Spinney's Modern World History at Santa Fe Prep: May 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.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Week 19: Capstones and Review

May 20-24, 2013
Last thoughts on Modern World History
Capstone Exhibitions
Final Self Reflections, due by the end of the week
Final Exam, Friday, May 24 from 1:00 to 3:00PM

Monday, May 20: Capstone Exhibitions
1. In-class: Students should be prepared to start presenting their capstone projects or review for the final exam.
2. Organize exhibition schedule for the week.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Week 18: The Rise of Modern China

Monday, May 13 - Friday, May 17, 2013
Wednesday, May 15: Visit Literary England
Friday, May 17: Awards Ceremony Special Schedule and last reading quiz.

Day 1: Review the Emergence of the Modern Middle East

Day 2: The Rise of Modern China
1. Key terms: Chinese Nationalists, Communism, China's Independence (1949), The Great Leap Forward (1958), The Great Famine (1959-62), The Cultural Revolution (1966-69), The Opening of China to the West (1972), The Market Reforms of 1979, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989).
2. Key Persons: Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Spring Semester Final Exams and Capstone Project Expectations

1. Schedule:
Friday, May 24
1:00-3:00 PM in the gym
Extended Time Exams in the Network Classroom

2. Review.
A. Review 2013 Spring Semester blog posts for key themes, questions, terms and persons.

3. Format.
A. Objective Sections
- Goal: demonstrate grasp of basic knowledge from this semester's study of modern history.
- Matching Key Terms and Persons
- True/False
- Short Answer

B. DBQ: Document-based Question.
- Goal: Demonstrate grasp of historiography, i.e., leading points of view in the available secondary source materials, to provide groundwork for your thesis, i.e., a clear response and argument to the question.
- Make effective use of available primary source documents and knowledge as supporting forms of evidence to show key points of thesis.

4. Possible DBQ Themes.
A. What were the effects of the First World War?
B. How did the Nazis seize power?
C. How did the Nazis attempt to racially transform German society and Europe?
D. Is the Holocaust explicable?
E. What were the effects of the Second World War?
F. What were the causes of the Cold War?
G. Why did decolonization occur?

5. The Alternative: The Capstone Projects
- Goal: Demonstrate solid grasp in a particular area of the class in terms of the historiography, i.e., secondary sources for a particular subject, and/or develop electronic resource collections of primary and secondary sources, annotated bibliographies and additional online resources for future research.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Week 17: The Emergence of the Modern Middle East

Monday, May 6 to Thursday, May 9, 2013
Head's Holiday on Friday, May 10.

Remaining calendar:
Week 17: work on capstone projects or review for final exams during long periods.
Week 18: work on capstone projects or review for final exams during long periods; begin setting up capstone projects in classroom.
Week 19: Finish work and set up final exhibitions of capstone projects, or continue to study for final exams.

Day 1: Monday, May 6: The Making of Modern Israel
1. In-class: Go over final details about the capstone projects and final exam options.
2. Oral history handout: Hadara Lazar, "I suppose you met him in Jerusalem," in: Out of Palestine: The Making of Modern Israel, pp. 82-87.
3. Homework: Read excerpts from the secondary source: David Crist, The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran.
4. Key Terms: The Balfour Declaration, Zionism, the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Hagana, The Six-Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War (1973), the Two-State Solution, Fatah, and Hamas.

Day 2: The Iranian Revolution
1. In-class: Discuss the reading from homework, David Crist, The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran.
2. Key Terms: Savak, The Iranian Revolution (1979), The Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979-80), The Iranian Guard, Islamism/Islamization, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
3. Key Persons: Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Ayatollah Khomeini, Marjane Satrapi.

Day 3: The War on Terror and the Arab Spring
1. In-class: Read the New York Times article by Frank Rich, "Wallflowers at the Revolution" (February 5, 2011).
2. Key Terms: 9/11, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, The US Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Drones the Tribal Areas of Pakistan, and the Arab Spring.