MMW 15 The 20th Century and Beyond:
Individualism and Conformity in the Modern World
SPRING QUARTER 2014
Prof. Edmond Chang
MMW Office, #211
e6chang@ucsd.edu or 534-4935
Office Hours: Wed. 3-5 pm
Required Course Texts:
Jerry Bentley, et al., Traditions and Encounters, Fifth edition
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
Course Reader (University Readers)
Order by phone: 800-200-3908 or order online: http://www.universityreaders.com
All books are available for purchase at the UCSD bookstore. A copy of the Course Reader will
be held on reserve at the library.
Course Requirements:
Two midterm examinations (20 %)
Writing Assignments (35 % combined)
Final examination (35 %)
Section attendance and participation (10 %)
To pass the course, you must satisfy all course requirements; i.e., you must take all exams, turn in
all writing assignments to section instructor and www.turnitin.com, and attend all section
discussions. You are expected to complete assigned readings for the day of lecture; furthermore,
you need to be prepared in section to discuss issues related to the week’s readings and lectures.
Examinations:
There will be two midterm exams in this course. They will be designed to assess your
grasp of the readings and lectures. Each will consist of a variety of objective questions,
so if you attend lectures consistently, read and reflect on the reading material, you can
expect to do quite well on these assessments. The final exam will include an essay
section cumulative in scope, along with objective questions.
Make-up exams will only be granted in extreme and exceptional emergencies, in which
case, valid documentation will need to be provided. They may be given in a different
format and include different content.
If you arrive more than 10 minutes late to an exam, you will forfeit your right to take the
exam.
Reading Assignments:
The true gem of any MMW course, I believe, is in the readings that instructors assign.
Not only will you get more out of the lectures and discussions if you complete the
readings by the dates indicated, but you will also assure yourself of a more meaningful
and personal engagement with the diverse human experiences covered in the course.
Thus, it is pivotal that you complete all reading assignments in a timely manner.
You are required to complete assigned readings for the day of lecture; furthermore, you
are expected to come to section prepared to discuss texts and issues related to the week’s
readings and lectures.
Students with Disabilities:
Students requesting accommodations and services due to either a short or long term disability for
this course need to provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter issued by
the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), prior to eligibility for requests. Receipt of AFAs
in advance is necessary for appropriate planning for the provision of reasonable accommodations.
OSD Academic Liaisons (Vilaya Roberts in the MMW Program) also need to receive current
AFA letters. For additional information, contact the Office for Students with
Disabilities: 858.534.4382 (V) 858.534.9709 (TTY) - Reserved for people who are deaf or hard
of hearing, email: osd@ucsd.edu. OSD Website: < http://disabilities.ucsd.edu >.
Academic Integrity:
It is your responsibility to know and observe all the UCSD rules concerning academic integrity
and plagiarism. You should be familiar with your responsibilities and rights under the UCSD
Student Conduct Code (http://ugr8.ucsd.edu/judicial/22_00.html). Any student found to have
committed a substantial violation of the university rules concerning academic integrity will fail
the entire course and the infraction will be noted on your academic record. If you have any
questions about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, please feel free to talk to your
TA and/or me to discuss the matter.
MMW 15 COURSE SYLLABUS
Week I. The Crisis of Western Liberalism
March 31: Introduction
April 2: The Shock of World War I
Bentley: pp. 767-774
Reader: Eric Hobsbawm, “The Age of Total War”
Rupert Brooke, “The Soldier”
Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”
April 4: A Liberal Peace?
Bentley: pp. 779-787
Reader: Woodrow Wilson, “Fourteen Points” and “Four Points”
John Maynard Keynes, “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”
Week II. Alienation in Liberal Society: The Modern Psyche
April 7: The Human Instinct for War
Bentley: pp. 791-797
Reader: Sigmund Freud, “Why War” (Letter to Albert Einstein)
Albert Einstein, “The World As I See It”
April 9: Social Conformity and Alienation
Fromm: “Love and Its Disintegration in Contemporary Western Society” (pp.77-98)
Reader: T.S. Eliot, “The Love-song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
April 11: Nihilism and the Revolt of Modern Art
Reader: Tristan Tzara, “Dadaism”
F.T. Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism”
Week III. The Struggle for Self-Determination: Anti-Imperialism
April 14: China: Revolution and Nationalism
Bentley: pp. 813-819
Reader: Sun Yat-sen, “Fundamentals of National Reconstruction”
Deng Yingchao, “The Spirit of the May Fourth Movement”
Online: Mao Tse-tung, “Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in
Hunan, March 1927” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1927mao.html
April 16: Modes of Anti-colonial Resistance
Bentley: pp. 865-874
Reader: Mohandas K.Gandhi, Autobiography, excerpts
Ho Chi Minh, “Selected Writings”
April 18: Decolonization or Neo-Colonialism?
Bentley: pp. 820-825; 874-877
Reader: Franz Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks”
Kwame Nkrumah, “Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism”
Week IV. Modes of Modern Conformity 1929-1939
April 21: ********************First Midterm********************
April 23: Liberal Responses to Crisis
Bentley: pp. 797-802
Reader: John Maynard Keynes, “State Intervention in the Economy”
Eleanor Roosevelt, “What I Hope to Leave Behind”
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, excerpts
W. H. Auden, “The Unknown Citizen”
April 25: Totalitarian Responses: Stalinism and Fascism
Bentley: pp. 802-810
Reader: V.I. Lenin, “The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution”
Josef Stalin, “The Socialist Drive”
Benito Mussolini, “The Doctrine of Fascism”
Week V. The Effacement of Self in War
April 28: The Prelude to World War II
Bentley: pp. 835-840
Reader: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, excerpts
May 30: Atrocities of War
Bentley: pp. 850-852
Reader: Haruko Cook and Theodore Cook, Japan at War, selections
“Letter from Göring to Heydrich” and “Minutes of the Wannsee Conference”
Paul Celan, “Death Fugue”
May 2: The Banality of Evil
Reader: Hannah Arendt, “Eichmann in Jerusalem” excerpts
Week VI. The Preponderant Logic of the Cold War
May 5: America as Emergent Superpower
Bentley: pp. 853-861
Reader: Henry Luce, “The American Century” excerpt
Winston Churchill, excerpts from the “Iron Curtain” speech
Ernest May, “America’s Berlin: Heart of the Cold War”
May 7: Pretext for Arms Race
Reader: National Security Council (NSC 68), excerpts
Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address”
May 9: Big science and the Research University
Reader: Gregg Herken, “The University of California, the Federal Weapons Labs,
and the Founding of the Atomic West”
Students for a Democratic Society, “The Port Huron Statement”
Online Film: “Herbert’s Hippopotamus” ***REQUIRED VIEWING***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbzhmMDFcFQ&list=PL0FD1FABF1D3D3386)
Week VII. Searching for a Meaningful Self
May 12: ***************Second Midterm (Multiple Choice on Scantron)***************
May 14: Existentialism
Reader: Jean Paul Sartre, “Existentialism”
Zbigniew Herbert, “The Elegy of Fortinbras”
Fromm: “Love, The Answer to the Problem of Human Existence” (pp.7-36)
May 16: Finding Meaning in the Absurd
Beckett: Waiting for Godot (All)
Week VIII. Struggles for Social Equality
May 19: The Civil Rights Movements of the ‘60s
Reader: Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
May 21: Structural Iniquities
Online: Jonathan Kozol, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational
Apartheid”
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/American-ApartheidEducation1sep05.htm
G. William Domhoff, “The Class Domination-Theory of Power”
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/class_domination.html#corpo
rate
May 23: Postwar Feminism
Bentley: pp. 914-917
Reader: Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” excerpts
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, excerpts
Adrienne Rich, “Diving Into the Wreck”
Week IX. New Competing Ideologies
May 26: ********************UCSD Holiday********************
May 28: The Collapse of Communism
Bentley: pp. 891-896
Reader: Vaclav Havel “The Power of the Powerless”
Han Minzhu, Cries for Democracy, excerpts
Timothy Garton Ash, “Ten Years After”
May 30: The Revolt of Belief
Bentley: pp. 910-912
Reader: Ayatollah Khomeini, “The Uprising of Khurdad”
Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations”
“An Emerging Clash of Civilizations” (Bin Laden and Said)
Week X. Challenges for the 21st Century
June 2: New Models in Global Capitalism
Bentley: pp. 896-900
Reader: Mike Davis, “SAPing the Third World”
June 4: The Demographic and Ecological Future
Bentley: pp. 903-908
Reader: Mike Davis, “Planet of Slums”
Edward O. Wilson, “Is Humanity Suicidal?”
June 6: Conclusions and the Way Ahead
Reader: Vaclav Havel, “The End of the Modern Era”
FINAL EXAM: Thursday, June 12, 11:30-2:30 pm