Instructor: Theresa Levitt TA: Kelsea Duvall

Office Hours: MW 12-12:50 and by apt Office Hours: MWF 2-3

Email: [email protected] Email :
[email protected]
Office: Bishop Hall 323 Office: Old Athletics 103

HST 121, Section 1:

HISTORY OF EUROPE SINCE 1648

Meeting Time and Place

MWF 1:00-1:50 pm
Bishop Hall 112

Course Description

This course offers a broad survey of modern European history,

from the end of the Thirty Years’ War to the present debt crisis
in the European Union. The course will consider the political
history of the period, which includes an examination of such
events as the English Civil War, the transformation of Russia
under Peter the Great, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic
Wars, the unification of Germany, the Russian Revolution, the
two World Wars of the 20th century, the Cold War, and the drive
toward European integration. We will study the influence of
ideas such as liberalism, nationalism, and socialism on the
political landscape of Europe during the last 350 years, and the
development of modern political institutions and economic
structures. We will also consider how Europeans lived during
this time, the shifting meanings of labor, the relationship
between the individual and the government, and the changes in
Europeans’ cultural lives. Through attendance in lecture, and
extensive reading and analysis of both historiography and
primary sources, students should leave this History 121 course
with a broad understanding of modern European history, and a
clear sense of what the study of history attempts to accomplish,
and how we go about understanding and interpreting the past.

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Required Book

Textbook: Lynn Hunt, et al, The Making of the West.

Other readings will be posted on the course’s Blackboard site.

Course Policies

Attendance Policy: You are required to attend all classes. If

you are not in class, you are still responsible for the material
missed. To request make-up quizzes or exams, you must present
evidence that you missed class for a medical purpose or another
approved absence. If you anticipate any absences that interfere
with quizzes or exams, please contact the instructors ASAP to
make arrangements. Scanning in without attending class will
count as Academic Dishonesty and you will receive a zero for the
attendance portion and have points deducted from your overall
grade.
Policy on Plagiarism: You will receive an F for the course. The
instructors will initiate an academic discipline case with the
university, which you may appeal to the Academic Discipline
Committee. If you have any questions regarding the nature of
plagiarism and other types of academic dishonesty, the
instructors will be happy to answer them and clarify any
misunderstandings. Use of AI tools such as ChaptGPT is not
permitted and will be treated like plagiarism.
Policy on Grade Disputes: As a general rule, grades are not
negotiable. The instructors will spend considerable time reading
and offering comments on your work. If you would like to
discuss further why you received the grade that you did, you are
encouraged to do so. If, however, you believe that the
instructors graded your work incorrectly, unfairly or
inconsistently, you have the right to an appeal according to
university policy.
Policy on Electronic Devices: You may take notes on your
laptop or tablet, but your phones should remain in your bags
during lecture, discussion, quizzes and exams. This is a firm

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policy and the instructors will issue only one warning per
student.
Policy on Disability Access and Inclusion: The University of
Mississippi is committed to the creation of inclusive learning
environments for all students. If there are aspects of the
instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to your
full inclusion and participation, or to accurate assessment of your
achievement, please contact the course instructors as soon as
possible. Barriers may include, but are not necessarily limited to,
timed exams and in-class assignments, difficulty with the
acquisition of lecture content, inaccessible web content, and the
use of non-captioned or non-transcribed video and audio files. If
you are approved through SDS, you must log in to your Rebel
Access portal at https://sds.olemiss.edu to request approved
accommodations. If you are NOT approved through SDS, you
must contact Student Disability Services at 662-915-7128 so the
office can: 1. determine your eligibility for accommodations, 2.
disseminate to your instructors a Faculty Notification Letter, 3.
facilitate the removal of barriers, and 4. ensure you have equal
access to the same opportunities for success that are available to
all students.
Assignments and Assessment

Reading Responses
For each of the primary documents (indicated by RESPONSE on
the schedule), you will submit a 75-word response on
Blackboard. You will receive full credit if you submit it by NOON
of the due date, and half credit if you submit it after that date but
before the next exam.

Exams
The mid-terms and final exams will be in-class assessments of
your ability to integrate material from lecture, the textbook,
films, and in-class readings. Each exam will be composed of two
sections: The first section will consist of a timeline, map
identification, and multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.
The second section will consist of short answer questions and a
longer essay.

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Games
We will be using Reacting to the Past game modules. Your grade
will be based on a combination of writing assignments, speeches
and quizzes, as well as your overall participation.

In-class writing
At several points in the semester, there will be in-class writing
assignments answering prompts about the material. These will
be graded on the depth of your engagement, and willingness to
think through the question, rather than on the mastery of any
specific content.

Attendance policy: Three or fewer absences will result in full

credit for attendance.

Grade Breakdown Grade Scale

92-100 A
Reading Responses: 10% 90-91 A-
First Midterm Exam10% 88-89 B+
Second Midterm Exam 15% 82-87 B
Final Exam: 25% 80-81 B-
French Revolution Game: 78-79 C+
20% 72-77 C
London 1854 Game:10% 70-71 C-
In-class Writing: 7% 60-69 D
Attendance: 3% 0-59 F

Calendar

Friday, Jan 24 – The Scientific Revolution

Read Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 15, “The Rise of Science and a
Scientific Worldview”

Monday, Jan 27 – Absolutism and Constitutionalism in Early

Modern Europe

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RESPONSE: John Locke, “Political Society,” from Second
Treatise on Government, 1690

Wednesday, Jan 29 - Absolutist France under Louis XIV-XVI

Read Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 16

Friday, Jan 31 - The Atlantic System and the Theory of

Mercantilism
Read Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 17

Monday, Feb 3 – Early Enlightenment

RESPONSE: Voltaire, “Law, Religion and the State,” Rousseau,
“Nature and Civilization”

Wednesday, Feb 5 – Exam #1

Friday, Feb 7 – Game: Set up

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 18

Monday, Feb 10 – Game: Day 1

Wednesday, Feb 12 – Game: Day 2

Friday, Feb 14 – Game: Day 3

Monday, Feb 17 – Game: Day 4

Wednesday, Feb 19 – Game: Day 5

Friday, Feb 21 – Game: Day 6

Monday, Feb 24 – post-mortem

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 19

Wednesday, Feb 26 – Napoleonic Wars and the Revolutionary

Legacy
Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 20

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Friday, Feb 28 – Industrialization
RESPONSE: Sadler Committee Report
Textbook reading: Hunt, Chapter 21

Monday, March 3 – Liberalism and Nationalism

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 22

Wednesday, March 5 – The Revolutions of 1848

Friday, March 7 – The “Social Question”

RESPONSE: Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto,
selections

March 10 - 14 – Spring Break

Monday, March 17 – Game: London 1854

Wednesday, March 19 – Game: London 1854

Friday, March 21 – Game: London 1854

Monday, March 24 – Politics and culture of the Nation State

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 23

Wednesday, March 26 - Unification of Italy and Germany

RESPONSE: Johann Gottfried von Herder, Materials for the
Philosophy of the History of Mankind

Friday, March 28 – Holiday

Monday, March 31- Romanticism and Realism

Wednesday, April 2 - Britain, France, and the New Imperialism

Friday, April 4 – Great State Competition and the Scramble for

Africa
RESPONSE: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden

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Monday, April 7 - Challenges to Liberalism at the Turn of the
Century
Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 24

Wednesday, April 9 – exam #2

Friday, April 111 – Road to War

RESPONSE: Private Donald Fraser, Selections from My Daily
Journal, 1915-1916

Monday, April 14 – World War One

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 25

Wednesday, April 16 – Russian Revolution and War’s End

Friday, April 18 - Great Depression and the Rise of

Dictatorships
RESPONSE: Benito Mussolini, “The Political and Social Doctrine
of Fascism,” 1932, “The Enabling Act,” 1933, and “The
Nuremberg Laws,” 1935

Monday, April 21 – Overview of World War Two in the

European Theater
Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 26

Wednesday, April 23 - The Holocaust

RESPONSE: Primo Levi, selections from Survival in Auschwitz,
1947

Friday, April 25 - The Post-War Settlement

Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 27

Monday, April 28 - The Emergence of Cold War Rivalries

Wednesday, April 30 - Decolonization and the End of European

Empires
Textbook: Hunt, Chapter 28

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Friday, May 2 - The Fall of Communism and the New Face of
Global Capitalism
RESPONSE: Vaclav Havel, selections from “The Power of the
Powerless,” 1978

Final Exam: May 8, 12pm-3pm