History A112
Origins of the Modern World, 1600-Present:
Western Liberalism and its Discontents
Spring Semester 2009
MW, 12:00-12:50
Tegler Auditorium
Dr. Mark Edward Ruff
Department of History
St. Louis University
Office: Humanities Building #323
Office Hours: M: 1:30-3:30 (and by appointment)
Telephone: 977-7140
E-mail: ruff@slu.edu
E-mail: markruff@hotmail.com
Teaching Assistants:
David Parnell: parnelld@slu.edu
Joseph Reidy: reidyjj@slu.edu
Frank Krajewski: fkrajews@slu.edu
Schedule of Discussion Sections:
201, Friday, 12:00-12:50, David Parnell
202, Friday, 12:00-12:50, Frank Krajewski
203, Friday, 12:00-12:50, Joe Reidy
204, Wednesday, 2:10-3:00, Frank Krajewski
205, Wednesday, 2:10-3:00, David Parnell
206, Wednesday, 2:30-3:20, Joe Reidy
207, Friday, 8:00-8:50, Joe Reidy
208, Thursday, 8:00-8:50, David Parnell
209, Thursday, 8:00-8:50, Joe Reidy
210, Thursday, 9:00-9:50, Frank Krajewski
211, Thursday, 2:10-3:00, David Parnell
212, Thursday, 2:10-3:00, Frank Krajewski
Course Description:
In response to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, distraught Americans raised the
question, “Why do they hate us?” Many commentators – and even the ringleaders correctly saw the attacks on the World Trade Center as directed against a notable symbol
of Western liberalism – against a corpus of ideas that includes beliefs in rationality,
science, reason, economic freedom, religious tolerance and the right to express one’s
individuality. Yet in maintaining that these challenges to the liberal West from religious
extremists represented something qualitatively new, these commentators overlooked the
fact that the ideals of Western liberalism came under fire almost from their moment of
inception. For centuries, they have been the subject of assaults by conservatives,
ultramontane Catholics, Communists, Fascists as well as radical Islamists. Making these
critiques more trenchant, however, western liberal ideals often brought with them the
seeds of their own destruction. From the French Revolution onwards, attempts to build
the ideal state around these principles of anti-clericalism, rationality and reason became
tainted by blood, violence and even genocide, as statesmen turned to force to carry out
their ideas in the face of a recalcitrant public and perverted their own ideals.
This course will seek to address why Western liberal ideas of laissez-faire, religious
tolerance and freedom of expression have often aroused such enmity. It will begin by
looking at the origins of these ideals not only in the Scientific Revolution but in a
reaction against the violence brought on by the wars of religion in the 16th and 17th
centuries. A response to this era of upheaval, the Enlightenment of the 18th century
introduced a secular, rational, anti-clerical and scientific outlook – but it arguably also led
to the terror of the French Revolution. This course will look at the emergence of the
liberal state and its offshoots – industrialization, nationalism and imperialism. It will
examine the challenges to liberalism in the 19th and 20th centuries – conservatism,
socialism, Fascism, and finally, in the second half of the 20th century, radical Islam.
Course Format:
This course will consist of lectures on Monday and Wednesday that will be provided by
the instructor. In addition, it will contain one discussion section per week held on
Wednesday, Thursday or Friday by one of the three teaching assistants. The lectures will
provide the larger narratives for the course, while the discussion sections will focus on
analyzing primary sources. During both lectures and discussion sections, all blackberries,
laptops, cell phones and ipods are to be turned off. If you wish to use a laptop, you must
receive written permission beforehand from the instructor and/or teaching assistant.
Those granted permission to use a laptop will sign a statement under which they agree to
use the laptop only to take notice: those who use their computer for other purposes
(IMing, web surfing) will have their letter grade dropped by one half of a letter grade.
Readings:
Dennis Sherman, The West in the World (custom edition): ISBN-13: 978-0-07733018-7
Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions (excerpts)
Primo Levy, Survival at Auschwitz
Penguin Custom Editions, The Western World
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (excerpts)
Montesquieu, The Persian Letters (excerpts)
Documents to be sent via email
The Penguin Custom Edition, Marx and Montesquieu texts are available in a
bundled packet at the Saint Louis University bookstore. Although we are using only
certain pages from the Montesquieu and Marx texts, it was much more cost-effective to
offer a bundled packet because of copyright restrictions.
Grading:
Two four page papers: 40%, 20% each
Midterm examination: 20%
Final Examination: 20%
11 quizzes: 10% (1% each)
Class participation: 10%
Papers:
You will be required to write two papers of four pages each. You will be assigned a topic
approximately three weeks before the papers are due. Please note that you will be marked
for style and grammar as well as content. For both papers, you are to use Times New
Roman front, Size #12 with margins of one inch. Please note that papers will be graded
not only for content but for style, organization and grammar. If a paper is turned in late,
one letter grade will be deducted for each day that the paper has not been received. The
only exceptions are documented medical emergencies and deaths in the family.
You are to submit a paper copy of your essay to your teaching assistant. In addition, you
are to submit an electronic copy to the website, www.turnitin.com, which will compare
your paper with those submitted by all other students and those already in its vast base.
Specific information on turnitin.com will be provided on the sheet detailing these paper
assignments.
Midterm
The midterm examination will take place on March 4. It will consist of a mixture of short
identifications and essays. There will be no makeup examinations permitted, except for
documented medical emergencies and deaths in the family.
Final examination:
Like the midterm, it will also consist of a mixture of short identifications and essays. This
will take place on Friday, May 8 at 12:00 pm.
Quizzes:
You will be given eleven quizzes randomly throughout the semester on the day of your
discussion sections. These will consist of a mixture of short identifications and brief
essays. They will based both on the readings for the week and the content of the lectures.
The lowest quiz grade will be dropped. No makeup quizzes will be permitted, except for
pre-scheduled athletic events and signed doctors’ notes. If you are not in class by three
minutes after the start of your discussion section, you will not be permitted to take the
quiz.
Class Participation:
This will comprise 10% of your grade, and will be based on a mixture of classroom
participation, attendance and faithfulness in reading the required assignments.
Attendance will be regularly taken in your weekly discussion sections.
Academic Honesty: This course will strictly uphold the college’s policy on academic
honesty, which states that “students are expected to be honest in their academic work.
The University reserves the right to penalize any student whose academic conduct is, in
its judgment, detrimental to the University. Such conduct shall include cases of
plagiarism, collusion, giving or receiving or offering or soliciting information on
examinations, or the use of previously prepared material in examinations and quizzes.”
This policy, which defines cheating, falsification, plagiarism, sabotage, and collusion, is
to be found at the following web site: http://www.slu.edu/x12657.xml. All cases of
academic dishonesty will be punished with a grade of a zero for the assignment.
ADA Statement: “Saint Louis University opens its programs and educational services to
all qualified candidates without regard to their disability. All programs and services
provided for students are done in a manner that does not discriminate based on disability.
Individuals requiring accommodations for student programs should contact the Director
of Student Life.” (College of Arts and Sciences Handbook, St. Louis University).
Schedule of Classes and Readings:
Week I: January 12, 14 Course Introduction
The Reformation
Readings: Sherman, 337-371
Week II: Jan. 21 The Spread of the Reformation
Readings: The Western World, 1-22.
Readings: Sherman, 372-438
Week III: Jan 26, 28 The Wars of Religion and the Scientific Revolution
Readings: Galileo, letter to Queen Christina, available at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.html
Readings: Sherman, 441-452
Week IV: Feb. 2, 4 The Enlightenment
The American and French Revolutions
Readings: Montesquieu, The Persian Letters, Letters #24, 29, 35, 36, 37, 38, 46,
60.
Readings: The Western World, 23-27
Readings: Sherman, 452-465
Week V: Feb. 9, 11 American and French Revolutions
Readings: Susan Dunn, Sister Revolutions, 3-161, 209-215
Readings: Sherman, 462-532 (especially 503-532 – skim 462-502)
Week VI: Feb. 16, 18 Liberalism and Nationalism
Readings: The Western World, pp. 28-38, 55-67 (to be used during the lectures on
Monday and Wednesday)
Readings: The Syllabus of Errors, available at
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm
Readings: Sherman, 565-593
February 16: Paper #1 Due
Week VII: Feb. 23, 25 Industrialization and Socialism
Readings: Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (to be used during the lectures
on Monday and Wednesday as well)
Readings: The Western World, 39-54
Readings: Sherman, 535-612 (the readings for this week partially overlap with
those for the previous week)
Week VIII: Mar. 2, 4 Social Darwinism
March 4: Midterm examination
Readings: Sherman, 658-664
Week IX: NO CLASS – Hooray!
Week X: Mar. 16, 18 Imperialism and World War I
Readings: Cecil Rhodes (to be sent via email)
Hymn: From Greenland’s Icy Mountains (to be sent via email)
Jules Ferry, On French Colonial Expansion: available at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1884ferry.html
Program of the Pan-German League, available at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1890pangerman.html
British Missionary Letter urging the Annexation of the South Sea Islands,
available at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1883hebrides.html
Readings: Sherman, 628-640, 673-692
Week XI: Mar. 23, 25 The Bolshevik Revolution and Stalinism
Readings: Sherman, 692-698, 712-716
Readings: Lenin on the “Black Hundreds,” available at:
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_%27Black_Hundreds%27_AntiClerical_Campaign_/_Lenin_to_Molotov
Readings: Stalin, on industrialization:
http://artsci.shu.edu/reesp/documents/Stalin--industrialization.htm
Readings: Stalin, on the purges:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1936purges.html
Readings: Additional document to be emailed
Week XII: Mar. 30, Apr. 1 Fascism
Readings: Sherman, 701-712, 717-723
Documents on Nazism: to be emailed
Week XIII: Apr. 6, 8 (No sections this week)
World War II
Readings: The Treatment of the Conquered Peoples (to be sent via email) – to be
used during the lecture
Readings: Sherman, 727-749
Week XIV: Apr. 15 (No classes, April 13)
Genocide
Readings: Primo Levy, Survival at Auschwitz
Week: XV: Apr. 20, 22
The Cold War
Film: Dr. Strangelove
Readings: Sherman, 755-788
Week XVI: April 27, 29 Radical Islam
April 27: Final Paper Due
Readings: Sherman, 791-820
Readings: Osama Bin Laden, Declaration of War against the United States,
available at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
Readings: Additional documents on Jihad (to be emailed)
Week XVII: May 4: Last day of Class
May 8: Final Examination