Spinney's Modern World History at Santa Fe Prep: April 2013

Course Description

Welcome! This site is for students, parents, teachers and anyone else interested in the tenth-grade World History 2 Course at Santa Fe Prep.

The overall course covers the history of the world from roughly 1500 to the present. The first quarter opens with the time when Asia was the center of world affairs, then traces European encounters with Asia and the Americas, and the complex interactions and consequences of the so-called "Columbian Exchange" between Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. The first quarter ends with a survey of the European Renaissance and Reformation, in both its local and global dimensions. The second quarter will focus on the rise of absolute monarchies and new ideas and practices, especially with the scientific revolution and Enlightenment. The second quarter ends with assessments of the legacies of the French Revolution, Napoleon and the emergence of the British Empire. The third quarter starts with the implications of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars in the wake of the Congress of Vienna, i.e., the discourse on rights, reaction, revolution and reform, the rise of new ideologies, in particular, Classical Liberalism, nationalism, and romanticism, and conservative reactions to the changes wrought by the American and French Revolutions. The course then examines the rise of industrialization and social change in 19th-century Europe, and the emergence of middle and working class cultures, followed by new iterations of liberalism and conservatism, the proliferation of more ideologies, e.g., socialism, communism, ultranationalism, social Darwinism, and antisemitism. Then the course examines the unification of the Italian and German nation states, and the creation of the modern welfare state. From there the course traces the rise of a new wave of Western imperialism, followed by the rest of the world's reactions to the rise of European empires and ideas, and in particular, the emergence of industrial Japan and their surprising victory over Russia. The third quarter ends with the outbreak of the First World War. The fourth and final quarter surveys the effects of the First World War, followed by the brief peak of classical liberal nation states and promises for peace, and the rapid rise of authoritarianism, in both communist and fascist variations, with a special focus on the rise of Nazism, the Nazi racial transformation of Germany and the Holocaust and Shoah of modern Europe. The fourth quarter concludes by looking at the causes and effects of the Second World War, the Cold War, the end of European empires in Asia and Africa, the emergence of the Modern Middle East and China, the end of the Cold War, history since 1989, all the way to the present, including current events.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Week 15 and 16: Postwar Colonization and Independence Movements

April 22-26,
and April 29-May 3, 2013

Day 1: Review.
In-class: Review the materials from the last two weeks on the Postwar Period and the Cold War, in preparation for the next quiz (TBD).

Day 2: Decolonization.
In-class: Discuss readings on decolonization.
1. Visual source: "Decolonization in Asia and Africa," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, p. 264.
2. Primary source: Read handout from Kwame Nkrumah, "Statement of African Unity".
3. Primary source: Read "UN Declaration Against Colonialism," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 257-258.
4. Secondary source: John Springhall, "The Collapse of European Empires," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp.270-271.
5. Secondary source: Franz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 271-272.
6. Secondary source: "The End of the Colonial Empires," in: Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp. 471-480.
7. Question: Why did European colonial empires collapse after the end of the Second World War? Make sure to make use of the available primary and secondary sources in composing your answer.
8. Key terms: The Non-Alignment Movement, Pan-Africanism, 1956 Suez Crisis, Zionism, Pan-Arabism, 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, Dien Bien Phu, The Boers, Apartheid, Proxy Wars.
9. Key persons: Mohandas Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamel Abdel Nasser, Ho Chi Minh.

Day 3: Oral History Interviews.
In-class: Discuss handouts on examples of oral histories.
1. Primary source: "The Big Money," and "God Bless the Child," in: Studs Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.
2. Primary source: "I suppose you met him in Jerusalem," in: Hadara Lazar, Out of Palestine: The Making of Modern Israel.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Week 14: The Cold War

April 16-19, 2013

Head's Holiday, Monday, April 15

Day 1: Postwar review

1. Discuss current events.

2. Review the effects of the Second World War; turn in notes to this question at the end of the week.

3. Review guidelines for oral history and capstone projects.
4. Select an interview partner(s) by Monday, April 22, 2013.

Day 2: The Cold War

1. Read "The World of 1945" and "Cold War", in: Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp. 465-471.

2. See also primary sources: "The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan", "The Cold War: A Soviet Perspective", and "The Berlin Wall", in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 253-256.

3. See also secondary source: James L. Gormly, "Origins of the Cold War", in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 269-270.

4. Homework Question: What were the causes of the Cold War? Make sure to explicitly use BOTH primary and secondary sources to answer this question.

5. Key terms: The United Nations, The UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, Superpowers, George Keenan's "Long Telegram", The Truman Doctrine, The Marshall Plan, Organization for European Economic Cooperation, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, The Berlin Airlift, and The Berlin Wall.

6. Key persons: Harry S. Truman and George C. Marshall.
7. Turn in both homework questions, i.e., on the effects of the Second World War and the causes of the Cold War on Friday, April 19 in class to Mr. Bixby, who will be teaching that day.
8. The next quiz is to be determined; Review on Monday, April 22.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Week 13: The Postwar World (1945- )

April 8-12, 2013

Day 1, Monday, April 8:
1. In-class: Quiz on the Holocaust.

2. Homework: There is no new nightly homework; focus on research and writing for the independent project.

3. Independent research drafts are DUE by the end of the day, Friday, April 12.

Day 2: The Second World War.
1. In-class: Discuss the question: What were the effects of the Second World War? Prepare notes in class.

2. Key terms: The Axis Powers, The Allies, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, FDR, Poland: The Katyn Massacre, Vichy France, The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Pearl Harbor, The Battle of the Coral Sea, The Battle of Midway, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Strategic Bombing, Displaced Persons (DP's), The Nuremberg Trials, The Doctors Trial, International Law: Crimes Against Humanity, The Nuremberg Code of Ethics, Genocide, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, The United Nations, The 3 D's: Democratization, Demilitarization and De-Nazification, The Cold War, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), The Warsaw Pact, and Decolonization.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Week 12: The Holocaust

April 1-5, 2013

Day 1: Monday, April 1: Poland, the Laboratory of the Holocaust

1. Brief review of materials from Week 10 and 11.

2. Quiz on Week 10 and 11 materials

3a. Discuss the handout by Christopher Browning, "One Day in Jozefow, and Eric Lichtblau's article from the New York Times, "The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking" (March 1, 2013).

3b. Homework Question: What happened in Jozefow and what, according to Browning, does the evidence suggest about German participation in the Holocaust (prepare for discussion and collection at the end of the week)?

4. Key Terms: "Final Solution", General Government, Ghetto, Trawniki and the Order Police.

5. Homework: Read the following primary sources in Sherman, Western Civilization:

a. Guida Diehl, "The German Woman and National Socialism," p. 238.

b. Eugene Kogon, "The Theory and Practice of Hell," p. 238.

c. Bruno Bettelheim, "The Informed Heart: Nazi Concentration Camps," p. 239.

d. Fred Baron, "Witness to the Holocaust," pp. 239-240.

6. Homework Question: Using the primary source documents, how did the Nazis justify the participation of German men and women in their politics and warfare, and on the other side, how did their opponents experience Nazism.

Day 2: The Holocaust
1. Continue to Discuss the handout by Christopher Browning, "One Day in Jozefow, Eric Lichtblau's article from the New York Times, "The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking" (March 1, 2013), and the primary sources from homework.

2. Homework: Read the following primary source handouts from class:
a. "The Final Solution," pp. 432-440.
b. "The Extermination Process," pp. 441-443.
c. "Escape from Treblinka," pp. 448-455.

3. Key Terms: Operation Reinhard, The Wannsee Conference, Lebensraum, Mischling, Einsatzgruppen, The Barbarossa Decree (June 6, 1941), The Commissar Order (June 6, 1941), Treblinka, Kapo, Totenlager, Auschwitz and Special Unit 1005 (Sonderaktion 1005).

Quiz #8 on Monday, April 8, 2013,