Course Description:
This course will cover European history, focusing on the time period 1450 – 2001. Students will
read, discus, and write about six types of history during this time period: political and
diplomatic history; social and economic history; and intellectual and cultural history. (Please
see attachment from AP European History course description for further definition of these
types of history.) “In addition to providing a basic narrative of events and movements, the
goals of
AP European History are to develop (a) an understanding of some of the principal
themes in modern European history, (b) an ability to analyze historical evidence and historical
interpretation, and (c) an ability to express historical understanding in writing,” (AP European
History course description 9).
Textbook and other sources:
Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004.
Note One: Students will also be required to read and analyze several primary source documents
both literary and visual. Most of these primary sources will come from the following source:
Halsall, Paul, ed. Internet History Sourcebook Project. Fordham University, 04 Nov 2011. Web.
28
June 2014.
Note Two: Students will also be asked to interact with other secondary source documents both
literary and visual. Most of these secondary source documents will come from the following
source:
JSTOR. ITHAKA, 2000. Web. 15 Jul. 2014.
Course Outline:
Period 1: 1450-1648, Chapters 1-5
Sub-Unit:
Middle Ages Review, Chapter 1
Renaissance, Chapter 2
Reformation, Chapter 3
Quiz Chapters 1 – 3
September 5
Wars of Religion, Chapter 4
Rise of Spain and England, Chapter 5
Period Test: September 12
August 18 - 21
August 22 – 26
August 27 – September 4
September 5-9
September 10-12
Period II: 1648 – 1815, Chapters 6 – 13
Sub Unit:
England and the Dutch Republic, Chapter 6 September 15-17
Age of Absolutism, Chapter 7
September 18 – 24
New Philosophy of Science, Chapter 8
Enlightened Thought, Chapter 9
Quiz Chapters 6-9
October 6
Eighteenth Century Economic and
Social Change, Chapter 10
Fall Break
Eighteenth Century Dynastic Rivalries
And Politics, Chapter 11
French Revolution, Chapter 12
Napoleon and Europe, Chapter 13
Period Test: November 5
September 25 – 26
September 29 – October 3
October 6-8
October 21 – 24
October 27 – 30
October 31 – November 4
Period III: 1815 – 1914, Chapters 14 – 21
Sub Unit:
The Industrial Revolution, Chapter 14
November 6 – 12
Liberal Challenges to Restoration Europe,
Chapter 15
November 13 - 21
The Revolutions of 1848, Chapter 16
December 1 - 3
The Era of National Unification,
Chapter 17
December 4 - 9
Quiz Chapters 14-17
December 10
Fall Semester Final Exams December 15 - 18
Parliamentary Britain, Czarist Russia,
Republican France, Chapter 18
December 10 – January 12
Rapid Industrialization and Challenges
Chapter 19
January 13 - 20
Political and Cultural Responses to a
Rapidly Changing World, Chapter 20January 21 - 23
The Age of European Imperialism,
Chapter 21
January 26 - 30
Period Test: February 2
Period IV: 1914 – 2001, Chapters 22 - 30
Sub Unit:
The Great War, Chapter 22
Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet
Union, Chapter 23
Elusive Search for Stability in the
1920s, Chapter 24
Europe in Depression and Dictatorship
Chapter 25
World War II, Chapter 26
Quiz Chapters 22-26
March 12
Rebuilding a Divided Europe, Chapter 27
February 3 – 10
February 11 – 17
February 18 -24
February 25 – March 3
March 4 – 11
March 12 – 16
Decolonization and a New Prosperity,
Chapter 28
March 17 – 20
Emergence of Contemporary Europe
And the Collapse of Communism March 31 – April 6
Chapter 29
Global Challenges, European Cooperation
And the Uncertainties of a New Age April 7-9
Period Test: April 10
Review Unit: activities, presentations, etc. to review and
prepare for the AP Exam
April 10 – May 7
AP Exam
May 8, afternoon
Student Expectations:
Students will be expected to complete nightly readings while taking notes. These readings will
be mainly assigned from the Merriman text, but may be supplemented with primary and
secondary sources as mentioned above. Students will be expected to be able to identify and
retain the grammar (basic factual) level of information from these readings. During class
students will be guided by the teacher to put the grammar information together to reach the
logic and rhetoric levels of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, etc. through lecture/presentation,
discussion, questioning, Socratic seminar, and group work. Teacher lecture/presentations will
include works of art, photographs, charts, graphs, maps, clips of documentaries and videos,
etc. to help students better integrate and analyze the historical periods and themes being
covered. Students will also develop and refine their writing skills through weekly in-class
writing assignments and a semester long historical figure project. Students will be expected by
the teacher to be engaged, prepared, and courteous at all times.
An engaged student is one who thinks while listening and reading; not letting his or her mind
wander. One who process information and writes it down, one who makes eye contact and
gives non-verbal cues as to his or her understanding of the material (e.g. nodding, smiling,
frowning, etc.). One who listens not only to the teacher, but also to other students and learns
from them as well. One who both listens well and speaks up, adding his or her insights,
understanding, and connections between historical concepts.
A prepared student has read and written notes on the previous night’s assignment and brings
those notes and questions to class with him or her. He or she has extra paper to write down
new ideas or connections in class or grammar information the student did not write down from
the assigned reading. He or she understands and practices the skill of daily reviewing material
to actually learn it instead of trying to cram in all the grammar the night before a test.
A courteous student understands that other students may or may not share his or her
worldview and understanding of historical events. He or she interacts vigorously and
intelligently with the other students and the teacher while always being respectful of them.
We are all learners in this class, and deserve to have our mistakes pointed out to us kindly. A
courteous student also realizes that the teacher is not his or her enemy, trying to kill him or her
with homework and other assignments. If he or she feels overwhelmed by the class, he or she
will come and talk with the teacher, calmly explaining the situation.
Assignments and Assessments:
As this is the first college level class the history department provides for students at TCA,
students should expect consistent reading quizzes to help them keep up with the reading and
with the grammar level information they should gain from the readings. These quizzes may be
in the form of identifying a term, answering multiple-choice questions, or completing fill in the
blank sentences.
Students should also expect one content quiz during the course of each unit. The quizzes will
be a combination of true/false, multiple choice, and term identification/significance. For the
term identification/significance, students will be expected to list out 3-4 facts about the term
and explain the significance of the term to the period of history being studied.
There will be one test for each time period. The tests will be timed, rigorous selections mostly
of material from the unit, but also some questions included as review. The tests will be online,
60 minutes, 60 – 70 objective questions. Half of the AP European history test to be taken May
8, 2015 includes answering multiple-choice questions. The unit tests will seek to mirror this
experience and help prepare students to utilize a variety of test taking strategies.
There will be one overarching project each semester. In the Fall Semester, students will be
required to research a historical person foundational to the semester. In the Spring Semester,
students will be assigned a historiography project. More detailed assignment packets will be
distributed around the beginning of September and the beginning of February respectively.
The second half of the AP European history test includes writing essay answers to Free
Response Questions and one essay response to a Document Based Question. To help prepare
the students to write these essays well, in class each Friday the students will have some writing
component to complete. We will spend the first few weeks discussing how to write historical
essays and practicing the specific skills of evaluation, analysis, synthesis, etc. The rest of the
year we will write either an FRQ or a DBQ in class and we will spend some time peer reading
and discussing the essays as well.
At the end of the Fall Semester will be a cumulative final exam that will be worth 20% of the
grade for the semester. The exam will include both objective elements and subjective essay
elements. At the end of the Spring Semester will be the AP Exam, this year scheduled for the
afternoon of May 8, 2015.
Grading Breakdown:
Fall Semester






2 Period tests
Historical Figure Project
Quizzes
Writing assignments (FRQ, DBQ)
Class Participation
Final Exam
(20%)
Spring Semester
 2 Period Tests
 Historiography Project
 Quizzes
 Writing assignments (FRQ, DBQ)
 Class Participation (including review)
 Final Exam
200
100
200
200
100
200
200
100
100
200
200
200
Class Organization:
This class will have a website devoted to it (www.quia.com/profiles/gneagle). All information,
due dates, readings, and tests will be on the website. Tests will be accessible during a 24-hour
period, however, once a student accesses the test, the student will have no more than 60
minutes to complete the test. The students may not pause the test at anytime, the clock starts
ticking as soon as they access the test and will stop at 60 minutes or when the student finishes,
whichever comes first.
Students will receive a month calendar with all readings, tests, quizzes (not reading quizzes),
assignment due dates, and school activities (assemblies, TCAPS, etc.) marked as I am aware of
them. This will enable students to plan for their extra curricular activities and still get all of
their course work completed with a minimum of stress.
Late work shows a student’s disrespect for himself or herself as well as for the teacher and as
such will not be tolerated. Having said that, I do understand that sometimes life events occur
that we have no control over. So, if a student finds himself or herself in an untenable situation
and needs an extension on an assignment, he or she must come and talk with me at least one
full day before the due date. If the student does not talk with me one full day before the due
date, they will not be given an extension. If a student misses class, the expectation is that he or
she will make up any assessment the day he or she returns unless he or she emails me the day
they are absent before noon. If the student misses class on the day an assignment is due, the
expectation is that the student will turn in the assignment at the beginning of class on the day
they return unless otherwise discussed with me. All missing assignments will be entered as
missing in Infinite Campus (resulting in a grade of zero) until the student makes up the
assignment. (All of this is subject to change if TCA High School creates its own late work policy)
A Note from Miss Neagle:
I am incredibly excited for this year of AP European History. It is my first year of teaching the
class, so we will be doing a lot of learning and figuring the course out together. Having said
that, most of my undergraduate studies centered on European History and this is a class I have
been working toward teaching since I began my teaching career 8 years ago. I love European
history, its scope, its depth, the personalities involved, and the events that seem unexpected
but have quite a long path to their impact of the world we inhabit.
I hope you will grow to love the intricacies and craziness of European history as I do over the
course of this year. I am looking forward to seeing you grow as young men and women, as
students, and as a class. Deep breaths everyone because here we go!
Types of history taken from the AP European History Course Description
1. Intellectual and Cultural History
Changes in religious thought and institutions
Secularization of learning and culture
Scientific and technological developments and their consequences
Major trends in literature and the arts
Intellectual and cultural developments and their
relationship to social values and political events
Developments in social, economic, and political thought, including ideologies characterized
as “-isms,” such as socialism, liberalism, nationalism
Developments in literacy, education, and communication
The diffusion of new intellectual concepts among different social groups
Changes in elite and popular culture, such as the development of new attitudes toward
religion, the family, work, and ritual Impact of global expansion on European culture
2. Political and Diplomatic History
The rise and functioning of the modern state in its various forms
Relations between Europe and other parts of the world: colonialism, imperialism,
decolonization, and global interdependence
The evolution of political elites and the development of political parties, ideologies, and other
forms of mass politics
The extension and limitation of rights and liberties (personal, civic, economic, and political);
majority and minority political persecutions
The growth and changing forms of nationalism
Forms of political protest, reform, and revolution
Relationship between domestic and foreign
policies
Efforts to restrain conflict: treaties, balance-of-power diplomacy, and international
organizations
War and civil conflict: origins, developments, technology, and their
consequences
3. Social and Economic History
The character of and changes in agricultural production and organization
The role of urbanization in transforming cultural values and social relationships
The shift in social structures from hierarchical orders to modern social classes: the changing
distribution of wealth and poverty
The influence of sanitation and health care practices on society; food supply, diet, famine,
disease, and their impact
The development of commercial practices, patterns of mass production and consumption,
and their economic and social impact
Changing definitions of and attitudes toward social groups, classes, races, and ethnicities
within and outside Europe
The origins, development, and consequences of industrialization
Changes in the demographic structure and reproductive patterns of Europeans: causes and
consequences
Gender roles and their influence on work, social structure, family structure, and interest
group formation
The growth of competition and interdependence in national and world markets
Private and state roles in economic activity
Brief and incomplete list of primary sources to be read and discussed:
Humanism
Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man
Boccaccio – Decameron
Valla – Donation of Constantine debunking
Castiglione – Book of the Courtier
Machiavelli – the Prince
Exploration
Columbus – Letter on his first voyage
Renaissance
Art, Art, and more Art!
Northern Humanism
Erasmus – In Praise of Folly
More – Utopia
Reformation
Luther – pamphlet or 95 theses or sermon
Calvin – Institutes, or Draft of Ecclesiastical Ordinances, or Catechism
Peace of Augsburg
Loyola – The Spiritual Exercises
Council of Trent
Wars of Religion
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre painting
Edict of Nantes
Treaty of Westphalia
Scientific Revolution
Copernicus – Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs
Galileo – The Starry Messenger
Newton – Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Bacon – the Great Instauration
Pascal – Pensees
Descartes – Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy
Galen – sketches
Harvey – sketches
Please sign and date below indicating you have read, understand, and agree to everything
contained herein. Thanks so much!
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