History
140-006
Fall
2009
Hunziker
The
World Since 1945
| Contact
Information | Course
Overview and Objectives |
Readings |
| Requirements
and Grading | Course
Guidelines | Schedule
of Classes and Assignments |
Instructor:
Dr. Brandon
Hunziker (mailto:branhunz@email.unc.edu?subject=History%20140%20(fill%20in%20rest%20of%20subject)
Webpage:
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2009fall/hist/140/006/
Lecture:
Phillips 215,
MWF, 10-10:50 a.m.
Office
Hours: Hamilton Hall 515, MW, 2-3 p.m., Tues/Thurs, 9-12
a.m.
Telephone:
962-2374 (email
is always better)
Teaching
Assistants: Michael
Paulauskas (mpaulaus@email.unc.edu)
Elizabeth Gritter (egritter@email.unc.edu)
Sarah Barksdale (sbarksda@email.unc.edu)
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 and nation-building 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
several current global conflicts and issues, 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 an 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 and possibly quite ignorant. 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.
Required Books
and Reading: 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 (but don’t work for!) Buy.com, Ecampus.com, and
Amazon.com ($65.48 shipped from Amazon). Be 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 web-based version of this
syllabus.
·
Heda Margolius
Kovály, Under a Cruel Star: Life in
Prague, 1941-1968 (0841913773)
·
Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern
India (1400079772)
·
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the
Heart of the Middle East (1596913436)
·
Rob Gifford, The China Road: A Journey into the Future of
a Rising Power (9780812975246)
·
Sharin Ebadi, Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to
Reclaim Her Life and Country (0812975286)
·
Rajiv
Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the
Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone (9780307278838)
In addition to
these books, for weeks 4 and 15 you will read documents and articles that can be
accessed directly from the online syllabus. You should print these out and bring
them to your recitation section. I will also be posting numerous recommended readings relevant to the
various topics that you may be interested in on the syllabus and on
Blackboard.
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).
I will put two copies on reserve at the Undergraduate Library, but you can also
purchase a copy yourself. 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 – and fully get the jokes of –
Jon
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, and on some you will, technically, not have any at
all. But you will not be able to finish the books the night before your
recitation section meets, so use light weeks to get ahead. It is absolutely
essential that you complete all of the readings on time so that you can
participate actively in recitation, write your papers, and be prepared for your
exams. To do this, you really need to be reading almost every day of the
week.
Lectures:
All of the
“facts” you need for exams and papers will be presented in lectures, so I highly
recommend that you attend them all. Lecture outlines will be posted on line
before class meets (see
schedule of classes). 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.
Recitation:
Recitation is an integral component of
this course. It is where you and
your classmates will “do” history together by critically discussing primary and
secondary sources, freely exchanging your thoughts, ideas, and questions, and,
in the process, improving your ability to articulate yourself in front of
others. It is here where you will
actively create knowledge, not just absorb it. You will be assessed according to how
well (qualitatively and
quantitatively) you participate in weekly discussions. In general, the more you
offer your informed thoughts in recitation about the subject material, the
better you will do. So prepare well
for recitation by reading the assigned texts carefully, thinking of questions,
ideas, and issues they provoke, and coming ready to share them. Laptop use is not permitted during
recitation section.
The attendance and participation
grade (15%) is one of the hardest for teaching assistants to assign and for
students understand. Below is the grading system that we will use to determine
your grade. As you will see, 70/100 points are basically yours to take. Pretty
much all you need to do is show up on time to all recitations, bring your
readings, and sit and listen attentively. This will make for a very dull hour,
of course, and your teaching assistants will do everything they can to get you
to participate. But it ensures that quiet students are not unduly penalized for
not participating actively. The other 30 points (about 5% of your course grade)
depend on the quantity and quality of your participation. While there is always
an element of subjectivity involved in determining this (especially quality), in
general the more relevant, thoughtful, and articulate comments you make and the
more you engage your fellow students and you teaching assistant, the better you
will do. Simply talking a lot or trying to dominate discussion, however, does
not constitute quality participation! It is our belief that every student is
capable of making a grade of at least an 80 quite easily, and it should not be
too much more difficult to achieve an 85 or 90. Grades of 95 and 100, however,
will be reserved for outstanding students (see my note about grades
below).
|
70
(C-) |
Perfect attendance, no
participation: show up on-time with readings, attentive, but silent during
most recitation sections |
|
75
(C) |
Perfect attendance, some
participation: show up on-time with readings, attentive, participate in
4-5 recitation sections |
|
80
(B-) |
Perfect attendance,
satisfactory participation: show up on-time with readings, attentive,
participate at least once during 6-7 recitation
sections. |
|
85
(B) |
Perfect attendance, good
participation: show up
on-time with readings, attentive, participate with good comments at least
twice during 7-8 recitation sections |
|
90
(A-) |
Perfect attendance,
excellent participation: show
up on-time with readings, attentive, participate with especially strong
comments at least three times during all 8 recitation
sections |
|
95
(A) |
Perfect attendance,
outstanding participation:
show up on-time with readings, attentive, participate as much as
possible and relevant (without dominating and speaking just to speak)
during all 9 recitation sections, distinguish yourself by the
sophistication and eloquence of your comments. |
|
100
(A+) |
This grade will be awarded
to the most outstanding student in each recitation
section. |
Points will be deducted from your
final grade for each incident of the following. All of these should be very easy
to avoid.
Absence: 10 points
Lateness (more than 2 minutes, not
more than 10): 2
points
Unprepared (not bringing
readings): 3
points
Rude, disrespectful, or disruptive
behavior: 5 points (rare, but
possible)
Exams:
During
the semester, you will take two 50-minute written exams consisting of IDs and
short answers. At the end of the semester, you will take a 2-hour final exam,
which will consist of map identifications, IDs, an essay, and several cumulative
short answer questions.
Papers: You
will write two 1500-word (5 pages), thesis-driven essays based on supplementary
readings discussed in recitation. Specific questions and instructions for
writing these essays will be given well in advance of their due dates.
Grading:
Your grade will
be determined according to the following percentages and grading scale. All
grades will be available on Blackboard.
|
Weight |
|
Grading
Scale |
| |
|
Exam 1 |
15% |
|
>
93 |
A |
|
Exam 2 |
15% |
|
>
90 |
A- |
|
Paper 1 |
15% |
|
>
87 |
B+ |
|
Paper 2 |
15% |
|
>
83 |
B |
|
Attendance &
Participation |
15% |
|
>
80 |
B- |
|
Final Exam |
25% |
|
>
77 |
C+ |
|
|
|
|
>
73 |
C |
|
|
|
|
>
70 |
C- |
|
|
|
|
>
67 |
D+ |
|
|
|
|
>
61 |
D |
|
|
|
|
0-60.9 |
F |
A Word about
Grades: This course follows the grading guidelines specified by
the College of Arts
& Sciences and General College. Over the past
two decades, colleges and universities across the country, including UNC, have
experienced a noticeable “inflation” of grades. There are many reasons for this:
better prepared, harder working, and more driven students, better teaching, and
new technologies (laptops, the Internet, multimedia, etc.), but also a sense of
entitlement among some students. As a result, the “B” has, at least in the minds
of many students, replaced the “C” as the grade signifying satisfactory
performance at UNC, and many believe that everyone is capable of getting an “A”.
That should not be the case. A “C”, in my opinion, still signifies satisfactory
performance and is nothing to be ashamed of, while a “B” stands for above
average achievement. It is not, however, my intention to fight grade inflation
by setting quotas for the number of As, Bs, Cs, etc. given in my courses.
Students should get the grades they deserve, and if that means a higher course
GPA than might have been the case 10 or 15 years ago, so be it. At the same time, I strongly believe
that the grades of “A-” or “A” should be reserved for truly superior,
“outstanding” achievement. Some students’ performance just stands out from the
rest, especially in humanities courses where such things as elegance in writing,
sophistication of argument, and eloquence in class discussions are often what
make the difference between a “B” (“high level of attainment”) and an “A”
(“highest level of attainment”). So, while the chances are quite good that the
majority of students in this course will do quite well and thus, according to
UNC’s grading guidelines, receive a “B” of some sort, only a relatively small
number of students will exhibit “outstanding” performance and, as a result,
receive a grade of “A-” or “A”. If that were not the case, then those grades
have very little meaning.
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 an exam, but not grounds for a paper extension. Such events must also
be documented. Be sure to save your papers as an MS Word document and keep it
until the end of the semester. Ten points will be deducted from your papers for
each business day that they are late, beginning five minutes after the start of
class. If you know that you will be unable an exam, please inform your teaching
assistant and me through email as far in advance as possible. The final exam
will be held on Wednesday, December 16, at 8:00 a.m. in Phillips 215.
Please do not
plan to travel before then.
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. Attendance at recitation section, however, is
mandatory. Unexcused absences from recitation will result in a 10-point
deduction from your participation grade. Please make every effort to arrive on
time for both lectures and recitations. If you are late (not more than 10
minutes) for lecture, 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 the room. 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 three times
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.
Cell Phones and
Laptops: Please turn
your cell phones off - not to
vibrate, but off – before class
begins. Now, the chances are pretty good that cell phones will ring a few times
in the course of the semester. If yours does, turn it off quickly. No need to
apologize. However, if you are a repeat offender, you may be asked to leave. You
may, of course, use your laptop to take notes. Do not, however, use your laptop
or cell phone to email, surf the web, watch movies, instant message, or check
each other out on Facebook. There
are few things I find more distracting or disrespectful than a student gazing
into a laptop screen or cell phone and doing things that have nothing to do with
the course. If you want to do these things, please do them someplace where I
won’t disturb you with my lecture. In addition, such unauthorized used of
electronic devices may also be considered “disruptive behavior,” and thus
constitute a violation of the UNC Honor Code.
Classroom
Conduct: Please do not
eat, sleep, read, do work for other classes, or chat with your neighbor during
class. If you cannot control the urge to talk with your neighbor in class, I
suggest that you move to another seat. Seriously – it can be hard not to talk to friends during a lecture.
You may, of course, drink coffee or other beverages during class, especially if
they help you stay awake. Please do not start packing up your things until I end
the class, as it is very distracting both to me and other students who are still
listening.
Honor
Code: The UNC
Honor Code applies to all of your work and conduct in this course. Cheating,
plagiarism, or insensitive behavior (i.e. not respecting your classmates or
instructors) of any kind will not be tolerated. If you do not know what
constitutes cheating, plagiarism, or insensitivity, please reread the honor code
or ask me, as claiming ignorance is not a valid excuse. Internet plagiarism is a
growing problem on college campuses nationwide, and one your teaching assistants
and I will do everything we can to combat. If we have any reason to believe that
you may have plagiarized, we will carefully examine your work using all of the
tools available to us. Our advice to you: don’t even try it – it’s really not
worth it. In fact, most of the plagiarism I’ve seen has not been very good
anyway!
Problems,
Concerns, and Difficulties: We would like
to talk to you about any concerns you may have about a grade, your performance
in the course, problems with the material, and especially how to improve. We
would ask, however, that you wait at
least 24 hours before talking to us about any paper or exam that has just
been handed back. Any issue that involves your teaching assistant (a grade,
discussion section, etc.) should be discussed first with him or her. Remember,
email can sometimes lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and confusion. It’s
sometimes best to discuss things in person. When you do write us emails, begin
them with a “Dear” or “Hi” and end with a “Sincerely” or “Thanks,” followed by
your name. We’ll extend the same courtesy to you.
Schedule
of Classes, Readings, and Assignments
(This
schedule, the readings, and assignments are subject to change at the discretion
of the instructor.)
I.
Ideological Conflict on a Global Scale
|
Week 1 |
Introduction and the Cold
War |
|
8/26 |
|
|
8/28 |
Cold
War: Definitions, Origins, and Early History, 1917-1962 |
|
Week 2 |
Cold War Cultures and Soviet Style
Communism |
|
8/31 |
The
Cold War: From Crisis to Détente,
1949-1975 |
|
9/2 |
|
|
9/3-9/4 |
Communism
comes to Eastern Europe: Hopes and Realities Read: Heda
Margoloius Kovály, Under a Cruel
Star: Life in Prague,
1941-1968 |
|
Week 3 |
Communism after Stalin and the West
European Alternative |
|
9/7 |
Labor Day –
No Class |
|
9/9 |
After
Stalin: Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,
1956-1980 |
|
9/11 |
The
West European Alternative: Post-Nationalism, Integration and Social Market
Economies |
|
Week 4 |
Cold War
Battlegrounds |
|
9/14 |
|
|
9/16 |
|
|
9/17-9/18 Recitation |
Read:
Ho
Chi Minh, “Vietnamese Declaration of Independence,” 9/2/1945 (click on
links for documents)
Lyndon
B. Johnson, “Peace without Conquest,” 4/7/1965
K.
Mikhailov, “Provocatory Campaign Over Afghanistan,” International Affairs, no. 3, 26
(1980): 97-100. Optional:
John Berry & Evan Thomas, “Obama’s Vietnam” Newsweek, July 20,
2009.
Peter Baker, “Could
Afghanistan Become Obama’s Vietnam?” New York Times, August 23,
2009.
John Harwood, “Obama
Rejects Afghanistan-Vietnam Comparison,” New York Times, September 15,
2009.
President
Carter’s Address to Nation on Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan (January 4,
1980) *In
addition, I would like you to read as many news items (including magazine
articles, opinion pieces, etc.) about Afghanistan as you can over the next
week. Click
here to get started. |
|
Week 5 |
The End of the Cold War and
Post-Cold War Europe |
|
9/21 |
|
|
9/23 |
|
|
9/25 |
Exam #1 (Phillips 215, 10:00
am) |
II. Models of Decolonization and
Nation-Building
|
Week 6 |
Chinese
Revolutions |
|
9/28 |
|
|
9/30 |
|
|
10/1-10/2 Recitation |
Read: Rob
Gifford, China Road: A Journey into
the Future of a Rising Power Click
Here for the First Paper Assignment Optional:
“Evolution of China's revolution: from
bloody repression to capitalism red in tooth and claw” The Telegraph,
9/30/2009. Listen: NPR, “Is China Ready to Lead Global
Economy” |
|
Week 7 |
Strange
Success: India since 1945 |
|
10/5 |
|
|
10/7 |
India
and Pakistan since Independence: The India-Pakistan
Conflict |
|
10/8-10/9 Recitation |
Read:
Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods:
The Rise of Modern India |
|
Week 8 |
Latin America, The United States,
and the Cuban Revolution |
|
10/12 |
University
Day – No Class |
|
10/14 |
Latin
America and the United States, 1890-1990 |
|
10/15 |
The Cuban
Revolution, 1954-2006 Optional:
NPR Report on the The 50th Anniversary of Cuban Uprising
(7/27/2003).
PRI
The World Report: “Easing Restrictions on Cuba” (9/4/2009)
Jon Lee Anderson, “Castro’s Last Battle: Can the Revolution Outlast
Its Leader?” The New
Yorker, 7/31/2006
Jon Lee
Anderson, “Fidel’s Heir: The Influence of Hugo
Chávez,” The New
Yorker, June 23, 2008. (no
recitation this week, come to lecture
instead) |
III. Conflicts in the Middle East since
1945
|
Week 10 |
Nationalism,
Religion, and Conflict in the Middle East |
|
10/26 |
The
Origins of Israel and the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,
1895-1967 |
|
10/28 |
The
Arab/Palestinian-Israeli Conflict since 1967 |
|
10/29-10/30 Recitation |
The
Search for Understanding in an Intractable Conflict Read:
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An
Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East |
|
Week 11 |
The
Islamist Alternative in the Middle East |
|
11/2 |
The
Failure of Secular Arab Nationalism and Islamist
Alternatives |
|
11/4 |
Exam #2 (Phillips 215, 10:00
am) |
|
11/6 |
Lecture
Cancelled |
|
Week 12 |
Modern Iran and the Islamic
Revolution of 1979 |
|
11/9 |
Jihadist
Ideology, Osama bin Laden, and the Origins of al
Qaeda |
|
11/11 |
The
Origins and Consequences of the Islamic Revolution in Iran,
1900-2009 |
|
11/12-11/13 Recitation |
Living in
the Islamic Republic of Iran Read:
Sharin Ebadi, Iran Awakening: One
Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country Click
Here for Second Paper Assignment (Due December 2 in
class)s |
|
Week 13 |
Modern
Iraq and the Iraq War |
|
11/16 |
|
|
11/18 |
|
|
11/19-11/20 Recitation |
Neo-Conservative Dreams on the
Tigris Rajiv
Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in
the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green
Zone |
IV. Globalization
|
Week 14 |
Globalization
|
|
11/23 |
|
|
11/25 |
Thanksgiving
Holiday |
|
Week 15 |
Old and New Problems in a
Globalizing World |
|
11/30 |
|
|
12/2 |
The
Global Environment and the Future of CivilizationDue: Paper #2 (in
class) |
|
12/3-4 Recitation |
Recitation: Globalization, Development,
Population Growth, and Climate Change: The Issue that Trumps all
Others. Read:
Selections from Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a
Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America (found in “Documents”
section of Blackboard) |
|
Week 16 |
Economic Crisis and
Conclusion |
|
12/7 |
The
Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession
I Evaluations |
|
12/9 |
The
Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession II |
Final Exam:
Wednesday, December 16, at 8:00 a.m. in
Phillips 215
