HSRU 1000-013: HISTORY OF THE WEST: ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE
PRESENT
Room: Keating 214
TF 2:30-3:45 p.m.
Instructor: Tomas Zahora
Office: Dealy 647
Office Hours: Tuesday 9:30 a.m.-11:20a.m.
1:30 p.m.-2:20 p.m.
Friday 1:30 p.m.-2:20 p.m.
and by appointment
E-mail: tzahora@highstream.net
(checked at least twice daily: this is the best way to reach me when I am not
in Dealy Hall)
Web Page: www.tomaszahora.org
syllabus, handouts, lecture outlines, and useful links will be updated
throughout semester
Required texts:
Textbook:
Kishlansky,
Geary, and OBrien, Civilization in the
West, vol. II: Since 1555, 6th ed. (2003). ISBN: 0-321-23625-4
Primary source readings and recommended editions:
Voltaire, Candide
(Penguin
paperback, trans. John Butt, ISBN 0140440046)
e-text:
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/v/v93c/
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
(Penguin paperback, ISBN 0141439475)
John Stuart Mill, On
(Penguin
paperback, ISBN 0140432078)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist
Manifesto
(Penguin
paperback, ISBN 0140447571)
Virginia Woolf, A Room of Ones Own
(Harvest
books, ISBN 0156787334)
Albert Camus, The Rebel
(Vintage
paperback, ISBN 0679733841)
Course objectives:
The
course will focus primarily on
Class
will be conducted in the form of lectures and source-based discussions.
Students are encouraged to participate by raising questions and commenting on
assigned readings or research projects. All students are welcome to continue
class discussion during the instructors office hours or via e-mail.
Course requirements and evaluation:
Class
attendance 10%
Florilegium 20%
Essay 30%
Midterm 18
%
Comprehensive Final Exam 22 %
Total 100%
No
incompletes will be given in this course.
Attendance policy:
You
do not need to bring documentation to excuse your absence. Likewise, you do not
need to ask me for permission to miss class. However, class attendance and
participation in discussions constitute ten percent of your total course grade.
Since discussions are a vital part of the class, I will count them as 2
attendance points. There are six discussion classes (12 points) and 20 lecture
classes (20 points), which adds up to 32 points worth 10% of your class grade.
You do the math: in other words, a couple of missed classes will not
automatically shift you down on the grade scale. On the other hand, absences do
add up, missed lectures tend to hurt at exam time, and the difference between
an A- and a B+ can amount to a single missed class.
Florilegium:
Prepare a florilegium (gathering of flowers flos,
floris: flower; legere: to gather, collect, read) from assigned primary
sources.
For each primary source, select three passages (each
a few sentences or a brief paragraph long) that in your opinion encapsulate the
most important or interesting points made in the book. Then choose one passage
(again, a few sentences or a brief paragraph) that you find troubling,
singularly wrong, or with which you simply disagree. Provide each of the four
passages with a commentary of 150 to 160 wordsnot less, not more.
Your commentary should reflect not your gut response
but a reasoned understanding of the entire work (not just a few pages of it) in
its historical context. Pulling out a passage describing Victor Frankenstein in
his laboratory and commenting at length on how corny, amazing, or cute the
scenery looks will not do.
SUGGESTION: be judicious in selecting passages as well as in
commenting on them. Weigh your words carefully. 150 words can be typed easily
without expressing much of substance. Condense your thoughts, making sure you
touch on most important issues.
Each segment of the florilegium will be due at 5:00
p.m. on the day before discussion. Please e-mail me your florilegia, addressing
them to tzahora@highstream.net.
Essay Project:
Write
an eight-page essay that will trace the development, within the period of time
under discussion, of an issue/point of view/political or social or intellectual
problem or question that you find intriguing or particularly relevant. Begin by
selecting a theme from one or more of the assigned primary sources (for
example, you can start by comparing the
vision of a society presented by Mill with that presented by Marx; or look at
the treatment of women in Candide in
light of what Virginia Woolf has to say in A
Room of Ones Own). Read the text(s) carefully, research the treatment of
your thesis by contemporaneous writers or modern historians, and build up a
brief annotated bibliography consisting of at least eight secondary sources.
The annotated bibliography, together with an abstract of your essay, will be
due at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 21 October. A handout with more specific information will be provided.
Late assignments:
Late
assignments will incur a 10% penalty for each day they are overdue, beginning
at 5:01 p.m. of the due date.
Course Schedule:
► NOTE: Chapter assignments refer
to the textbook by Kishlansky et al. You should have them read by the end of
the week as noted.
Week 1: INTRODUCTION; EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WORLD [Chapter 17]
Friday
2 September
Week 2: THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT: POLITICS, SOCIETY,
CULTURE [Chapters 18, 19]
Tuesday 6 September
Friday 9 September
Week 3: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION [Chapter 20]
Tuesday
13 September DISCUSSION:
Voltaire, Candide [Florilegium due by 5:00
p.m. Monday, 12 September]
Friday
16 September
Week 4: NAPOLEON; INDUSTRIAL
Tuesday
20 September
Friday
23 September
Week 5: ROMANTICISM; REVOLUTIONS [Chapter 22]
Tuesday
27 September
Friday 30 September DISCUSSION:
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
[Florilegium due by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, 29 September]
Last day to withdraw without incurring a
WF
Week 6: A CENTURY OF IDEOLOGIES [Chapter 22]
Tuesday
4 October
Friday
7 October
Week 7: NEW VISIONS OF
FREEDOM
Tuesday
11 October DISCUSSION:
John Stuart Mill, On
Friday
14 October ► MIDTERM EXAM
Week 8: THE BIRTH (AND
REBIRTH) OF NATIONS [Chapter 23]
Tuesday
18 October
Friday
21 October
Week 9: SCIENCE OF NATURE, SCIENCE OF HUMANKIND [Chapter
23]
Tuesday 25 October DISCUSSION: The Communist
Manifesto [Florilegium due
by 5:00 p.m. Monday, 24 October]
Friday
28 October
Week 10: BUILDING BETTER
TOMORROWS: 19TH-CENTURY SOCIETY [Chapter 24]
Tuesday 1 November
Friday 4 November
Week 11: EMPIRES [Chapter
25]
Tuesday
8 November
Friday
11 November
Week 12: WAITING FOR
SOMETHING TO HAPPEN: THE GREAT WAR [Chapter 26]
Tuesday
15 November
Friday
18 November
Week 13: A ROOM OF ONES
OWN
Tuesday 22 November DISCUSSION:
Virginia Woolf, A Room of Ones Own [Florilegium due
by 5:00 p.m. Monday, 21 November]
Friday
25 November ► THANKSGIVING: NO CLASS
Week 14: THE LOST
GENERATION [Chapter 27]
Tuesday
29 November
Friday
2 December
Week 15: THE APOCALYPSE
AND AFTER [Chapter 28]
Tuesday
6 December
Friday
9 December DISCUSSION:
Albert Camus: The
Rebel [Florilegium due by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, 8 December]
Week 16
Thursday,
December 22 ► FINAL EXAM 1:30 p.m.