Prof. Edwin E. Moise
Office: Hardin 102
Office phones: 656-5369, 656-3153
Home phone: 654-7087
e-mail: eemoise@clemson.edu
Messages can be left in my mailbox in Hardin 124, or in the box on my office door.
Office Hours
Monday 10:10-11:00, 2:30-3:20
Tuesday 11:00-12:00
Wednesday 10:10-11:00, 2:30-3:20
Thursday 11:00-12:00
Friday 10:10-11:00
I do not emphasize trivial factual details in this course. On tests and quizzes I will NOT ask you to tell me the date Kenya became independent of British rule. There are some facts you need to know, but they are more important things than dates and names. On the other hand, I will expect you to get an idea of the sequence of events, what came first and what came later.
There will be no big course paper, but I will assign four short papers, each of which should be about two pages typed double spaced in normal type with normal margins (they may be longer than two pages if you wish). They are worth 40 points each. The midterm test (70 points) and the final exam (120 points) will be mostly essay questions. I will give some very short quizzes which are just objective questions. The schedule for these will not appear on the syllabus, but they will be announced during the previous class. These only count ten points each; they will be mainly intended to make sure that you are doing the reading.
I use a 90%, 80%, 70% scale, sometimes modified in favor of students but never against them. In other words, a 90% average for the semester is guaranteed to be an A, 80% is guaranteed to be a B, and 70% is guaranteed to be a C. But 89% or 88% might perhaps become an A, depending on how the class as a whole is doing.
Any student who has an average of 90% or better, for work up to the final exam, will be permitted to exempt the final.
If you miss a ten point objective quiz you are out of luck; there is no make-up even with a good excuse. Ten point objective quizzes are usually given at the beginning of the class, so if you are ten minutes late on the day the quiz was given, you will have missed the quiz and you will not be permitted to take it late. However, the worst grade on a ten point objective quiz for any particular student does not get counted, so if you only miss one of them it will not hurt you too badly.
Students under the 2006-2007 curriculum are required to compile an electronic portfolio, showing general education competencies. Assignments for this course that fulfil some of these competencies will be marked in the syllabus.
Academic integrity requires that we not try to pass off other people's work as our own. What does this mean in practical terms, in this course? Really two things:
1) In-class tests are closed-book. You are supposed to get information only from your memory while writing your answers, not by sneaking looks at books, notes, an electronic device, or your neighbor's paper.
2) Students are not supposed to help each other do take-home assignments after the assignment has been given out. For students to study together to learn material for tests and quizzes is perfectly OK. Indeed, it is an excellent idea. But if two students work together on take-home essay assignment, and as a result the papers handed in by the two students resemble one another much too closely to be coincidence, I will bring charges of academic dishonesty against both of them. If a fellow student asks to see your paper, to see how the assignment was supposed to be done, say no. They should come to me if they want further explanation of how the assignment was to be done.
January 10: Introduction to the course.
January 12: The American and French Revolutions
>>> Lockard, pp. 561-573
January 15: No Class
January 17: Revolutions in Latin American and the Caribbean; the Industrial Revolution
>>> Lockard, pp. 573-583
January 19: Nationalism and Socialism
>>> Lockard, pp. 583-589
>>> Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 49-65 (the opening page
and part 1, "Bourgeois and Proletarians")
January 22: The Communist Manifesto
>>> Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 65-91 (parts 2, 3, and 4)
January 24: Imperialism
>>> Lockard, pp. 590-595
Hand in a short paper (about two pages, typed double space), on the question:
How reasonable were the statements and opinions in the The Communist Manifesto in the context
of the time?. I am asking you NOT to use hindsight on this. I am asking to what extent the
The Communist Manifesto would have seemed reasonable to a reader who had only the information
that was available at the time the The Communist Manifesto was written. (General education
competency
R1.)
Supplementary comment: When you are agreeing or disagreeing with a statement or idea in The Communist Manifesto, please make it clear exactly what the statement was. You don't necessarily have to quote the exact words (though sometimes that would be a good idea), but make sure that you convey, in one way or another, what the statement or idea was that you are agreeing or disagreeing with. If you are citing a statement or idea that appeared in a particular location in The Communist Manifesto, give the page number.
January 26: European Society; the Rise of the United States
>>> Lockard, pp. 597-612
January 29: The United States, continued; the Rest of North and South America, and the Pacific
>>> Lockard, pp. 612-627
January 31: Colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa: Overview
>>> Lockard, pp. 629-640
February 2: Conquest of Africa: Background
>>> Vandervort, pp. 1-55
February 5: Conquest of Africa: 1830-1880
>>> Vandervort, pp. 56-112
February 7: Conquest of Africa Accelerates after 1880
>>> Vandervort, pp. 113-166
February 9: Conquest of Africa: Final Stages
>>> Vandervort, pp. 113-219
February 12: Colonialism in Africa
>>> Lockard, pp. 641-644
Hand in a short paper (about two pages, typed double space), on the questions:
How vigorously, and how effectively, did Africans resist European conquest? (Show an awareness of the
variation between different groups of Africans.) Why did some resist more vigorously or more
effectively than others? (General education competencies
S2 and
S3.)
February 14: The Middle East
>>> Lockard, pp. 644-655
February 16: Colonialism in India
>>> Lockard, pp. 657-671
February 19: Colonialism in Southeast Asia
>>> Lockard, pp. 672-683
February 21: China, 1750-1914
>>> Lockard, pp. 685-698
February 23: MIDTERM TEST
February 26: Japan, Korea, and Russia, 1750-1914
>>> Lockard, pp. 699-713
February 28: World War I
>>> Lockard, pp. 715-722
March 2: The Russian Revolution
>>> Lockard, pp. 722-728
March 5: The 1920s, the Depression, and the Rise of Fascism and Nazism
>>> Lockard, pp. 728-739
March 7: World War II
>>> Lockard, pp. 739-746
March 9: China in War and Revolution
>>> Lockard, pp. 754-759
>>> Seybolt, Throwing the Emperor from His Horse, Introduction and chapters
1 and 2 (you may also wish to read the Preface, but that is optional)
March 12: Imperialism and Nationalism (general discussion); India; Southeast Asia; Africa
>>> Lockard, pp. 749-753, 759-771
March 14: The Middle East, Latin America; Globalization and Modernization
>>> Lockard, pp. 771-796
March 16: Decolonization and the Cold War
>>> Lockard, pp. 797-812
March 26: Globalization in Economics, Environment, and Social Networks
>>> Lockard, pp. 813-832
March 28: China under Mao Zedong
>>> Lockard, pp. 835-844
>>> Seybolt, chapters 3, 4, 5, 6
March 30: China after Mao Zedong
>>> Lockard, pp. 844-850
>>> Seybolt, chapters 7, 8, 9, 10
April 2: Japan, Korea, and Taiwan
>>> Lockard, pp. 850-864
Write a short paper (about two pages, typed double space), on the questions:
What moral dilemmas did Wang Fucheng face? (A moral dilemma is a situation in which either it is
difficult to figure out what the morally correct course of action is, or a person is under heavy
pressure not to do the morally correct thing.) How did Wang Fucheng resolve his moral dilemmas? Do
you think he made the correct moral choices? (General education competencies
E2,
S2, and
S3.)
April 4: Western Europe since World War II
>>> Lockard, pp. 867-883
April 6: Communism and post-Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe
>>> Lockard, pp. 883-899
April 9: The United States, Canada, and the Pacific Basin
>>> Lockard, pp. 902-919
April 11: Latin America and the Caribbean
>>> Lockard, pp. 919-932
April 13: South Asia since Independence
>>> Lockard, pp. 969-982
April 16: Revolution, War, and Reconstruction in Indochina
>>> Lockard, pp. 982-989
Newspaper research exercise (general education competencies
R1 and
R3).
There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Wall Street Journal, but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the Clemson Library's Articles Access Page. If you want to use newspapers other than those, your best bet is to go to the Microfilm Reading Room on level 2 of the Library, which has quite a few newspapers on microfilm. Weekly newsmagazines can be found as bound volumes on level 1 of the Library.
Evaluate the attitudes
of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)? Notice what you are reading:
--A news article is not supposed to have too much of the reporter's own opinions in it, but
there is nothing inherently wrong with the reporter quoting the opinions of other people. If a reporter is
quoting some very opinionated person, try to judge whether the reporter agrees with the person's opinions.
--An editorial is supposed to present the opinions of the newspaper; there is
nothing inherently wrong about it being opinionated. But you can still complain about bias if the
editorial is illogical or deceptive in the way it pushes that opinion.
--The same applies to an opinion piece written by someone who does not represent the newspaper.
Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have a list at the end, if I can’t tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing where. Source notes must give page numbers. I don’t care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author if it was given, the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK. If you found the articles on the Internet, say so, and say where.
April 18: Southeast Asia
>>> Lockard, pp. 989-1000
April 20: The Middle East
>>> Lockard, pp. 935-951
April 23: Africa
>>> Lockard, pp. 951-966
>April 25: The US-Iraq War
>April 27: The World Today; Review
Final exam: Monday, April 30, 8:00 a.m.
Other Links
Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas
Clemson University Academic Support Center, which provides help and tutoring for students encountering academic problems. It does not, however, have tutors specifically for History courses.
Revised January 10, 2007.