Spinney's Modern World History at Santa Fe Prep: April 2015

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, April 24, 2015

Week 15 - Decolonization, Independence and the Postcolonial World

Monday through Friday, April 27- May 1, 2015
Long periods: Time to work on oral history research and capstone projects.
Quiz #5 IN-CLASS during long periods on key terms and persons from the history of Nazism and the Holocaust. This quiz is open-note.
Quiz #6 online; opens on Friday, May 1, at 3:30, and closes on Wednesday evening, May 6 at midnight.
Oral history transcripts are DUE on Friday, May 1.

Day 1, Monday, April 27: The Cold War

In-class: Read and discuss two primary source handouts in class: 1. US Secretary of War Henry Stimson Appeals for Atomic Talks, 1945, and 2. Diplomat George Kennan Advocates Containment, 1946. Continue discussions of week 14's readings and homework questions on the Cold War (homework will be checked).

Primary source#1: The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, 1947.
Primary source#2: B. N. Ponomaryov, "The Cold War: A Soviet Perspective," 1960.
Secondary source#1: James L. Gormly, "Origins of the Cold War".

Homework for Day 3: Read “The Twilight of Colonialism,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 752-757.

Key Terms and Persons: Apartheid, decolonization, postcolonialism, Gandhi, Satyagraha, nonviolence, Ho Chi Minh, Dien Bien Phu, Kwame Nkrumah, and proxy wars.

Homework Question#1: What was decolonization? What were the reasons for the end of European colonial rule, and what were some of the arguments made and the strategies used in the struggle over decolonization?

Homework question#2: What role did the United Nations and the Cold War, i.e., the US and USSR, play in this struggle?

Homework question#3: What were the consequences of decolonization and the legacies of colonial rule?

Day 2: Long periods: Independent research.

Meet in library: Take quiz#5 and use the rest of the class time for work on the oral history transcripts and capstone projects.

Day 3: Decolonization, Part 1.

In-class: Discuss the readings on the history of post-1945 decolonization.

Homework for Day 4: Work on completing oral history transcripts.

Day 4: Decolonization, Part 2.

In-class: Discuss primary and secondary source handouts on decolonization.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Week 14 - The Cold War

Monday through Friday, April 20-24, 2015
Long periods: Final guest lectures with Ellen Zieselmann on Post-1945 Art History (Period 4 on Thursday).

Step-Up Teaching Day on Friday, April 24.

Day 1: The Origins of the Cold War.
In-class: Wrap up discussions of the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials; begin to look at primary source evidence for the causes of the Cold War.
Homework for Day 2: Read “Superpower Struggles and Global Transformation. The Cold War, 1945-1980s,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 737-747 (up until "East and West: Two Paths"), and answer the following questions.

Key Terms and Persons: Iron Curtain, the Cold War, the Berlin Blockade/Airlift, containment, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the Warsaw Pact, Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, China's Great Leap Forward, Mao's Cultural Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and détente.

Homework question #1: What was the Cold War?

Homework question #2: Why did it occur?

Day 2: Guest lectures with Ellen Zieselman (Period 4 lecture is on Day 3, Thursday, 4/23).

Day 3: The Cold War Heats Up.

In-class: Discuss the origins of the Cold War.

Homework for Day 3: Read “Superpower Struggles and Global Transformation. The Cold War, 1945-1980s,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 747-752, and answer the following questions.

Key Terms and Persons: The United Nations, the Berlin Wall, the Prague Spring, the welfare state, European integration, and the European Economic Community.

Homework question#1: How and why did Western Europe recover so quickly by the 1960s with such unprecedented prosperity and relative stability?

Homework question #2: How did recovery compare in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?

Day 4: Step-Up Teaching Day.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Week 13 - The Holocaust

Monday through Thursday, April 13-17
Quiz #4 opens online on Monday, April 13 and closes Thursday evening, April 16 at midnight; covers the legacies of the First World War from before break, and materials on authoritarianism, fascism, and Stalinism.
Long periods: independent research and work time for Capstone Proposals and Oral History Interviews (see related blog posts and additional resources below).
Tuesday, 4/14: Cum Laude and 11th Grade Award ceremony; NOTE: no break; begins at 9:15.
Wednesday, 4/15: Talent Show; NOTE: See special schedule posted around campus.
Friday, 4/17: Spring Fling; NOTE: Special 35-minute class schedule.
First round of Capstone proposal drafts are DUE by the end of the day, Friday, 4/17.

Day 1, Monday, 4/13: The Origins of the Holocaust.

In-class: Read the primary source handouts on the Nazi eugenics and euthanasia programs, and use the SOAPSTONE rubric to annotate the documents for class discussion.
Key Terms and Persons: Eugenics, Sterilization, the T-4 Program, euthanasia, Poland as the "laboratory of experiment", Operation Barbarossa, and Einsatzgruppen.

Homework for Day 3: Read the handout from Rudolf Augstein's interview with Daniel J. Goldhagen, and answer the following questions.

Homework question#1: What is Goldhagen's argument, key points, and evidence about the origins of the Holocaust and why Germans participated.

Homework question #2: Do you buy his argument, or can you also identify any limits or problems with his argument?

Day 2: Long periods: independent research and work time for Capstone Proposals and Oral History Interviews. MEET in the library.

Day 3: Ordinary People and the Holocaust

In-class: Discuss the arguments and evidence from Rudolf Augstein's interview with Daniel J. Goldhagen on "Hitler's Willing Executioners", and continue lectures and discussions of Nazi genocidal projects. See primary sources listed below.
Document#1: The Barbarossa Decree, by General Keitel.
Document#2: The Commissar Order, by Adolf Hitler.
Document#3: Escape from Treblinka.

Homework for Day 4: Read handout from Christopher Browning, "One Day in Jozefow." Please take notes on the author's argument(s) and evidence, and prepare for graded in-class discussion. ALSO: How do Browning and Goldhagen's arguments compare?

Day 4: Hitler's Willing Executioners: The Final Solution and the Question of Justice.

In-class: Continue discussion of the Holocaust, especially radicalization and resistance to Nazism, based on the assigned primary sources. Focus discussion on Browning and Goldhagen's arguments.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Week 12 - Into the Fire Again: World War II (1939-1945).

Monday through Friday, April 6-10, 2015
Long periods: HSSSE Surveys in the library, followed by research presentations and some time to work.
Quiz #4 opens online on Monday, April 13 and closes Thursday evening, April 16 at midnight; covers the legacies of the First World War from before break, and materials on authoritarianism, fascism, and Stalinism. NOTE the change.
Final drafts of independent research papers DUE by Friday afternoon, 4/10.

Day 1, Monday, 4/7: The Nazi Seizure of Power, Part 2.
In-class: Discuss primary and secondary source handouts on the Nazi seizure of power and Stalinism; review for Quiz #5, and chronicle current events.
Homework for Day 3: Read “Into the Fire Again: World War II, 1939-1945,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 711-721 (Up to ""Behind the Lines"), and answer the following question.
Key Terms and Persons: The Popular Front, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, Nanking, The Spanish Civil War, Guernica, The Axis Powers, The Anschluss, The Munich Conference of 1938, Appeasement, Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, blitzkrieg, the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa, and Pearl Harbor.
Homework question: What were the origins of the Second World War? What connections between Hitler, Nazism, and appeasement might have led to the outbreak of war?

Day 2: HSSSE Surveys and Research Presentations.

Day 3: The Road to War.
In-class: Discuss the origins and early stages of the Second World War.

Homework#2: Read “Into the Fire Again: World War II, 1939-1945,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 721-733, and answer the following question.
Key Terms: The Holocaust (Shoah), Death camps, Stalingrad, the Battle of Midway, kamikaze, the atomic bomb, and the United Nations.
Homework question: How did the Allies turn the tide and defeat the Axis powers in the Second World War - what were the key actions and turning points?

Day 4: The Second World War.
In-class: Discuss the key actions and turning points of the war.