Course Syllabus AP European History NAME REMOVED FOR AUDIT Instructor Updated August 20, 2009 Course Description The AP course and exam in European History are intended for qualified students who wish to complete classes in secondary school equivalent to college introductory courses in European history. Students are expected to demonstrate a working knowledge of chronology and major events and trends from approximately 1450 to 2001. The primary objective of the course is to assist students in their preparation for the AP European History exam. This course is highly recommended for students intending to take AP US History during their junior year. The full Course Description is available here: http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/ap/students/eurohistory/ap cd eurohist 0708.pdf Instructor s Expectations Our study of European history will involve in depth analysis of a number of historical themes: Intellectual and Cultural History Political and Diplomatic History Social and Economic History The depth of understanding required by the AP exam renders it virtually impossible for students to master the material without extensive preparation outside of class. Students should be prepared to spend at least one or two hours completing assigned readings for each class period. In class lectures and discussions will serve two purposes: to establish the necessary background knowledge to complete assigned readings and to help students to attain a full understanding of the readings they have completed. Central to this process is the student s own effort to struggle, wrestle, and grapple with the readings in between class meetings. Given the extensive essay component of the AP exam, students will also spend a great deal of time writing. It is absolutely essential that students master AP writing techniques if they are to be successful on the exam and in the course. It is also critical that students be fully attentive during class. Expectations for student behavior in this course will be comparable to the expectations of a college course.
Grading and Assessment Exams (60 Percent) Unit exams will form the backbone of students grades. These exams will cover one or more units and will include multiple choice, document based questions (DBQs), and free response questions (FRQs) similar to those that students may encounter on the AP Exam. In addition to AP style questions, some exams will also include instructor generated questions. Point values of exams may vary according to the scope of the material covered. As the AP exam is cumulative in nature, students should be prepared to encounter cumulative elements on every exam. Starting in December, some exams will be fully cumulative in nature. As the year progresses, multiple choice exams will be administered less frequently and will increase in length. A Note on Grading: Students will be expected to improve continually throughout the course. Multiple choice tests will be scaled based upon the highest score. DBQs and FRQs will be graded by more difficult scales as the year progresses (e.g., a student who receives a 6 out of 9 on an essay may receive a grade of 95 during the first nine weeks, but an 85 during the third nine weeks for the same caliber work). Students will have to continually improve their performance in order to maintain a high average in the course. Independent Research (20 Percent) Although most outside assignments involve the completion of assigned readings, students should expect to periodically complete independent research assignments. These assignments will generally involve the construction of PowerPoint presentations or take home essays that showcase individual or small group research. Quizzes (10 Percent) Quizzes will be administered on an as needed basis to encourage students to pay attention in class and complete all assigned readings. Class Participation (10 Percent) In order to be successful in this course, it is imperative that students participate in class discussions, simulations, assignments on the online forum, and all other assigned activities. Both quality and quantity of class participation will be considered in determining a student s participation grade. Students will also have occasional opportunities to earn extra credit through writing interpretive essays based on assigned primary and secondary sources.
Required Texts and Materials Provided Texts: Textbook : McKay, J.P., et al. A History of Western Society Since 1300, Sixth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999. Document Reader: Sowards, J. Kelley, ed. Makers of the Western Tradition: Portraits from History (Vol. 2), Seventh Edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. ISBN: 031214251X Required Supplementary Texts: Bastiat, Frederic. The Law. BN Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 1572462140 Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. Penguin Classics, 1992. ISBN: 0140186247 More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. Filiquarian, 2007. ISBN: 1599869314 Voltaire. Candide. Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003. ISBN: 159308028X Recommended Purchases (for students planning to engage in extensive self preparation): Campbell, M.W., et al. AP European History w/ CD ROM, Tenth Edition. REA Publishing: 2009. ISBN: 073860626X Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History. Modern Library, 2003. ISBN: 0812968646 von Goethe, J. W. The Sorrows of Young Werther. Norilana Books, 2008. ISBN: 1934648965 Units of Instruction Introduction and the Later Middle Ages Approx. One Week Chronology c. 1300 1450 Topics and Key Terms Famine, the Hundred Years War, Decline of Chivalry, Black Death, Catholic Church McKay Chapter 12 Primary Sources The Black Death and the Jews Froissart, Chronicles [Excerpt] Secondary Sources Aberth, From the Brink of the Apocalypse [Excerpts] Essay Practice N/A
Unit 1: The Renaissance Chronology c. 1320 1520 Topics and Key Terms Humanism, Secularism, Commercial Expansion, Classical Art, Northern Renaissance, Renaissance Political Thought McKay Chapter 13 Primary Sources Petrarch, The Ascent of Mount Ventoux Petrarch, Letter to Posterity Machiavelli, The Prince [Excerpts] More, Utopia [Entire] Summer Reading Erasmus, The Praise of Folly [Excerpts] Visual Resources Classical Art of the Renaissance [Slideshow and Student Research] Secondary Sources Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe [Excerpts] Essay Practice FRQ Influence of Humanism on the Visual Arts [2004] Unit 2: The Reformation and Religious Wars Chronology c. 1520 1603 Topics and Key Terms Indulgences, Penance, Purgatory, Martin Luther, Vernacular, Sola Scriptura, John Calvin, Reformed Protestantism, Predestination, English Reformation, Henry VIII and Wives, Act of Supremacy, Church of England, Thomas Cranmer, Mary I, Elizabeth I, Spanish Armada, Counter Reformation, Council of Trent, Ignatius Loyola, Jesuits, Huguenots, Henry IV, Edict of Nantes, Thirty Years War McKay Chapters 14 15 Primary Sources Tetzel s Sermon Martin Luther s 95 Theses [Excerpts] Calvin, Institutes [Excerpts] Henry VIII s Defense of the Seven Sacraments [Excerpt] Henry VIII s Act of Supremacy Anne Boleyn s Scaffold Speech The Execution of Archbishop Cranmer Decrees of the Council of Trent Loyola, Spiritual Exercises Visual Resources Religious Map of Europe Indicating Catholic, Anglican, Calvinist, and Lutheran Majorities Secondary Sources N/A Essay Practice DBQ The Pilgrimage of Grace [2004 B] FRQ Influence of Humanism on Catholic reforms and Protestant Reformation [2007 B] FRQ Political Authorities and the Protestant Reformation [2002 B] FRQ Martin Luther and Henry VIII [2005] FRQ Catholic Counter Reformation [2006] Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism Chronology c. 1603 1725 Topics and Key Terms Absolutism, Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIV, Bourgeoisie, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Mercantilism, Peter the Great, Westernization, The Stuarts, Puritans and Separatists, Constitutionalism, English Civil War, Glorious Revolution, English Bill of Rights, John Locke McKay Chapters 16 17 Primary Sources Saint Simon, The Memoirs [Sowards, 2 12] The Petition of Right Scaffold Speech of Charles I The English Bill of Rights Locke, Two Treatises on Government [Excerpts] Visual Resources Versailles Slideshow / Baroque Architecture
Dutch Art Slideshow Secondary Sources Voltaire, A Rationalist View of Absolutism [Sowards, 13 17] Knecht, Cardinal Richelieu: Hero or Villain? History Today, March 2003 Essay Practice DBQ Sword and Robe Nobility in France [2007 B] FRQ Louis XIV [2003] FRQ Peter the Great and Frederick the Great [2002 B] FRQ Theories of government in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries [2002 B] FRQ Absolutism and the Nobility [2002] FRQ Hobbes and Locke [2008 B] Unit 4: The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment Approx. Three Weeks Chronology 1543 1787 Topics and Key Terms Copernicus, Galileo, Heliocentrism, Geocentrism, Newton, Bacon, Inductive Reasoning, Descartes, Scientific Method, Empiricism, Rationalism, Science and Religion, Enlightenment, Salons, Philosophes, Voltaire, Deism, Montesquieu, Kant, Diderot, Enlightened Despotism, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations McKay Chapters 18 20 Primary Sources Kant, What is Enlightenment? Voltaire, Religion [Sowards, 29 35] Voltaire, Candide [Entire] Diderot s Encyclopedia [Independent Research] Catherine the Great s Memoirs [Sowards, 48 56] Shcherbatov, Catherine in Her Own Time [Sowards, 57 60] Visual Resources Graph: Population Growth in 18 th Century Europe Secondary Sources Sobel, Galileo s Daughter [Chapter 1] Gay, The Modern Pagan [Sowards, 38 43] Marshall, From Mercantilism to The Wealth of Nations, The World and I, May 1999 Essay Practice DBQ The Scientific Revolution [2005 B] FRQ Scientific Method and Scientific Thinking [2000] FRQ Eighteenth Century Agricultural Revolution [2003] FRQ Jean Baptiste Colbert and Adam Smith [2002 B] Unit 5: The French Revolution and Napoleon Chronology 1787 1815 Topics and Key Terms Bourgeoisie, Estates General, Louis XVI, National Assembly, Second French Revolution, Reign of Terror, Danton and Robespierre, Thermidorian Reaction, Napoleon Bonaparte, The Napoleonic Code, Napoleon s Defeat, Balance of Power McKay Chapters 21 Primary Sources Sieyes, What is the Third Estate? Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Woman [McKay, 722 723] Napoleon s Memoirs [Sowards, 73 83] de Stael, On Politics, Literature, and National Character [Sowards, 83 88] Visual Resources Slideshow: Jacques Louis David and Neoclassical Art Secondary Sources Lefebvre, A Modern Napoleon [Sowards, 88 93] Essay Practice DBQ The French Revolutionary Calendar [2008 B] FRQ The Enlightenment and the French Revolution [2003]
Unit 6: Industrial Revolution and the Age of Isms Approx. Three Weeks Chronology 1815 1850 Topics and Key Terms Council of Vienna, Holy Alliance, Conservatism, Industrial Revolution, Romanticism, Liberalism, Socialism, Reform in Nineteenth Century England, Revolutions of 1848 McKay Chapters 22 24 Primary Sources Cobbett, Rural Rides [Excerpts] Blake, Jerusalem Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther [Excerpts] Bastiat, The Law [Entire] Visual Resources Slideshow: Romantic Art Secondary Sources Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Chapters 13 15 Essay Practice FRQ Britain s dominant economic power, 1700 1830 [2000] FRQ Political Liberalism and Conservatism [2003 B] FRQ Romanticism as a Challenge to the Enlightenment [2004 B] Unit 7: Unification, Mass Politics, Victoria, and the New Imperialism Chronology 1850 1914 Topics and Key Terms Unification of Italy and Germany, Victoria and Albert, Victorian Politics, the Victorian Family, New Imperialism, Cecil Rhodes, British India McKay Chapters 25 26 Primary Sources Darwin, The Origin of the Species [Sowards, 99 106] Low, Contemporary Recollections of Cecil Rhodes [Sowards, 191 203] Visual Resources Political Cartoons from Victorian England Graphs: Population Increase and Migration to Cities in England Secondary Sources Moorehead, Darwin and the Beagle [Sowards, 107 112] Cloete, A South African View of Rhodes [Sowards, 203 208] Hardie, The Royal Titles Bill: Show or Substance? [Sowards, 134 137] Aronson, Public Policy and Imperial Will [Sowards, 137 142] Essay Practice DBQ Attitudes toward the New Imperialism [2009] FRQ Gender roles in the late 19th century [2000] FRQ Unification of Italy and Germany Compared [2008 B] FRQ Changes in women s lives in the nineteenth century [2008] Unit 8: World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Age of Anxiety Chronology 1914 1930 Topics and Key Terms Alliance System, Dreadnought, World War I, Russian Revolution, Lenin, Bolsheviks, Versailles Treaty, League of Nations, Modernism, The Great Depression McKay Chapters 27 28 Primary Sources German Students War Letters Trotsky, The Young Lenin [Sowards, 147 156] Freud, Dreams and the Inner Self [Sowards, 171 177] Nietzsche, The Anti Christ [Excerpts] Joad, A Christian View of Evil [McKay, 954 955] Visual Resources Slideshow: Otto Dix and European Expressionism World War I Propaganda Posters Secondary Sources N/A Essay Practice FRQ Darwin and Freud vs. the Enlightenment [2000] FRQ Impact of First World War on European Culture [2002]
Unit 9: The Rise of Dictatorships and World War II Chronology 1920s 1945 Topics and Key Terms Totalitarianism, Fascism, Collectivization, Stalinism, Fascism, Mussolini, Black Shirts, Nazism, Adolf Hitler, Enabling Act, Appeasement, Blitzkrieg, D Day McKay Chapter 29 Primary Sources Hitler, Mein Kampf [Sowards, 219 225] Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago [Excerpt] Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen [Entire] Visual Resources Riefenstahl, The Triumph of the Will [German National Socialist Propaganda Video] Secondary Sources N/A Essay Practice DBQ Fascism [2002 B] FRQ Dictators, Technology, and Mass Culture [2004] FRQ Comparison of Absolutism and Dictatorships [2004 B] FRQ Aftermath of WWI and WWII [2005 B] FRQ Reasons for Germany s Defeat in WWII [2006] Unit 10: The Cold War, Social Transformation, and Contemporary Europe Chronology 1945 2001 Topics and Key Terms Big Three, Marshall Plan, NATO, Cold War, Common Market, Decolonization, de Stalinization, détente, OPEC, Misery Index, Glasnost, Perestroika, Fall of Communism, Globalization, European Union, Yugoslavian Civil Wars, September 11 Attacks and NATO s Response McKay Chapters 30 31 Primary Sources Churchill s Iron Curtain Speech [Sowards, 275 279] Stalin and Molotov, Reply to Churchill [Sowards, 279 283] Gandhi, The Origin of Nonviolence [Sowards, 301 305] What is Article 5? [NATO Website] Statement to the Press by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, after 9/11 attacks Visual Resources Cold War Propaganda Secondary Sources Rothstein, Contemplating Churchill, Smithsonian, March 2005 Essay Practice DBQ 1968 unrest in France [2009 B] FRQ The End of Soviet Domination in Eastern Europe [2003] INTENSIVE REVIEW Chronology Topics and Key Terms Essay Practice 1450 Present ALL DBQs and FRQs from 1999 and 2004 Released Exams AP EXAM MAY 7, 2010 Approx. Three Weeks The remaining time will be spent on a unit offering an in depth look at a topic (or series of topics) relevant to European History, to be decided upon by consultation between the instructor and students before Spring Break. We will also use some of the remaining time to view historical films that the brisk pace of the AP course did not allow us to view during the initial coverage of the content.