HISTORY 317
Van Hall/Section 17/Fall 2008

I. PURPOSE: To acquaint students with the fundamental, economic and social events of the interwar period.

II. METHOD: The instructor has selected 26 topics, arranged roughly in chronological order, and each will be the subject of a lecture. Questions and comments are welcome during and after each lecture.

III. TEXT:  There is no assigned text for this course. The instructor will assign readings from various sources throughout the sixteen-week period.

IV. OUTSIDE READING: Each student must select and read two books which relate to subjects which fall roughly within the 1914 to 1939 time period. They must be approved by the instructor.

V. BOOK REVIEWS: Each student must submit two book reviews. Each review must be three-to-five pages (c.800 – 1300 words), typewritten and double-spaced in 12-point font. Two copies of each review must be made (one for the instructor and one to be retained by the student.) For guidance about what to put in the review, click: BookReview.

VI. EXAMS: There will be two exams during the semester plus a Final Exam. All exams consist primarily of essay questions but there are also some identification questions and a map section.

VII. GRADES:  Grades will be computed on the following basis:
                        Each Semester Exam will count:        20%   of the course grade
                        Each book review will count:             10%
                        The Final Exam will count:                 40%

VIII. GRADE SCALE:              90 – 100   A
                                                 87 – 89    B+
                                                 80 – 86    B
                                                 77 – 79    C+
                                                 70 – 76    C
                                                 67 – 69    D+
                                                 60 – 66    D
                                                      – 59    F

IX. MISSED EXAMS:  There is no penalty for missing one or both of the semester exams. If you miss one semester exam, then the Final Exam will count as 60% of your course grade. If you miss both exams, then the Final Exam will count 80%.
THERE ARE NO MAKE UP EXAMS.

X. REQUIRED OUTCOMES: Successful completion of this course will be evidence that the student is able to identify the major persons and events of the interwar period and possess sufficient understanding to discuss those persons and events cogently both on paper and in conversation. More specifically, the student will have a workable understanding of three great competing ideas of the period: communism, liberal democracy and (broadly) fascism.

21 August

Chain Reaction

 

26 August

World War I

 

28 August

World War I

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

2 September

Paris Peace Conference

Bolshevik Coup Documents

4 September

Birth of Weimar

 

9 September

Hitler to Putsch

Treaty of Versailles

11 September

Weimar: 1920s      

 

16 September

Russia

 

18 September

Russia to 1928

 

23 September

Birth of Fascism

 

25 September

Mussolini in the 1920s FIRST BOOK REVIEW

Weimar Constitution: Text

30 September

Post War Democracies

 

2 October

Democracies

 

7 October

First Exam

 

9 – 10 October

FALL BREAK

 

14 October

The Great Depression

 

16 October

Stalin First five-year plan

 

21 October

Stalin: Collectivization

Dizzy with Success

23 October

Hitler to Power

 

28 October

Hitler Domestic

 

30 October

Stalin: Purges

 

4 November

Election Day

 

6 November

Democracies

 

11 November

Mussolini in the 1930s

 

13 November

    Second Exam

 

18 November

Popular Front    

 

20 November

Spanish Civil War

 

25 November

Spanish Civil War SECOND BOOK REVIEW

 

26 – 28 November

Thanksgiving

 

2 December

Appeasement

Munich Pact (1938)

4 December

Gathering Storm

Text of Hitler-Stalin Pact

Office Hours:       MW  1:00 – 2:305:00 – 5:20
             TTH  10:00 – 12:10
            FRI  12:00  – 1:30


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Last update: 16 September 2008
You can reach me by email at: DVanHall@mailbox.sc.edu.
http://usclancaster.sc.edu/faculty/vanhall/HIST317f'8A.htm