Fall, 1995

Mr. Kern

Office: Tamarack F14

Hours: T,Th 9-10 am

2:15-5 pm

Phone: 980-6658

E-mail: pkern@iun.edu
 

Required books: Robert Gildea, Barricades and Borders, Europe 1800-1914; E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class; Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851; Christopher Hibbert, Garibaldi and his Enemies.
 

Course requirements: Students will write two short papers (five pages each) on Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, and a ten page paper on a primary source of their choosing. There will be a mid-term exam and a final. The two Thompson papers will count 25%, the ten-page paper 25%, and each exam 25% toward the course grade.
 

Themes: Curiously, I decided to teach this course as I pondered the collapse of the Soviet Union. That collapse discredited not only the Russian Revolution, but the very idea of revolution itself. Revolution was essentially a nineteenth century idea. Therefore I decided to return to the nineteenth century to study the roots of revolution, the development of a revolutionary tradition, the aspirations of revolutionaries, and the weaknesses of revolutionary ideals. We will begin with the French Revolution, which set the pattern of modern European revolutions, and then follow the revolutionary tradition through the revolutions of 1830, 1848, and the Paris Commune of 1870-71. Nationalism played an important role, especially in 1848, and that will be another theme of the course. The creation of national states in Italy and Germany will loom large in this regard. The most profound revolution of the nineteenth century, however, was the industrial revolution and its impact on European society will be another major theme of the course.
 

Reading schedule:
 

August 29-31 Thompson, pp. 9-14; Gildea, pp. 3-34
 

September 5-7 Thompson, pp. 7-212
 

September 12-14 Thompson, pp. 213-400
 

FIRST THOMPSON PAPER DUE SEPTEMBER 19
 

September 19-21 Thompson, pp. 401-602
 

September 26-28 Thompson, pp. 603-832
 

SECOND THOMPSON PAPER DUE OCTOBER 3
 

October 3-5 Gildea, pp. 35-138
 

October 10-12 Sperber, pp. 1-147
 

October 17-19 Sperber, pp. 148-259
 

FIRST TEST OCTOBER 26
 

October 31-November 2 Gildea, pp. 141-273
 

November 7-9 Hibbert
 

November 14-16 Hibbert
 

November 21-Thanksgiving no reading
 

TERM PAPER DUE NOVEMBER 28
 

November 28-30 Gildea, pp. 277-372
 

December 5-7 Gildea, pp. 373-426
 

FINAL EXAM DECEMBER 12
 
 

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