Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
HISTD006C
Course Title (CB02)
History of Western Civilization: 1750 C.E. to Present
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
The development of Western Civilization from the early modern period (1750 CE) to the present, with an emphasis on the French Revolution, industrialization, nationalism, European imperialism, both world wars, environmentalism and the economic growth of Europe during and after the Cold War era.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a major preparation requirement in the discipline for the Associate of Arts in History for transfer and for at least one CSU or U.C., and is a requirement of a B.A. degree. In addition, it is part of a sequence and meets the needs for history majors and G.E. students as it satisfies a chronological sequence and offers European history of the early modern period from the Enlightenment Era (1750 CE) to the present.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
ý GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GC2ý GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
2GDXý GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGC2CSU GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG3BIGETC Area 3B - HumanitiesApproved
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
C-IDArea(s)StatusDetails
HISTHistoryApprovedHIST D006B & HIST D006C required for C-ID HIST 180

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

(Not open to students with credit in the Honors Program related course.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class essays

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Film/documentaries

Assignments

  1. Reading Assignments: Regular reading assignments from the college-­â€level texts, including both primary and secondary sources, from which students will gain and demonstrate knowledge of political, economic, social, and cultural events of the historical era for this course.
  2. Writing Assignments: Writing to be selected from a combination of assignments such as research papers, in-­â€class essays in exam format, book reviews, and/or other analytic written assignments that critique and evaluate primary sources and secondary sources and demonstrate an understanding of the historical era for this course. Students will write a minimum of 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words.
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, or objective sections of in-­â€class midterm(s) or the final examination in which students demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate primary and secondary historical sources.
  4. Group or individual participation in oral analytical expression such as in-­â€class discussions, debates, or analysis of texts, including primary historical documents.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Oral analysis: participation in and contribution toward classroom discussions, debates, or specified group project(s) in which students demonstrate analytical skills, such as clarity of argument and the use of evidence to support arguments, in oral interpretations of sources, including primary historical documents.
  2. Essay assignments that will demonstrate students’ ability to make and support meaningful statements about primary and secondary historical sources and historical events and to exhibit critical thinking and analytical skills in evaluating the era of history for this course. Students will write at least 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words.
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, objective sections of in-­â€class exams, final exam or other analytical projects in which students demonstrate the ability to critically analyze college-­â€level secondary source readings and primary source documents in the era of history for this course.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Backman, Clifford. The Cultures of the West, Vol.II: Since 1350: A History. 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Coffin, Judith, et al. Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture (Seventeenth Edition.) New York: Norton, 2011.
Dutton, Paul Edward, et al., Many Europes: Choice and Chance in Western Civilizaztion, (1st edition). Prentice Hall, 2013.
Hunt, Lynn, et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Vol.II: Since 1500. (Fifth Edition) Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2016.
Perry, Marvin. "Western Civilization: A Brief History." (Eleventh Edition) New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 2015.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Andress, David. The Terror. New York: Farrar, Strous & Geroux, 2006.
Ariès, Philippe, et al. eds. A History of Private Life. Vol. IV. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.
Audoin-Rouzeau, Stéphane and Becker, Annette, 14-18: Understanding the Great War New York: Hill and Wang, 2014.
Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Revised, New York: HarperCollins, 2017.
Darwin, Charles. Origin of Species. New York: Signet, 2003.
Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. (Second Edition.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Fraser, Ronald. Blood of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: Norton, 2005.
Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. (Second Edition) Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. (Second Edition.) Cambrdige: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Hunt, Lynn. Sources of the Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures: Volume II. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2009.
Kershaw, Ian. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation. (Fourth edition.) New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.
LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War. (Tenth Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
Lindemann, Albert S. A History of European Socialism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Maier, Charles S. Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
McNeil, J.R. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century World. New York: Norton, 2001.
Moore, Barrington. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
Scott, Joan Wallach. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Taylor, A.J.P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848-1919. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Thompson, E.P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vintage/Random House, 1966.
Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Weinberg, Gerhard. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Woods, Ngaire. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Zeldin, Theodore. A History of French Passions, 5 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980-1993.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Compare, contrast and develop a critical understanding of the historical method. Critically evaluate, explain, and defend informed study with respect to the history of western civilization with the use of primary and secondary sources.
  • Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to an understanding of dominant themes in the development of Western Civilization, while also fostering recognition of the contributions of its diverse peoples.
  • Analyze and interpret historical evidence with both primary and secondary sources. Develop critical thinking skills within a multi-cultural diverse approach of the historical method. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to multi-cultural assessments and interpretations of historical problems within western civilizations. Understand the chronological survey of the stages of development in Western Civilization from the Early Modern period to the present.

CSLOs

  • Students will demonstrate and apply knowledge of Western history from the early modern period (1750 C.E) through the present to construct defensible statements of meaning and evaluation about this period's development.

  • Students will identify, critically evaluate, and interpret Western Civ's early modern period (1750 C.E) through the present primary documents to construct historical analysis.

Outline

  1. Compare, contrast and develop a critical understanding of the historical method. Critically evaluate, explain, and defend informed study with respect to the history of western civilization with the use of primary and secondary sources.
    1. The Study of History
      1. History defined
      2. History and myth compared
      3. Introduction to the development of the philosophical approach to history
      4. The practical importance in the study of history
    2. Historiography, and the study of western civilizations from the Early Modern period to the present
      1. The historical method
      2. Critical analysis of evidence (primary and secondary sources)
      3. Epistemology of historical study.
      4. The role of formal and informal logic in the historical method
      5. Key issues and debates across cultures that define the human condition within western civilizations
  2. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to an understanding of dominant themes in the development of Western Civilization, while also fostering recognition of the contributions of its diverse peoples.
    1. Major Themes in Western Civilization
      1. Examine Economic organization in western society including trade and Communication Networks.
      2. The Impacts of Science and Technology
      3. Expansion, conquest and other conflicts between East and West
      4. Cultural, (including artistic, literary and architectural contributions), Religious and Philosophical Perspectives
      5. Political Perspectives
      6. Environment Factors
    2. Recognition of the contributions of diverse peoples in the development of western civilizations
      1. The place of slavery
      2. The roles of women
      3. The impacts of ethnic and racial diversity
      4. The role of religious dissent
      5. The role of human sexuality
  3. Analyze and interpret historical evidence with both primary and secondary sources. Develop critical thinking skills within a multi-cultural diverse approach of the historical method. Use primary and secondary sources from a diverse range of authors to contribute to multi-cultural assessments and interpretations of historical problems within western civilizations. Understand the chronological survey of the stages of development in Western Civilization from the Early Modern period to the present.
    1. The Enlightenment
      1. Philosophes (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Locke)
      2. Women in the Age of the Enlightenment
      3. Rise of the novel
    2. The Age of Revolution and the Birth of Liberalism
      1. The American Revolution
      2. The Crisis of the Old Regime
      3. The French Revolution
      4. Constitutionalism
      5. The Napoleonic Era
      6. Romanticism
    3. Social, Economic and Political Shifts in Europe
      1. Industrialization
      2. Urbanization
      3. New social classes
      4. Labor movements
      5. Restoration and Reaction
      6. New political ideologies (Liberalism, Conservatism, Social Democracy, Nationalism)
      7. The Revolutions of 1848
    4. Nationalism, Conflict and the Remaking of Europe
      1. the Crimean War
      2. National Unification (France, Italy, Germany)
      3. Nascent democracies
      4. Instabilities in the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires
    5. Societies in Flux
      1. the Second industrial revolution
      2. the rise of middle class culture
      3. New feminism
      4. new urban life
      5. Darwin
      6. Realism and the novel
      7. Impressionism
    6. Rising Tensions
      1. the new imperialism
      2. Mass culture
      3. Socialism
      4. Anarchism
      5. Social Darwinism
      6. Anti-semitism
      7. The crisis of reason (Freud, Nietzsche)
    7. The Great War
      1. causes
      2. trenches, technology and other theaters
      3. Home fronts
      4. US involvement
      5. The armistice, the Paris Peace Conference and aftermath
    8. The new politics of extremity
      1. New democracies
      2. the Great Depression
      3. the Russian Revolution
      4. Stalin and Stalinism
      5. Hitler, anti-semitism and the transformation of Germany
      6. Fascism and the weakness of liberalism
      7. Modernism and the avant-garde
    9. World War II
      1. the coming of the war
      2. German military successes
      3. Europe under Hitler
      4. Resistance, collaboration and survival
      5. The Holocaust
      6. War in the Pacific
      7. The Atomic Bomb
      8. the end of the war and war-crimes trials
    10. The Cold War
      1. The division of Europe
      2. Reconstruction
      3. New political alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact, EEC)
      4. De-Stalinization
      5. Western European economic boom
      6. Europe and decolonization
      7. The US and the Third World
      8. Existentialism, Abstract Expressionism, and mass culture
    11. The new geopolitics
      1. colonial wars (Algeria, Vietnam, Afghanistan)
      2. éٱԳٱ
      3. the Islamic Revolution and the new Middle East
      4. the end of the Cold War (peretroika, glastnost, Solidarity, German Unification)
      5. Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing and the legacy of genocide
    12. New Opportunities, New Challenges
      1. NAFTA
      2. Globalization
      3. Social justice movements
      4. The new environmentalism
      5. Social Issues (health, gender, immigration and labor)
      6. The European Union
      7. The Internet and the new Technological Age
      8. 9/11 and the new terrorism
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