Spinney's Modern World History at Santa Fe Prep: March 2016

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.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

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

Monday through Friday, April 4-8, 2016
Long periods: In some periods, research presentations continue, and then time to work in the library.
Quiz #4 opens online on Friday, April 1 and closes Thursday evening, April 7 at midnight; covers materials from Weeks 10 and 11, i.e., the legacies of the First World War from before break, and materials on authoritarianism, fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism.

Day 1, Monday, 4/4: 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 #4, and chronicle current events.
Homework for Day 2/3: 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 2/3 Long Periods: In some periods, meet in classroom for presentations; time in library to work on capstone projects and oral history interview research.

Day 2/3 Short Periods: 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.

No new homework over the weekend; work on capstones and/or oral history interview projects.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Week 11 - Totalitarianism: Stalinism and the Nazi Seizure of Power

Monday, March 28 through Friday, April 1, 2016
Independent research presentations continue.
Guest lecture with Ellen Zieselmann on art during the Interwar period.
Quiz #4 opens online on Friday, April 1 at 3:30, and closes Thursday evening, April 7 at midnight; covers the legacies of the First World War from before break, and materials on authoritarianism, fascism, and Stalinism.

Day 1: The Rise of Authoritarianism in Europe: Stalinism.
In-class: Discuss the missed homework and related primary and secondary source handouts on the rise of Stalinism.
In-class: Chronicle current events.
Make-up Homework for review (from Week 10): Review, “Darkening Decades: Recovery, Dictators, and Depression, 1920-1939,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 697-707, and answer the following two questions.
Review Key Terms and Persons: New Economic Policy (NEP), Five-Year Plan, Stalin, collectivization, the Great Purges, and the Great Depression.
Review Key Question#1: How did Stalin transform the Soviet Union - what were the effects?

Homework for Day 2: Read the primary and secondary source sets on the rise of Nazism.

Review Key Terms and Persons: Adolf Hitler, Nazism, The NSDAP, the 25 Points, SA (Brown Shirts/Storm Troopers), SS, and Beer Hall Putsch.
Review Key Question#2: How do you explain the rise of Nazism?

Day 2: The Rise of Nazism.
In-class: Discuss the homework and related primary and secondary sources.

In-class: Introduce the oral history interview projects. During long periods, some time set aside to research, develop questions, and discuss with the instructor in the library.

Homework for Day 3: Read primary and secondary source sets on the Nazi seizure of power; create SOAPSTONE and AEB notes for discussion in class.

Day 3: The Nazi Seizure of Power
In-class: Read primary source handouts from Victor Klemper, Goebbels, et al. and discuss the Nazi seizure of power.
Key persons: The Führer (or Fuehrer), Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler.
Key terms: The Nazi Seizure of Power, the Reichstag Fire Decree, Wild Camps/Concentration Camps, GESTAPO, Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung (Coordination), and the "Night of the Long Knives" (1934).
Homework for Day 4: Read the secondary source sets provided in class; take notes on authors' arguments, evidence, and whether or not you buy it.

Day 4: Interwar Art History.
In-class: Guest lecture in class with Ellen Zieselmann.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Week 10 – Darkening Decades: Recovery, Dictators, and Depression, 1919-1939

Monday through Friday, March 7-11, 2016.

FIRST week of the Fourth quarter(!).

Independent research presentations continue.

Long periods: In-library independent research paper revisions, capstone proposals, and/or in-class student research presentations.

Second deadline for capstone proposals DUE on Friday, 3/11.

Day 1, Monday, 3/27: The Bolshevik Revolution.

In-class: Discuss the homework from over the long weekend: “Revolutions in Russia,” in The West in the World, eds.Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 674-683, and review answers to the key questions. Make sure to read the two primary sources by Lenin in the source packet, "The April Theses" and "Speech to the Petrograd Soviet".

Key Terms and Persons: Tsar Nicholas II, 1905 Revolution: Bloody Sunday, the Battleship Potemkin, and Duma; the March Revolution, the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, the soviets, Lenin, the Bolsheviks, Lenin's principles, Leon Trotsky, the November Revolution, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and the Russian Civil War.

Key question#1: How did the Bolsheviks come to power?
Key question#2 (just added and to be discussed in class): What are the legacies of the Russian Communist Revolution and Bolshevik power?

Homework for Day 2/3: Please read, “Darkening Decades: Recovery, Dictators, and Depression, 1920-1939,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 685-697(up until the section on Nazism), and answer the following question. Also check out the current events article links below.

Key Terms and Persons: Erich Maria Remarque, the Weimar Republic, Maginot Line, inflation, the Dawes Plan, the Roaring Twenties, the Bauhaus school, Dada, Admiral Miklos Horthy, fascism, Ataturk, and Mussolini.

Key Question: In what ways were the forces unleashed by the First World War responsible for the rise of authoritarian governments in Europe?

Day 2/3: Long periods: In-library independent research paper revisions, capstone proposals, and/or in-class student research presentations.

Day 2/3: The Rise of Authoritarianism in Europe.
In-class: Discuss the homework and related primary and secondary source handouts.
Homework for Day 4: Please read, “Darkening Decades: Recovery, Dictators, and Depression, 1920-1939,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 697-707, and answer the following two questions.
Key Terms and Persons: Adolf Hitler, Nazism, Lebensraum, SS, Nuremberg Laws, the Nazi Seizure of Power, concentration camps, New Economic Policy (NEP), Five-Year Plan, Stalin, collectivization, the Great Purges, and the Great Depression.
Key Question#1: How do you explain the rise of Nazism?
Key Question#2: How did Stalin transform the Soviet Union - what were the effects?

Day 4: Nazism and Stalinism.
In-class: Discuss the homework and related primary and secondary sources.
Homework: No homework over Spring Break. Safe travels, rest up, and enjoy!!!