A regular, sixteen week, campus course meets twice a week, 75 minutes each class, for a total of 150 minutes per week. In this hybrid version of HIS 102, we will only meet once a week for 75 minutes, but outside of class, you are expected to complete other coursework, including papers, watching videos, posting and responding on Blackboard, completion of a digital project and group work.

Thursday, 15 January: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to get started with the course.

What you must do before class:

• Log into Blackboard and review the course information, syllabus, schedule, assignments, (everything!).
• Purchase your books
• Familiarize yourself with the textbook.
• There are three videos that you must watch:
  • my short introduction video.
  • the video on developing a time management schedule for your course work.
  • the video on asking questions in your course.
• Post an informal hello in the Blackboard online discussion forum for the course. (10 points)
• Submit the required Introduction paragraph (10 points).
• Take the Syllabus Quiz on Blackboard. (10 points) Log into Blackboard and you will see the button for the quiz in your course. This is a short, 10-question orientation quiz that you must take and pass with a score of 9/10 before you can continue in the course. If you must, you can retake the quiz more than once.

What we will do in class:

• Detailed review of the course. Please note that many of the links on this schedule are to the assignments and materials used in my online or other campus courses.
• Since the use of proper grammar, spelling and style are an inherent part of each assignment in this course. Please check the course writing resources available in Charlie's History Writing Center for more information.
• Take attendance and answer any questions
• Discuss specific assignments, including the group work assignment, the digital project and the class presentation.

• Read chapters 14 and 15 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my very short notes on Seventeenth-Century Europe and my remarks on Louis XIV.
• Read about the Chateau de Versailles, and Roberto Rossellini and neorealism. (You will need this information for the video clip that we will see in class.)
• Quickly review the requirements for Class Presentations
• Quickly review the principles of Successful Group Work

• Watch excerpt from La prise du pouvoir
• Some short remarks comparing Louis XIV and Peter the Great and their ideas about absolutism and state power (Compare absolutism with autocracy.)
• Review the requirements for Class Presentations
• Review the principles of Successful Group Work
• Sign up for a required class presentation

What you must do after class:

• This unit of the course focuses on seventeenth-century Europe, and you have a required paragraph assignment to submit (According to the textbook, what were some of the important historical developments that shaped European culture in the seventeenth century?). For this discussion, you should watch two of the short, recommended videos for this unit, and then post your comments on seventeenth-century Europe to this discussion. (10 points)
• Submit on Blackboard the seventeenth-century paragraph by 8 am, Monday, 19 January (25 points)

• Answer the questions about the film clip on the movie study sheet (10 points)
• For 20 points maximum extra credit, read the English Bill of Rights and  write a paragraph in which you answer, Was the English Bill of Rights a democratic document?  Note the earlier important political document in England was the Petition of Right (1628).
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 29 January: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 3 (Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment).

• Read chapters 16 and 17 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Check the short course notes on the Scientific Revolution and the website on the Enlightenment, which was done by Patricia Niles, a former student in HIS 112. I also have notes on Voltaire and his ideas about religion.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Discuss the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.
• If we have time, we will look at some newspaper fragments and talk about approaches to analyzing them.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 26 January):

• Newspapers are an important source for historical research, but newspapers from the 1700s, or even the early 1900s, do not always survive intact. To practice working with newspapers as a historian, review these newspaper fragments and post/respond on the discussion what information you can determine about life in this small town from these surviving fragments. (10 points)

What you can do for extra credit after class (Submit on Blackboard. Due by 8 am, Monday, 26 January.):

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, in a one-page paper, explain the principle points of Immanuel Kant's idealist philosophy as expounded in his Critique of Pure Reason (free copy at www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/cpr/toc.html).
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, in a long paragraph, What did Voltaire mean, in terms of the European Enlightenment, when he wrote "let us cultivate our garden" at the end of Candide (free copy at www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/candide/).
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), The Spirit of the Laws (1748), excerpts, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Montesquieu's main political ideas.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): A Discourse Upon The Origin and The Foundation of The Inequality among Mankind, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Rousseau's ideas about inequality.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the Proclamation of Rebellion by King George III as he reacted to the American rebellion (1775) and write a short paragraph summarizing the King's view of his American subjects.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Read chapter 18 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on the French Revolution and Napoleone di Buonaparte (aka Napoleon).
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Discuss the French Revolution
• If we have time, we will examine the art and difficulties of translation.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 9 February):

• The relationship between Napoleone di Buonaparte and the French Revolution has long been the subject of debate by historians. Was he the embodiment of the revolutionary ideals of the French Revolution or was he the complete antithesis of the revolution? For this debate you should watch two of the short, recommended videos for this unit, and then post your comments about him and the French Revolution to this discussion. (10 points)

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read the Declaration of the Rights of Man and then submit the French paragraph.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, write a one-page paper (maybe two pages if they are exceptional) that provides a detailed comparison of the US Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, in a long paragraph comment upon Voltaire's criticism of organized religion in his dictionary entry.
  
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, in a long paragraph assess Robespierre's justification of the use of terror (Would Thomas Jefferson have approved?) during the French Revolution (see www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html).
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Read chapter 19 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on the Industrial Revolution.
• Find out as much as you can about coal
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Discuss some stages of the Industrial Revolution and the role of coal
• Work on the required Dickens paper

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 16 February):

• This unit of the course focuses on the Industrial Revolution, and you have a required paper assignment to submit (Citing specific evidence from Dickens' Hard Times, describe some of the effects of industrialization and urbanization on English society in the nineteenth century.). The Industrial Revolution definitely altered nineteenth-century European society in both good and bad ways. For this discussion, you should watch two of the short, recommended videos for this unit--I particularly recommend the video on "Courbet's Burial at Ornans"--and then post your comments on the effects of the Industrial Revolution to this discussion. (10 points)
• Submit the Required Dickens paper. (100 points) Email to me before the start of class.

• Consider doing, for your required digital project, a data visualization project on statistics related to the industrial revolution.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read Emile Zola's Germinal (free at www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/ez/germinal.html, but the book version is better) and explain how his conception of the Industrial Revolution differed from that of Dickens.  (Consider watching the 1993 movie version also.)
  
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Factory Reformers and Child Labour 1750-1900, particularly the section on "Life in the Factory," and write a long paragraph in which you examine the motives of the factory reformers.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the selections of Women Miners in the English Coal Pits (1842) and write a long paragraph in which you comment upon the costs of the Industrial Revolution.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 19 February: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 6 (Russia in Revolt?). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 20 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my remarks on Tsar Alexander I and the Decembrists (Decembrist painting).
• Read my draft notes on Romanticism (when I find them) and some examples of Romantic poems.
• Take a moment to reflect on Life's Not Fair, and other lessons
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• In-class review and discussion of Marx' Communist Manifesto for the midterm exam
• Coleridge video and text (You can also check out Iron Maiden's version; here's a version with lyrics)
• Look at some obituaries as historical documents, history personalized--Remember that for many of the Romantic poets death was such an important inspiration.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 23 February):

• Romanticism may have been the most important cultural movement of the last two hundred yeas in the Western world, but I seem to have misplaced my detailed notes on Romanticism and the early Romantic poets. Using the materials linked on the course schedule for unit 6. participate in a class discussion here to determine the main points (key features) of Romanticism that I should include when I rewrite my Romanticism notes. (10 points)

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read the material on the Russian Decembrists and then submit the Decembrists paragraph assignment.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read some selections of Romantic Poems and write a one-page paper in which you examine some of the main characteristics of the Romantic era.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, write a paragraph in which you compare and contrast the start of Napoleone di Buonaparte's invasion of Russia with its finish.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, it is no wonder that the talented Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin could get himself into trouble as a result of his connections to the Decembrists.  Read his short, To the Emperor Nicholas I (1826) and comment on his situation in a paragraph.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Read chapter 20 in Coffin/Stacey, especially the section "Taking Sides:  New Ideologies in Politics"
• Read my notes on Marxism
• Review the short background information on Marx
• Read the Communist Manifesto Selections
• Prepare for the Midterm Exam
• As you prepare for your midterm exam, the online discussion is a great place to exchange ideas about the the essay assignment on the exam. You should consider these questions: After reading the excerpt from the Communist Manifesto, briefly explain Marx's view of history? What were his major points? How did he periodize history? Was history linear, progressive, evolving or was it circular? Did it repeat itself? What forces did Marx identify that influenced the course of history? Do you find his ideas to be valid or persuasive? Why was his theory revolutionary at the time?

• Complete the midterm exam (100 points).  You will not need to follow the NOVA Online procedures explained on the linked page.

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, explain what Marx meant when he stated that he "had stood Hegel on his head" (Or something to that extent) in a one-page paper.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, in a one-page paper, compare and contrast the ideas of Marx with those of Charles Fourier (1772-1837), Theory of Social Organization, and Louis Blanc (1811-­1882),  The Organization of Labour.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read a smidgen of Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal, and comment on his conception of anarchism in a paragraph.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 5 March: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 8 (nationalism). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 21 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on nationalism and Garibaldi and the Risorgimento.
• Read my notes on the Alfred Dreyfus and the Dreyfus Affair. Email the answer to this question before the start of class: Why was the French government so unwilling to recognize the fact that it had screwed up in the Dreyfus case? Be prepared to explain your answer in class.
• Reflect on what we have done so far in class this semester. Please jot down some notes and bring to class.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Review the midterm exam.
• Discuss the Dreyfus Affair.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 9 March):

• Nationalism was an important political force in nineteenth-century Europe. For this discussion, you should watch online lectures on nationalism (by either Hunt, Merriman, or Evans) and then discuss here some of the main features of nineteenth-century nationalism. (10 points)

• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, consider doing the Bismarck paragraph. Email to me before the start of class.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, in a one-page paper, compare and contrast German and Italian unification process.  Please cite your sources.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, explain the historical significance of Giuseppe Garibaldi in a long paragraph.  Why is there no movie about him yet?
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

SPRING BREAK

Thursday, 19 March: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 9 (imperialism). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 22 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on Imperialism.
• I have available the very detailed lecture notes of Professor Thomas Hammond, one of my advisors at the University of Virginia, on imperialism (*.pdf file).  These notes will give you not only a summary of the key events of the imperialist era, but also give you an idea of what a professor's lecture notes look like.
• This was also the age of Impressionism.  See the trip to the Art Institute of Chicago by two of my former students. 
• Read Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, or Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Child of All Nations, or Amadou Hampaté Bâ, The Fortunes of Wangrin, if you are going to submit the extra-credit imperialism paper.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Discuss the events and costs of imperialism.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 23 March):

• While European countries were engaged in their imperialist operations abroad, a new cultural movement, Impressionism, was sweeping through the art world in Europe. Please review the Impressionism study sheet, watch the PBS video Art of the Western World, Impressionism, and then comment, in this discussion, on the main features of Impressionism and how the art movement reflected broader socio-economic changes taking place in European society at the time. (10 points)

• For up to 50 points of extra credit, submit the imperialism paper.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, review these sources (The Earl of Cromer, Why Britain Acquired Egypt in 1882 (1908); Wilfred Scawen Blunt: Britain's Imperial Destiny (1896-1899); Anthony Trollope: The Diamond Fields of South Africa (1870)) and write a short paper examining the colonial experience.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, was there an "Impressionism" movement in music and literature?  Write a one-page paper addressing this issue.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, watch Breaker Morant and write a one-page paper assessing the historical accuracy of the movie.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, what was the extent of and justification for American imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century?  Answer that question in a long paragraph. Use some of the resources available at www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook34.html.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Captain F. D. Lugard, The Rise of Our East African Empire (1893) and write a long paragraph explaining the rationale for the British empire in Africa.
  
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Read chapters 23 and 24 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my remarks on the Great War and also on Russia and World War I.
• Check Private Donald Fraser, War Diary, September 1915. He was a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, as he recounted his experiences on the battlefield of the Great War.
• Read Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, if you are going to submit the extra-credit Remarque paper.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentations
• Watch All Quiet on the Western Front

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 30 March):

• In the Blackboard discussion, Ever since the end of the Great War in 1918, historians have been arguing over who was responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914. After watching the film version of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), discuss Remarque's view, as a soldier who fought in the war, as to who was ultimately responsible for the war.

• For up to 50 points extra credit, submit the Remarque paper.
• Explain the impact of World War I in a two-page paper for a maximum of 50 points (maybe more depending on how good).  Please be sure to cite your sources.  Start here (canadaonline.about.com/od/ww1battles/p/beaumonthamel.htm). Email to me before the start of class.
• In a two-page paper for a maximum of 50 points (maybe more), offer a detailed contrast between Remarque's depiction of the war in his novel and Lewis Milestone's view of the war in his film adaptation of the novel. Email to me before the next class.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the "Willy-Nicky" Telegrams, exchanged between tsar and kaiser, 29 July - 1 August, 1914 and write a long paragraph in which you assess these rulers' grasp on reality.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the comments by Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941, Emperor 1888-1918), "A Place in the Sun" (1901) and write a long paragraph explaining how the Kaiser's attitude contributed to the march towards war.
• For up to 5 points of extra credit, you can submit the answers to the Remarque study questions.  Please write in formal, complete sentences.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 2 April: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 11 (the Russian Revolution). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 24, especially the section on the Russian Revolution, and chapter 25, especially the section "The Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin."
• Read my remarks on the Russian Revolutions of 1917, then the period of NEP in the 1920s followed by Stalin's revolution in the 1930s.
  
• Read my additional note on 1917.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class Presentations
• Watch the "Storming of the Winter Palace" video clip (best to watch the last fifteen minutes) from the movie Oktiabr
• Discuss the pros/cons of using Wikipedia

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 6 April):

• Like it or not, everyone uses Wikipedia. Some teachers/professors hate it; while others embrace it; but what really are the pros and cons of using Wikipedia as a research tool? As you work on your required assignment for this week, (the Wikipedia Analysis paper), you should also take part in our online debate about the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia as a research source. Contribute your posting to either side of the debate. (10 points)
• Submit the Wikipedia Analysis paper (100 points).

• For up to 25 points of extra credit, write a one-page paper (maybe two pages if they are exceptional) that provides a detailed comparison of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Russian Declaration of the Rights of the Russian People.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the Franco-Russian Alliance Military Convention (1992), and write a paragraph that answers the question, How did this convention fit into the pre-1914 diplomatic scene?
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read a newspaper account of the Kishinev pogrom and write a paragraph explaining the impact of the pogrom on Kishinev.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 9 April: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 12 (Fascism). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 25 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my notes on Fascism and National Socialism.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class Presentations
• fascism and national socialism remarks

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 13 April):

• Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement mastered the art of propaganda and staging mass spectacles. Leni Riefenstahl captured this Nazi technique in her film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935) that documented the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. Review the wiki entry on the film, watch excerpts of the film on YouTube, and then, in this discussion, list at least 10 (ten) elements/techniques/images (for example the use of fire) manipulated by the Nazis in this film to generate mass enthusiasm for the Nazi movement. (10 points)

• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, consider doing the Hitler paragraph.
• Be Brave!  For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, read Benito Mussolini (1883-1945): The Doctrine of Fascism?, 1932 and write a one-page paper explaining the main points of fascism as understood by Mussolini. Email to me before the start of class.
• For a maximum of 10 points extra credit, answer the Hitler study sheet questions. Email to me before the start of class.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, write a one-page paper (maybe two pages if they are exceptional) that provides a detailed comparison of Hitler's ideas on national socialism and Benito Mussolini's What Is Fascism?
  
• For up to 25 points of extra credit be brave!  Read Benito Mussolini (1883-1945): The Doctrine of Fascism?, 1932 and write a one-page paper explaining the main points of fascism as understood by Mussolini.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

Thursday, 16 April: We meet in LR 144 at 8 am to work on unit 13 (World War II). 

What to do before class:

• Read chapter 26 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my remarks on Russia and World War II and my notes on World War II.
• Read the Atlantic Charter (1941) as the basic statement by the allies of a fair peace to end the war and a guarantee of basic freedoms for people everywhere.
• Have a look at the online presentation on the Holocaust in Poland (collaboration between myself and Professor Andrew Wise).
• Read the short paper by Bryan Grasser on Bletchley Park, Great Britain's secret code-breaking operation during World War II (*.pdf file).  Bryan wrote the paper as a special project vacation option when he was enrolled in HIS 102.
• Quickly review the principles of Successful Group Work
• Review some websites with material about the Rape of Nanking Genocide.
• Review the required Genocide group project (100 points).

• Group work
• Discuss World War II and the issue of genocide

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 20 April):

• Continue your group work online and submit the required Genocide group project (100 points). Only one person from each group should submit the final copy. You can use your specific group discussion board.

• For up to 50 points of extra credit, submit a two-page paper comparing the experiences of colonial soldiers from West Africa in the French army with those of African-American soldiers in the US army.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read Neville Chamberlain's Peace For Our Time speech (30 September, 1938; transcription) and then his comments on the agreement in the House of Commons and write a one-page paper examining Chamberlain's intent and rationale for the Munich agreements.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read the Documents on the Decision to Drop the Bomb and write a one-page paper summarizing some of the pros and cons of the decision to use the atomic bomb in 1945. Here are two interesting sites about the Manhattan Project: The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb and Women of the Manhattan Project.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, in a one-page paper What types of evidence did the allied prosecutors bring against the Nazi leaders in the proceedings at Nuremberg?
• For a maximum of 10 points extra credit (maybe more), in a long paragraph, What should people do now in respect to the atrocities that occurred before and during World War II?
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Lachesis Molotov (1889-1986) broadcast on the Invasion of The Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) and write a paragraph explaining the key points of Molotov's speech.  Note that it was Molotov, not Stalin, who announced that the Soviet Union was now at war with Germany.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Adolf Hitler Reichstags Speech, (February 20, 1938) and in a paragraph explain your interpretation of Hitler's remarks.
  
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read Chamberlain's speech on the Nazi Invasion of Poland (1 September 1939; transcription) and in a paragraph examine what Chamberlain must have been thinking as he faced his colleagues in the House of Commons.
• For extra credit up to 5 points, we are always looking for photos from historical sites (graves, statues, churches, battlefields, buildings, waterfalls, mountains, etc) from around the world, particularly Russia, to use in our online courses. If you have anything that you wish to share, we would much appreciate it, and you will receive credit for your photo if we use it in one of our courses. Any photos that you send must have been taken by yourself. Please attach your photos to an email and send to Professor Evans at charles.t.evans@gmail.com. (Don’t use cevans@nvcc.edu because of email attachment size limits.) Be sure to cc your email to your current course instruct

• Read chapters 27 and 28 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read the notes on the Cold War by David Johnston, former student.  I also have remarks on Russia and the Cold War and Gorbachev in my HIS 242 course.
• Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, if you are going to submit the extra-credit Solzhenitsyn paper.
• If you are doing a class presentation this week, prepare for your presentation!

• Class presentation
• Watch Two Days in October (on the Vietnam war and anti-Vietnam War protests)
• Discuss the Cold War as a Third World confrontation

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 27 April):

• The Cold War was a "conflict" that ended up being waged in many parts of the world after 1945. Vietnam was the country in which the United States became most directly entangled, and the war in Vietnam had profound consequences for American society. Finish watching the PBS video Two Days in October and then, in this discussion, comment on the Vietnam War and the Anti-war protests that emerged in the United States in the 1960s. (10 points)

• For up to 50 points of extra credit, submit the Solzhenitsyn paper.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, watch the movie Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, directed by Stanley Kubrick), released at the very height of the Cold War.  In a one-page paper, explain why or why not a similar-type of movie poking fun at the current international situation could be released in 2013.
• For up to 25 points of extra credit, read the The Tonkin Bay Resolution (1964), and then write a one-page paper, How did the Gulf of Tonkin Incident provide an excuse for United States military involvement in Vietnam?
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, compare and contrast the NATO and Warsaw pact treaties in a short paragraph.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read The Helsinki Final Act (1975) and write a short paragraph explaining the purpose of the Accords.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, read the U.S. and USSR Exchange of Notes on the Berlin Wall (1961) and write a paragraph on the politics involved in the creation of the Berlin Wall.
• For 10 points of extra credit, contribute at least five photos to the Northern Virginia Digital History Archive.
• For up to 5 points of extra credit, answer the Solzhenitsyn study sheet questions.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send your instructor the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.

• Review the requirements for the digital project.

• Discuss the digital revolution and the digital project requirements.
• Demonstrate some digital projects.
• Discuss and review for final exam.

What you must do after class (due by 8 am, Monday, 4 May):

• Just as the Industrial Revolution transformed Western society 250 years ago, the digital revolution is now transforming world society. In this discussion, you should comment on how digital technology has affected your own life, and you should explain your choice of digital project topic and type and offer constructive feedback on the projects of other students. (10 points)
• Submit the digital project (150 points).

What you can do for extra credit after class (Submit on Blackboard. Due by 8 am, Monday, 4 May.):

• Submit a My Family and History paper that requires you to examine your family's history in light of the historical events of the past half century.  Point value is 100 points for a two-page paper. Your paper will become part of the Historical Memory project.
• For up to 10 points of extra credit, choose one of the famous quotes about the study of history--scroll down that page to find a list of quotes--(Get permission from your instructor first.) and write a long paragraph in which you explain who the author of the quote was, what he/she meant by the quote and then your evaluation of the quote's accuracy. You can also use the material on these two links, Historians and Why We Study History. Don't forget to cite your sources.

• Review all chapters in your textbook since the midterm.
• Read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Prepare for the final exam.
• As you prepare for your final exam, the online discussion is a great place to exchange ideas about the the essay assignment on the exam: How was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) similar to the Declaration of the Rights of the Russian People (1917), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the English Bill of Rights (1688)?

• Complete the final exam (150 points).  You will not need to follow the NOVA Online procedures explained on the linked page.

What you must do after class:

• Complete the online course evaluation emailed to you by IOTA Solutions.