foreign affairs/intellectual history. As can be told by the
unit time-periods, the chronological approach will be the guiding force in the
organization of the course. However, within the chronological presentation of materials,
there will be times when a thematic approach may be utilized, particularly in relation to
such topics as:
 Religions
 Art
o Students will have the opportunity to study several pieces of art
throughout the class. Among the periods we will look at are but
are not limited to:
 Romantic
 Impressionism
 Realism
 Naturalism
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 Cubism
Various Literature Case Studies
Various in-class Simulations
An attempt will be made to provide students with a syllabus for each of the eight
units.
Each syllabus will contain:
 Unit
 Readings
 Unit Outline
 Essential Questions
 Major Assignments and Assessments
However, the syllabus will not necessarily limit the content or conduct of the
class. Adjustments can and will be made depending on the needs of the class.
You will be required to take notes during class discussions, lectures, from reading
assignments and from presentations by class members and others. These notes will make
up the major portion of your notebook requirements, but more importantly will form the
basis for review for Exams.
Tests will consist of multiple-choice questions, open response questions and
document based questions (DBQ). On occasion, you will be required to interpret maps,
charts, graphs and political cartoons. Open response and DBQ’s must be written in blue
or black ink. There will be both chapter and unit exams. Unit exams will deal with all
material assigned during study of a unit (text and non-text). Unit exams will usually
consist of both multiple choice and essay questions. Chapter tests will be multiple choice
and short answer, numbering generally from 30-40 questions.
According to school policy, there will be a semester final exam at the end of the
semester and will cover all material from the semester. Practically all units will have a
regular assortment of reading excerpts, map work, artistic analysis, historiography,
quizzes and practice DBQ’s. It can be assumed that these will be general assignments
and thus not listed under the Major Assignments and Assessments section.
Teaching Strategies
When using primary sources for analysis, students will be using a Primary Source
Analysis Worksheet developed with the assistance of and based on the Fred Brown
model. It includes the following: Document Title, Author, Date of Document, Historical
Era, Identification of Thesis, Identification of the purpose/agenda, Evaluation of the
document’s point of view and Identification of the audience for which the document was
created.
Many times a year, students will be instructed in and take part in grading
activities with DBQ’s and FRQ’s (see writing section below for particulars). We will be
analyzing the 9-point scoring guides and students will then be given a chance to critique
each other’s work on the DBQ/FRQ’s. They will identify Thesis Statements, main points
and various other writing points. Afterward, there will be class debriefing.
Students will be analyzing art work from different periods on a consistent basis.
They will be shown various works of art and expected to note the major differences in
style and substance of the several periods as outlined in the organization section above.
Using specific pieces of art students will generally be using an art analysis worksheet that
follows these basis lines: What do you see (a literal view of the work with listing), What
do you think you see (add in your emotional take on the work), What hints do you find
(are there any historical clues in the work that give you an idea of the background), What
questions do you have (what would you need to have answered to make a decision on the
work’s purpose) and What do you have (make a decision about what you are looking at,
purpose, audience, statement, etc.).
Historiography will be addressed regularly in class. Students will be reading
additional text from Breisach’s Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern work.
This will help to understand the changing nature of historical interpretation during the
passing of eras. Focus will of course be on the periods starting in the Renaissance and
continuing forward. Historians looked at in the various readings will range from Bede to
Burckhardt, Hegel to Marx and Boorstin to Zinn.
Additionally, the class will utilize various methods of lecture, power points,
documents, documentary films and secondary source readings to supplement learning.
Writing: Students will be expected to write on many topics and at several levels during
the semester. During which they will follow these guidelines:
I.
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive
topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient
evidence.
II.
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey
complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the
effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
III.
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured
event sequences.
IV.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience.
V.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising,
editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
VI.
Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish
writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
VII. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on
focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
VIII. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital
sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and
integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
IX.
X.
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support
analysis, reflection, and research.
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research,
reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or
a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Course Outline
Unit I
Toward the Modern Age 1850-1939
Part A
Nation States to European Supremacy
Part B
Imperialism to World War I
Readings:
Kagan: Chapters 22-26
Primary Source Readings: Zola, Emmeline Pankhurst, Pope Leo XIII, H.S. Chamberlain,
Herzl, Virginia Woolf, T.B. Macaulay, Churchill, Bismarck, Lenin, etc.
Breisach-Chapters 16-19
Historians as Interpreters of Progress and Nation II
A First Prefatory note to Modern Historiography
History and the Quest for a Uniform Scheme
The Discovery of Economic Dynastics
Unit Outline:
I.
II.
The French Revolution
a. The Crisis of the French Monarchy
b. The Revolution of 1789
c. The Reconstruction of France
d. The End of Monarchy: A Second Revolution
e. Europe at War with the Revolution
f. The Reign of Terror
g. The Thermidorian Reaction
The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism
a. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
b. The Consulate in France
c. Napoleon’s Empire
d. European Response to the Empire
e. The Congress of Vienna and the European Settlement
f. The Romantic Question
g. Romantic Questioning of the Supremacy of Reason
III.
IV.
h. Romantic Literature
i. Romantic Art
i. Constable-Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadow
ii. Delacroix- Liberty Leading the People, Death of Sardanapalus
j. Religion in the Romantic Period
k. Romantic Views of Nationalism and History
The Conservative Order and the Challenges of the Reform
a. The Challenges of Nationalism and Liberalism
b. Conservative Governments: The domestic Political Order
c. The Conservative International Order
d. The Wars of Independence in Latin America
e. The Conservative Order Shaken in Europe
Economic Advance and Social Unrest
a. Toward an Industrial Society
b. The Labor Force
c. Family Structures and the Industrial Revolution
d. Women in the Early Industrial Revolution
e. Problems of Crime and Order
f. Classical Economics
g. Early Socialism
h. 1848: Year of Revolutions
VI
The Age of Nation-States
a. The Crimean War
b. Reforms of the Ottoman Empire
c. Italian Unification
d. German Unification
e. France: From Liberal Empire to the Third Republic
f. The Habsburg Empire
g. Russia: Emancipation and Revolutionary Stirrings
h. Great Britain: Toward Democracy
VII
The Building of European Supremacy: Society and Politics to World War
a. Population Trends and Migration
b. The Second Industrial Revolution
c. The Middle Class in Ascendancy
d. Late-Nineteenth-Century Urban Life
e. Varieties of Late-Nineteenth-Century Women’s Experiences
f. Jewish Emancipation
g. Labor, Socialism and Politics to World War I
VIII
The Birth of Modern European Thought
a. The New Reading Public
b. Science at Midcentury
c. Christianity and the Church under Siege
d. Toward a Twentieth Century Frame of Mind
1.
e.
The Coming of Modern Art
1. Manet-A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
2. Monet- Haystack, Water Lilies
3. Pissaro-Boulevard Montmartre at Night
4. Renoir-Le Moulin de la Galette
5. Degas-several of his ballet dancers, Woman Combing
her hair, Women Ironing
6. Seurat-A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande
Jatte
7. Cezanne- Pyramid of Skulls, The Lake at Annecy
8. Van Gogh-Self Portrait (1887), Starry Night
9. Gauguin- On the Beach 1891
10. Picasso-Guernica, The Old Guitarist
11. Braque- Violin and Palette
Women and Modern Thought
IX
The Age of Western Imperialism
a. The Close of the Age of Early Modern Colonization
b. The Age of British Imperial Dominance
c. India- The Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire
d. The “New Imperialism” 1870-1914
e. Motives for the New Imperialism
f. The Partition of Africa
g. Russian Expansion in Mainland Asia
h. Western Powers in Asia
i. Tools of Imperialism
j. The Missionary Factor
k. Science and Imperialism
X
Alliances, War and a Troubled Peace
a. Emergence of the German Empire and the Alliance Systems
b. World War I
c. The Russian Revolution
d. The End of World War I
e. The Settlement of Paris
Major Assignments and Assessments:
DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topic
 Literacy and Education in the 16 to 19th Century
 French Revolution
 Industrial Revolution in England
 Role of Science and Empiricism in 19th Century Europe
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Adoption of new calendar in revolutionary France
19th and 20th Century Socialism
Imperialism
Role of Treaties and Alliances in WWI
Italian Unification
Weimar Republic in the years 1918-1933
European acquisition of African Colonies 1880-1914
Organized Sports in Europe 1860-1940
Natural identity in Alsace-Lorraine during the period 1870-1919
Concept of “Civil Peace” in Germany 1914-1918
Unit Exam and Quizzes
Unit II
Global Conflict, Cold War and New Directions 1939-2008
Part A
World War II
Part B
Cold War and Modern Era
Readings:
Kagan: Chapters 27-30
Primary Source Readings: Keynes, Mussolini, Hitler, Khrushchev, Gandhi, Putin,
Simone De Beauvoir, Sartre, Pope Benedict XVI
Breisach- Chapters 20-23
Historians Encounter the Masses
The Problem of World History
A Second Prefatory Note to Modern Historiography
Questions of Historical Truth- The Theoretical Discussion
Unit Outline:
I.
II.
The Interwar Years: The Challenge of Dictators and Depression
a. After Versailles: Demands for Revision and Enforcement
b. Toward the Great Depression in Europe
c. The Soviet Experiment
d. The Fascist Experiment in Italy
e. German Democracy and Dictatorship
f. Trials of the Successor States in Europe
World War II
a. Again the Road to War
b. World War II
c. Racism and the Holocaust
d. The Domestic Fronts
e. Preparations for Peace
III.
IV.
The Cold War Era, Decolonization and Emergence of a New Europe
a. The Emergence of the Cold War
b. The Khrushchev Era in the Soviet Union
c. Later Cold War Confrontations
d. The Brezhnev Era
e. Decolonization: The European Retreat from Empire
f. The Turmoil of French Decolonization
g. The Collapse of European Communism
h. The Collapse of Yugoslavia and Civil War
i. Putin and the Resurgence of Russia
j. The Rise of Radical Political Islamism
k. A Transformed West
The West at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century
a. The Twentieth-Century Movement of Peoples
b. Toward a Welfare State Society
c. New Patterns in Work and the Expectations of Women
d. Transformation in Knowledge and Culture
e. Art Since World War II
f. The Christian Heritage
g. Late-Twentieth-Century Technology: The Arrival of the Computer
h. The Challenges of European Unification
i. New American Leadership and Financial Crisis
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1)
DBQ selections: students will be given a DBQ from the following topics:
 The causes and responses to the 1968 crisis in France
 Western Europe unity 1946-1989
 The Vichy Regime 1940-1944
2) Unit Exam and quizzes