[ Top of Page ] [CSS Course List]

 COLLEGE OF SOCIAL STUDIES

CSS Sophomore History is an intensive survey of European History from the French Revolution to the present. European history will be considered in terms of many types of history, often from conflicting perspectives, including, for example, political history, economic history, social history, women's history, intellectual history, and psychohistory. Throughout the History Tutorial, emphasis will be placed on developing the students' skills in reading, writing, and debating. One of the astonishing benefits of the CSS sophomore year is that students' skills develop as rapidly as if they were in a beginning language course! The History Tutorial in particular is designed to ground the students in modern European history, and also to develop the students' confidence and ability to master related materials in the future.

There are no required books to buy in History. There are only four books that are recommended to buy. Almost all other books are used for one week only, and very few books are read in their entirety in the History Tutorial. The shorter readings will be available on electronic reserve. All other sources will be available in hard copies on Olin Reserve. In addition, Emily Iversen, the History Preceptor, has organized multiple complete sets of the readings, and there are two complete sets of the readings at Olin Reserve. It is thus not even necessary to buy these four books listed below.

These four books above will be available at Broad Street Books, where they will be marked as recommended, not required. However, you are REQUIRED to do all the assigned reading as outlined on this syllabus.

Again, you are not required or even advised to buy all books listed below! The History Tutorial always has the most reading. Part of the CSS system of comradeship is learned through the process of sharing the readings, in good spirit, with your classmates. Only one-third of your class will be in the History Tutorial at a time. Consider loaning any books you do buy to the other sophomores throughout the year. Feel very free to buy books online.

Two copies of many of the books on the History syllabus are available on 4-hour Reserve at Olin Library. Extra copies of the books will be placed in the CSS Library as available. Consult Emily Iversen, the History Preceptor, to make arrangement to make use the multiple complete sets of the readings that she will be coordinating. Readings that are only available in photocopies will be put in the CSS Library; you may make your own copies of the photocopies. A great many of the readings will be available on E-Reserve.

One of the crucial skills you will learn in this Tutorial is how to read different types of sources--including primary sources, classic secondary works, essays, and fiction--at different speeds and varying levels of intensity. You will learn to assimilate sometimes contradictory readings on a single subject, and to form your own conclusions about them.

On the syllabus, the readings for each week are listed from the primary sources, to secondary works, including classic secondary works, and finally to the most general sources, the textbooks. Read the textbooks very quickly, the secondary works with care (paying particular attention to classic secondary works), and the primary readings with great care. Directions about how to move through the varied sources are listed after each reading on the syllabus.

At the end of the History Tutorial, I will ask you to discuss your favorite and least favorite readings of the Tutorial, and to explain your choices. On the syllabus, I have starred some of my own favorite readings. I look forward to talking about these choices with you. As you will soon learn, this is a class that stresses debate at all stages-at the Thursday Thesis Approval (time to be set with each Tutorial), in the essays, and at the Friday Tutorial.

Paper Requirements

1. Use all sources.
2. 1500 words maximum (and basically minimum). Footnotes do not count in the word count.
3. Title.
4. You must turn in two hard copies (one for Emily and one for me).
5. You must write the number of words at the top of your paper

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), Part I, "The French Revolution." Also read pages on Edmund Burke, pp. 83-105. The arguments in your essay should be grounded in the original readings from this book. Primary Sources. Read with great care.

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, multiple publication dates), Vol. 7, pp. 340-342 (Establishment of the LevÈe en masse), pp. 405-415 (on the Coup d' État, 1799).   E-Reserve

*Alexis de Tocqueville, Ancien Regime and the French Revolution (New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1983), pp. 1-32, 57-120, 203-211.  (Part 1, Chapter 1; Part 2, Chapter 1; Part 2, Chapter 5-11;  Part 3, Chapter 8)

François Furet, The French Revolution, 1770-1814 (Oxord: Blackwell, 1988), Chs. 2,3, 5. This adds material on Napoleon. Read quickly.  Chapters 2, 5 on E-Reserve

Bonnie G. Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700 (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1989), Ch. 3, The Age of Revolution." Textbook. Read very quickly.

Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550 (Minneapolis, St. Paul: West, 1994), Ch. 19. Textbook. Read very quickly.
 

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. II, Part III, "The Advance of Industrialization, pp. 233-430, also read from Part IV, "Programs for Reform," pp. 433-492. Primary Sources. Read with great care.  E-Reserve

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 8, pp. 92-100 (Economist articles on the Great Exhibition). Read with great care.  E-Reserve

Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England (London: Penguin, 1987), Introduction, pp. 50-64; "Single Branches of Industry, Factory-hands," 159-202; "Labor Movements,"  and 223-246. Primary source. Read for Major Themes.

*E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York: Vintage, 1966), Preface, and Chs. V-VIII, XVI (esp. pp. 711-46). Classic Secondary Work. Read with great care.

E. J. Hobsbawn, Industry and Empire (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1968), Preface, Introduction, Chs. 1-4. Classic Secondary Work. Read with care.

*David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), Chs. 1-3. Economic History. Classic Secondary Work. Read with care.

Phyllis Deane, The First Industrial Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965, 1979), Ch 3, pp. 37-52. Economic History. Secondary Work. Read with care.   E-Reserve

*Alain Corbin, "The Stench of the Poor" in The Foul and the Fragrant (Cambridge, MA; Harvard, 1986), pp. 142-160. Read with care.  E-Reserve

C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004), Chs. 2-3. Secondary Work. Read quickly for major themes.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Chs. 20-22. Textbook. Read very quickly.
 

WEEK 3: THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. II, Part VIII, pp. 493-564. "Politics in the Unified Nation State,"  also Karl Marx, pp. 724-763.  Read with great care.

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 8, pp. 409-419 (Bismarck), 461-469 (Trietschke). Read with great care. E-Reserve

David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus, Ch. 4. Economic History. Classic Secondary Work. Read with care.

Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. x-xviii, Introduction, pp. 20-43, 49-53, 64-104, 105-147, 227-230, 230-236, 250-255. Read quickly. Some on E-Reserve

Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700, Ch. 4, "The Rise of the Woman Worker: The Early Years." Textbook. Read very quickly.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Chs. 21-22. Textbook. Read very quickly.

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. II, Ch. X, "Reappraising the Nineteenth Century," pp. 1173-1232, 1245-1276. Primary Sources. Read with great care.

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization Readings, Vol. 8, pp. 544-546 (Rudyard Kipling, "White Man's Burden"), Vol. 9, pp. 55-69 (Friedrich Bernhardi, "Germany and the Next War"). Primary Sources. Read with great care.  E-Reserve

E. J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 (New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. 56-164, 302-27. Read quickly.

*David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), Introduction, Chs. 1-3, 7. Classic Secondary Work. Read with care.

Judith R. Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), the Introduction, pp. 1-13, and Ch. 7, pp. 191-228, "Jack the Ripper." Secondary Work. Read for major themes.  E-Reserve

C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914, Chs. 4, 6. Secondary Work. Read for major themes.

Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700, Ch. 5, "The Domestic Sphere in the Victorian Age." Read very quickly.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Chs. 23-24. Textbook. Read very quickly.
 

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 9, pp. 175-190 (John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace).
E- Reserve

*Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (any edition, first published in 1928). Fiction. Read with care.

*Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975). Literary History. Classic Secondary Work. Read with care, esp. Chs. I, II, and V.

Michael Howard, The First World War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Military History. Secondary Work. Read the whole book quickly, noting especially Appendix I: President Wilson's Fourteen Points.  Appendix I on E-Reserve

Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914, Ch. 13.

Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700, Ch. 9, "Warriors, Pacifists, and Revolutionaries." Women's History. Textbook. Read very quickly.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Ch. 25, pp. 768-789. Textbook. Read very quickly.

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 9, pp. 352-67 (Arthur Koestler). Read with care.  E-Reserve

V. I. Lenin, What is to be Done? (any edition, written 1901/1902.) Primary Source. Read for major themes.

Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Vol. II, Ch. V, pp. 565-571, 680-724. "The Growth of Socialism." Primary Sources. Read with great care.

Lisa DiCaprio and Merry E. Wiesner, Lives and Voices: Sources in European Women's History, Ch. 11, "World War I and the Russian Revolution," pp. 433-447 only. Primary Sources. Read with care.   E-Reserve

Philip Pomper, The Russian Revolutionary Intelligentsia (Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1970, 1993), Chs. 1-2, 5-6. Written by a Wesleyan History professor. Intellectual History. Secondary Work. Read with care.

*Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928-1941 (New York: Norton, 1990), Introduction and Ch. 8. Psychohistory. Secondary Work. Read with great care.  E-Reserve

Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, 1917-1932 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), Chs. 2-4. Read quickly.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization , Vol. II, Since 1550, Ch. 25, pp. 789-802. Textbook. Read very quickly.

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (New York: Collier, 1958, 1961). Classic Memoir by a Holocaust survivor. Read with care.

*William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town (New York: Watt, 1964, 1985). Local History and Social History. Classic Secondary Work. Read the two Prefaces, Chs. 1-3, 18-20, and the Appendices. Be able to debate the arguments in Ch. 20, "Conclusions." Read with care.

Ian Kershaw, Hitler, Profiles in Power (Harlow and New York: Longman, 1991). Secondary Work. Read for major themes.

David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984). German History. Read the Introduction and Ch. 1 quickly.  E-Reserve

John A. Garraty, "The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression, American Historical Review 78 (1973) 907-944. Identify the major themes in the article.  E-Reserve

Niall Ferguson, "The German inter-war economy: political choice versus economic determinism," in Mary Fulbrook and John Breuilly. eds. German History since 1800 (Oxford: Hodder Arnold. 1997), Ch. 13. Secondary Work. Read very quickly.

Jackson Spielvogel, Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1988, 1991), Chs. 2, 6 Offers multiple perspectives. Secondary Work. Read very quickly.

Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700, Ch. 11, "New Battles: The Rise of Dictators and War." Textbook. Read very quickly.

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Chs. 26-27. Textbook. Read very quickly.

University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 9, pp. 503-15 (Beveridge Report), pp. 553-559 (Jean Monnet). Primay Source.  Read with great care.  E-Reserve

*Michihiko Hachiya, Hiroshima Diary: The Diary of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Pres, 1999), pp. 1-26 (6 August 1945, 7 August 1945), pp. 124-128 (26 August 1945), pp. 175-179 (9 September 1945). Primary Source. Read with care.  E-Reserve

*Jane Kramer, Unsettling Europe (New York: Penguin, 1980, 1990). Essays on particular individuals as emblematic of major shifts in Europe, by a writer for The New Yorker. Read with care.  First two chapters on E-Reserve

Walter Lacquer, Europe in Our Time (New York: Penguin, 1973, 1982), pp. 3-361. Secondary Work. Read with care, especially for material on post-war social and intellectual trends.  First two chapters on E-Reserve

Martin Malia, The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism In Russia, 1917-1991 (New York: Macmillan, 1994), Epilogue, pp. 505-520. Read for major themes.  E-Reserve

Smith, Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700, Ch. 12, "Technology and Power in the Late Twentieth Century." Textbook. Read very quickly.  E-Reserve

Spielvogel, Western Civilization, Vol. II, Since 1550, Chs. 28-30. Textbook. Read very quickly.  First two chapters on E-Reserve

[ Return to Top ]