Hist20thcent

History 394. Twentieth-Century Europe
Fall 2009
Dr. Thomas J. Schaeper

General Goals and Objectives of the Course

Students should benefit from this course in many ways. For example, they will gain much practice in reading, analyzing information, and writing. These are skills that are practical--that is, they will be necessary for success in a wide variety of professional careers. Students will also learn much about the development of western civilization. They will learn how people and countries in the western world came to be how they are today. Such information can not only be interesting but also useful, for one can understand a person or a society only by knowing its past. Students will learn many things that will help them (as human beings, as citizens, or as business and political leaders) to react more wisely to present-day problems. Every issue that confronts us today has also confronted people in the past. Thus one can learn lessons for today's world by seeing how persons in the past handled similar situations. Examples include the following: What makes a person or a country "great"? What conditions usually contribute to tolerance or intolerance (in race, in religion, etc.)? What sorts of factors often lead to wars or help to preserve peace? What are the advantages or disadvantages of different kinds of governments? What factors tend to be good or bad for social justice and economic prosperity? What factors have led the "West" to be disliked or even hated by many people in the "rest" of the world?

What Will Be Expected from Students

You should prepare yourself for each class by reading the assignments as noted in this syllabus or as indicated in class.  Each week's class will consist of at least some discussion, and each student will be expected to participate. Feel free to ask questions and to voice your thoughts concerning matters being discussed.
            During the course of the semester you will see at least a couple of films (in part or in entirety) plus numerous illustrations. Students should pay as much attention to the movies and illustrations as they do to the lectures and discussions.
            All students are required to have SBU computer network accounts. Roughly once each week I will send an email to all students in the class. I will send these messages to your sbu.edu addresses.
        The Internet will also be featured in this course in other ways. Nearly every week you will be asked to read materials on the Internet. To read these materials you will have to go to the syllabus for this course that is listed on my homepage: http://web.sbu.edu/history/tschaeper). Nearly every week I will ask you to read short documents. You will be able to find these materials only by clicking on the relevant links on the online version of the syllabus.
            There will be one midterm examination and a two-hour final examination. These examinations will consist of essay questions and short answer questions (identifications, multiple choice, true/false). The final examination will be comprehensive--that is, it will cover material going back to the beginning of the semester.
            My basic advice regarding class attendance is simple: Don't miss any classes. You will be penalized if you miss more than one class during the semester.
            Any types of cheating or plagiarism will be punished severely, certainly with a failing grade for a particular paper or exam and possibly with a failing grade for the entire course. For more discussion of plagiarism, consult the student handbook and History Department online writing guide:  http://web.sbu.edu/history/guide/intro.html . Reading an Internet summary of a book and then paraphrasing that source rather than reading the book and writing your own paper is plagiarism.

Course Readings:

Richards and Waibel, Twentieth-Century Europe
Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

Grading and Important Dates

Your final grade will be based (approximately) on the following:
                        Midterm exam               20 %,   Wednesday, 14 October
                        Class participation         25%
                        Oral presentation           15%
                        Book Critique               15%     Two copies due on 9 December
                        Final Examination         25%   8:00 am, Thursday, 17 December, in our regular classroom

Disabilities
Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Services Office, Doyle room 26, at 375-2065 as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Contacting Dr. Schaeper

My office is on the first floor of Doyle Hall, number 131. My office hours are:
Tues & Thurs 4:00-4:30
Wed 1:00-3:00
I will be in my office at other times, but the hours listed above are especially the ones in which I will make an effort to be available to students. If you cannot see me during those hours, just let me know and we can arrange another time for an appointment.

If you need to contact me, you can do so in three other ways also:
            a) leave a message on my door
            b) phone 375-2123. Leave a message if I am not there.
            c) email: tschaepe@sbu.edu

Book Critique and Oral Presentation

As early as possible, each student must select one book to read. This can be a book checked out of the library or a book that the student purchases. This non-fiction book must concern some aspect of European history in the twentieth century. The book must contain a minimum of 275 pages. You must get your book approved by Dr. Schaeper no later than 23 September. If you do not have a book approved by class time on that day, he will assign a book to you. Your book critique should be double-spaced, in 12 point type, and approximately 1500 words long. It should consist of your own summary and analysis of the book. What main points does the author make? Evaluate the author's style, organization, logic, research. Does the author claim to be giving a new interpretation or new information? Does he/she differ from other historians? In your discussion of the book, you should mention how at least two professional reviewers evaluated the book. Moreover, how does this book's treatment of the topic relate to things you have read for this class or to things that have been said in class?

The book that a student chooses could be about almost any sort of topic that interests the student: war, religion, art, literature, gender issues, biography, revolutions, economic developments, diplomacy, music, science. This is just a brief overview of some possibilities: World War I or II, Great Depression, Spanish Civil War, Surrealist art, the Communist Revolution of 1917, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hitler's Third Reich, the Cold War, European women in the 20th century, the movement toward European union. Or perhaps a student would prefer to study topics like these through the life of one individual. In that case, one could read a biography of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Charles de Gaulle, Margaret Thatcher, Eamon de Valera, Pablo Picasso, George Orwell, Queen Elizabeth II, Virginia Woolf, Georges Clemenceau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, George Bernard Shaw, and so on.

Each student will also give a 25 minute PowerPoint presentation. This oral report should be about the same topic as the book chosen by the student. However, the presentation will not be the same at the book critique. The presentation will be more general. It will discuss the topic in general, pointing how occasionally how this particular book treated the topic.

More will be said about the book critique and the oral presentation over the coming weeks.