7
History 18/140-003
Fall 2007
The World Since 1945
Instructor: Dr. Brandon Hunziker ()
Webpage: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2007fall/hist/140/003/
Lecture: Fetzer Gymnasium 106, TTh 3:30-4:45
Office Hours: Hamilton Hall 515, Tues, 2-3 pm and Wed, 1-3 pm, or by appointment.
Telephone: 962-2374 (email is always better)
Course Overview and Objectives
This course surveys some of the major events, issues, and trends - political, economic, and cultural - that have shaped the history of both individual states and the international system from 1945 to the present day. Because it would be impossible to cover everything important that happened in the world during this sixty-year period in one semester, we will concentrate on the following topics: the Cold War; decolonization in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; the collapse of Soviet-style communism and the emergence of a new, less coherent, but more dynamic international system after 1991; the origins of current global conflicts, especially those involving ethnicity, religion, and the Islamic world; and the consequences of economic modernization and globalization. As you will see, all of these topics overlap and influence each other in numerous ways. Moreover, they all continue to shape the world we live in today. In short, they’re all things that the informed global citizen ought to know something about.
The most important objective of this course, however, is not just to have you master a body of information. Instead, it is to teach you the value of thinking historically about the world you live in. For example, without knowing some basic history and having the skills to analyze it, you can’t understand how the United States emerged as the dominant world power after World War II and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Likewise, you would be unable to grasp the reasons for the Arab-Israeli conflict or the origins of the United States’ current involvement in Iraq. And if you don’t know the historical and cultural context that produced Osama bin Laden, you really can't know who he is, what he wants, and why he wants to kill you. In addition, you would have enormous difficulty explaining to someone how the global economy has evolved over the past several decades, or why China and India have recently emerged as economic powerhouses. These are just some examples, but the point is that if you don’t possess some basic knowledge about recent world history and the ability to think about it critically, you really can’t understand much at all about this world, how it works, and some of the most important issues that confront it. Consequently, your opinions about these issues would almost certainly be uninformed. As citizens of an increasingly interconnected global community, you’d probably agree that this is not a position you want to find yourself in. While this course can’t give you all of the answers you need or want, it will hopefully spark your intellectual curiosity, make you ask questions, and encourage you to think historically about the global issues that will shape your lives in the decades to come.
In addition to this larger objective, this course aims to improve your ability to analyze primary and secondary sources critically, write clearly and coherently, and articulate your thoughts confidently in front of others. These are skills that will benefit you no matter what your chosen field of study or career may be.
Readings
Required Books: The following books are required reading for this course. They are available for purchase at the UNC Campus Bookstore. You may, however, find better deals from online booksellers. I recommend Buy.com, Ecampus.com, and Amazon.com. Make sure that you get the right edition by using the ISBN numbers provided below. To find the lowest prices, click on the ISBN numbers on the online version of this syllabus.
· Donald Raleigh, ed., Russia’s Sputnik Generation (023421842X)
· Liang Heng, Son of the Revolution (0394722744)
· Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (1596913436)
· Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know (0743278925)
· Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (0471648493)
Course Reader: In addition to the required books, you will read several primary sources and articles from a course reader available in PDF format. To download the course reader, click here on the online version of this syllabus. Your first assignment of the semester is to print this course reader out, put it in a binder, and bring it with you to class whenever readings from it are assigned for that day.
Recommended Textbook: There is no required textbook for this course. However, for those of you who’d like more background information or want to reinforce material from lectures, I recommend reading the corresponding pages from Michael Hunt’s The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present (0312245831), which is also available for purchase at the bookstore. It is more important, however, that you read the required books and other supplementary readings for this course.
Reading the News: As students at an elite university and future members of the educated elite, you should be keeping up with current affairs, both domestic and international. And while a few minutes with the Daily Tarheel or broadcast news outlets such as CNN and Fox News may be all you can manage on some days, you should try to expose yourselves to more sophisticated, elite newspapers such as The New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal; thoughtful opinion magazines like the The New Republic, Slate.com, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The National Review, or The Weekly Standard; and “hard news” services including the Associated Press (AP) or Reuters. Yahoo News and Google News provide easy access to a wide range of “hard news” reports and analysis from wire services and thousands of foreign, national, and local newspapers. Public Radio International’s program “The World” offers some excellent, in-depth, and historically informed reporting. Keeping up with the news will make this course more enjoyable and hopefully instill a good habit that will make you a more informed global citizen for the rest of your life. And if that’s not incentive enough, you can’t really understand John Stewart, Steven Colbert, or The Onion, America’s finest news source, if you don’t stay informed.
How Much Reading? There is a substantial, but still manageable amount of reading in this course. Some weeks will be lighter than others. The longest readings (books) will fall on weeks 3, 4, 8, 13, and 15 so plan ahead. You will almost certainly not be able to complete these readings the night before your recitation section meets. It is absolutely essential, however, that you complete all of the readings on time so that you can participate actively in recitation.
Requirements and Grading
Lectures: All of the “facts” you need for exams will be presented in lectures, so I highly recommend that you attend them all. Lecture outlines will be posted on the online version of this syllabus (see webpage address above) the before class meets. I highly recommend that you download and print out these outlines before class so that you can spend more time listening and thinking than copying. In the past, students have copied these notes into MS Word files to take notes with their laptops. You cannot pass this class by relying on your textbook, Google, or Wikipedia.
Reading Responses: You will submit ten (10) brief responses of about 300-400 words each to questions on your major readings. (Click here for Questions on the online version of this syllabus) To give you an idea of what 300-400 words looks like, the paragraph you are reading now is exactly 352 words. The point of these “homework” assignments is to 1) make sure you’re doing the reading and 2) engaging with it critically. I do not expect you to write polished essays here, but rather short responses informed by your critical engagement with the assigned reading. In addition to answering the main question, your responses may include your own general reactions to and opinions about the reading. You might also want to pose an additional question that you could then bring up in class. Your response must, however, cite the text directly at least once with a short quotation or a specific reference to something in it (an argument, fact, example, etc). You will have eleven opportunities to submit these responses, thus allowing you to miss one. You will not receive extra credit for doing all eleven. In order to avoid large amounts of paper flowing from you to me and then back again, you will submit your responses electronically to Blackboard by typing or copying them directly into the field provided. (See “Assignments” on Blackboard)I recommend that you keep a back-up of all your responses. Each response will be due before class on the date of the reading on the syllabus. No late responses will be accepted, so make sure you get them in on time. I will then read it, occasionally offer some brief feedback, and assign a grade on a scale of 1-10. In general, most of you who do the reading and take these assignments seriously will receive 9 points for each response. Exceptional responses will receive 10 points, while sloppy, uninformed, last-minute BS jobs (you know what I’m talking about!) will receive 7 points or less. You should be able to complete each assignment in 15-20 minutes. In the past, students who completed all of their reading responses on time have ended up with a strong “homework” grade that in most cases boosted their final course grade.
Exams: You will take one 75-minute midterm exam. It will consist of IDs, two short answers, and an essay. At the end of the semester (and I mean end - 4:00 p.m. on December 14!) you will take a two-hour final exam, which will consist of map identifications, IDs, several cumulative short answer questions, and an essay. Review sheets and specific instructions for all exams will be distributed in advance.
Memo Assignment: You will write a 1500-word memo addressed to the member states of United Nations General Assembly. This memo will analyze the history of an important global issue and presents to the international community a series of recommendations designed to address it. Click here on the online syllabus for specific instructions and potential topics. You are encouraged, however, to choose your own topic in consultation with me. The memo will be due on November 20, but you should begin thinking about a topic now.
Extra Credit Films: Several times during the semester films relevant to our course will be shown in the evening. Extra credit (up to 12 points for two films) will be awarded for attending and writing a short response (300-400 words) to a question about the film. You must attend the scheduled screening in order to receive extra credit. You may receive extra credit for two (2) films only. These extra credit films will allow you to earn up to 2 extra points on your final course average, enough to move you from a B+ to an A-.
Grading: The assignments in this course add up to 700 points. Your final grade will be determined by the total number of points you earn divided by 700 (see the scale below).
Assignments / Points / Total Points / Percentage / GradeReading Responses (10) / 100 / 555-600 / 92.5 - 100 / A
Midterm Exam / 150 / 537-554 / 89.5 - 92.4 / A-
Memo Assignment / 100 / 519-536 / 86.5 - 89.4 / B+
Final Exam / 200 / 495-518 / 82.5 - 86.5 / B
Class Participation / 50 / 477-496 / 79.5 - 82.4 / B-
600 points / 459-476 / 76.5 - 79.5 / C+
435-458 / 72.5 - 76.4 / C
417-434 / 69.5 - 72.4 / C-
399-418 / 66.5 - 69.4 / D+
364-398 / 60.6 - 66.4 / D
0-363 / 0 - 60.5 / F
Make-ups and Extensions: Make-ups and extensions will only be granted in the event of an officially documented personal emergency (sickness, family tragedies, etc.). Special events such as interviews or athletic competitions will also be considered reasonable grounds to make-up the midterm, but not for an extension on the memo assignment or another opportunity to submit a reading response. Such events must also be documented. All exam make-ups will be held on Thursday, December 6 (a reading day) at 9:00 a.m. in Stone Center 103. A hardcopy of your memo assignment must be submitted at the beginning of class on Wednesday, November 28. Be sure to save your memo as an MS Word document and keep it until the end of the semester. Ten points will be deducted from your memos for each 24-hour period that they are late, beginning five minutes after the start of class on November 28. If you know that you will be unable to attend the midterm, please let me know as far in advance as possible. The final exam will be held on Friday, December 14, at 4:00 p.m. in Fetzer Gymnasium 103. I understand this is the very last exam – it’s a drag for me too! But please do not plan to travel before then. If you are going on vacation, you need to prove to me that you purchased your tickets before August 21, 2007.
Some Basic Guidelines
Attendance and Tardiness:: Attendance at lectures is not mandatory, although it will be hard to pass this class if you do not attend them regularly. Please make every effort to arrive on time for both lectures and recitations. If you are late (not more than 10 minutes), please enter through the back door of the classroom and take a seat closest to the door in the back row. Please do not walk in front of me if you arrive late or have to leave for some reason. In general, you should not come to class late or leave early because of other appointments or obligations. You should consider this class an appointment that you have scheduled twice per week for the rest of the semester. Either make that appointment or break it, but don’t come to it late or leave early because you’ve scheduled another one for the same time.