Course Description
An exploration of the role of nuclear energy and weapons in the history of the twentieth century, from the humble origins of the science of radioactivity and atomic nucleus, through the drama of World War II's race for the atomic bomb, to the nuclear-centered world politics and diplomacy of the Cold War.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be required to read additional materials
and write longer and more substantial essays than will be
required of undergraduate students. Additional readings will
include important comparative and theoretical studies. Essays
will include examinations of primary source material as well as
extensive reviews of existing historiography on specific topics.
Graduate students will be held to a much higher standard of
discussion, research, and writing, and will be graded
accordingly.
Athena Title
DEMOCRACY MOD EUR
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
The course will begin with a general discussion of democracy, the meaning and history of the term, from ancient Greece to the present day. Then the course will proceed chronologically through a series of case studies pertaining to major transformations in modern European history: first, popular and government responses to the rise of industrial capitalism both in England and in the British colony of Jamaica; second, the role of popular participation in the French Revolution; third, the mobilization of the masses in the nationalist movements of nineteenth-century Italy and Germany; fourth, the rise of socialist and communist movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; fifth, the impact of mass media on political practices in liberal-democratic, communist, and fascist governments during the first half of the twentieth century; sixth, the challenge of promoting democracy in post-fascist and post-communist societies after 1945. The class will end with a reexamination of our first assignment: how best to define democracy, this time in light of the readings we have done all semester in modern European history.
Syllabus