Western Civilization II

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Western Civilization II History 1020, Fall 2011

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History 1020, Fall 2011. Western Civilization II. The Protestant Reformation. Religious Reform and the origins of modernity Preconditions of the Protestant Reformation Popular Piety in the Wake of the Black Death (1347-1350) Expansion of lay associations devoted to prayer - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Western Civilization II

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Western Civilization IIHistory 1020, Fall 2011

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The Protestant Reformation1. Religious Reform and the origins of modernity2. Preconditions of the Protestant Reformation

1. Popular Piety in the Wake of the Black Death (1347-1350)

1. Expansion of lay associations devoted to prayer1. Hamburg in 1450: 100 separate lay associations

2. Invention of Printing (1455)1. Expansion of printed works: by 1500: 35,000 books; 20

million copies 3. Martin Luther’s Critique of the Catholic Church

1. Against sale of indulgences2. Against ‘efficacy of good works’: Justification by faith3. Against principle of Papal authority and church hierarchy:

Primacy of Scripture4. Reform of Sacraments

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Protestant Reformation:Political and Social Consequences

1. Luther’s Critique of Catholicism1. Of indulgences2. Of Church hierarchy3. Of the sacraments

2. Consequences of the Reformation1. Religious Division of Europe

1. German territories of the Holy Roman Empire: Peace of Augsburg, 15552. England and Henry VIII’s break with Rome, 1534

2. Emergence of the Catholic (or Counter) Reformation1. Council of Trent, 1545 – 15632. Ignatius Loyola and the creation of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits),

1540)3. Social Consequences

1. Protestant emphasis on literacy2. Attitudes towards marriage

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Questions for Discussion1. At what point in the Reformation did Luther write his Letter to

Leo X?2. What was his attitude towards Leo X himself? Towards the

individuals who surrounded him in Rome?3. Why did he write this letter? What did he hope to accomplish? 4. At what point in the religious crisis of the 16th century did

Ignatius Loyola write his letter, and to whom?5. Why did he write this letter?6. Both Luther and Loyola address in their own ways the question

of obedience to religious authority. What key points of similarity or difference do you observe in their attitudes towards religious authority?

7. Are there critical differences in Catholic and Protestant attitudes towards religious authority, obedience, and individual liberty? If there are, what are they and what might the broader implications for European society have been?

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Political Instability in 16th Century EuropeI. Overview: What do we know so far?

I. Why was there a religious Reformation in 16th century Europe?II. What were some of its most important consequences?

II. Religious strife and political instability in Europe, 1550 – 1600:I. Comparing Elizabethan 00England and Valois France

III. Elizabethan England, 1558 – 1603I. Who was the legitimate claimant to the throne?II. What was the proper religion for England?III. Politics and Religion in the Reigns of Edward VI (1547-53); Mary I (1553-

1558)IV. Elizabethan Compromise, 1559

IV. Religious Wars in 16th Century FranceI. Calvinism and the French NobilityII. Regency of Catherine de Medici and the Crisis of Political Legitimacy

I. 1560 – 1572: Politics of Religious tolerance; II. 1572: St. Bartholomew’s Day MassacreIII. Religious Wars, 1572 – 1589IV. Henry IV (1589 – 1610) and the Edict of Nantes (1598)

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Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th CenturiesI. Religious Wars in 16th Century France

I. Calvinism and the French NobilityII. Regency of Catherine de Medici and the Crisis of Political Legitimacy

I. 1560 – 1572: Politics of Religious tolerance II. 1572: St. Bartholomew’s Day MassacreIII. Religious Wars, 1572 – 1589IV. Henry IV (1589 – 1610) and the Edict of Nantes (1598)

II. Religious Wars in 17th century Europe: the 30 Years’ War (1618 -1648)

I. Origins: Breakdown of Augsburg SettlementII. Habsburgs and the Re-catholicization of EuropeIII. Phases of the 30 Years’ War

I. Phase I (1618 – 1630): Habsburg Ascendancy; Religion principle source of division

II. Phase II (1630 – 1648): Anti-Habsburg Coalition; Politics and International Balance of Power

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Absolutism: The French Model1. Absolutism: a Definition

1. The Flagellation Speech (Louis XV): 17661. To whom was he speaking?2. Why?

2. Origins of Absolutism1. Political instability in mid-17th century France: the

Frondes2. Louis XIV’s response

3. Characteristics of French Absolutism1. Taming of the French Nobility: Privileges vs. power2. The Institutions of the Absolutist State

1. National Bureaucracy: centralization of authority; tax collection

2. National, professional Army: Louvois’s reforms

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Questions for DiscussionThe readings focus on two inter-related topics: the political character

of, and justification for, absolutism; and court life at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV. Let’s think about how these two topics intersect.

1. According to Bossuet and Domat, what are the justifications for an absolutist state? Why do they believe that the King should be authorized to govern without recourse to elected assemblies? Who invests the King with this authority?

2. How is the political theory of absolutism similar to, or different from, Loyola’s arguments for obedience within the Jesuit order?

3. What were the significant characteristics of life at Versailles?4. How did the structure, protocol, and ritual of life at Versailles

reinforce the absolutist authority of the King? 5. According to the Duke de Saint-Simon, was the social system that

Louis XIV created at Versailles beneficial to the welfare or the nation? Why or why not?

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The English Civil War1. King vs. Parliament, 1625 – 1640

1. The Concept of ‘divine right’ monarchy: James I (1603 -1625); Charles I (1625 – 1649)

2. Charles I (1625 – 1649) antagonizes Parliament1. The traditional rights of the English Parliament2. Charles I and the decade of ‘personal rule’ (1629 – 1640)

1. Ship Money2. Religion: Archbishop Laud’s religious reforms3. War against Scotland, 1639: Anglicanism vs. Presbyterianism4. Recall of Parliament, 1640

2. Civil War, 1642 – 16481. Cavaliers (Royalists) vs. Roundheads (Parliament)2. Two Phases: 1642 – 1646; 1647 - 16483. Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army (1644)4. Charles I resumes the Civil War, 16475. The King on Trial, 1648 – 1649

1. Pride’s Purge, December 16482. The “Rump Parliament” and the Trial of the King3. King’s Execution – January 1649

3. Aftermath: Cromwell’s Protectorate

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Constitutionalism in 17th Century England1. From Civil War to Constitutional Monarchy

1. Dominant Themes1. Religious: Liberty for Protestant Dissenters; Fear of Catholic

Revival2. Political: King vs. Parliament

2. Three Stages:1. The Interregnum/ Commonwealth, 1649 – 1660; The Restoration,

1660 – 1688 ;The Glorious Revolution, 1688 – 892. The Interregnum/Commonwealth: Oliver Cromwell’s

England1. The Instrument of Government, 16532. Military Government

3. The Restoration, 1660 – 16881. Charles II (1660 – 1685) and Parliament

1. The Clarendon Code, 1661 – 1665; The Test Act, 16732. James II (1685 – 1688): Parliament’s fear of a Catholic Restoration

4. The Glorious Revolution, 1688 – 891. William of Orange and Mary Stuart; the Bill of Rights, 1689

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3rd Discussion1. According to Thomas Macaulay, what role did Oliver

Cromwell play in creating the New Model Army?2. What were the dominant characteristics of the New Model

Army and what was its relationship to the group Macaulay identifies as the Independents?

3. We have seen in previous discussions that politics and religion intermingled in the century and a half after the Reformation. In what ways was this evident in the period of the English Civil War? And in the Commonwealth period created after the execution of Charles I?

4. Why, in particular, were the Puritans who dominated Parliament in these years intent on abolishing Christmas?

5. What were the consequences of the Puritan attack on Christmas?

6. When you think about the two articles together, what evidence emerges about the positive accomplishments of the years 1642 – 1660? What negative accomplishments? To what extent can we trace both the positive and negative accomplishments to the same causes?

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European Exploration and Empire

1. Causes and Consequences of Overseas Expansion1. Why did Europeans undertake overseas exploration at the end of the

15th century?2. Why did they succeed in establishing dominance in the New World?3. What were the consequences of European overseas expansion for

Europeans and non-Europeans?2. European Expansion: When? Where? Why?

1. When: 1480s through 1590s2. Where: West Africa; North and South America; East Asia3. Why: Need; Desire; Ability

1. Need: Population Growth; Search for Commodities2. Desire: Curiosity and Religious Conversion3. Ability: Improvements in maritime technology

3. Causes of European Dominance1. Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” thesis

4. Consequences of European Dominance1. Global Economy: the “global food basket”: tea, sugar, coffee,

chocolate2. Slavery and Plantation production

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The Scientific Revolution1. Origins of the Scientific Revolution: Astronomy and the Copernican

Revolution1. Copernicus (1473 – 1543): On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs

(1543)2. Kepler (1571 – 1630): elliptical orbs3. Galileo (1564 – 1642): importance of the telescope (1609) to the

confirmation of the heliocentric theory; Condemnation by Catholic Church (1633)

2. The Scientific Method1. Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

1. Publication of Novum Organum (1620)2. Observation as the basis of natural knowledge3. Empiricism and the inductive method

2. René Descartes (1596 – 1650)1. Publication of the Discourse on Method (1637)2. The ‘cogito’: I think, therefore I am3. Rationalism and the deductive method

3. Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)4. Principia Mathematica (1687); synthesis of empiricism and

rationalism3. The Royal Society, 1660 -

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The Enlightenment1. The “Age of Reason”

1. Immanuel Kant: “What is Enlightenment?” (1784)2. Application of 17th century Scientific method3. Basic principles: observation; rationality; skepticism

2. Three Principles of the Enlightenment1. Rationalism and the Pursuit of Knowledge

1. Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopedia (1751-65)2. Political Reform

1. Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)1.Separation of Powers; Constitutionalism; Bill of Rights

3. Religious Toleration1. Lessing, Nathan the Wise (1779)2. Voltaire and the Calas Affair (1762)

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4th Discussion1. How did Immanuel Kant define ‘enlightenment’?2. According to Kant, why might adults, who, unlike children,

have the capacity to use their reason fully, not do so? 3. Kant contends that there is a critical difference between

the “public use of reason” and the “private use of reason.” What does he mean by these two terms? When might an individual exercise “the public use of reason” and when might he/she exercise a “private use of reason”?

4. Who was Jean Calas and why was he sentenced to death?5. What arguments did Voltaire present to challenge the

justice of Calas’s execution?6. In Voltaire’s opinion, what role did religious intolerance

play in bringing about the trial and execution of Jean Calas?

7. What arguments did Voltaire make in defense of religious tolerance?

8. In what ways do the ideas expressed in “What is Enlightenment?” and the “Treatise on Tolerance” overlap?

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Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Enlightened Absolutism1. How Enlightened was 18th Century Europe?

1. Enlightenment culture1. The ‘public sphere’2. Elite society: the nobility and the bourgeoisie

2. Enlightenment Principles and the European State1. The concept of ‘enlightened despotism’2. Enlightened Despotism in Practice

1. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia, 1740 – 17861. Rationalize the operations of state2. Improve economic conditions3. Introduce limited enlightened reforms

2. Joseph II of Austria (1765 – 1790)1. Commitment to religious toleration: Patent of Toleration, 17812. Improved conditions of peasantry3. Reduced influence of the Catholic Church

3. Enlightenment and the transformation of absolutism

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Pre-Revolutionary France, 1750 -17891. Social Character of Pre-Revolutionary France

1. A Society of Orders:1. The First Estate (The Catholic Church)

1. Size; Functions; Privileges2. The Second Estate (The Nobility)

1. Size; Functions; Privileges3. The Third Estate (Everyone else)

1. Rural; Urban: the guild system2. Challenging the Absolute Power of the King: the role of the

Parlements3. War and Debt

1. Consequences of the Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763)2. Consequences of French support for and participation in the American

Revolutionary War (1776 – 1781)3. The Crisis of National Bankruptcy

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5th Discussion1. In “The Great Cat Massacre,” Robert Darnton examines

an account, written by an artisan printer, of the “funniest thing that ever happened in the printing shop of Jacques Vincent.” What precisely was this hilarious episode?

2. What can we learn about the socio-economic nature of urban, artisan culture from the “Cat Massacre”? Was it a society that seemed to be flourishing? What pressures, if any, were emerging by the middle of the 18th century that seemed important to the well-being of the apprentices and journeymen working in the printing shop?

3. Based on the evidence presented in this article, how far had enlightened principles penetrated everyday French life by 1740? In what specific ways did the society Darnton describes seem to be entirely untouched by principles of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment?

4. We are not likely to find the ‘cat massacre’ funny. Why, according to Darnton, would workers of the 18th century have done so?

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The French Revolution, pt. 11. Long Term Causes of the French Revolution

1. Population Growth and Increase in Poverty2. Elite Dissatisfaction with Absolutism3. War and Debt:

1. Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763)2. American Revolutionary War (1776 – 1782)

2. Immediate Causes of the French Revolution1. Bankruptcy: Failure of Tax Reform Initiatives

1. Calling for the convocation of the Estates General2. Political Demands: ‘doubling’ the Third; vote by head;

Constitutionalism2. Crop Failure, Food Shortages, and Popular Discontent

3. The Political Revolution of 17891. The Meeting of the Estates General, May 1789:

1. 1st Estate: 303 deputies (214 lower clergy); 2nd Estate: 282 deputies (90 liberals); 3rd Estate: 646 Deputies

2. Transforming the Estates General into the National Assembly, June 1789

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The French Revolution: The Liberal Phase, 1789 - 17921. Overview: the Phases of the French Revolution2. The Liberal Phase: Objectives and Challenges

1. Objectives: Constitution; Political Liberties; Abolition of Privilege2. Challenges: Debt, Counter-revolution, Urban radicalism

3. Creating the Liberal Revolution1. From the Convening of the Estates General (May 1789) to the

Formation of the National Assembly (June 1789)2. The Tennis Court Oath, June 1789

4. Social Misery and Revolution1. The People Rise Up: Storming the Bastille, July 14, 17892. The People Rise Up: The Great Fear, July – August 1789

5. National Assembly Responds to the Great Fear1. The August Decrees:

1. Abolition of seigneurialism2. Abolition of inequality under the law and of privilege

2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, August 1789

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The French Revolution:The Radical Phase, 1792 - 17941. Why did the Revolution not end in 1789?

1. Debt: the Confiscation of Church Lands (Nov. 1789)2. Constitution: the limits and nature of royal power3. Emergence of counter-revolution

1. Noble; Catholic4. Social Misery: food supplies and urban radicalism

2. Origins of the Radical Revolution1. International War, April 17922. Deposing the King, August 17923. Executing the King, Jan. 1793, and growth of counter-

revolution3. The Reign of Terror, Sept. 1793 – July 1794

1. Objectives: Military; Political; Economic2. Policies: the levée en masse; the Law of Suspects; Wage and

Price maximums

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Discussion Questions:Engels, “The Great Towns”

Engels’ description of working class communities is based on evidence accumulated in the 1840s, a period of particularly severe economic hardship. So we need to keep this in mind when reading his descriptions.

1. Engels spends most of this chapter describing the nature of housing and residential areas of the working classes. What are the recurrent characteristics of these working class communities?

2. The second half of the chapter concentrates especially on Manchester, the heart of the industrial revolution. In what ways were living conditions in the working class areas of Manchester similar to living conditions in other major cities? Are there any important differences that can be attributed explicitly to the effects of industrialization?

3. How would you describe the working class diet? What obstacles to healthy eating did factory workers encounter?

4. What were the environmental consequences of industrialization?

5. To whom do you think Engels was addressing his study of working class life and for what purpose? What evidence in the chapter supports your conclusion?

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19th Century Ideologies:Liberalism, Nationalism, Socialism

1. Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Ideologies

2. Enlightenment, Revolution and Liberalism1. Liberalism: “freedom from unwarranted constraint”2. Political Liberalism and Economic Liberalism: Adam Smith and the

“invisible hand”3. Enlightenment, Revolution, and Nationalism

1. The Concept of the ‘nation’: the “imagined community”2. French Revolution and national sovereignty3. Napoleonic Wars and German Nationalism

4. Revolution and Socialism1. The Sans-culottes and social inequality

1. The last uprising of the sans-culottes, Spring 17952. Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals, 1796

2. Industrialization and economic inequality1. Utopian Socialism, 1820s2. Marxism, 1840s: Communist Manifesto, 1848

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Revolutions of 18481. 1848: the year of European Revolution

1. Continent-wide revolutionary upheavals2. Convergence of political frustration and economic misery3. Failed revolutions

2. Europe in 1840s1. Legacies of French Revolution of 1789

1. Constitutionalism; Egalitarianism; National self-determination2. Impact of Industrialization

1. Rural society in economic transition: The “Hungry Forties”2. Industrial depression/unemployment3. Socialism as critique of early industrialization

3. Revolutions of 18481. Springtime of 1848: the ‘springtime of the people’

1. Political objectives: France; Austria; Prussia2. German Nationalism: the Frankfurt Parliament

4. Revolution Defeated1. Divide and Conquer: the June Days in France2. Military Force, Spring – Summer 1849

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Revolution and National Unification: 1848 - 1870I. Revolutions of 1848

1. Springtime of 1848: the ‘springtime of the people’1. Political objectives: France; Austria; Prussia2. German Nationalism: the Frankfurt Parliament

2. Revolution Defeated: Divide and Conquer: the June Days in France3. Military Force, Spring – Summer 1849

II. Consequences of 1848I. Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolutionary Socialism (review)

I. Publication of Marx and Engels’ Communist ManifestoI. Key Arguments:

I. Dialectical MaterialismII. Inevitability of class struggle: bourgeoisie vs. proletariatIII. Inevitability of revolution

II. Why Working class revolution did not emerge in aftermath of 1848II. National Unification

I. Unresolved Questions: ‘Kleindeutsch’ vs. ‘Grossdeutsch’ questionII. Prussia and German Unification: “Blood and Iron”

I. Role of Otto von BismarckII. Wars of German Unification: 1864, 1866, 1870

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The Aftermath of 1848I. Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolutionary Socialism (review)

I. Publication of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto (1848)

I. Key Arguments:I. Dialectical MaterialismII. Inevitability of class struggle: bourgeoisie vs. proletariatIII. Inevitability of revolution

II. The First International (1864 -1876)III. Why Working class revolution did not emerge in aftermath

of 1848II. National Unification

I. Unresolved Questions: ‘Kleindeutsch’ vs. ‘Grossdeutsch’?II. Prussia and German Unification: “Blood and Iron”

I. Role of Otto von BismarckII. Wars of German Unification: 1864, 1866, III. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 71

I. The Second Empire (1852 – 1870) in France and the resurgence of Bonapartism

II. Military defeats, the fall of the Empire, and the siege of Paris

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Discussion: Goncourt, “Paris under Siege.”1. During the Franco-Prussian War, Paris existed under

siege from Sept. 1870 until January 1871. What were the effects of the siege on living conditions for the people of Paris? Are there significant differences evident in the living conditions of the poor vs. those of the middle and upper classes (like Goncourt)?

2. What political opinions does Goncourt express in his diary? What, for example, does he have to say about the French Revolution of 1789? Is he sympathetic (or not) to the ideals of republicanism?

3. Clearly, the French did poorly in their military confrontation with Prussia. According to Goncourt, who (or what) was to blame for France’s poor military showing in 1870?

4. Does Goncourt seem sympathetic to the plight of the working people of Paris? What evidence would you present to make your case?

5. If you were to use Goncourt’s observations to trace the transformation of Paris under siege, how would you characterize the condition of the city in late October? Late November? Late December?

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Origins of the First World War1. Consequences of the Franco-Prussian War

1. Creation of unified German Empire2. Treaty of Frankfurt: indemnity; Alsace-Lorraine3. After the Siege: the Paris Commune, March – May 1871

2. European Imperialism1. Why did the Great Powers seek overseas territories?

1. Economic Motivations2. Great Power Status and Rivalry:

1. Germany’s search for “a Place in the Sun”2. France and the search for international prestige

2. Was imperialism a cause of the First World War?3. European Nationalism

1. Nationalism as a source of unification: Germany and Italy2. Nationalism as a source of fragmentation: the Austro-Hungarian

Empire3. Why did the assassination of an Austrian arch-duke precipitate

continent-wide war?

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The Great War: 1914 - 19181. Origins: The July Crisis

1. Serbian Nationalism and the Assassination of Arch-duke Franz Ferdinand (28 June 1914)

2. Austrian Anxieties and Germany’s “blank check”3. Outbreak of War: August 1914

2. Mobilization of the Great Powers1. War fever and apprehensions2. From the war of movement to the stalemate war

3. Living and Dying in the Trenches1. Reflections on the reality of ‘stalemate war’2. The daily routine: stand-to; fatigues; wiring parties;

trench raids3. Confronting Death: on the eve of battle

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Discussion Questions1. What are the specific circumstances of Stuart Cloete’s war service that he

describes in this chapter from his autobiography? That is: where was he serving? When? What his direct experience of battle?

2. What were his attitudes towards the enemy? Do these attitudes change or stay the same over the period described here?

3. At this point in the war, nearly all the British soldiers at the front were volunteers. What seems to have motivated him to volunteer for military service?

4. Cloete was, like many junior officers in the British Army, a young man and, probably, quite a bit younger than many of the men he commanded at the front. Is the very fact of his youthfulness important to how he experienced and thought about the war and his role in it? Is it possible or likely that an older man would have understood and experienced the war differently?

5. What do we learn about the war from Cloete’s experience being wounded?6. In class yesterday, I spoke about front-line soldiers as experiencing both

the tedium and the terror of war. Is this evident in Cloete’s memories of his service as described in this chapter of his memoirs?

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I. Long-term Causes of Revolutionary Sentiment in Russiaa. Industrializationb. Political discontent: elite and popularc. Emergence of revolutionary ideology: Marxismd. Failed Revolution of 1905

II. Impact of World War Ia. Economic impact of warb. Tsarism discredited

III. The February Revolutiona. ‘Dual Authority’

i. The Provisional Government vs. the Petrograd Sovietb. Failures of the Provisional Governmentc. Lenin’s ‘April Theses’d. Urban Support for Bolshevism

IV. Lenin’s Revolution, October 1917A. Accomplishments

i. Peace: Treaty of Brest Litovsk, March 1918ii. Land: Land Decree, November 1917iii. Bread?

Revolution in Russia

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Fascism in interwar Europe1. Political Consequences of World War I

1. Collapse of German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires2. Revolution: in Russia (1917); in Germany (1918)3. The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles (1919)

1. Reparations and War Guilt2. Reduction in Armaments3. National Self-Determination

2. Emergence of Fascism as new Political Ideology1. Anti-Democracy2. Anti-Bolshevism3. Leadership principle and radical nationalism

3. Fascism in Germany1. National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP): the Nazis2. Impact of the Great Depression (1929 - ) on Germany3. Hitler’s Appointment as Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, 30 January

19334. The Third Reich (1933 – 1945): Political Objectives

1. One Party State; Military Dominance of Europe; “Racial Purity”

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Nazi Germany and World War II1. The Third Reich (1933 – 1945)

1. Domestic Political Objectives1. Creation of a One-Party State2. Elimination of internal “enemies” : Communists; Jews3. Economic Recovery: importance of rearmament

2. International Political Objectives1. Treaty “Revision”: through negotiation; unilateral action2. Military Expansion: Lebensraum and Domination of “Inferior”

Peoples2. Appeasement (1935 – 1938)

1. British and French reluctance to go to war2. Acceptance of the ‘legitimacy’ of Germany’s claims to treaty revision:

1. Anschluß with Austria (1938)3. War (1939 – 1945)

1. German Dominance: 1939 – 19412. The Challenges of Waging War in the East (1941 – 1945)3. Racial War: the Holocaust

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Discussion Questions1. Rudolf Höss and Primo Levi provide two radically different

perspectives on Auschwitz: one from the point of view of the perpetrators of the Holocaust; the other from that of the victims. What does Höss’s testimony to the Nuremberg Tribunal tell us about when the decision to convert Auschwitz into an extermination camp was made? Who made it? And how it was to be carried out? Why was secrecy such a critical element in this process?

2. According to Höss, why was he willing to participate in the mass killing of Jews?

3. Levi arrived in Auschwitz in January 1944. Although he does not speak about this directly in “On the Bottom,” what clues or evidence offer an explanation for why he was not targeted for immediate death?

4. The Nazis believed that the Jews were ‘sub-human’. How did this belief translate into how the work camp at Auschwitz was organized and how Jewish prisoners were treated?

5. What strategies and practices did prisoners of the camp have to learn in order to increase their chances of survival?

6. What evidence in “On the Bottom” suggests that the Nazis succeeded in their goal of dehumanizing their Jewish victims? What evidence suggests that they failed to do so?