H408 Modern Europe
Location and time: MW 2-3:15pm, LL 410
Instructor: Dr. Annika Frieberg
Office: AL 576
Office Hours: MW noon-1pm, F 9.30-10.30
or by appointment
Email: afrieberg@mail.sdsu.edu
COURSE OBJECTIVES
What is Europe, where do we draw its’ borders, and how is it shaped by history? This course has
three objectives. First, this course will give you a basic understanding of the broader historical
developments in Modern European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, the names, dates and the
historical background of European and Western developments. Secondly, the course will train
you to read and analyze, write and argue about history, in particular in the European context.
Finally, it will introduce you to the historical controversies and questions inherent in its’ history
and how these legacies continue to impact Europe today.
COURSE STRUCTURE
This course meets twice a week. It includes a combination of lectures, discussions, and films.
GRADES:
Grading System
I grade your assignments on a +/-scale during the semester as shown below.
A=93-100
C+=77-79
D- =60-62
A-=90-92
C=73-76
F=below 59
B+=87-89
C-=70-72
B=83-86
D+=67-69
B-=80-82
D=63-66
Assignments
Mapquiz:
Primary Source Assignment: #1:
Primary Source Assignment #2:
Midterm #1:
Midterm#2
Essay:
Final Exam:
Participation:
5%
5%
5%
10%
15%
20 %
20 %
10%
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Attendance:
Total:
10 %
100 %
The mid-terms and final exam will be bluebook exams consisting of terms of identification and
discussion questions. For the terms of identification, you need to be prepared to specify the
time, definition and historical significance of each term (these two exams are based on lecture
notes).
You will write two Primary Source Assignments which will be about 2 pages in length each.
Please, use the Bowdoin writing guide’s discussion about how to read primary sources
http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/primaries.htm and Kalani Craig’s “The 5 P’s of reading
primary sources” (Blackboard) to complete these assignments:. The primary source analysis is
due on the day that we read the source in class at the beginning of class. You will select the two
documents to analyze in one of the first class sections.
You will write one 5-6 page essay on a topic stated in the weekly schedule. You MUST cite
your sources with page numbers throughout the paper. If you do not, you will receive an
automatic F. You have the option to revise the paper and turn it in on the day of your final. If you
do not revise it, it will receive the same letter grade as it got when you first submitted it.
Finally, 20 points is attendance and participation. Good attendance means having less than three
unexcused absences (see policy above). Perfect attendance warrants an A, 5-6 absences a B,
more than this a C and downward.
Participation evaluates your engagement with class discussion. In order to get a high
participation grade, you need to
a) Speak up in class
b) Give strong evidence of having read the source and thought about it
c) Engage other students’ contributions in a respectful and thoughtful manner.
Great attendance but no participation will award you a grade in the C-range. In order to get a B
or an A, you will need to have less than three unexcused absences as well as participating in
class discussion frequently.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To critically read and analyze historical documents
2. To summarize multiple historical perspectives and compare them to one another
3. To identify multiple perspectives on key historical issues and recognize the validity of
more than one perspective in discussion and in writing.
4. To write and represent your analyses in a clear, concise and convincing manner.
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LITERATURE
Textbook:
 Judith G. Coffin et.al,Western Civilizations. Their History and Their Culture. Brief Third
Edition, Volume 2. ISBN: 978-0-393-93487-8 (second brief edition is also acceptable). I
use the textbook as a reference guide and complement to the lectures although the
textbook does not always correspond to lecture. You do not have to read the chapters
every week unless you have incomplete notes for lecture, missed class, or want more
context or background.
Additional Texts (yes, they are required):
 Christopher Browning. Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in
Poland. ISBN-13: 978-0060995065
 Per Anders Fogelstrom. City of My Dreams (Stockholm Series, Vol. I). Penfield Press,
2000. ISBN-13: 978-1572160880
POLICIES AND EXPECTATIONS
Attendance:
I take attendance in this class. You may have three unexcused absences, or “freebies.” Excused
absences require first, that you clear them with me beforehand, or as they become necessary and
secondly, that you provide official documentation. More than three unexcused absences will
affect your attendance and participation grade negatively.
Cheating and Plagiarism:
Will not be tolerated in this class. I will follow the university’s definition of cheating and
plagiarism as stated in:
http://csrr.sdsu.edu/cheating-plagiarism.html
For a minor case of plagiarism, you will receive an F for the assignment. For a case of major
plagiarism (such as lifting an entire paper from the internet, turning in a paper written by
someone else or writing a paper for another student), you will receive an F for the course and I
may take further action by reporting the case to the appropriate instances.
Expectations and a Contract:
College should be a preparation for professional life and an institution for adults. For our mutual
work place to function well, we need a contract of expectations on each other in order to
maintain a professional, pleasant atmosphere in this class (see attachment A, sign and return).
Disabilities and Special Needs:
I am happy to accommodate any student with a disability or special need but in order to help you
effectively I need to be notified of this need in the first two weeks of class. You may contact
Disability Services for documentation/assessment and to ensure that appropriate
accommodations are implemented in a timely manner. You do have the right to privacy with
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regards to your special needs, and to simply provide me with the documentation from Disability
Services stating which accommodations you would need. For directions on how to receive
accommodations, consult this link:
http://go.sdsu.edu/student_affairs/sds/
Paper late policy:
I do not accept a late primary source analysis except in case of an excused absence previously
arranged with me.
If you turn in the final paper late, you will lose ½ grade off the grade I would have given your
paper (B to C+, C+ to C- etc.) and ¼ grade for each additional day the paper is late (C to C-, Cto D+) except in the case of an excused absence.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1: Modern Europe
Monday, August 26: Introduction and Syllabus
Wednesday, August 28: lecture: The Enlightenment
Week 2: The Age of Napoleon
Monday, Sept. 2: Labor Day – no class
Wednesday, Sept. 4: lecture: The French Revolution and Napoleon
Primary Sources: “Declaration of the Man and of Citizen,” Olympe de Gouges, “The Rights of
Woman and the Female Citizen,” also read Kalani Craig “The 5 P’s of Reading Primary
Sources” (Blackboard)
mapquiz
Week 3: The European Working Class
Monday, Sept. 9: lecture: The Industrial Revolution
Primary Source: Friedrich Engels, “Industrial Condition in Manchester, 1844”
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1844engels.asp
Wednesday, Sept. 11: discussion: City of My Dreams, 11-65
To think about:
1. The city takes on its own life in Fogelström’s narrative, almost as if it is a person. How
does he describe Stockholm?
2. Who are the main characters in the story and why have they come to the city? Or, if they
already live there, what seems to be their relationship with the city?
Week 4: Nineteenth Century Europe
Monday, Sept. 16: lecture: The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Primary Source: Oliver Twist, excerpt (Blackboard)
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Wednesday, Sept. 18: film: Oliver Twist
Read: City of My Dreams, 65-150
To think about:
1. What are similarities and differences between Oliver Twist and Henning?
2. What are the positive and negative aspects of the cities in the descriptions by the two
authors?
3. What are the greatest problems for urban European working class?
Week 5: The Middle Class
Monday, Sept. 23: lecture: The Revolutions of 1848
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Midterm 1
Week 6: Rise of Nationalism
Monday, Sept. 30: lecture: German and Italian Unifications
Wednesday, Oct. 2: class exercise: nationalism and national identities
Primary Source: Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation?” – Blackboard, City of My Dreams, 151-205
To think about:
1. How does Renan define a nation (what is it and what is it not)?
2. Why does Thumbs want a revolution?
3. Which characters oppose violent revolution and on what grounds?
Week 7: Rise of Communism
Monday, Oct. 7: lecture: Marx, Communism and Its Implementation
Primary Source: Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto – excerpt (Blackboard)
Wednesday, Oct. 9: discussion: City of My Dreams, 206-275
Focus Question #1:
To think about:
1. Discuss the particular problems which the women, Lotten, Matilda, Annika, or Augusta,
face in the city that their male counterparts do not face?
2. How do their perspectives seem to differ from those of the male characters?
Week 8: European Imperialism
Monday, Oct. 14: lecture: WWI
Wednesday, Oct. 16: lecture/ discussion: European Imperialism
To read:, City of My Dreams, 275-the end.
Primary source: Kipling, “White Man’s Burden” (Blackboard)
To think about:
1. What is the White Man’s Burden and how does it justify conquest and control?
2. What happens to Annika and August in City of My Dreams when they leave the working
class and enter the middle class?
3. Which particular challenges do the working class women in City of My Dreams face that
the men do not face?
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Week 9: WWI
Monday, Oct.21: Midterm 2
Wednesday, Oct. 23: lecture: Versailles and Its Consequences
Primary Source: Excerpt – Versailles Treaty, Articles 31-117 on
http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/versa2.html (link also available on “Blackboard”)
To Think About:
1. What are some larger primary aims of the Versailles Treaty?
2. How does the treaty define “German nationality” (i.e. what makes you German)?
3. Identify two or three measures in the Treaty which might stabilize the European
continent, and two or three measures which might threaten Europe’s stabilization.
Week 10: Interwar Era
Monday, Oct. 28: lecture: Rise of Fascism
Wednesday, Oct. 30: discussion: Ordinary Men
Read: Browning, 1-54
Primary source: “The Nazi Party Program 1920,” The Nazi Germany Sourcebook. An Anthology
of Texts, eds. Roderick Stackelberg and Sally A. Winkle (London and New York: Routledge,
2002), 64-66.
To Think About:
1. Which sources does Browning use for Ordinary Men? Where does he get his “evidence”?
2. Describe the biographies of the men in Reserve Battalion 101 – age, pre-war professions,
political inclination?
3. How and why did a majority of these men end up on the Eastern Front?
Week 11: WWII
Monday, Nov. 4: lecture: WWII
Primary Source: Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life, excerpt (Blackboard)
Wednesday, Nov. 6: lecture and discussion: The Holocaust
Read: Browning, 55-103
Omer Bartov, “Defining Enemies, Making Victims: Germans, Jews, and the Holocaust,” The
American Historical Review,103: 3 (Jun., 1998), 771-816 (Blackboard)
To think about:
1. How many of the men in Reserve Battalion 101 chose to step out when they were given
that option?
2. How did those who did NOT step out justify their decision?
3. According to Bartov, how did postwar Germans deal with the question of collective
responsibility for the Holocaust?
Week 12: WWII
Monday, Nov. 11: Veteran’s Day – No Class!
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Wednesday, Nov 13: discussion: Browning, 104-146
To think about:
1. How did the soldiers cope with the mass killings?
2. How did their attitude towards them change over time?
3. What did the Nazi leadership do in order to make the process of killing the Jews easier
for the soldiers?
Week 13: Postwar Era
Monday, Nov. 18: lecture: Cold War Europe
Primary Source: Adam Michnik, “Letters from Prison” (Blackboard)
Monday, Nov. 20: discussion: Browning, 147-189+Afterword
To think about:
1. What is the Milgram study and what was its results?
2. What are the two main disagreements between Browning and Goldhagen?
3. What was the motivation for the “ordinary men” to participate in the Holocaust
according to Browning?
Essay Due:
Option 1: Use City of My Dreams, Marx, Michnik, and lecture to set up an argument about the
positive and negative aspects of peaceful change versus violent revolution throughout European
history.
Option 2: Use the Versailles Treaty, the Nazi Program from 1920, Browning, Bartov, Hillesum
and lecture to build an argument concerning the most important factors that caused the
Holocaust.
Week 14: Fall of Communism
Monday, Nov. 25: lecture: Fall of Communism
Wednesday, Nov. 27: film: My Perestroika
To think about:
1. Who among the characters are particularly engaged politically and why?
2. Who seems apolitical and why is this?
3. In which positive and negative ways does the fall of communism affect these men and
women?
4. How do they remember the Soviet Union?
Week 15: Post-Communist Europe
Monday, Dec.2: lecture: Yugoslav Wars and European Foreign Policy
Wednesday, Dec. 4:
Read: Norman Naimark, “The Wars of Yugoslav Succession,”
To Think About:
1. What do the Yugoslav Wars and the Holocaust have in common?
2. Why are women in particular attacked during the Yugoslav Wars?
3. How do women matter in this war and in building post-communist nations?
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Week 16: The End
Monday, Dec. 9: Summary and Review
FINAL EXAM: Monday, Dec. 16 1-3pm
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