AP European History

Citation Guides

Posted on September 30th, 2009 by amarton
Filed under: Citation Guides | No Comments »

AP Modern European History

 SALON PROJECT

2009-2010

 

Find a recipe for zabaglione, dust off the recorder you made in fifth grade, dig up your grandmother’s Beatles records and start reading Machiavelli, Voltaire and Kurt Vonnegut.  We’re going to have a party and you will be the hosts!

As you will soon learn, among the important centers of intellectual and cultural life that appeared during the early eighteenth century—first in Paris– was the salon.  Hosted in the homes of women of the upper classes such as Mme. Geoffrin and Julie de Lespinasse, salons became the meeting places for aristocrats, wealthy professionals, and hopeful writers and artists to match wits and discuss contemporary politics, literature, philosophy, and the arts.  The gatherings were often open to visitors from abroad and salons soon spread throughout Europe.

 Our project this year will be to recreate three salons, replete with the issues, food and music of the day, from different periods of particular intellectual ferment in Modern European history. –the 15^th and 16^th century Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe, the Enlightenment in France or England in the mid-18th century, and the turbulent youth and protest movements throughout Europe in the mid-20^th century.   The setting for the Renaissance salon might be the court of an aristocrat in Ferrara or Basel.  The Paris or London apartments of the Marquise de Deffand or Elizabeth Montagu of “The Blue Stockings Society” might be the site of the Enlightenment salon, and the cafes of Paris and Prague the backdrop for the meetings of the 1960s salon. 

Each of this year’s three AP Modern Euro classes will be responsible for creating and staging one of the three salon simulations.    Each class will vote on its preference and we will try our best to match time periods and classes.    All three classes will come together for the culminating activity of the year –the actual staging of the three salons for ourselves and the rest of the Lab Schools.   This will be scheduled during the week of May 17th (or 24^th) in conjunction with (or after) the Rites of May performances –and well after you have completed the AP Modern European History exam.  

The salon project will be completely student-directed and we suggest that you begin to work on it immediately.  Each class will elect a chair who will oversee the entire project; the class must also determine who will be in charge of its various components.  A tentative list of these include:

·      research and script writing

·      music

·      costumes

·      staging and scenery  (backdrops, props, lighting, etc.)

·      food

·      fund-raising and publicity

·      filming.

   Every student in each class will be expected to be active in a number of aspects of the planning and actual performance of its salon.  Each class will also enjoy the generous help of two former students in the course who have graciously volunteered to work with you.   Kaitlyn Chang will be working with Mr. Janus’s 4^th and 5^th period classes and Marissa Suchyta with Ms. Martonffy’s 3^rd period class.   Of course, Mr. Janus and Ms. Martonffy will also be pleased to meet with each class to discuss your plans.  Three or four meetings during the year will be devoted to coordinating the work of all three classes.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on September 17th, 2009 by amarton
Filed under: Salon Project | No Comments »

AT EUROPEAN HISTORY

Syllabus

EUROPEAN HISTORY

COURSE INTRODUCTION

INSTRUCTORS: CHRIS JANUS, ANDREA MARTONFFY

INSTRUCTORS FOR EUROPEAN ART AND MUSIC: LAURIE ROJAS AND BRAD BRICKNER

TEACHING ASSISTANTS: KAITLYN CHANG AND MARISSA SUCHYTA

2008/09

THE RATIONALE

Those who consider themselves expert in the social sciences have increasingly questioned the value of teaching European history. There have been warnings about the dangers of a Eurocentric approach to Modern World history and calls for multiculturalism. Such warnings seem particularly appropriate at a school as diverse as ours and in a country which is becoming more ethnically varied. The cultural foundations of this country, however, remain European, and it is often forgotten that the origins of European civilization are diverse. Also, the most significant event in Modern World history (from 1500 onwards) is the expansion of Europe and its subsequent domination of the globe until after World War I.

THE NATURE OF THE COURSE

The most important focus of this introductory survey course is to improve your analytical, writing and research skills, largely through a series of biweekly exam essays and quarterly research papers. Some of the essays will be written outside of class, others on “test days”, when your objective knowledge of what we have covered will also be examined, and some essays will involve summations of the art and music talks that we will hear throughout the year. In conducting our research, we will use William Manchester’s concept of historical understanding, which he outlines in an A World Lit Only By Fire. In an author’s note to this book, he argues that understanding the past is based on seeing the “chains of circumstance” or “catenas” that are always waiting to be discovered by those who delve deeply into a period. However, Manchester is aware, as we will be, of the limitations of even this deep historical “truth” that is based on seeing how events are linked. He notes that when experts shake their “kaleidoscopes” when looking at a period, they can see vastly different things. He cites as an example the Medieval Period, and his and Henry Osborn Taylor’s very different views of it. When Manchester shakes his kaleidoscope and looks at this period, he sees the “brutality, ignorance, and delusions” of the Age; Taylor sees the spirituality of the Middle Ages. In thinking about the nature of history, we will resist the idea that things occur inevitably, but stress the role of chance or what Machiavelli would call fortuna. We will also tend to see intellectual change occurring in a dialectical manner, moving from one perspective or model to another, with periods of extraordinary change in between. In some instances, when change occurs, individuals will play a vital role in shaping the course of history; in others, they will appear to be swept helplessly along by forces larger than themselves.

Another important focal point of the course is art and music as reflections of European history. Here we examine the intersection of art and music with European history beginning with the Medieval Period. To help us, Brad Brickner will give four lectures on the evolution of music in modern European history, and Laurie Rojas will give eight talks about the major periods in European art. She will also lead a trip to the Art Institute during the autumn quarter, and another during the winter quarter where students will be asked to speak in front of paintings and prepare a meal of European specialties that we will eat at the museum.

Finally, a unique aspect of the course is that each class is required to participate in a yearlong student-led project. In past years that has generally been the creation of a New Yorker type magazine focused on some theme in European history. This year each class will be required to create a play in the form of an Enlightenment salon that will take place during one of three periods when ideas were transformative: the Enlightenment, the Renaissance or the 1960s. These plays will be performed sometime during the three- week period after the AP exam. You will film, script, and prepare sets, costumes, music and food for them. They may also include a Greek chorus that will comment on what is happening in the play, what has come before or what the future may hold.

AP EXAM

This course will help prepare you for the AP exam in European History that is given during the second week in May even though the focus of the course is not on this test. This examination has a multiple choice section, a document -based section, and an interpretive essay portion that has two sets of three essays where you are asked to write on one topic from each set. These topics are drawn from three broad themes for the period 1450 to the present around which the Development Committee of the AP European History Board now structures the exam. These themes are 1) political and diplomatic, 2) intellectual and cultural, 3) social and economic. Throughout the year you will be given objective tests and interpretative essays as well as a hefty review packet that will help you prepare for this exam. However, we are not going to rush through European history to cover everything that might be on the AP exam, nor will there be any formal review for it.

TEXTS FOR THE COURSE

We would like you to purchase from the school bookstore the two volumes of R. R. Palmer and Joel Colton’s A History of the Modern World (10th edition), two review texts for the AP entitled, Cracking the AP European History Exam (Princeton Review), and Modern European History by Birdsall S. Viault as well as Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday. If money is an issue, you need only purchase the first volume of Palmer and the Viault review text this quarter.

EVALUATIONS

TESTS AND PAPERS: There will be biweekly essay tests with some essays done outside of class and others on a test day. You will generally know the essay questions in advance. These evaluations will also include summations of art and music talks and a brief objective section. In addition, you will have a quarterly research paper of five to six pages.

TEACHER: Grades are a reflection of the standard of excellence that we set for BOTH student and teacher. Grading will be TOUGHER at the beginning of the year, especially on essays. We will also be more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt on your final grade than on your quarter grades. Further, we want to make very clear to you now that how well your assignments are written will be as important as their content when determining your grades.

In addition to your grades on biweekly essays and research papers, class participation will be a significant part of your grade. This will be particularly true when your discussion is original and when it displays evidence that you have read assigned work carefully. The final consideration that we use in determining grades is to check how many times you have been absent and LATE. we will keep a running record of both.

STUDENT: Throughout the year one of our rules will always be to keep our evaluation of your work private. We expect you to extend to us the same courtesy. We ENCOURAGE you to talk to us about your grades, how you think the course might be improved, or how a specific assignment might be changed. However, we would like you to do this in private and not in front of the class. We would also expect you to discuss any problems you are having with your teacher before you bring in a third party. We will extend to you the same courtesy.

HOW THE CLASS WILL BE CONDUCTED

Many classes will be conducted by a student facilitator while several other students will observe how well the facilitator runs the class. This is the Harkness Method that is practiced at Exeter. The seminar tables in the classroom are based on this method, although instead of having one large table, we have three smaller tables that have been made to accommodate larger groups and to increase the flexibility of the configurations we can have in the classroom. One observer will simply note interactions among the participants using a form that we will provide. The other observer will evaluate the quality of the discussions, again using a form that you will be given. The following criteria will serve as the basis for evaluation:

Evaluating the Facilitator:

1. Do you lead the discussion by asking thoughtful questions rather than lecturing on what is in the reading?
2. Are you capable of answering the questions that you ask and those that the students ask?
3. Do you involve most of the students in the class or just a few bright, eager ones?

Grading the Facilitator:

1. A “C” is a poor lecture.
2. A “B-” is a good lecture.
3. A “B” is good questions but no real command of the material.
4. A “B+” is good questions that you know the answers to, however, you have difficulty answering questions that students raise.
5. An “A” is good questions, good command of the material, and good board or screen work.

BOOKS AND NOTEBOOKS

One characteristic of most good students is their ability to assimilate, organize, and to be inquisitive about the material they read for the course. We wish to encourage these tendencies in all of you. Therefore, you are expected to bring book(s) we are studying and a European History notebook to class every day.

ATTACHMENTS TO THE SYLLABUS

You will find attached to this course introduction a Checklist for Essays and a document that describes the footnote and bibliography form that I want you to use. You must use footnotes and a bibliography with any work you do outside of class. You will be marked down a full grade if you do not.

MUSIC IN EUROPEAN HISTORY
(brief synopsis)

LECTURE ONE:
The Medieval Period (ca. 500 CE to ca. 1400)
Main Musical Ideas
o Gregorian Chant or Plainsong
o Beginnings of standardized notation
o Use of standardized and systematic pitches (solfege)
o Rhythmic Freedom
o Introduction of simple polyphony (organum) in the 12th century
o Almost all written music intended for use in worship

Important Names and Composers
o Guido de Arrezzo
o Hildegard of Bingen
o Leonin
o Perotin
o Guillaume de Machaut
o Guillaume Dufay

The Renaissance Period (ca. 1400 to 1600)
Main Musical Ideas
o Greater use of consonant intervals (3rds and 6ths)
o Increased use of imitative parts (parts “following” or imitating one another)
o More instrumental music, particularly brass and string instruments
o Music notation continues to develop
o Emergence of the madigral and the motet as musical forms
o The development of opera

Important Names and Composers
o Johannes Ockeghem
o Giovanni Palestrina
o Orlando de Lassus
o Giovanni Gabrieli
o John Dowlan
o Claudio Monteverdi

LECTURE TWO:

The Baroque Period (1600 to 1750)
Main Musical Ideas
o Use of figured bass
o Polyphony
o Harpsichord as one of the main instruments in use
o Pipe Organ
o Complex musical forms such as the fugue
o Importance of rhythms imported from the world of dance

Important Names and Composers
o Johann Sebastian Bach – one of the most important composers of all time
o George Frederic Handel
o Johann Pachelbel
o Arcangelo Corelli
o Antonio Vivaldi
o George Philip Telemann
LECTURE THREE:

The Classical Period (1750 to 1825)
Main Musical Ideas
o Homophony – one melody with an accompaniment
o The invention of the piano around the year 1700
o Development of the symphony orchestra as we know it
o Development of sonata form
o The invention of the string quartet
o The beginning of public concerts and ticket sales

Important Names and Composers
o Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
o Franz Joseph Haydn

The Romantic Period (1825 to 1900)
Main Musical Ideas
o Interest in nature as well as the supernatural
o Program music – music that tells a story
o Nationalism
o Musicians and composers as artists rather than craftsmen
o Expansion of musical forms
o The stretching of traditional harmonies
o Larger orchestras and choirs
o Increased technical demands on musicians
o The rise of the soloist

LECTURE FOUR:

Twentieth Century (and beyond) Music

Major Characteristics
1)    The abandonment (almost) of tonality
a.    Traditional major and minor harmonies had been stretched almost to the breaking point in the Romantic era. Many twentieth century composers stopped using major/minor harmony altogether
b.    The rise of atonal music. All twelve pitches of the chromatic scale are equally important.
c.    The rise of serial music, music in which all aspects -  pitch, melody, harmony, dynamics, etc., are predetermined by graphs and charts.
2)    The rise of new technology
a.    Electronic music.
b.    Use of pre-recorded electronic tapes either by themselves or in conjunction with live performers.
c.    Synthesizers.
d.    Most importantly – the rapid development of recording technology from early acetone and vinyl, to digital technology at the end of the century.
3)    New forms and types of musical ensembles
a.    Traditional orchestras still used, but with different combinations and numbers of instruments
b.    Smaller ensembles prevalent during and immediately after World War I.
Musical Characteristics
1)    Diversity is key. There is no single dominant school of composition during the century.
2)    Musical styles include:
a.    Impressionism
b.    Expressionism
c.    Serialism
d.    Neo-Classicism
e.    The New Romanticism
f.    Nationalism
g.    Minimalism
Major Composers
1)    Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – Impressionism
2)    Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1958) -  Serialism
3)    Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) – Perhaps the most important, and versatile, composer of the twentieth century
4)    Bela Bartok  (1883-1945) – Important Nationalistic composer
5)    Edgar Varese (1883-1965) – Used pre-recorded electronic sounds as well as a staggering amount of percussion instruments in his compositions.
6)    Anton Webern (1883-1945) – Student and follower of Arnold Schoenberg
7)    Alban Berg (1885-1935) – Student of Arnold Schoenberg who worked in what is called the Expressionist style, maximum impact with minimum amount of material
8)    Aaron Copland (1900-1990) – Great American composer, famous for his use of folk music in his compositions
9)    Elliott Carter (b. 1908) Famous for his dense, difficult music, and still going strong at age 100.
10)    Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) – Pioneer of electronic music
11)    Steve Reich (b. 1936) – Developer of Minimalist music
12)    John Adams (b. 1947) – American composer writing in a more accessible style.

ART LECTURES AND FIELD TRIPS TO THE ART INSTITUTE FOR THE YEAR BY QUARTER

THE CHANGING ROLE OF ART IN SOCIETY

FIRST QUARTER:

1. Monday, Sept. 21. The Renaissance (1400-mid 1500s): The Autonomy of Art and the Social Status of the Artist. Early Renaissance in Florence: Nature and Space; Humanism and Individualism; The High Renaissance. Artists: Bruneleschi, Ghiberti, Jan Van Eych, Durer, Boticelli, Da Vinci, Titan, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

2. Monday, Oct. 12. Mannerism and Baroque (1500s-1700): A reaction to the Renaissance. Political Realism, Roman Catholic Church, Academicism, Courtly Art, Protestant Bourgeois. Artists: Tintoretto, El Greco, Caaravaggio, A. Gentileschi, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin

.3. Monday, Oct. 26 (1700s). The project of the Enlightenment: a new Society and its Discontents. Rococo, Neo-Classical, Palace of Versailles, Revolutionary Classicism. Artists: Hograth, Watteau, Reynolds, Boucher, Vigee-Ligee-Lebrun, Fragornard, Goya and Jacques Louisie David.

4. Monday, November 16. Field Trip the Rare Book Room and the Art Institute.

SECOND QUARTER:

1. Tuesday, Jan. 19. The Origins of Modernism (1800-to mid 1800s). The emergence of the Bourgeois as the new art public. Romanticism, Realism, Nationalism, and History painting. Artists: Ingres, Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Goya, Delacroix, Courbet, and Manet

2. Monday, Feb. 1 The emergence of Photographyj, Modernist Architecture and Sculpture. Artists: Muybridge, J.M. Cameron, Atget, Rodchenko, Steiglitz, Sander, Rodin, Brancusi and Bauhaus.

3. Monday, Feb. 22. Field Trip to the Art Institue: Modernist Paintings: Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and beyond. Artists: Manet, Monet, Seurat, Klee, Picasso, Mondrian, Redon, Grant Wood, Hopper.

4. Monday, March 8. The Avant Grade and the Crisis of Modernism: Dada, Surrealism, Russian, Constructivism, Suprematism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.

THIRD QUARTER:

1. Monday, April 5. After Modern Art: Anti-Modernism and Post-Modernism (1960s until today). Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Feminism, Contemporary Painting and Photography. Artists: Stella, Judd, Agnes Martin, Serra & Nauman, Buren & Smithson, Bechers, Diane Arbus, Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, Gillian Wearing, Hanine Antoni, Gien Ligon and Felix Gonzaierz-Torres.

2. Monday, April 26. Review Session. Why is Art important today. Jeff Wail and ways of looking back through Art History.

SELECTED QUESTIONS, EVALUATIONS, AND SOURCES FOR ART LECTURES

Selected Questions: What is art? How has that definition changed from the Renaissance to the present? How do the major works of art reflect the time periods in which they were created? And what is the key vocabulary that you need to analyze and describe works of art?

Selected Evaluations: You will be required to write a summary of each of Laurie’s lectures on art and you will be given special assignments to do when you go to the Art Institute and the Rare Book Room at Regenstein. These latter assignments will require you to use a special visual language and involve comparative analysis of works of art. You will also be asked to do one DBQ during the year that will require you to explore linkages between a work of art and the period in which it was created. Finally, an art-related question based on Laurie’s talks will appear from time to time on your biweekly essay/multiple choice exams.

Selected Sources: Ways of Seeing, John Berger; Practices of Looking, Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright; Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self-Portraits, Frances Borzello; The Journal of Eugene Delacroix; The Painter of Modern Life, Charles Baudelaire; The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Ronald de Leeuw ed.; Noa Noa: The Tahiti Journal of Paul Gauguin, John Miller, ed.; Futurist Manifesto, F.T. Marinetti: Dada Manifesto, Tristan Tzara; Surrealist Manifesto, Andre Breton; Literature and Revolution, Leon Trotsky. Film: Un Chien Andalou by Luis Bunuel; Vincent, directed by Paul Cox; La Commune, directed by Peter Watkins.

PRINCIPAL HISTORY TOPICS OF THE YEAR BY QUARTER PLUS SELECTED QUESTIONS, EVALUATIONS, AND SOURCES

FIRST QUARTER:
1. The nature of Historical Understanding
2. The Twelfth Century Awakening and the Renaissance
3. The Reformation and Counter Reformation
4. Religious Conflict and the Commercial Revolution
5. The contrasting development of Western and Eastern Europe
6. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
7. The French Revolution and Napoleon

SECOND QUARTER:
1. Europe, 1815-1848: Revolution andCounterrevolution
2. Europe at the “Top of its Game”: the“Civilized World.”
3. Europe, 1848-1914: An Age ofContradiction: Progress and Breakdown
4. Modern Consciousness: New View of Nature, Human Nature and the Arts

5. World War I
6. The Russian Revolutions
7. Post war depression and other ills
8. The False Hope: the “Spirit of Locarno”
9. The Great Depression
10. The Decade of Appeasement

THIRD QUARTER:
1. World War II
2. Rescuers versus Obedience
3. Reconstruction and the Cold War
4. The difficult process of Decolonization
5. From Benelux to the European Union
6. Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
7. The Transformation of Communism: Deng versus Gorbachev and Yeltsin
8. Review for AP Exam
9. Finish reading Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday and prepare for the salons.

FIRST QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.

Selected Questions: How does William Manchester use the concepts of a catena and a kaleidoscope to create an idea of historical understanding? Was the Renaissance a distinct period? Did women have a Renaissance? Did women play a significant role in creating Renaissance culture? What distinctions can be made between virtue and virtu? What impact did Luther’s childhood have on his understanding of Christianity? What impact did the Reformation have on the emergence of Modernity? What role did religious toleration play in the emergence of the Dutch and Spanish nations? What is the Commercial Revolution and why is it so significant? Why ultimately was the Glorious Revolution’s brand of Parliamentary government more successful than Louis XIV’s Absolutism? What is the “problem of knowledge”? Why was its solution key to European progress and to the emergence of modernity? Why was it necessary for a new “space” to be created for the Enlightenment to succeed? Based on the Enlightenment, how dangerous are “reformers” to the established political order? How did the Enlightenment change the concept of human nature? Why is the idea of self-interest such a key concept of the Enlightenment? How was the idea of evil transformed by the Enlightenment? Who has a more accurate idea of Rousseau’s concept of the general will, Marvin Perry or Paul Johnson? What is a Marxist interpretation of the French Revolution? How is it accurate, how not? How does it contrast with the theory of the notables? Do you agree with Simon Schama that violence was the “motor of the Revolution”? How do you answer Marvin Perry’s question, Was Napoleon, “the preserver or destroyer of the Revolution?” Might the origins of political correctness be traced to the German reaction to Napoleon’s occupation?

Selected Evaluations: You will write a “chains of circumstance” research paper this quarter as a way of improving your idea of historical understanding. You can use as a model the four developments of the Kennedy Administration that William Manchester links together, i.e. the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy’s confrontation with Khrushchev in Vienna, the razing of the Berlin Wall, and the commitment of ground troops to Southeast Asia or Michael Rose handout about the British Empire. The paper will be due just before the Thanksgiving break, though, you will be asked to provide an opening paragraph that includes a robust thesis before then.  Your finished product should be five to six pages long, have footnotes and a bibliography, and you should use some primary sources. The key to a good paper will be a thesis that illustrates some original and surprising links among events in history that are backed up by solid evidence that you have discovered.  The topic of your paper should fall within the chronological limits from the beginning of our course (i.e. the Late Middle Ages) through the Scientific Revolution.  You will also have your biweekly evaluations that will include twenty multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions and two to three essay questions that we will decide on in advance of the test. You should make careful outlines of each of these questions. On one of these evaluations you will be asked to write a DBQ in addition to one other essay. Finally, as I suggested above, several of the essays during the course of the term may refer to material in the art lectures.

Selected Sources: A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester; Petrarch, The First Man of Modern Letters by Robinson; Renaissance and Renaissances by Edwin Panofsky; The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559, by Eugene F. Rice; The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt; The Prince and The Discourses by N. Machiavelli; Women, History, and Theory by Joan Kelly; “The Family in Renaissance Italy” by David Herlihy; In Praise of Folly by Erasmus; Christianity by Rolland Bainton; “On Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther; “The Price of Conversion”, Francisco de San Antonio and Mariana de los Reyes; “Fictions of Privacy: House Chapels and Spatial Accommodation of Religious Dissent in Early Modern Europe” by Benjamin J.Kaplan; The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir; Elizabeth I by Christopher Haigh; The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert; Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe by Geoffrey Scarre; On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres by N. Copernicus; Novum Organum by Francis Bacon; Principia Mathematica by Issac Newton; Intellectuals by Paul Johnson (the essay on Rousseau); The Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes; Two Treatises of Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke; The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations, ed. by Frank Kafker and James Laux; A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, ed. by Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf; Questions of the French Revolution by Jacques Sole; and Citizens by Simon Schama; Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind by J. G. Herder; “Addresses to the German Nation” by J.G. Fichte.

SECOND QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.

Selected questions: Was Romanticism a continuation or reaction to the Enlightenment? Why was the early nineteenth century an age of isms? Why did the Congress of Vienna ignore “the fundamental problem” of the nineteenth century? Why was the process of political reform more successful in England than on the Continent? Why did the revolts of 1848 spread so rapidly and end so quickly? Was the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly of great significance in European history? What were the consequences of the shift to a new “toughness of mind” or Realism at mid-century? Who has a better understanding of Marxism, Palmer or Paul Johnson in his essay, “ Karl Marx, ‘Howling Gigantic Curses.’”? What in your view was the most successful example of national consolidation in the latter part of the nineteenth century? The least successful? What did Europeans “lose” through the process of industrialization? What did European civilization look like in the latter part of the nineteenth century? Could the argument be made that European civilization was in fact a superior civilization, at least based on quantitative indices? How violent was the process of imperialism? Was it an inherently racist institution? What were its benefits? How is the imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries still shaping our world today? What distinctions does Marvin Perry make between Early Modernity (the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment) and Late Modernity (that begins with Romanticism)? Why did the forces of irrationalism, uncertainty and anomie grow stronger in the latter half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century? What catenas can you draw among the fields of philosophy, sociology, biology, psychiatry, art, politics, and science in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century? How does Freud change our conception of ourselves? What does Nietzsche mean when he says that, “God is Dead”? What does he mean when he writes that, “The you is older than the I”? Finally, what does Nietzsche suggest when he says, “Truths are illusions that we have forgotten are illusions”? Was World War I all but inevitable, as Palmer suggests, or do you agree with S. L. A. Marshall, that “But for the murder at Sarajevo there might never have been a war. Men can speculate to the contrary. They cannot know.”? What are the specific instances of failure of leadership that Gordon Craig cites in the “Political Leader as Strategist” that might lead one to conclude that World War I became a Late Modernity War? Were the treaties that ended the First World War “peace” treaties? Why might it be argued that the 1920s was among the cruelest and most deceptive of decades because of the false hopes that it engendered? Would Marx have been pleased with the Russian Revolution and its aftermath? How did the Great Depression increase our understanding of economics? Why is the 1930s known as the decade of appeasement?

Selected Evaluations: You will probably be asked to hand-in your first draft of the dialogues for the salon, and your initial background sketches and ideas for music, food and costumes by the chair of the salon. The key evaluation this quarter, other than the biweekly exams, is a research paper on Late Modernity. The evolution of the concept of Modernity as described by Marvin Perry in his text Western Civilizaiton is probably the most important intellectual idea in the course. In this paper, I want you to find linkages between at least two Late Modernity thinkers such as Freud and Nietzsche or Le Bon and Mussolini and develop a thesis based on these concatenations. Your paper should be based on primary sources and should be five to six pages long.

Selected Sources: The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx; “Karl Marx: Howling Gigantic Curses’” from Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals; “The Force of Circumstance” by Somerset Maugham; Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson; The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott; Sowing by Leonard Woolf; “Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, Human Nature, and the Arts” in Western Civilization by Marvin Perry et al.; Nietzsche and the Death of God,translated and edited by Peter Fritzsche; On the Origins of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. Or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin; Marx-Darwin correspondence 1861-73; Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg; Discussions with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics by Niels Bohr; The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon; Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle by Rosa Luxembourg; On Proletarian Culture by V.I. Lenin; Communist Policy Towards Art by Leon Trotsky; Art and Politics Are Inseparable; National Socialist Art both by Adolf Hitler; Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc by Arthur Miller; “’Decent’ vs. ‘Degenerate’ Art: The National Socialist Case” by Mary-Margaret Goggin; Freud-Einstein Correspondence, 1931-32; Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, 1915 by Sigmund Freud; Good and Evil; Fascism and Science; Why Do they Hate the Jews; The Religious Spirit of Science all by Albert Einstein; World War I by S.L.A. Marshall; “The Big One” by Adam Gopnik; Makers of Modern; Strategy: from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, edited by Peter Paret.

THIRD QUARTER: Selected questions, evaluations, and sources.

Selected Questions: What were the causes of World War II? Did Fascism capture as much of the human condition as Adam Smith did through his concept of self-interest? How credible is the German defense that they were just following orders when confronted with the Holocaust? Who were the rescuers? Did they share a set of common characteristics that might be described as human goodness? What is existentialism? How is it related to World War II? What were the arguments pro and con for dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan? The second atomic bomb? How successful were the various peace conferences associated with World War II? What were the origins of the European Union in the aftermath of World War II? If you looked at the evolution of what has now become the European Union at any particular moment in time, how successful an organization would you say it has become? If you looked at this same organization from the larger perspective of European history, would you have a different assessment? How successful have the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund been over time? Henry Kissinger often argued that the United States never really conducted its foreign policy through any kind of conceptual framework; does the Truman Doctrine or policy of containment belie that view? Could the Vietnam War be viewed as a failure in an overall successful policy of containing communism? How realistic was the optimism surrounding independence in the newly freed colonies? Could it be argued that formerly colonial universities made the transition to independence more successfully than the political or economic systems of these countries? What is the state of many of these universities today? How did the stagflation of the 1970s change our understanding of economics? What is your assessment of Reagan’s supply side economics? Why was Eastern Europe freed so suddenly? Why did the Soviet Union collapse so suddenly? Why was the problem of apartheid in South Africa resolved so quickly? What role did leadership play in these events? Other causes? Compare the leadership of Gorbachev/Yeltsin with Deng? Was Deng right to confront the students at Tiananmen Square?

Selected Evaluations: We will continue to have our biweekly tests to help prepare you for the AP exam. You will also be asked to write a short piece of historical fiction. In this assignment, I would like you to get the broad historical facts right—that is have some evidence for them. However, you may make up dialogue among historical figures and even create minor figures out of whole cloth. This work should again be about five to six pages long; I want to see a draft with footnotes and a bibliography to make sure your work is well-grounded.

Selected Sources: Article in Italian Encyclopedia by Benito Mussolini on Fascism; The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir; The Rescuers by Gay Block and Malka Drucker; the film, Obedience as well as the interview with Stanley Milgram; Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, by Margot Strom and William Parsons; “Why Men Love War” by William Broyles; The Community of Europe: a history of European Integreation since 1945 by Derek W. Urwin; The Cold War: 1945-1963 by Michael Dockrill; Mr. Johnson by Joyce Carey; Women in European History by Gisela Bok; Becoming Visible: Women in European History ed. by Bridenthal, Koonz, and Stuard; Russia and the West: Gorbachev and the Politics of Reform by Jerry Hough; and The Grand Failure: the Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century by Zbigniew Brzezinski.

BIWEEKLY WORK HANDOUT

Every other Monday we will give you a copy of the assignments for the next two weeks (though the first handout will cover four weeks). A copy of the biweekly work will be posted on the bulletin board in the front of the room. You are RESPONSIBLE for this work. If you are not in class on Monday, please check with a friend to find out Tuesday’s assignment.

KEY DATES:

1. On Monday, Sept. 21, Laurie Rojas will talk about the autonomy of art and the social status of the artist in the Renaissance.

2. On Monday, October 5, you will have an in-class test on the Renaissance. The test will have three essays and a multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank section. You will be expected to complete the objective section and write on TWO of the three essays for which you have prepared. You will NOT have a choice of the two essays.

WORK FOR THE WEEKS OF SEPTEMBER 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2009

EYE-OPENER FOR THE MONTH: Petrarch showed his time its future self. Bolgar

The week of September 7

CLASS ONE: The course introduction will be handed out and we will discuss the Exeter Harkness method that will often be used in this class. Ms. Martonffy and I will lead tomorrow’s discussion to show you how it works, and then we will expect students to fulfill the roles of discussion leader and observers. We will also be available if the student leader /facilitator wishes to meet with us before the discussion. HOMEWORK: Read the course syllabus, the author’s note in the Manchester reading (very important), and the Rice handout.

CLASS TWO: We will go over the course introduction and then Ms. Martonffy and I will lead discussions on the homework. We will focus on the nature of historical understanding, paying particular attention to the ideas of catena, kaleidoscope, and periodization. HOMEWORK: Please read pages 3-28 in the Manchester handout.

CLASS THREE: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. Are your ideas of catena, kaleidoscope, and periodization influenced by this reading? HOMEWORK: Please read pages 49-69 in A History of the Modern World to 1815.

The week of September 14

CLASS FIVE: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. HOMEWORK: Please read the handout, The Family in Renaissance Italy by David Herlihy.

CLASS SIX: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. HOMEWORK: Please read Women in the Renaissance by Carole Levin.

CLASS SEVEN: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. We will focus on the key question that Herlihy and Levin address: What role did women play in the Renassiance? HOMEWORK: Please read the handout on Machiavelli, it is chapters 15-19 in The Prince for Tuesday.

CLASS EIGHT: We will spend the day going over the Salon Project and selecting officers for it.

The week of September 21

CLASS NINE: The first art lecture by Laurie Rojas entitled “The Renaissance: The Autonomy of Art and the Social Status of the Artist.”

CLASS TEN: A facilitator will lead a discussion on Machiavelli and his analysis of human nature and the role of evidence in his conclusions. HOMEWORK: Please read the handout on Renaissance art from Perry and summarize Laurie’s talk for next Tuesday in three or four typed pages. Use footnotes if you use outside sources.

CLASS ELEVEN: SOPHOMORE RETREAT.

CLASS TWELVE: SOPHOMORE RETREAT.

The week of September 28

CLASS THIRTEEN: We will discuss Laurie’s talk and the reading. HOMEWORK: Finish the Manchester handout, p. 76-the top of 88, and read pages 69-77 in Palmer.

CLASS FOURTEEN: A facilitator will lead a discussion on the reading. HOMEWORK: We will assign a student to outline and facilitate a discussion on the question of catenas, kaleidoscopes and periodization in your understanding of Medieval and Renaissance cultures.

CLASS FIFTEEN: A student facilitator will lead a discussion on the first exam question. HOMEWORK: We will assign two facilitators, each of whom will outline one of the following two questions: 1. What role did women play in the Renaissance, and 2. What is Machiavelli’s view of human nature and what role did evidence play in its creation?

CLASS SIXTEEN: The two facilitators will review the two test questions with the class. HOMEWORK: Prepare for the RENAISSANCE TEST on Monday. You will be expected to complete a brief objective section and write on TWO of the three questions that we have discussed. You will not have a choice of which two questions are chosen.

Posted on August 26th, 2009 by cjanus
Filed under: Course Syllabus | No Comments »

You may find the power point show for Romanticism lecture if you follow this link.

Next time, I will meet you at the Art Institute of Chicago. We will begin with Manet and take a look at the newly installed Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries. General Admission is free in the month of February so we should meet in the font/main entrance.

I would like to add that there will be an Edvard Munch exhibition up when we get there. This exhibition is not free, but I recommend you try to get tickets beforehand to see it (I know some of you likely to have membership so bring your card). You only get an opportunity like this once in your life. Major single artist retrospective exhibitions are becoming harder to organize because of the delicate nature (and high price value) of the work. Basically, museums are getting stingy about loaning their precious works.

See you on the 19th!

Laurie

Posted on February 6th, 2009 by Ms. Laurie Rojas
Filed under: Art History | No Comments »

 Hello everybody,

I seriously recommend spending some time browsing the following links, make sure to bookmark them:

General Art references:

http://www.smarthistory.org/blog/

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm 

http://www.wga.hu/index1.html

Rembrandt: http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/

Vermeer: http://www.essentialvermeer.com/ 

Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors: http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen7/f30-versailles.html

enjoy learning!

Posted on November 4th, 2008 by Ms. Laurie Rojas
Filed under: Art History | No Comments »