Making of Modern Society

HSS3I and HSS3K: THE MAKING OF MODERN SOCIETY Proenza

Email: CProenza@aol.com Office Hours: by appointment only

READINGS
1) The textbooks required for this course are available at Shakespeare & Company:
--Perry et al. Western Civilization, Volume II, 6th edition.
--Weber, Eugen, ed. The Western Tradition,Volume II, 5th edition
The following texts are also required reading:
--Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.
--Freud, Sigmund. Civilization & Its Discontents.
--Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz.
2) A xerox packet of required & recommended readings is available at Untouchable Copy Shop, 66 Bleecker Street (between Broadway and Layfayette).
3) Other readings are available at the Cooper Library Website: http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/library/library.html and/or are linked to this page.

ALL WEB READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS ARE AVAILABLE HERE.

ASSIGNMENTS
1) A common in-lecture final exam based on the Monday lectures and related reading (Dec 16).
2) Three short review tests on material in Perry during weeks 5, 10 & 15. (Oct 2/3, Nov 6/7, Dec 11/12).
3) Three short written assignments: Causes & consequences of the French Revolution (Sep 25/26); Nationalism (Oct 23/24); Critical analysis of Conrad & Freud (Nov 20/21).
Suggested essay questions, guidelines, and requirements provided below.

REQUIREMENTS
In addition to the readings and assignments described above, prompt and regular ATTENDANCE and active PARTICIPATION in class discussion are required and criteria for the course grade. Failure to attend class prepared and failture to particpate in class discussion will lower the final course grade.

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE AND REVIEW OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Tues Sep 3: Intro & Review of the Elightenment

Wed Sep 4/Thurs Sep 5: Introduction

WEEK 2: THE LEGACY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Mon Sep 9:
--Robespierre. "On the Principles of Political Morality," 1794.http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1794robespierre.htmll
--Chronology of French Revolution, Handout
--Constant, Benjamin. "The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns,"1816.Cooper web
--Sieyes, Abbe. "What is the Third Estate," "Decree Abolishing the Feudal System." Weber 288-294 or Cooper web

Wed Sep11/Thurs Sep 12:
--Perry 464-489
--"Social Causes of the French Revolution." http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap1a.html
-- "Women and the Revolution" http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap5a.html
--Darton, Robert. "What Was So Revolutionary about the French Revolution?" The French Revolution in Social & Political Perspective. 18-29
--Bender, Thomas. "The Age of Revolution: Founding Fathers Dreamed of Uprisings, Except in Haiti." Times, 7/1/01.
Recommended:
--Skocpol, Theda. "Reconsidering the French Revolution in World Historical Perspective." Social Research, 5:61 1989. 52-70.

WEEK 3: NAPOLEON ESSAY on CAUSES and CONSEQUENCES of the FRENCH REVOLUTION
Mon Sep 16:
-- Valiunas, Algis. "The Ashes of Napoleon." Cooper web
--Napoleon. "Note Dictated to Lucien Bonaparte." 1799 Cooper web

Wed Sep 18/Thur Sep 19:
--Perry 491-508
--"The Napoleonic Experience." http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap9a.html
--Aretz, Gertrude. "Madame de Stael." Napoleon & His Women Friends. 317-327
--Harold, Christopher. "Ideology." Mistress to an Age: The Life of Madame de Stael. 187-211
Recommended:
--Orr, Linda. "Outspoken Women & the Rightful Daughters of the Revolution: Madam de Stael’s Conderations sur la Revolution Francaise." Rebel Daughters: Women & the French Revolution.

WEEK 4: ROMANTICISM & CONSERVATISM
Mon Sep 23:
--Prince Klemens von Metternich."Political Confession of Faith, 1820": http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1820metternich.html
--Schiller, Friedrich. "Philosophy of Physiology." http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_97-01/fid_983_schill_trns.html or Cooper web

Wed Sep 25/Thur Sep 26:
--Perry 532-546
--Williams, Raymond. Culture & Society. xiii-48
Recommended:
--Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the French Revolution." Weber 310-319
--Stael, Madame de. "Romanticism." Weber 338-340

WEEK 5: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Mon Sep 30:
--Engels, Friedrich. "The Condition of the English Working Class." Cooper web
--Marx, Karl. Preface to "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy." Cooper web
--Hobsbawm and Hartwell. "Exchange on the Standard of Living Debate." Cooper web

Wed Oct 2/Thurs Oct 3: PERRY TEST
--Perry 510-530
--Bell, David. "Rewriting History:" New York Times, 7/1/01.
--Thompson, EP. Making of the English Working Class. 9-14, 189-212
Recommended:
--Joan Scott & Louise Tilly. "Women's Work & the Family in 19th Century Europe." Comparative Studies in Society & History 17 (Jan 1975). 36-64

WEEK 6: NATIONALISM AND LIBERALISM
Mon Oct 7:
--Mazzini, Joseph. "Conversion to Nationalism," "On the Duties of Man." Weber 389-394 or Cooper web
--Herder, Johann. "Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind." Cooper web
--Mill, John Stewart. "On Liberty." Weber 364-370 or Cooper web

Wed Oct 9/Thur Oct 10:
--Perry 546-560
--Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections upon the Origin & Spread of Nationalism. 1-46
Recommended:
--Wrigley, Julia. Review of For Home, Country, and Race: Constructing Gender, Class, and Englishness in the Elementary School, 1880–1914 by Stephen Heathorn. in American Historical Review Vol. 107 No. 2 April 2002.

WEEK 7: 1848: THE HINGE YEAR OF THE 19th CENTURY
Mon Oct 14: NO LECTURE
--Tocqueville, Alexis de. "Reflections." Weber 403-409 or Cooper web

Tues Oct 16/Wed Oct 17:
--Perry 562-583.
--Robertson, Pricilla. Revolutions of 1848: A Social History. vii-8, 405-419
--Marx, Karl & F. Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." Weber 413-434
Recommended:
--Price, Roger. The Revolutions of 1848. 1-32, 95-100

WEEK 8: THE NEW NATIONS ESSAY on NATIONALISM
Mon Oct 21:
--Treitschke, Heinrich von. "Politics." Cooper web
--Renan, Ernst. "What is a Nation?" Cooper web
--Bismark, Otto von. Selections. Weber 478-483 or Cooper web

Wed Oct 23/Thurs Oct 24:
--Perry 612-636
--Hobsbawm, E. & T. Ranger, eds. The Invention of Tradition. 1-14, 263-307
Recommended:
--Kates, Gary. "Jews into Frenchmen: Nationality & Representation in Revolutionary France." Social Research, 5:61 1989. 213-232.
--Mitchell, Alan. "Bonapartism as a Model for Bismarkian Politics." Journal of Modern History 49:2 1977, 181-202

WEEK 9: IMPERIALISMS
Mon Oct 28:
--Fabri, Friedrich "Does Germany Need Colonies?" Cooper Web

Wed 30/Thur Oct 31:
--Perry 668-694
--Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness.
--Lyall, Sarah. Review of Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire by David Cannadine, New York Times, August 25, 2001.
--Kipling, Rudyard. "The White Man’s Burden." Weber 520-522
Recommended:
--Morel. "The Black Man’s Burden." Cooper web

WEEK 10: FREUD
Mon Nov 4:
--Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Cooper Web

Wed Nov 6/Thur Nov 7: PERRY TEST
--Perry 696-725
--Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents.

WEEK 11: WORLD WAR I
Mon Nov 11:
--Wilson, Wilson. "Fouteen Points," "Treaty of Versailles." Weber 534-539 or Cooper Web
--Valery, Paul. "Extraneous Remarks." Weber 549-551 or Cooper Web

Wed Nov 13/Thur Nov 14:
--Perry 729-764
--Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of Extremes. 21-53
--Frantz, Douglas. "Unofficial Commission Acts to Ease Turkish-Armenian Enmity." NY Times 7/10/01.
Recommended:
--Ross, Ellen. Review of Making Peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain by Susan Kent. Journal of Social History Summer 1995.

WEEK 12: MASS SOCIETY AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Mon Nov 18:
--Ortega y Gasset. "The Self-Satsified Age" from The Revolt of the Masses. Cooper Web
--Russian Revolution reading TBA

Wed Nov 20/Thur Nov 21: CONRAD/FREUD ESSAY
--Perry 809-834
--Simmel, Georg. "The Metropolis & Mental Life."
--Tzara, Tristan. "Dada Manifesto 1918."
--Marianetti. "The Founding and the Manifesto of Futurism."
--Breton, Andre. "Manifesto of Surrealism."
Recommended:
--Benjamin, Walter. "Theses on the Philosophy of History." 253-264

WEEK 13: RISE OF FASCISM & THE HOLOCAUST
Mon Nov 21:
--Mussolini, Benito. "The Politcal and Social Doctrine of Fascism." Weber 586-593 or Cooper Web
--Hitler, Adolph. Mein Kampf selection. Weber 597-601or Cooper Web

Weds Nov 27/Thur Nov 28: no class
--Perry. 766-806
--Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz.

WEEK 14: POST WAR DEVELOPMENTS
Mon Dec 2:
--"Introduction" to the Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Cooper Web

Wed Dec 4/Thurd Dec 5:
--Perry 836-863
--Review of 'By Order of the President': Under Suspicion By ALONZO L. HAMBY

-- Cohen, Roger. "Schröder, Like Germany, Looking Harder at the Past." New York Times 7/2/01
-- Fisher, Ian. "Polish Leader Asks Jews for Forgiveness." New York Times 7/11/01
Recommended
--Furet, Francois. The Passing of an Illusion. Preface & Epilogue. Cooper web

WEEK 15: THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
Mon Dec 9:
--Ajami, Fouad. "The Sentry’s Solitiude" Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2001. Cooper web

Wed Dec 11/Thur Dec 12: PERRY TEST
--Perry 867-886
--Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Extremes. 199-222, 558-585
--Nkrumah, Kwame. "I Speak of Freedom." Cooper Web

WEEK 16: FINAL EXAM
Mon Dec 16:
--Final Exam