Advanced Placement
European History
Course Syllabus
Knightdale High School
100 Bryan Chalk Lane
Knightdale, NC 27545
Telephone (919) 217 – 5350
Teacher
William Brian Phillips
Room 814-09
wphillips2@wcpss.net
Course website:
http://wbphillipskhs.pbworks.com
Advanced Placement European History Purpose Statement
The study of European history since 1450 introduces students to the cultural, intellectual,
economic, political, diplomatic, and social developments that played a fundamental role
in shaping the world in which we live today. Without this knowledge, we would lack the
context for understanding the development of contemporary institutions, the role of
continuity and change in present-day society and politics, and the evolution of current
forms of artistic expression and intellectual discourse. In addition to providing a basic
narrative of events and movements, the goals of the Advanced Placement program in
European History are to develop an understanding of some of the principal themes in
modern European history, develop an ability to analyze historical evidence and historical
interpretation, and develop an ability to express historical understanding in writing.
It is strongly encouraged (but not required) that students enrolled in this course plan to
take the Advanced Placement European History exam in May, and all coursework will be
designed to prepare students for that examination. Students not planning to take the
Advanced Placement European History exam will still be expected to complete all
coursework, including Document Based Question (DBQ) and Free Response Question
(FRQ) writing assignments.
Texts & Other Readings
Basic Text: Western Civilization, (Sixth Edition), Jackson J. Spielvogel, 2006 and
accompanying ancillary materials
In addition to daily assigned readings from the textbook, there will be a variable number
of primary source reading and visual selections designed to flesh out each daily topic and
offer students the opportunity to practice independent source analysis; these selections
will be distributed as hard-copy by the instructor and/or made available online.
Tests and Essays
Tests will consist of a time-limited multiple-choice section (completed on-line on the
student’s own time) and an essay section (which will initially be completed at home, but
will transition to a time-limited, in-class format as students become more skilled in their
abilities to write in the AP style). Each test is likely to cover a significantly greater
volume of material than many students have previously experienced. These tests will
emphasize factual information, multiple causation / multiple outcome, and the concept of
change over time. Tests will require students to interpret and evaluate events of history
and support their conclusions with relevant, specific factual information. There are likely
to be no more than 12 major grades per quarter (one multiple-choice test, one full-scale
DBQ, and one full-scale FRQ per unit, with 4 units per quarter); the limited number of
grades means that each major grade has a significant impact on the student’s overall
performance in the course.
Homework
Homework will consist primarily of reading assignments and on-going writing
assignments. The reading requirements for this course are quite intense, often requiring
students to read, comprehend, and take notes on 25 or more pages of material per night;
this is in line with the reading demands of a typical college history course. Students will
have assigned readings every night and will need to have completed those readings in
order to take part in the daily discussions that are critical to mastering the content of the
course. On-going writing assignments will consist of “miniature” versions of DBQ and
FRQ assignments which students will use as practice to better develop their writing
skills; students may be asked to write, revise, and rewrite such assignments multiple
times in order to master the requirements of a successful AP essay.
Make-up Work
Attendance in class is absolutely essential to the successful completion of the course and
to the attainment of a passing grade on the National Advanced Placement Examination.
Students returning from an excused absence are responsible for completing missed inclass assignments promptly, following Wake County Public School System (WCPSS)
guidelines. Out-of-class assignments, such as tests, should be submitted electronically
either through the course’s testing website or via the instructor’s e-mail; therefore,
acceptable excuses for failing to complete such assignments will be limited only to
extreme circumstances. Be aware that the instructor is under no obligation to accept latework beyond the guidelines spelled out by WCPSS and Knightdale High School policies.
Honor Code
Students will abide by the honor code statement “I have neither given nor received help
on this assignment” for all course work, unless specifically exempted by the instructor.
Violations of the honor code pledge will result in a zero for the assignment and a referral
for discipline in accordance with school and WCPSS policy; additionally, all violations
of the honor code will be reported to all relevant athletic coaches, school-related honor
societies, and scholarship organizations.
Grading System
The grading system for this course shall be as follows:
Tests (50%): broken into two equal categories: Multiple choice and DBQ / FRQ
Homework / Classwork (10%): consists of all practice activities, analyzing primary and
secondary sources, and short writing assignments
Essays (40%): includes both Document Based Question (DBQ) and Free Response
Question (FRQ) type writing assignments.
Organization of the Course
All topics listed below will include discussion of how they fit into the six ongoing themes
which are the focus of the Advanced Placement European History course: Intellectual
history, cultural history, political history, diplomatic history, social history, and economic
history. It should be noted, however, that these themes weave together to create the fabric
that is history, so mastering the individual thematic material will be insufficient for
mastery - students will need to be able to assess the ever-changing relationships between
themes to truly understand European History as a whole.
The topics and primary source readings listed below are not meant to be exhaustive, but
rather are a base-line of major topics and materials which can be broken down into subtopics for exploration in greater detail.
Unit 1: Renaissance & Reformation
Topics: The Close of the Middle Ages, The Italian Renaissance, The Northern
Renaissance, The Reconquista, The Age of Exploration, The Printing Press, The
Protestant Reformation, The Catholic Reformation, Wars of Religion, The Thirty Years
War
Primary Source Readings:
Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier
Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince
Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man
Laura Cereta’s Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women
The Letters of Isabella d’Este
Christine de Pizan’s The City of Ladies
Francesco Petrarch’s A Letter to Boccaccio
Johann Tetzel’s The Spark for the Reformation: Indulgences
Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, On the
Bondage of the Will, Condemnation of Peasant Revolt, and Justification by Faith
John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion: Predestination
Constitution of the Society of Jesus
Teresa of Avilon’s The Way of Perfection
The Letters of Christopher Columbus
Jacob Fugger’s Letter to Charles V: Finance and Politics
Desiderius Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly
Visual Primary Sources:
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Masaccio’s The Tribute Money
Donatello’s David
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, various images from his notebooks
Michelangelo’s Pieta, David, samples from the Sistine Chapel
Raphael’s School of Athens
Titian’s Bacchanal of the Adrians
Giorgione’s Tempest
Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding
Holbein the Younger’s The French Ambassadors
Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights
Bruegel’s The Peasant Wedding, The Blind Leading the Blind, Hunters in the Snow
Dürer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, various self-portraits
Grünewald’s The Eisenheim Altarpiece
Tintoretto’s The Last Supper
El Greco’s Resurrection, Burial of the Count Orgaz
Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel
Bramante’s Tempietto
Palladio’s Villa Rotunda
Unit 2: Absolutism & Statemaking
Topics: The Spanish Empire, The Rise of England, The English Civil War and Glorious
Revolution, The Rise and Fall of the Dutch Republic, Absolutism in France, Austria,
Prussia, Sweden, and Russia
Primary Source Readings:
Richelieu’s Political Will and Testament
Henry IV’s Edict of Nantes
James I’s The Powers of the Monarch in England
The House of Commons’ The Powers of Parliament in England
Heinrich Kramer & Jacob Sprenger’s The Hammer of the Witches
Peter the Great’s Edicts and Decrees
Frederick the Great’s Political Testament
Daniel Dafoe’s The Complete English Tradesman
The Slave Trade
Women of the Third Estate
Unit 3: Enlightenment & Growth
Topics: The Scientific Revolution, The Enlightenment, Enlightened Despotism, Early
Industrialization, Agricultural Revolution, The War of the Austrian Succession, The
Seven Years’ War, Party Politics in Britain, Decline of Ottoman Empire and Poland
Primary Source Readings:
Immanuel Kant’s What Is Enlightenment?
John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government: Legislative Power
Rene Descartes’ The Discourse on Method
Francis Bacon’s On Superstition and the Virtue of Science
Galileo Galilei’s Letter to Christina of Tuscany
The Papal Inquisition of 1633: Galileo Condemned
Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Baron d’Holbach’s The System of Nature
Denis Diderot’s Prospectus for the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences
The Philosophe
Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary: The English Model and Candide
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason: Deism
Baron de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws
John Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract
Catherine the II’s Grand Instruction to the Legislative Commission
Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
John Wesley’s A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists
Visual Primary Sources:
Caravaggio’s The Conversion of St. Paul, Supper at Emmaus
Gentileschi’s Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
Bernini’s David, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, Piazza of St. Peter’s Cathedral
Borromini’s San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
Rubens’ The Descent from the Cross, Marie Arrives at Marseilles
Van Dyck’s Charles I at the Hunt
Ruisdael’s Windmill at Wijk-bij-Duurstede
Hals’ The Jolly Toper, The Laughing Cavalier
Rembrandt’s The Nightwatch, Six’s Bridge, various self-portraits
Vermeer’s The Kitchenmaid
Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress and Harlot’s Progress series, Beer Street and Gin Lane
Gainsborough’s Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral
Velázquez’ Las Meninas
Poussin’s Burial of Phocion
The Palace at Versaiiles
Unit 4: Revolution
Topics: The French Revolution, Napoleonic Europe, The Industrial Revolution,
Socialism, Restoration Europe, Romanticism, Revolts and Revolutions 1830 - 1848
Primary Source Readings:
Arthur Young’s Travels in France
Revolutionary Legislation: Abolition of the Feudal System
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Olympe de Gouges’ Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen
Maximilien Robespierre’s Speech to the National Convention – Feb. 5, 1794
Francois-Xavier Joliclerc’s A Soldier’s Letters to His Mother
Madame de Remusat’s Memoirs: Napoleon’s Appeal
Joseph Fouche’s Memoirs: Napoleon’s Secret Police
Napoleon’s Diary
Benjamin Disraeli’s Sybil
Friedrich Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England
Honore de Balzac’s Father Goriot
Elizabeth Poole Sandford’s Woman in Her Social and Domestic Character
Prince Klemens von Metternich’s Secret Memorandum to Tsar Alexander I, 1820
Jeremy Bentham’s English Liberalism
The First Chartist Petition
Robert Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population
Robert Owen’s A New View of Society
David Ricardo’s On Wages
Visual Primary Sources:
David’s Oath of the Horatii, Death of Marat
Goya’s Family of Charles IV, The Disasters of War series, Saturn Devouring His
Children, The Third of May, 1808
Gericault’s The Raft of the Medusa
Delacroix’ Death of Sardanapalus
Unit 5: Unification & Imperialism
Topics: Italian Unification, German Unification, Nationalist Movements, Victorian
Britain, Unrest in Russia, The Second Empire and Third Republic of France, The Second
Industrial Revolution, Anarchism, Realism, Impressionism, Rationalism vs. Irrationalism,
New Imperialism
Primary Source Readings: Otto von Bismarck’s Speeches on Pragmatism and State
Socialism
Giuseppe Mazzini’s The Duties of Man
Heinrich von Treitschke’s Militant Nationalism
Freidrich Fabri’s Does Germany Need Colonies?
Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden
Royal Niger Company’s Controlling Africa: The Standard Treaty
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty
Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto
Emmeline Pankhurst’s Why We Are Militant
Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors
Emile Zola’s J’Accuse
Visual Primary Sources:
Courbet’s Interior of My Studio, Burial at Ornans
Corot’s Ville d’Avray
Millet’s The Sower
The Crystal Palace
Eiffel’s Tower
The Paris Opera House
Manet’s Bar at Folies-Bergere, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass),
Olympia
Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series, Impression: Sunrise, Waterlilies
Renoir’s La Moulin de la Galette, The Bathers
Degas’ Prima Ballerina, The Glass of Absinthe, The Little 14-Year Old Dancer
Rodin’s The Age of Bronze, The Thinker, Balzac
Seurat’s A Sunny Day on La Grande Jatte, La Cirque
Toulouse-Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge
Cezanne’s Mont Saint-Victoire, Still Life with Apples and Oranges, Large Bathers
Gauguin’s Vision after the Sermon, la Orana Maria
Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, various self-portraits
Munch’s The Scream
Unit 6: The World at War
Topics: Causes of the Great War, The Great War, The Russian Revolutions and Civil
War, The Treaty of Versailles, The Weimar Republic, The Great Depression, The Rise of
Fascism, The Third Reich, Stalinism, The Spanish Civil War, Causes of WWII, WWII
Primary Source Readings:
Wilford Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est
Evelyn Blucher’s The Home Front
Program of the Provisional Government in Russia
V.I. Lenin’s April Theses and Speech to the Petrograd Soviet, Nov. 8, 1917
Erich Maria Remarque’s The Road Block and All Quiet on the Western Front
The Treaty of Versailles
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points
Lilo Linke’s Restless Days
Heinrich Hauser’s With Germany’s Unemployed
Jose Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses
Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents
Benito Mussolini’s The Doctrine of Fascism
Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf
Joseph Goebbels’ Nazi Propaganda Pamphlet
The Nuremberg Laws
Bruno Bettelheim’s The Informed Heart
Anne Frank’s Diary
Fred Baron’s Witness to the Holocaust
Joseph Stalin’s Problems of Agrarian Policy in the USSR and Report to the Congress of
Soviets, 1936
Mrs. Robert Henrey’s The Battle of Britain
William Hoffman’s A German Soldier at Stalingrad
Visual Primary Sources:
Matisse’s Portrait of Madame Matisse, The Dance
Picasso’s Dora Maar au Chat, Guernica
Mondrian’s Gray Tree, Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red
Klee’s Flower Myth
Arp’s Cloud Shepherd, Mountain, Tables, Anchor, Navel
Miro’s The Tilled Field
Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, Fountain
Ernst’s Ubu Imperator, L’Ange du Foyer
Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a
Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
Unit 7: The Cold War
Topics: Rebuilding Europe, The Rise of the Welfare State, Political Realignment,
Germany Divided, NATO vs. Warsaw Pact, Europe as a Battleground Between the US
and USSR, Europe’s Global Role in the Cold War, Decolonization, Post-WWII Social
Conflict, Collapse of Communism
Primary Source Readings: The Truman Doctrine
The Marshall Plan
B.N. Pnomaryov’s The Cold War: A Soviet Perspective
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Jens Reich’s The Berlin Wall
Harry W. Laidler’s British Labor’s Rise to Power
The General Assembly of the United Nation’s Declaration Against Colonialism
The Balfour Declaration
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
Redstockings’ A Feminist Manifesto
Raymond L. Garthoff’s The End of the Cold War
Robert Heilbroner’s After Communism
Carol Skalnik’s The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
Visual Primary Sources:
Mies van der Rohe: various designs
Le Corbusier: various designs
Unit 8: Modern Europe
Topics: Eastern European Recovery, The Disintegration of Yugoslavia, The Balkan
Conflicts, The European Union, The New Russia, Impacts of Terrorism
Primary Source Readings: Samuel P. Huntington’s Terrorism and the Clash of
Civilizations
Niall Ferguson’s The Future After 9-11-01
Mark Juergensmeyer’s Religious Terrorism
Thomas L. Friedman;s Globalization
J.R. McNeill’s Ecological Threats