March Assignments

March 3rd

Reading:


Some non-textbook reading this week to wrap up a couple of topics that go hand in hand with liberalism

Immigrant tales:
http://www.jaha.org/edu/discovery_center/push-pull/letterstohome.html

I know, it's wikipedia, but good things are to be found here on the subject of abolishing slavery which is both relevant to Europe, but also a critique of the endurance of slavery in the USA. Read the following section on Wilber Wilberforce:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce

In the continued spirit of liberalism and the liberation of individuals from discrimination (in this case, the focus is on women, but the logic can be cross applied to anyone else deprived the right to participate in political dialogue and suffrage):

http://web.archive.org/web/19970803094951/http://www.baylor.edu/~BIC/WCIII/Essays/rights_of_woman.html (This is an important excerpt from an early feminist worth considering and certainly worth incorporating into you study guide.)

Videos:

Check out 31-35.


Paper:

This was from last week.

Due: March 10th

• Research and describe the daily life of a factory worker in a country of your choosing. Explore the working conditions, the risks, the pay, where they lived, what they hoped for, what they feared, and how their government’s responded to their plight. Use and analyze quantitative data in your paper.
• Use economic data and research to compare and contrast the emergence of the industrial revolution in two countries: one European the other non-European.
• Pick a relevant country and explore its colonization of Asia.
• Pick a world revolutionary and write a short biographical paper covering their beliefs, actions, and accomplishments (e.g. Simon Bolivar, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Mao Tsedung, Vladmir Lenin, George Washington, Mustafa Kamal Attaturk).
• Write a paper on one ethnic group’s migration, why they left their homes, how they chose where they were going, how they were received by their new country, and how they made their new country home.

March 9th\

Reading: Stearns chapter "WWI".

2 Papers:

We are speeding up things here a bit. Both of these papers will be due on the 24th.


Paper #1:

Write a paper (1000-1500 words) exploring the works of one artist of the late 19th and early 20th century (1930s at latest). What I'd like you to focus on is not so much technique and style, as the subject matter: what does your artist paint or draw (consider a wide range of his work but if you focus on a particular work, that is fine) and what can these windows into the worlds of the 19th and 20th century tell us about those times and (importantly!) the author's perspective (remember, there is no view from nowhere, he is providing us a chosen perspective). Also, I want you to consider the limitations of these sources from a historical standpoint (what can they tell us, and what can't they tell us).  

I hope you enjoy this assignment, it should be fun!


Paper #2:

World War 1: such a bloody mess. While there is no guarantee that you get a question on this topic, it would benefit you to consider the issue and write an essay on the subject. Using Stearns, Crash Course lectures (there are three of them), and eventually my lecture next week, write a brief summary addressing the major causes of WWI. While events (assassination of Archduke Ferdinand) are important, what I really want to see you address is these four major categories: militarism (consider the role of industrialization), imperialism, alliances, and nationalism. A paragraph for each, plus an introduction and a conclusion will suffice.


March 16th

Stearns: chapters 34-35.

Papers: Finish up assignments from March 9th.