Requirements
This course assumes little or no familiarity with European history. There are no prerequisites, though expectations are higher than in the introductory courses, such as Western Civilization sequence (History 101-103). It is the first segment of a year-long, three-term survey of modern European history (301-303). And while I hope that students who take this course will continue with History 302 and 303, History 301 is designed to stand on its own.
Requirements for this course are the following. Attendance is required: a sign-up sheet will be distributed at each session, and while there is no set portion of the overall grade reserved for attendance, a student's score will weigh the final grade down or buoy it up. Participation in classroom discussions will also be taken into account in weighing the final grade; students who contribute to discussions frequently and intelligently will be rewarded in the final grade. There will be two examinations, a midterm on Wednesday, October 22, and a two-hour cumulative final examination on Monday, December 8, at 3:15 PM. These examinations will test your comprehension of the arguments and interpretations put forward in lectures, your understanding of the course readings, and of course your command of the main events and basic facts covered by this survey. There will also be two papers, each 5-7 pages in length, which will also be based on course readings. The first will be due in class on Monday, November 10; the second essay will be due in class on Monday, December 1. Note also that there will be no class meeting on Wednesday, November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving Break). The breakdown of your final grade will be as follows:
Midterm: 20%
Two papers: 25% each
Final: 30%A note on minimum requirements: each of the examinations and paper assignments is a minumum requirement, which is to say that a student cannot pass this course unless she/he has successfully completed all of the assignments, the written assignments as well as the examinations. A student who fails to deliver one of the papers, or who does not take one of the exams, has not met the minimum requirements for the course, and therefore will receive a grade of “F” for the entire course.
A note on plagiarism, fabrication, and cheating: academic dishonesty has become a problem on campuses all over the country. It can be difficult to detect, though not so difficult that I have not identified a plenty of plagiarized papers these last few of years. The policy for this course is simple. Anyone who turns in work for credit which is not substantially his/her own will receive an “F” for the entire course. The student will also be reported to the Office for Student Life’s Student Judicial Affairs Program, the university agency responsible for cases of academic dishonesty. If you have any doubt about the meaning of academic dishonesty, please refer to the university's standard definitions. You can also find useful information on avoiding academic dishonesty at the University Library.
Finally, all written work must be submitted on time; late work will be accepted only with documented medical justification. If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements with me soon. If you are in doubt regarding the requirements for this course, please do not hesitate to consult me: dluebke@uoregon.edu.
Image right: Jan Havickszoon Steen (ca.1625-1679), The Schoolmaster (1663-1665). Image source: CGFA.
Most days, sessions will be divided between lecture and discussion of assigned readings. It is therefore incumbent on students to prepare the readings in advance of the session to which it is assigned and to discuss the reading in class. The writing assignments will be based on the assigned readings, and the two examinations will also evaluate your knowledge of the assigned texts, so it is in your best interest to stay on top of the reading and take careful notes on what you find in them. The majority of these texts will be made available through Blackboard.
In addition, there will be two textbooks used in this course: (1) Raymond Birn, Crisis, Absolutism, Revolution: Europe and the World, 1648-1789, and (2) Jack Censer and Lynn Hunt, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Birn's text provides an in-depth analysis and narrative of European history from the end of the Thirty Years' War through to the outbreak of the French Revolution; as such, it is extremely valuable as a source of information more detailed than any lecture can be, as a reference book for information on key persons and events in the period, and finally as a tool for exam preparation. Likewise Censer & Hunt provide analysis and narrative for the final segment of this course, which covers the era of the French Revolution. It also contains primary documents, some of which we will be discussing in class, and on which students will base their second papers.
