Global History Since 1914

Core 191

Scarboro / Fall 2017 

“Living Room – Corner for Relaxation” from the Domestic Encyclopedia:

 Book for Every Home and Every Day, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1977.

 

Section

A: MWF 9:00    (Hafey-Marian 303)

B: MWF 10:00  (Hafey-Marian 303)

C: MWF 11:00  (Hafey-Marian 303)

Office

Hafey-Marian 306

E-mail         

cristoferscarboro@kings.edu

Website         

http://staff.kings.edu/cristoferscarboro

Phone          

(570) 208-5900 ext. 5637

Office Hours 

TTh 9:30-12:00

Moodle Site

http://kings.mrooms2.net/course/view.php?id=3

    

 

 I.  Course Description: 

This course is intended as an introduction to the major political, social and cultural developments of the 20th Century.  As a starting point we will investigate the Twentieth Century as a period of “high modernity,” when regimes throughout the world sought to create and perfect particular types of subject-citizens within competing universalizing ideological understandings of the “good society”: Liberal Democratic Capitalism, Nationalism, Communism, and Colonialism first among them. Our discussion of the last century will focus on the manner in which societies sought to order, control and transform the world, communities and individuals around them according to their own understanding of the correct relationship between people, the state, and ideology. 

 

II. Mission:

Courses in the Contemporary Global Studies (CGS) CART promote critical analysis and engagement with the complex, wide-ranging global issues in the world today. These issues, explored in meaningful ways through a variety of disciplines, emphasize interdependent global systems (historical, economic, geographic, and political) as well issues related to human rights and social justice, and the impact of global business. Important goals in King's mission statement include fostering social responsibility in our students and preparing them intellectually to lead satisfying lives. King’s believes that these goals, when recognized in a global context, enhance a students’ sense of identity, community, and citizenship.

The Learning Outcomes in the Contemporary Global Studies CART align broadly with the overarching King’s College CORE curriculum goal to make students aware of global issues and to give them knowledge of foreign cultures. 

 

        Goal 1: Identify the interconnected nature of global systems.  Students completing a CGS course will develop a complex understanding of the relational nature of global systems, which should include 1) an understanding of contemporary globalization as a product of long-term historical processes and 2) the ability to situate ongoing global interrelationships within both local and worldwide frameworks and from the vantage point of different disciplinary perspectives.

 

        Goal 2: Recognize and understand cultural diversity in a global context.  Students completing a CGS course will gain the ability to engage and learn from perspectives and experiences different from one’s own and to understand how one’s place in the world both informs and limits one’s knowledge.  This includes the curiosity to learn respectfully about the cultural diversity of other people and on an individual level to traverse cultural boundaries.

 

        Goal 3: Apply disciplinary knowledge and methodology to understand contemporary global issues.  Students completing a CGS course will identify and analyze significant global challenges as they relate to the continuing issues of contemporary life using disciplinary-specific knowledge and methodologies in various social sciences (currently, history, geography, and international business).  This kind of learning prepares students to think creatively in one’s capacity to articulate and employ existing ideas or expertise according to social scientific disciplinary standards and practices.

III. General Course Requirements:

A. Course Readings:

 

Buruma, Ian, Inventing Japan: 1853-1964, Modern Library Classics, 2004.

 

Césaire, Aimé, Discourse on Colonialism, Monthly Review Press, 2001.

 

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, Between the World and Me, Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

  

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby, Scribner, 2004.

 

Hobsbawm, Eric, The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991, Vintage Books, 1996.

 

Satrapi, Marjane, The Complete Persepolis, Pantheon, 2007.

  

B.  Course Films:

The films for the course are an intrinsic part of the course--they will be the centerpiece of class discussion on the week they are shown, and viewing them is a requirement for the course.   The films will be available on reserve at the King's College Library. A subscription to Netflix <<www.netflix.com>> (shared or otherwise) is an inexpensive way to watch the films on your own time.  

  

Chaplin, Charlie, Modern Times, 1936.

 

Coppola, Francis Ford, Apocalypse Now, 1979.   

 

C. Written Assignments

1. Primary Source Analysis: Film due September 29th                                            (4-5 pages)

On September 29th you will historically contextualize three films used as primary sources.  This will require you to place the films in dialogue with one another, analyze how they are asking similar questions (if coming to different answers), and articulating their theses. Your analysis should make use of the Hobsbawm text (and potentially additional texts) in order to situate the films, and their themes, historically.

 

Films (all on reserve at the King’s College Library):

Ernst D. Schoedsack, King Kong, 1933

Chaplin, Charlie, Modern Times, 1936

Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1929

 

Your analysis will need to be turned in both on the turnitin link on the course moodle site and in paper form in class.

 

2. Primary Source Analysis:  Essays due November 27th                                         (4-5 pages)

On November 27th you will historically contextualize three essays used as primary sources.  This will require you to place the films in dialogue with one another, analyze how they are asking similar questions (if coming to different answers), and articulating their theses.  Your analysis should make use of the Hobsbawm text (and potentially additional texts) in order to situate the essays, and their themes, historically.

 

Essays (all found on the Course Moodle Site)

Milan Kundera, “The Tragedy of Central Europe,” 1984

Andrei Sakharov, “Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom,” 1968

Aleksadr Solzhenitsyn, “Address at Harvard University,” 1978

 

Your analysis will need to be turned in both on the turnitin link on the course moodle site and in paper form in class.

 

3. Reflection Assignment:                                                                 (1-2 pages)

To start the semester, you will be asked to reflect on the meaning of several terms that we will be using this semester: modernity, ideology and the good society.  You will not need to research the terms, this is an exercise geared to gauging how you understand these terms and their usage.  At the end of the semester you will be asked to write a short reflection on what you have learned this semester, how you experience the question of modernity, and the good society.

 

Your reflection will need to be turned in both on the turnitin link on the course moodle site and in paper form in class.

 

D. Exams:

There will be three exams in this class: two midterms: the first due on October 4th at 11:59 p.m.; the second due November 10th at 11:59 p.m.; and a final given during finals week.  All exams will be taken on the course moodle site.  The exams will cover material from class lectures, readings and discussions. 

 

The exams will consist of four parts: 1) questions from the syllabus dealing with lectures covered during the course of class meetings (these are listed on the syllabus and will be randomly chosen for the exam) 2) questions from the syllabus dealing with readings covered during the course of class meetings (these are listed on the syllabus and will be randomly chosen for the exam), 3) source interpretation—you will be asked to interpret (place in time and assign a historical meaning to) a source (written or visual) that we have discussed in class, and 4) questions pertaining to your primary sources used in your essays. 

 

E. Source Quizzes

Five times over the course of the semester you will have to interpret a primary source connected to a course discussion or lecture in a one page analysis.  The due dates for these quizzes are as follows—all quizzes are due on the date assigned by 11:59 p.m.:

 

Source

Date

Gandhi, “Civilization” from Hind Swaraj, 1909

September 13th

Aleksandur Deineka, Stakhanov Workers, 1937 (word moodle site)

October 9th

“Journey to Bananaland,” 1950

October 25th

Amilcar Cabral, “National Liberation and Culture,” 1974

November 1st

Bulgarian Domestic Encyclopedias c. 1970 (powerpoint moodle site)

November 15th

 

F.  Class Discussion and Participation

As well as providing you with the methodological and analytical tools for engaging in historical thinking, this class will ask you to actively take part in a larger conversation of historical issues within the class.  I expect this class to allow us to delve deeply into the historical topics of each week’s readings.  To that end you need to make sure that you arrive to class on time ready to discuss the weekly readings, having carefully read and thought over the material.  You must take an active role in the class discussions.  Thus a portion of your grade will depend on your in-class performance and presence. 

 

In a class of this nature it goes without saying that a classroom environment in which everyone feels comfortable is essential.  You should treat your fellow classmates with respect, listen carefully to their comments and respond to them in a polite manner. 

 

G. Grading:

It is your responsibility to understand why you have achieved a certain grade, and what steps you can take to maintain or improve your grade.  You should consult with the instructor during office hours or by appointment before and after exams and written assignments.  Your final grade will be based on the following percentages

 

100-95

A

94-92

A-

91-89

B+

88-85

B

84-83

B-

82-80

C+

79-77

C

76-75

C-

74-70

D

69<

F

 

Your grade distribution for class assignments is as follows:

 

First Midterm

15%

Second Midterm

15%

Final Exam

15%

Primary Source Analysis: Film

15%

Primary Source Analysis: Essays

15%

Primary Source Quizzes x5

10%

Reflection Assignment

5%

Class Participation

10%

 

H. Academic Integrity:

The Department of History adheres to guidelines on academic integrity outlined in the Student Conduct Code in the Student Handbook: 

 

http://www.kings.edu/student_handbook/studentregulations_rights/conductcode.htm

 

Cheating and plagiarism will be penalized in accord with the penalties and procedures indicated in that source.  All students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the definition of these infractions of academic honesty. 

 

I. Absences:

I will regularly take attendance in this class. Absences due to collee activities, emergency or extended illness may be excused by the appropriate college official. You should consult with the professor about making up missed work in advance or as soon as possible after your return.  Other absences are unexcused and will lower the class participation portion of your grade. After any absence, you are responsible for requesting hand-outs and already returned assignments from me or borrowing notes from other students. If you miss an exam, contact me as possible. You may take a missed exam only at the discretion of the instructor.

 

J.  Disabilities:

King’s College and I will make every effort to accommodate students with a bona-fide disability that impacts on their ability to learn the course material.  Please meet with me privately so that appropriate arrangements can be made to help in the learning process.

  

IV. Course Schedule

  

Introduction

Monday, August 28th

Modernism and Westernization: Setting the Stage

Wednesday, August 30th

**Readings: Hobsbawm, 1-17 

Lecture Question: What do we mean by modernity? What are its defining characteristics?  In what way is it related to westernization?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm periodize [divide into historical periods] the short 20th century?  What are the elements of each period marking the move from one period to another?  What are some of the themes that thread through the whole century?

The Scramble for Africa: Race, Nation and Progress

Friday, September 1st

Lecture Question: What were the European motivations for the Scramble for Africa?  What ideological work did colonialism do in the European imagination?  What did colonialism look like on the ground in Africa?

19th Century Nationalism

Wednesday, September 6th

Lecture Question: What factors contributed to the emergence of 19th century nationalism?  What forms did it take?  What was its impact on the traditional European state system?  What were the difficulties in defining the nation?

Imperialism and Westernization in Asia

Friday, September 8th

Lecture Question: How did the encroachments of European powers into Asia influence Asian understandings of Modernity?  In India?  In China?  How is the Japanese experience with modernization shift the paradigm?

World War I and the Death of the Modern (!)(?)

Monday, September 11th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 21-53 

Lecture Question: What accounts for the destruction of the First World War?  How does it challenge notions of progress and modernity?  What are its social consequences? How did it transform culture? Politics?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the transformations of the “Age of Total War”?  What were the basic principles of the Treaty of Versailles?

Russian Revolutions, Part I: Crisis and Experimentation

Wednesday, September 13th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 54-84

Lecture Question: What larger social, economic, and cultural problems was the Russian Revolution designed to solve? What programs did early Revolutionaries enact to meet them? What were the results of their efforts?

Reading Question: For Hobsbawm, how is the Russian Revolution a challenge to the established order of the 19th Century?  What transformations did it bring? 

***Quiz 1: Gandhi, “Civilization,” from Hind Swaraj, 1909***

Post War Crisis and the Age of Nationalism

Friday, September 15th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 85-141

Lecture Question: How did World War I complete the 19th Century process of creating European nation-states? How did the question of the nation play out in interwar Germany?  In the colonial world?  What is the “logic of the nation-state?”

Reading Question: According to Hobsbawm, what are the immediate consequences of the “Great Slump”?  What does he mean by the “fall of liberalism”? 

Discussion: Great Gatsby and the Lost Generation

Monday, September 18th

**Reading: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (entire)

Reading Question: How is Fitzgerald’s work a reflection of larger social anxieties of the post-war world?  What does it say about questions of capitalism and consumption? Class? Identity? How does it connect to Chaplin’s vision of the interwar years?

Age of Anxiety

Wednesday, September 20th  

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 85-141

Lecture Question: What is meant by the Age of Anxiety?  What are people anxious about?  How is this interwar anxiety reflected culturally? Politically?

Reading Question: According to Hobsbawm, what are the immediate consequences of the “Great Slump”?  What does he mean by the “fall of liberalism”? How does Hobsbawm understand the arts of the interwar period?  What does he mean when he claims that “scandal was their cohesion”?

Discussion: Modern Times

Friday, September 22nd

**Film: Chaplin, Modern Times

Reading Question: How is Chaplin’s work a reflection of larger social anxieties of the post-war world?  What does it say about questions of capitalism and consumption? Class? Identity? How does it connect to Fitzgerald’s vision of the interwar years?

Nationalism and “Double Consciousness”

Monday, September 25th

Lecture Question: What is "double consciousness?  How is it a reflection of modernity?  How do Garvey and Dubois understand the issue?

Discussion: Japanese Modern

Wednesday, September 27th

**Reading: Buruma, Inventing Japan (entire)

Reading Question: What does Buruma mean by “Inventing Japan”? How does he understand Japan’s experiment with modernity?  How does it challenge notions of “westernization”?  How does it confirm them?

Russian Revolutions, Part II: High Stalinism

Friday, September 29th

Lecture Question: What larger social, economic, and cultural problems was the Russian Revolution designed to solve? What programs did Stalin enact to meet them?  What were the results of these plans?

***Primary Source Analysis: Film***

Discussion: Hobsbawm and the Age of Catastrophe

Monday, October 2nd

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 1-198

Degenerate Art

Wednesday, October 4th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 141-198

Lecture Question: What accounts for the rise of Fascism in Europe?  What are its motivating principles?  How does fascism as an ideology seek to order society?  How does it relate to the question of modernity? How is fascism’s relationship to art a metaphor for its larger programs?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the combined struggle against fascism?  How is it an international civil war?  What are the fault lines?

***First Midterm Due—11:59 p.m.*** 

Holocaust

Friday, October 6th

Lecture Question: How is the Holocaust a reflection of Nazi ideology?  How does it compare to other attempts to create order in Europe and in the colonial world?  How does the Holocaust help us come to terms with the modernist attempt to create subjects?

Cold War, Part I: “Sovietization” and “Normalization” in Europe

Monday, October, 9th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 225-257

Lecture Question: What role did ideology play in the development of the Cold War?  How did the Soviet Union and the United State each approach the question of modernity?  How did the United States and the Soviet Union work to reorganize European societies? 

Reading Question: Where does Hobsbawm find the roots of the Cold War?  How does he periodize it?  

***Quiz 2: Aleksandur Deineka, Stakhanov Workers, 1937***

Cold War, Part II: Atomic Civilization

Wednesday, October 11th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 257-286

Lecture Question: What are the consequences (geo-politically) of Atomic Civilization?  How does it shape the Cold War?  How does it influence the manner in which the Soviet Union and the United States measured the relative success of their systems?  What were the implications of these decisions?

Reading Question: Where does Hobsbawm find the roots of the Golden Age?        

Cold War, Part III: Cold War, Hot War

Monday, October 16th

Lecture Question: What is the “logic of the Cold War” in the Third World? What are its implications there?  What are the lessons of the Korean War as it relates to superpower conflict?

Chinese Revolutions

Wednesday, October 18th

Lecture Question: Whose revolution was the Chinese Revolution?  How did it seek to reorganize Chinese society?  What programs did it institute? How do we get from Mao to Deng?   What were the results of their programs?

Inventing India

Friday, October 20th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 199-222

Lecture Question: How was India “invented?”  How was (is) its invention a commentary on the larger question of modernity and identity? What role does violence play?

Reading Question: What does Hobsbawm mean when he claims that “the greater part of the world’s history in the short twentieth century are derived, not original” (200)?  What, for him, are the consequences of this dynamic?

Cold War, Part IV: Latin America: Cold War Dirty War

Monday, October 23rd

Lecture Question: How did the Cold War play out in Latin America? How did the interests of superpowers align with the interests of local actors? 

Africa and Decolonialization

Wednesday, October 25th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 344-371

 Lecture Question:  What is the “Curse of the Nation-State”?  What is a Vampire State? What were the challenges of the Independence movements in Africa?  How did they meet their goals?  What role did the cold war play in Africa in the mid to late 20th century?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the relationship between the state and individual in the post-colonial world?  How does this relate to Césaire’s understanding?

***Quiz 3: Journey to Bananaland, 1950***

Discussion: Discourse on Colonialism

Friday, October 27th

**Readings: Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (entire)

Reading Question: How does Césaire understand colonialism?  Modernity? What are his prescriptions for a new world order?

Discussion: Apocalypse Now (!) (?)

Monday, October 30th

**Film: Coppola, Apocalypse Now!

Reading Question: How does Coppola understand colonialism? Modernity? Civilization? Who is the hero of the story?

Post-War Middle East

Wednesday, November 1st

Lecture Question: How are the connections between modernity, nationalism, and religion demonstrated in the 20th century Middle East?

***Quiz 4: Cabral, “National Liberation and Culture,” 1974***

1968

Friday, November 3rd

**Readings: Hobsbawm, 287-343 and “Posters: Paris, 1968,” and “Graffiti: Paris 1968” (course moodle site)

Lecture Question: How are we to understand the demonstrations of 1968?  How do they relate to the question of the “good life” and modernity?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the social revolution of the post-war years (particularly in Europe and the United States)?  How does this relate to the “Golden Age”?  The “Landslide”?

Discussion: Hobsbawm and the Golden Age

Monday, November 6th

Readings: Hobsbawm, 199-402

Stagnation

Wednesday, November 8th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 371-400

Lecture Question: What is meant by stagnation?  How do the 1970s represent both a crisis and a golden age of the good life as outlined in the post-war years?  What is a 1970s “good life?”

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm understand the “Real Existing Socialism” in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?  What accounts for its successes?  Why did it collapse?

Vietnam and Afghanistan

Friday, November 10th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 403-433

Lecture Question: How were the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan examples of forgetting the virtues of the Cold War logic of proxy wars?  How do they demonstrate the retention of the vices of those same proxy wars?  How do they demonstrate the limits of the superpowers’ ability to structure the world in their image? 

Reading Question: What were the historical conditions leading to the "crisis decades" (and, ultimately, to "the landslide")?  What were the immediate consequences (see particularly section V in chapter 14)

***Second Midterm Due—11:59 p.m.*** 

Bob Marley and the Post-Colonial

Monday, November 13th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 433-460 and  Bob Marley Lyrics from the Course Moodle Site

Reading Question: How does the music of Bob Marley help us understand the perils and possibilities of living in the colonial and post-colonial era?  How does this correspond to Hobsbawm’s understanding of the period?

Discussion: Convergence?

Wednesday, November 15th

**Readings: Solzhenitsyn, Address at Harvard University, 1978 (course moodle site)

Reading Question: What does Solzhenitsyn mean by a “world divided?”  Where is the division? What are the implications?

***Quiz 5: Bulgarian Domestic Encyclopedias, c. 1970

1979, Part I: Iranian Revolution

Friday, November 17th

Lecture Question: How is the Iranian Revolution a commentary on modernity? Westernization? Colonialism?

Discussion: Persepolis

Monday, November 20th

**Readings: Satrapi, Persepolis (entire)

Reading Question: How does Satrapi understand the good society?  Modernity?  The Iranian Revolution?  The European model?

1979, Part II: Afghanistan, Mecca, and the Moral Majority

Monday, November 27th

Lecture Question: How is 1979 a “hinge year” of the 20th century? How should we make sense of the larger social movements at play?  How are they a reaction to stagnation? 1968? Modernity?

***Primary Source Analysis: Essays***

1989 and 1991

Wednesday, November 29th

**Reading: Hobsbawm, 461-499

Lecture Question: What accounts for the collapse of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?  Do the revolutions of 1989 and 1991 represent the triumph of liberal democratic capitalism?

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm explain the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?  Its continuation in China?

Discussion: The End of History (!)(?)

Friday, December 1st

**Reading: Fukuyama, “The End of History and the Last Man” (course moodle site)

Reading Question: What does Fukuyama mean by the end of history?  Are we there? What remains of the modernist project to remake the world?  The four major modernist ideologies?  Where do we go from here?

Post-War

Monday, December 4th

Lecture Question: What is left of the idea of the good society in 2017?  Of the ideological movements of the 20th century that pursued the idea?  Where do we go from here?

Discussion: Between the World and Me

Wednesday, December 6th 

**Reading: Coates, Between the World and Me

Reading Question: How does Coates understand the uses of history?  The creation of modern identities?  The End of History?  The nature of the good society?

Discussion: Hobsbawm and the Landslide

Friday, December 8th

**Readings, Hobsbawm, 403-587

Reading Question: How does Hobsbawm “approach the millennium?” How does he make sense of the collapse of communism?  The transformation of ideology and the good society at the “end of history?”  What are we to do?

***Reflection Assignment***