Geo quiz prep

All the Europe since l945 students are now or will be very familiar with the following illustration...it's the map on which the geo midterm will be based, at least in part. It won't be just countries and capitals--there will be some short-answer questions--but filling this out correctly will be a good first step in the gradual reduction of your geographic illiteracy...

More on "The Jewish Americans"

If you're interested in the PBS series I referenced below, "The Jewish-Americans," you can access the website and accompanying resources here. PBS always sets up a website with all kinds of extras for people interested in a given program, so it's worth a look.

Must-see TV

The coming week features two PBS offerings that promise to be worth your time. First is the American Experience, by definition a must, featuring yet another look at the JFK assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald's role in it. I doubt this round will clear up the controversy that still continues to swirl around that tragic incident, but AE always has an interesting take on whatever it chooses to highlight.

Then Wednesday, KTNW will air part II of the excellent series "The Jewish Americans." Part I covered the Jewish experience in America from the arrival of the first Spanish and Portuguese Jews--the first Shearith Israel congregants in New York City--to the beginnings of the 20th century. Part II deals with the emergence of anti-Semitism in America after the turn of the century, an unhappy period to be sure, but a matter of record. This is a terrific program that should be of interest especially to City in History students, since so much of the Jewish experience in America is centered in the five boroughs of New York City.

Of course, if you want to take a break from history and politics, TCM and TVLand continue to make available the old favorites, e.g. Gone with the Wind, Andy Griffith, The Addams Family, Leave it to Beaver, etc. etc. I've almost always got something like that on, as background noise...the soundtracks of our lives, or something like that.

Merry Russian Christmas!

As some of you know, Russians actually get a double dose of Christmas and New Year's, because the Russian Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian calendar, while the society at large follows the Gregorian, as we do here. Many Russians celebrated western Christmas on December 25; now they get their second, as today is Russian Orthodox Christmas. Hooray! Three Cheers! Here is another picture-perfect church to help us mark the occasion, St. Anna-on-the Corner, Moscow.

425

...and 425, City in History. I think that's it...i HOPE I only have 3 classes this term!


History 425
City in History
WSUTC
Spring ‘08
B. Farley



A fatal moment for Budapest and Hungary—the Trianon Treaty of l920.

First things first: My office is 207J in the west building. You can call me at the office(372-7357), or you can EMAIL me at bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu OR brigitf2001@yahoo.com. I will always try to get back to you by the next day if at all possible. You can also call me at my ancestral estate in Pendleton, Oregon(541-276-6962). In any case, feel free to get in touch. I don’t bite and at least some people feel that my other habits are satisfactory.
My office hours face-to-face are 4-5:30 pm, Mondays and Wednesdays and whenever else you can catch me on campus. Virtual office hours are 24/7—you can email me anytime and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible, preferably by the next day.

Students with Disabilities: Accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. See Cherish Tijerna, Disability Resources Coordinator, as soon as possible to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. To make an appointment, please call 372-7352. In other words, if you have a learning disability, people and resources are available to help you.

The lowdown: Welcome to History 425, City in History. This is a course that can be done two ways, either concentrating on the role of the city in history or the role of history in a given city. I’m a fan of historical travel, so I lean to the latter rather than the former. This term, we will do an overview of four cities—New York, Budapest, Londonderry and Belfast—and focus on one or two defining events, events that shaped or made that city what it is today. In the case of New York, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and 9-11 are an obvious touchstone; for Budapest, the ordeal of World War II and then the l956 revolution against Soviet control are both key moments in its evolution. In Londonderry and Belfast, the long-running conflict between Catholic and Protestant citizens of northern(British)Ireland has literally shaped Londonderry and divided Belfast into ethnic enclaves worthy of Iraq. We will read about, and discuss all these places and the force(s)that shaped them in the modern age.
We will have three texts this term: for New York City, City in the Sky, a history of the World Trade Center, whose demise at the hands of the cavemen ushered in the world we now inhabit. The two buildings were always, to put it mildly, star-crossed. For Londonderry and Belfast, John Conroy, Belfast Diary. John Conroy was a Chicago Tribune correspondent who volunteered to live in “The Falls,” the main Catholic neighborhood, for 8 months in the contentious year l980-81. Conroy lived in Belfast, but what he experiences was not much different than what you would’ve found in Londonderry. Then, Michael Korda’s book on the Hungarian revolution against Soviet power, which took place 62 years ago this August. 1956 was the key event in Budapest and Hungarian history in the 20th century, and Journey to a Revolution is a timely look at how the revolution affects the city 60 years later.

Evaluation: We will have two exams, one midterm and one final. Each will be worth 25%. This being a capstone course, you will also have a substantial writing assignment, which I will describe for you in the coming days.

Course objectives: To get to know three major world cities/capitals and how recent history has affected them. To look beyond the buildings and boulevards and learn something of how the history of their respective countries is or is not reflected in them. To think about what makes a great city. To become convinced of the virtues of visiting cities as certified residents of very small towns…

Schedule

Part I : New York, New York

The beginnings—New Amsterdam, then New York

Revolutionary war and the making of Big Money in New York

The immigrant city

Catastrophe no. 1: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The vertical city, the city in the sky

The twin towers

Catastrophe no. 2: September 11, 2001 and the future of New York

Required readings: City in the Sky: Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center. All.
Recommended readings: Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It’s kind of a kids’ book—I read it in 7th grade—but it gives all readers a real flavor of what life was like in Irish/immigrant New York circa l900. It is not a work of glowing nostalgia; it has the ring of authenticity and truth. Bernard Malamud, who died recently, wrote many works chronicling Jewish life in New York, such as The Chosen. Very worthwhile. Also, David Halberstam, Firehouse, one of the best books about 9-11, profiling the ten firefighters lost from the house closest to Halberstam’s home on the upper West Side
Recommended films: Where do you start? King Kong, Midnight Cowboy, Out-of-Towners, Odd Couple, Moscow on the Hudson, Radio Days (actually, almost anything starring Woody Allen), Once Upon a Time in America, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull (almost anything starring Robert DeNiro, who owns an expensive restaurant in lower Manhattan), The Apartment, Breakfast at Tiffany’s…and the list goes on.

First exam after conclusion of New York

Part II: Buda-Pest, tale of two cities

Buda-Pest, capital of the heart of Europe

How Buda-Pest became Budapest

Hungary and Budapest’s Golden Age

World War I and the tragedy of the Trianon Treaty

World War II and the destruction of the Hungarian Jews

Exit Nazis, enter Russians

1956: Budapest fights back

Budapest in the new Europe

Required readings: Korda, Journey to a Revolution, all.
Recommended readings: The Budapest Sun, English-language newspaper for Budapest. www.budapestsun.com. It isn’t a great source of hard news, but it does have interesting feature articles about the city and its culture.
Recommended film: “Sunshine,” starring Ralph Fiennes. Four generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, set in Budapest, and widely available in video stores here.


Part III: Londonderry and Belfast, cities shaped by war

Origins of Catholic and Protestant conflict

1968: beginnings of the Troubles

London-Derry, divided city in a divided country

Belfast, “Titanic town” and ethnic enclaves

1972: Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday

Evolution of the Troubles

Londonderry and Belfast, a decade after Good Friday

Required readings: Conroy, Belfast Diary, all
Recommended readings: Eamonn McCann, War and an Irish Town, about life in Londonderry as a Catholic; Geoffrey Beattie, Protestant Boy, the life and education of a Protestant youth from Belfast.
Recommended films: “Michael Collins,” with Liam Neeson; “Patriot Games,” with Harrison Ford. Both deal with the Irish Republican Army and the Catholic perspective on the struggles; both are excellent.

Paper due date TBA before dead week. Second exam during finals week.

History 469, the writin' class

Continuing with the drumroll accompaniment, 469...


History 469
Seminar in History
WSUTC spring ’08
B. Farley

Essential details: Office is 207j on faculty row in WEST bldg; tel. 372-7357(office), 541-276-6962(ancestral estate). Emails bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu, brigitf2001@yahoo.com. You can now send to either or both emails because I can actually view and read attachments now on the school email. Wonders truly never cease.
Office hours face-to-face this term are 4-5:30 pm, Mondays and Wednesdays. In addition, on days we are not meeting as a group, which is most of the second part of the term and some days before, you all have first priority. VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS are 24/7 on email. I will always try to get back to you at least by the next day.

Students with Disabilities: Accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. See Cherish Tijerna, Disability Resources Coordinator, as soon as possible to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. To make an appointment, please call 372-7352. Translation from Officialspeak: If you have a learning disability, people and resources are available to help you.

Introduction: Welcome to History 469, Seminar in History. This is the place where you will get the opportunity to produce a nice piece of historical research and writing, something which you have hopefully been preparing since History 300, the pre-requisite for this course. That is your major assignment, to research and write a 10-15 page paper on a topic of your choosing in 20th century European and American history. This will be something that you can present with confidence to a potential employer, or as a writing sample for graduate or professional school.
What we will do in this course is a) meet Mondays and some Wednesdays during the first few weeks of the semester. During that time, we will cover the essentials of bringing your original idea or the one you developed earlier to fruition—finding and/or refining a topic, how to find and use sources, how to evaluate and present information from sources, bias and how to avoid or minimize it, and generally the dos and don’ts of writing about history. The main point about that last matter is: be honest, and avoid trying for spectacular or controversial findings. Your task is to determine what happened with/to your subject, wherever that might lead you.
Also during this first few weeks, you will be reading ONE REALLY, REALLY FINE piece of work in American history: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s OUTSTANDING book on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II, No Ordinary Time. I want you to read this first because she uses a diversity of sources to maximum advantage and makes them work for her. This book is serious and substantive, yet full of humanity and telling anecdotes. DKG is an ordinary mortal who produced this wonderful portrait; YOU are an ordinary mortal capable of doing the same thing. Oh, and did I mention that you will have an in-class quiz on this book in mid-February?
The second part of the course consists of your producing your DKG-style work, doing your research, putting the paper together and making sure the product meets standards of excellence in terms of diversity of sources, writing and editing. We will do that part together as well, face-to-face and in cyberspace. After we finish the in-class part of the course, I will be in the office during the class period exclusively to talk with anyone who has a question or an issue. In any case, you will turn in to me a rough draft by March 31, I will return it to you with comments, and you will then return to me a finished product by April l6.
In between, you have an excellent resource in the Marius book on how to conduct research in and write history. You also have first priority in the office and on email…I’m basically available at any time to help with ideas, editing, and whatever issues come up during the “birth” of this paper.

NB: Please stop by my blog, http://blogsideinn.blogspot.com, periodically, for updates, announcements and between-classes happenings.

January 7-9: Course Introduction: types of history AND how to choose and/or refine a topic you have already chosen.
Your task: Produce a topic, presented in a coherent paragraph, by January l4. Read 2 chapters of Marius, also 2 chapters of Goodwin

January 14-16: Discussion of paper topics. Then: types of sources and how to use them
Your task: Investigate all possible primary sources accessible in this area and make a list of secondary sources. Continue with Marius and Goodwin.

January 22: NO CLASS this week. Searching for and getting what you need
Your task: Start gathering your sources. Continue with Marius and Goodwin.

January 29: Nuts and bolts of writing, part I: organization and note-taking
Finish Marius and Goodwin

February 7: Nuts and bolts of writing, part I: editing and annotating
Continue with Goodwin.

February l1-13: History on film, TBA

February 21-23: NO CLASS February 21, Prexies’ Day; QUIZ on DKG on February 23.
Your task: Read, make notes and WRITE SOMETHING EVERY DAY for the next couple of months. If you do those things, the paper will materialize.

Back by popular(?!)demand...

SYLLABI, '08 editions. First up is History 450, Europe since l945...

History 450—Europe since ‘45
Spring ‘08
WSU/Tri-Cities


Contact Info: 207j West Building/372-7357(office), 541-276-6962(home). Face-to-face office hours: Monday-Wednesday, 4-5:30 pm and by appointment, Virtual office hours 24/7 via email, bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu or brigitf2001@yahoo.com. Email was made for me—I don’t like talking on the phone and I always try to answer any communiqué I get that same day. Please feel free to get in touch anytime.

Make it a point to visit the class blog at http://blogsideinn.blogspot.com for updates, syllabi, test questions and miscellaneous information and opinion. If you’ve forgotten or lost something, you can find it here, and you are always welcome to leave comments, using your real name or a pseudonym…

The Lowdown

Well, we’re back to contemplating Modern Europe, or Europe since l945, again. I was not sure what to do about this period in 2005, and I am no more so in 2008. Europe is allegedly united, but divided into more and less “established” camps of states. It supposedly saw the light and renounced war and violence after the horror of the Holocaust, yet was wracked by some of the worst genocide and ethnic cleansing of the century in the territories of the former Yugoslavia in the l990s. It touts itself as modern, tolerant and accepting, yet is continually threatened, and sometimes hit, by alienated young men who have embraced militant Islam. There is no grand national narrative, no unifying theme, that we can lean on in studying the modern history of this region. Therefore, we will look at several episodes in the period that seem to be particularly interesting and/or enlightening, and hope for the best. The first will be the uniting, then division, then reconstruction of postwar Europe, followed by the rise of anticolonialism, with particular emphasis on France and its desperate attempts to hold on to Algeria, Tunisia and Indochina. Then we will examine the Year That Was in Europe as well as America—l968—because we “celebrate” its 40th anniversary this year. The development of a vicious, prolonged conflict between Protestants and Catholics in northern Ireland comes next, and then the story behind the reunification of Europe in l989, the year that everything seemed to become possible.
Since we will be concentrating on four or five key episodes in European history, it seems reasonable to work in some crucial films highlighting some singular aspect of each. Besides, I like film, and Europeans do a great job on them. The first will be the newly relevant “Battle of Algiers,” to accompany the Alastair Horne classic. Next comes “Oratorio for Prague,” a film that began to chronicle the miraculous “Prague Spring” of l968, but ended up being shut down by invading Soviet forces sent to crush it.
“Bloody Sunday,” a re-creation of the worst day of the northern Irish conflict, will be the third offering. Closing out the term will be “Goodbye, Lenin,” an hilarious comment on the end of Communist Europe.


Readings

The readings pretty much go chronologically, and as usual, we were limited to what is in print at the moment. Still, the books are pretty good. We begin with the text, Felix Gilbert’s End of the European Era, l890-present. I’m not sure the European era is actually over, but he covers the events between l945 and now very well. I actually have read that book, a TEXT, several times. Alastair Horne’s classic study of the French struggle with its Algerian colony comes next. This book has new relevance in light of the US war in Iraq, since both US and French officials used torture on insurgents, a very controversial development. Heda Kovaly’s memoir, Under a Cruel Star, demonstrates how cruel and unforgiving the Communist regimes were, and how dreadful it was to get Communism as soon as the Nazis were vanquished. With respect to the Irish conflict, one highlight is the determination of a group of Catholic prisoners outside Belfast to resist being categorized as common criminals. They believed they were POLITICAL PRISONERS, not criminals, and deserved to be treated as such. The difference between them and a lot of ordinary mortals is that they were willing to die the most gruesome death in order to dramatize their convictions. The “Hunger Strikers” of l980-81 are the subject of David Beresford’s Ten Men Dead. Whether or not you agree with their ideas, you will be stunned by their resolve. Finally, Timothy Garton Ash’s modern classic, The Magic Lantern, so called since it was thought at the time that only magic, or supernatural forces, could put an end to Soviet domination in eastern Europe. As it happened, it wasn’t magic at all, it was a man named Gorbachev, but there certainly was an otherworldly quality to the events of l989, which united Europe after 50 years of division.

Assignments

Modern Europe is an M class, meaning writing across the curriculum, It is impractical for everyone to write a term paper, so we will resort to an old warhorse: the semester-long reading and writing assignment(40%). One thing we WON’T probably get to is the dramatic expansion of the European Union that we witnessed in 2003 and continue to watch as the 21st century continues. Thus, YOU will cover this for yourself. You will select one of the countries admitted in 2004(Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia)OR one of the countries now seeking and/or preparing for admission(Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey), seek out 1-3 articles per week dealing with that country. You can select articles that reflect a sort of general acquaintance, or narrow your focus to something specific, like the economy, tourism, political challenges, minority rights issues, etc. You will summarize each article in a paragraph or two, then store the summaries in a folder. About two weeks before the end of the semester, you will write a 3-5 page paper summarizing your findings for a business that is seeking to establish itself there. What are the most important current issues with which these business people should be familiar as they move into the country? Both your summaries AND your final paper will form the basis for your grade on this part of the course, since this is a “writing across the curriculum” offering.
The writing exercise will be worth 40% of the final grade. Other than that, we’ll have a geography midterm, for 20%, a regular midterm(20%) and a final, or second midterm(20%).

Schedule

Part I, l945-53: Victory, Unity, Recovery, Division, Confrontation

Background to l945

The “big three” and planning for the postwar: two Europes??

Europe and the Marshall Plan: Recovery, retribution, reconquest

The Berlin crisis

Two postwars

Readings: Gilbert, beginnings to chapter 12; start Horne, Savage War of Peace
Recommended readings: Norman Naimark, Russians in Germany, l945-49; Anthony Beevor, Paris after the Liberation, l945-49.
Recommended film: “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

GEOGRAPHY midterm after this section(!). Yes, you will finally have to learn the map of Europe, with all those brand-new countries in it, like Slovenia…or is it SLOVAKIA?!

Part II, The l950s: Reaction/revolt

The east in crisis: Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin

The west in crisis: France and the “colonial wars:” Indochina, Algeria, Tunisia

Featured film: “The Battle of Algiers(l956).”

Readings: Gilbert, chapters 13-14; Horne, all
Recommended readings: Roy Medvedev, Khrushchev: a Biography. Bernard Fall, Street without Joy, Hell in a Very Small Place; Robert Dallek, JFK: An Unfinished Life(new bio of President Kennedy).
Recommended films: “Indochine,” starring Catherine De Neuve

Garden-variety midterm exam after this section…

Part III: l968, the Year that Rocked the World

The USA: reversals, riots, bloody murder

The French crisis

The Czechoslovak l960s and the Prague Spring, January-August l968

Featured film: “Oratorio for Prague(l968).”

Readings: Gilbert, ch. 14; Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star, all.
Recommended readings: William Shawcross, Dubcek; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., RFK: His Life and Times; James Simon Kunen, The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary; David Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight

Part IV: The “Troubles” in Ireland

Prelude to a crisis: Catholics and Protestants in northern Ireland to l967

Catholics and the “Civil Rights movement,” l968-69

“Battle of the Bogside” and the coming of the British Army

Playing hardball with the British: Bobby Sands and the Irish hunger strikers

The road to Good Friday

Featured film: “Bloody Sunday(2003).”

Readings: Beresford, Ten Men Dead, all.
Recommended readings: John Conroy, Belfast Diary; Tim Pat Coogan, On the Blanket.

Part V: Europe re-uniting, l985-89

Ferment in the east: Gorbachev, Reagan and nuclear Europe

Gorbachev and the “satellites”

The “Sinatra doctrine.”

The end of the Berlin wall and the “German problem.”

Featured film: “Goodbye, Lenin(2003)!”

Readings: Gilbert, chapters 16-17; Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern, all.
Recommended readings: : David Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb: the Last Days of the Soviet Empire; Slavenka Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.

Final exam-- second midterm, actually-- at the scheduled time