Week 4 - European Culture, Thought, and Society: 1850-1914

January 21-25 (4 days)

MLK Jr. day, 1/21; SAT Testing, 1/26
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, please check out these links:
1. MLK, "I have a dream" speech, video from the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.
2. MLK, "Knock at midnight" speech, text and audio, 1967.
3. Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come", an unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement.
4. Nina Simone, "Feeling Good". 

*Leading questions: Who were the new middle classes? How did they come to dominate European societies and cultures? What were some of the main elements of middle-class life? What were some of the dominant intellectual currents? What were some of the main challenges to middle-class ideas and institutions? What was communism? Who were the emerging working classes? What is antisemitism? Where does it come from? Who were the antisemites and how did they challenge the assumptions of liberal European societies?

**Readings: Sherman, "Culture, Thought, and Society: 1850-1914," in Western Civilization, 189-204, and excerpts from Michael Walser Smith, The Butcher's Tale.

***Key Terms and Persons: Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Herbert Spencer, Social Darwinism, John Stuart Mill, Our Sisters, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Anna Maier, Socialism, Emmeline Pankhurst, Female Suffrage, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Racism, Richard Wagner, Anti-Semitism, and the Blood Libel (or accusations of ritual murder).

****Projects: IR/BR: Book review reading and drafting process.

Day 1:

In-class: Take a look at the visual sources listed below and discuss how they reflect 19th century European society and culture; then introduce sources on evolution, Social-Darwinism and antisemitism; read the introduction to the chapter together, ask each of the students to read one of the four primary sources individually, then make notes on the board about key points and passages for their peers, and discuss as a class.

Visual sources: Eastman Johnson, The Ages of Women, Kaethe Kollwitz, Leon Frederic, and Jacob Steinhardt, in: Sherman, pp. 198-201

Primary sources: Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and Richard Wagner, in: Sherman, pp.189-191, and p. 198.

Homework: Secondary source: Smith, The Butcher's Tale (in-class handout; online handout TBA). Using the handout and the primary sources from class, please prepare a written answer to the question: Where does Antisemitism come from?

Day 2:

In class: Discuss: The Butcher's Tale, Antisemitism, and introduce sources on working class ideology, politics and culture. 

Musical sources: excerpts from Richard Wagner and Felix Mendelssohn.

Primary sources: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "The Communist Manifesto," Anna Maier, "Socialist Women: Becoming a Socialist," and Emmeline Pankhurst, "Why We Are Militant," in: Sherman, pp.193-196.  

Homework: Primary sources: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, in: Sherman, pp. 191-192.
Secondary sources: F. H. Hinsley, "The Decline of Political Liberalism," Adam B. Ulam, "The Unfinished Revolution: Marxism Interpreted," C. A. Bayly, "Understanding Nineteenth-Century Industrialization and Urban Life," and Eleanor S. Rimer and John C. Fout, "European Women," in: Sherman, pp. 201-204.
 

Day 3: 

In-class: Discuss liberalism, communism industrialization and gender at the end of the 19th century.

Homework: Book review reading and drafting process; prepare for reading quiz on Monday, January 28.