WMMHS
AP EURO – COURSE SYLLABUS
MR. KERTESZ
A. Course Description
This course is comparable in scope and difficulty to a college-level course in European
History. Its principle aim is to provide students with an opportunity to master and
demonstrate an overall knowledge of the basic chronology, major events, and trends in
European history from the Renaissance to the Contemporary Period. Furthermore, its
goal is to foster, through an intense study of specific topics, a deeper understanding of the
political, social, economic, and intellectual forces in the historical process.
In conjunction with a standard college-level textbook and through the use of primary and
secondary source material, students will learn to read with discrimination and to express
ideas orally and in writing that are coherent and concise. Ideally, in the process of
completing the curriculum, students will be able to understand the nature of history and
the role played by historians.
B. Course Objectives
The student will be able to:
1. Read, comprehend, and analyze primary and secondary sources.
2. Articulate and discuss written materials.
3. Identify bias in materials with regard to time, place, and author’s point of view.
4. Write in a manner that communicates effectively a particular point of view.
5. Write in analytical perspectives.
6. Draw cause and effect relationships between and among political, social, and economic
events in European history.
7. Understand the methods employed by historians in reconstructing the past.
8. Understand the importance of objectivity and substantiation.
9. Understand the relationships of history to the other social sciences.
C. Course Content
Unit I: Early Modern Europe – The Renaissance & Reformation
1. “A World Lit Only By Fire” - The Late Medieval Period
2. Renaissance Themes
3. Renaissance Society; Women, Estates, etc
4. Machiavelli & Renaissance Politics
5. Northern Humanism
6. The “New Monarchies”
Summer Reading Quiz - A World Lit Only by Fire
European Map Quiz
Multiple Choice Chapter Quiz
7. The Medieval & Renaissance Church
8. Luther & the Protestant Reformation
9. The Counter Reformation & the Wars of Religion
Multiple Choice Chapter Quiz
Unit Test – 2 Essays (FRQs)
DBQ – The Protestant Reformation
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapters 12 & 13
Boccaccio – The Decameron
Castiglione – The Book of the Courtier
Machiavelli – The Prince
Erasmus – In Praise of Folly
Luther – Address to the German Nobility
Unit II: Early Modern Europe – Exploration & State Building
1. Exploration and Colonization
2. The Dutch Republic
Multiple Choice Quiz
Colony and Explorer Packet
3.
4.
5.
6.
State Building in Western Europe
Absolutism; France, Russia, Austria
The English Civil War
State Building in Eastern Europe; Poland
Unit Test – 30 MC & 1 Essay (FRQ)
Essay – Baroque & Renaissance Art Comparison
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapters 14 & 15
Las Casas – The Tears of the Indians
Parliament – Petition of Right
Parliament – The English Bill of Rights
Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
John Locke – The Second Treatise on Government
Unit III: Early Modern Europe – The Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment
1. Traditional Science; Aristotle & the Church
2. Astronomy, Anatomy & Physics
3. The Philosophy of Science
4. Women & Science
Multiple Choice Quiz
Essay - Resume of Scientist or Thinker
DBQ – Women in the Scientific Revolution
5. Background to the Enlightenment
6. The Philosophes
7. Social Reforms
Multiple Choice Quiz
Unit Test – 2 Essays (FRQ)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapters 16 & 17
Galileo – Galileo Defends Himself
Renee Descartes – The Discourse of Method
Montesquieu – The Spirit of the Laws
J.J. Rousseau – The Social Contract
Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations
Mary Wollstencraft – A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Unit IV: Modern Europe – 18th Century Society and the French Revolution
1. Enlightened Despotism
2. Warfare in the 18th Century
3. 18th Century Society; the Three Estates
Multiple Choice Quiz
Chart of 18th Century Wars
4.
5.
6.
7.
Causes of the French Revolution
The Moderate Revolution
The Radical Revolution
Napoleonic France and Europe
Multiple Choice Quiz
Debate: Did Napoleon have a positive or negative affect on Europe?
Unit Test – 25 MC & 1 Essay (FRQ)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapters 18 & 19
Estates General – Cahiers of the Second and Third Estate
Abbes Sieyes – What is the Third Estate?
National Assembly – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
Robespierre – In Defense of Terror
Napoleon – Napoleon’s Diary
Unit V: Modern Europe - The Industrial Revolution
1. Causes of the Industrial Revolution
2. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and on the Continent
3. Ramifications of the Industrial Revolution
Multiple Choice Quiz
Unit Test – DBQ
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 20
Flora Tristan –
Parliament – Factory Act of 1833
Engels – The Conditions of the Working Class
Unit VI: Modern Europe – Reaction, More Revolution & Romanticism
1. The Congress of Vienna; The Concert of Europe
2. Conservatism, Liberalism, Nationalism, & Socialism
3. Revolutionary Europe, 1815-1848
4. Neo-Classicalism & Romanticism
Multiple Choice Quiz
Congress of Vienna Map
Political Spectrum Chart
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The Crimean War
Napoleon III’s France
Italian and German Unification
Reform in Great Britain
Realism in Art and Literature
Multiple Choice Quiz
Romanticism and Realism Comparison Essay
Unit Test – 2 Essays (FRQ’s)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 21 & 22
Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France
Marx & Engels – The Communist Manifesto
J.S. Mill – On Liberty
Tennyson – The Charge of the Light Brigade
Unit VII: Modern Europe – Progress, Imperialism, & Anxiety
1. Mass Society, 1850-1914
2. Victorian England; Case Study of Bourgeoisie Society
3. The Second Industrial Revolution
4. Evolutionary Socialism
Multiple Choice Quiz
First & Second Industrialization Chart Comparison
Timeline of Evolutionary Socialism
5.
6.
7.
8.
Darwinism, Freud, and the New Physics
The Age of Imperialism
Russia’s Growing Discontent
Growing Diplomatic Rivalries
Multiple Choice Quiz
Age of Imperialism Map
Alliances Packet
Unit Test: 33 Multiple Choice and 1 Essay (FRQ)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 23 & 24
Darwin – Origin of Species
Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams
Kipling – The White Man’s Burden
Wilhelm II – Speech, 1901
Unit VIII: Contemporary Europe – World War, Red Revolution, & the Interwar Years
1. Causes of the War
2. The Home Fronts
3. Total War and Its Effects
4. The Russian Revolution
5. The Versailles Treaty
Multiple Choice Quiz
World War One Map
World War One Timeline
6. Great Britain & France Between the Wars
7. The Rise of Fascism
8. Totalitarianism in the USSR
9. The Road to World War
Multiple Choice Quiz
Post-Modern Art Analytical Essay
Interwar Years Chart
DBQ – Germany During the First World War
Unit Test – Two Essays (FRQ’s)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 25 & 26
Stoessinger, Chapter 1
Lenin – What is to Be Done
Lenin – April Theses
Mussolini – Doctrine of Fascism
Stalin – Kulaks and Dekulakization
Hitler – Mien Kampf
Unit IX: Contemporary Europe – The Second World War
1. Early Stages of the War
2. Hitler’s Three Mistakes
3. The Home Fronts
4. The End of the War
5. The Holocaust
6. Yalta & Potsdam; Origins of the Cold War
Multiple Choice Quiz
DBQ – The Vichy Regime
Unit Test – 2 Schematic Essays (FRQ’s)
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 27
Stoessinger, Chapter 2
Churchill & F. Roosevelt - The Atlantic Charter
German Government – Nuremburg Laws
Unit X: Contemporary Europe – The Cold War & Europe Today
1. An Iron Curtain: Misperceptions & Fear
2. The Truman Doctrine & Containment
3. Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam
4. Détente
5. Decolonization
Multiple Choice Quiz
Post-War Map
6. The End of the Cold War
7. The European Union
8. Contemporary Europe
Multiple Choice Quiz
Unit Test – Two Schematic Essays (FRQ’s)
DBQ – The European Union
Readings:
Spielvogel, Chapter 28 & 29
Khrushchev – Secret Speech, 1956
Glasnost & Perestroika Reading
D. Instructional Resources & Texts
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only By Fire. (Little, Brown, & Company:
New York) 1993.
Sherman, Dennis. Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, 6th Edition
(McGraw Hill: New York) 2006.
Spielvogel, J. Western Civilization, 6th Edition (Thomas Wadsworth: New York) 2006.
Stoessinger, J. Why Nations Go To War, 8th Edition (Thomas Wadsworth: San Diego)
2001.
E. Suggested Teaching Strategies/Activities
1. Class discussion based on readings
2. Round table discussion predicated on student-generated open-ended questions
3. Lectures
3. Critical Analysis
4. Research
5. Individual/Group Presentations
6. Creative Projects
7. Essays on Independent and Teacher Assigned Topics
8. Audio-Visual materials
9. Panel Discussion/Debates
10. Field Trips
11. Novels
12. AP Practice Tests
F. Methods of Evaluating and Testing
1. Written composition
2. Oral commentary
3. Essays – comparative, analytical, creative, and thematic
4. Model assignments for the AP test
5. Research Papers
6. Test and quizzes for comprehension – objective questions, short response, and essays
7. Creative responses and projects
* Student work will be assessed using rubrics determined by the College Board.