Course Descriptions

This one-semester course will explore the long history of  Spain from its beginnings in the stone age through the great social and economic upheavals of the twentieth century.  Beginning with an introduction to its geography and language, we shall touch on such topics as paleolithic settlement and art, the arrival of new groups (Celts, Greeks, Phoenicians), the Roman imperium, the Visigothic domination, the Islamic conquest and Christian reconquest (Reconquista), medieval kingdoms and their unification, the separate way of Portugal, the birth and death of  religious toleration, the rise and fall of Spain in the European state system, Hapsburg and Bourbon kings, the troubled nineteenth century and even more troubled twentieth, and finally, the emergence of one of Europe’s most democratic societies.   Wherever possible, the course will attempt to place Spain into the larger context of European and Mediterranean society.  Basic information will be conferred primarily through lectures by the professor.

Course Goals:

(1)  To provide students with a firm understanding of the history and culture of the Iberian Peninsula, in particular of  what we today call Spain.  (There will also be some treatment of that part of Spain that maintained its independence in the unifying process and is today the nation of Portugal.)

(2)  To provide some understanding of the various types of evidence available to scholars when they  undertakes to reconstruct the Spanish past

(3)  (Hopefully) To inspire in the student a further interest in the study of Spain, its people, and its history and encourage travel to an ancient and fascinating land

Required Reading:

Simon Barton, A History of Spain (Palgrave MacMillan, 2004).

This is the best general text on Spanish history currently available in English.  Even though it is rather "light" on periods before roughly 1000, read in conjunction with the lectures, it should supply the student with an adequate knowledge of Spain's ancient past.

If the student finds it necessary to supplement the Barton text, he/she may have access to a now out-of-print textbook written by one of the finest historians of modern Spain and available FOR FREE  on the web through LIBRO:  The Library of Iberian Resources on Line.  See:  Stanley Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal at URL:  http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/spainport1.htm

Olivia Remie Constable, Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997).

An excellent collection of sources from medieval Spain, taken from the three great religions that co-existed there as nowhere else in Europe.  (The book is dedicated to John Boswell, the man who saved my academic career.)

There are two other books on the list, both dealing with Spain in what historians designate "the modern period" (c. 1500-the present).  Depending upon where your interests lie, you may choose to read one or the other.  (Of course, I am not seeking to discourage you from reading both if you so desire!)

John Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469-1715. 

This classic work, written by one of the foremost historians of the twentieth century (still going strong in the twenty-first)  is still the best one volume account that covers the period from Spanish unification under the Catholic Monarchs to the end of the Hapsburg dynasty.

Richard Herr, An Historical Essay on Modern Spain. 

Written by a leading scholar of Spain since the Enlightenment, this work carries Spain from the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, established at the beginning of the eighteenth century through the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM INITIATIVE FOR HISTORY STUDENTS 

 THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY IS PLEASED TO OFFER FOR THE FIRST TIME AN **OPTIONAL** ADDITIONAL ONE-HOUR CLASS FOR CREDIT IN SPANISH ATTACHED TO HISTORY 306N: INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SPAIN. 

Students with intermediate Spanish language skills enrolled in HIS 306N, Intro to History and Culture of Spain, may, if they choose, sign up for a supplemental one-hour class in Spanish, SPN 130D (unique 46555). Students who take this additional course will receive an additional hour's credit in Spanish from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.  This is a unique opportunity to develop language skills in the context of historical reading. The Department of History encourages interested students to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Time and Place for SPN 130D will be determined according to student availability.

Description

The course will introduce the major dimensions of globalization and the main questions that the topic raises for scholars and activists.  This introduction to a broad, complex, constantly changing field should provide a foundation for continued thinking and learning about globalization. 

The writing assignments are intended to help you develop greater skill, versatility and confidence as a writer by practicing different writing strategies and techniques for requesting and receiving useful feedback on written work.  The final review essay provides an opportunity to demonstrate all that you have learned about writing and about globalization.

The assignments for the course should take an average of about six hours per week to complete.

Texts

Ritzer, George.  2007. The Globalization of Nothing.  2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Pine Forge Press.

Eitzen, D. Stanley and Maxine Baca Zinn, eds.  2012.  Globalization:  The Transformation of  Social Worlds.  3rd ed.  Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Requirements and grading

Tests

Hour exam at midterm 7.5%

Second hour exam 7.5%

Informal writing

In class writing, quizzes and class participation (daily) 15%

Soliciting and giving feedback on writing (“peer reviews” when  papers are due) 15%                                                                                

Formal writing

Formal papers, including revisions (250-500 words) 35%

Final book review essay, in lieu of a final exam (1000-1250 words) 20%

This course is designed to develop a geographical understanding of the Circumpolar region of the North, an ancient human habitat and a home to distinct, millennia old, civilizations. These indigenous Arctic cultures and livelihoods are being constantly challenged by modern industrial powers, and the clash between two contesting realities is profound. Emphasis is given to a historical geographical perspective on the major processes forming cultural and natural landscapes (including global warming), and influence society, economy, spiritual life and politics. Regions include: Alaska, the Canadian northern territories, Scandinavian North, including Sapmi (Lapland), Iceland, Greenland, the Russian North, and Siberia.

Prerequisites: upper division undergraduate students

Readings: course package

Grading: the final grade for the course is based on 3 exams

This course is a systematic introduction to geography of all regions of Europe, from Iceland to Sicily and European Russia and Finland to Bretagne and Galicia. The course is based on a renowned textbook by Alexander B. Murphy, Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov and Bella Bychkova Jordan and focuses on all the major aspects of the European makeup: its physical, economic, political, and cultural geography, geolinguistics and environmental issues. A special attention is given to such issues as expansion of the European Union and NATO, problems associated with immigration and ethnic tensions, challenges of multiculturalism and integration. A significant portion of the class is dedicated to the analysis of demographic, urban and agricultural patterns. The historical perspective allows the analysis of the evolution of the European civilization during the last two millennia and resulting geographical patterns in modern Europe.

Prerequisites: upper division undergraduate students

Readings: Alexander B. Murphy, Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov and Bella Bychkova Jordan.  The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography, 2009, 5th edition. Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, Boulder, CO. Available at The Co-Op and amazon.com

Grading: The final grade is based on 3 exams.

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Western Church and the Jews over two millenia. How did theological ideas about the Jews crystallize in the early centuries? How were they expressed in legal and social terms in the centuries that followed? How did economic and social realities dovetail with theology to produce the extreme persecutions of the Jews in the late medieval period? What led to the striking changes in Christian attitudes to Jews in from the post-Reformation period to the present? We will analyze relevant documents and images, emphasizing how theological positions both created and responded to the socio-economic roles of Jews.

Required to purchase:

Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition)

The course will make used of a website designed specifically for it by the instructor. The website includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Blackboard.

Grading:

Class attendance and participation (10%), participation on Discussion Board (20%), two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%), mid-term exam (20%), final exam (30%).

The Spanish Inquisition operated for three and a half centuries, and became one of the most notorious institutions in history. It is popularly known for its secret trials, autos-da-fe, and burnings at the stake. But why was it established? Why did it survive even when heresy seemed virtually eliminated? What purposes did it serve that allowed it to survive for so long? These are some of the issues we will explore in this course. Each student will carry out a project “tracing” one (fictitious) personality through the various phases of the inquisitorial process, from the time of arrest (or re-arrest) to the day of the sentencing. By discussing one another’s projects we will get a sense of the great diversity - in time and space, and in motives and aims - of this institution. 

Required books:

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision

Lu Ann Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614

Grading:

Attendance and participation (20%), project proposal (20%), draft of project (20%). Final project (40%).

Our stereotypical image of an early modern woman is a witch - for some good reasons because thousands of witch trials took place. In this course, we will look beyond that perspective to explore the complex of material, political, and cultural factors that shaped experiences of gender and family and that shaped attitudes about gender and power in early modern Europe. The early modern centuries between about 1500 and 1800 were years of tremendous change in many ways - religious reformations, European governments became more powerful at home and established colonies world wide, economic transformation as people became consumers and production expanded exponentially. Some features were slower to change, however, especially with regard to family life. In this class, we will explore how women's experiences of these patterns compared to men's - whether as workers, consumers, criminals, political subjects and political actors, peasants or nobles, spouses or parents. Along the way, we will explore why some of these dynamics fed into a proliferation of "witches."

In this course we will examine representative works from 19th and 20th-century French literature, from Balzac’s Realism of the 1830s to Duras’s post-modern novel of the 1980s.  We will consider literature in its relation to history, with special attention both to form and style in the development of narrative, prose poetry and avant-garde theatre.  All students will be expected to give one in-class presentation on an aspect of French culture and history related to one of the works we are reading, and this presentation will be turned into a brief (5-7 page) paper.  A final paper on a French novel from this period not included on the syllabus will be due the last day of class.

This course introduces students to early French literary culture from the Middle Ages to
the Revolution. We will examine the changing social and cultural contexts in which the
literature was produced. Recurrent lines of inquiry include: the emergence and evolution
of discourses on the individual in relationship to the social order and to the divine; the
evolving relationship between notions of romantic love and conceptions of gender roles;
changing notions of auctoritas within pre-Revolutionary French society. Special attention
will be paid to the social construction of love and desire in the literary culture of the
ancien régime.

Prerequisites:FR 320E or the equivalent.

Required Course Materials:
Collectif, Tristan et Iseult (Paris: Hachette Education, 2003)
Jean Racine, Phèdre (Paris: Hachette Education, 2002)
Mme de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves (Paris: Hachette Education, 2008)
Françoise De Graffigny, Lettres d’une Péruvienne (New York, MLA Publications, 1993)
All other readings will be posted on Blackboard

Course Work:
Short essay + revised expanded version 40%
Weekly blog entries 30%
Weekly reading quizzes 20%
Class participation 10%

This course introduces students to early French literary culture from the Middle Ages to
the Revolution. We will examine the changing social and cultural contexts in which the
literature was produced. Recurrent lines of inquiry include: the emergence and evolution
of discourses on the individual in relationship to the social order and to the divine; the
evolving relationship between notions of romantic love and conceptions of gender roles;
changing notions of auctoritas within pre-Revolutionary French society. Special attention
will be paid to the social construction of love and desire in the literary culture of the
ancien régime.

Prerequisites:FR 320E or the equivalent.

Required Course Materials:
Collectif, Tristan et Iseult (Paris: Hachette Education, 2003)
Jean Racine, Phèdre (Paris: Hachette Education, 2002)
Mme de Lafayette, La Princesse de Clèves (Paris: Hachette Education, 2008)
Françoise De Graffigny, Lettres d’une Péruvienne (New York, MLA Publications, 1993)
All other readings will be posted on Blackboard

Course Work:
Short essay + revised expanded version 40%
Weekly blog entries 30%
Weekly reading quizzes 20%
Class participation 10%

This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the reading and analysis of representative texts from the eighteenth century to the present.  Particular attention will be paid to the historical and cultural background from which these texts emerged.  The seminar will be conducted entirely in French.  The students will be required to keep a journal and write a final seminar paper (8-10 pages in length).  Texts to be studied include:

Voltaire, L'Ingenu; Chateaubriad, Rene; Flaubert, Un Coeur simple; Camus, L'Etranger; Balzac, Sarrasine; Beckett, En Attendant Godot; and Sartre, Huis clos.  Students will also be required to purchase a course packet with a selection of poetry by Baudelaire, Aragon, Follain and others.

Prerequisite: French 320E.

This course is an introduction to the reading and analysis of Italian literary production. By the end of this course, students will learn of some of the most important cultural issues and literary trends. Students will also lay the foundations for literary analysis and criticism in Italian.

We will examine representative texts in their historical, political, and social contexts, beginning from the Middle Ages to the post-War World II period. We will also read one of the most representative texts of Italian literature, Italo Calvino’s Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno. Some films are also required for this course and will be discussed in class.

Required texts:

Paolo E. Balboni - Anna Biguzzi. Letteratura italiana per stranieri. Nuova edizione. Guerra Edizioni (2005).

Italo Calvino. Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1947)

Requirements

Participation (in-class discussion, study questions and book activities): 15%

Weekly Journal: 20%

Oral presentation: 15%

Mid-term Exam: 20%

Final Exam: 30%

Description:

 The Danish author Karen Blixen (1885-1962) is one of the most enigmatic and famous literary personalities in the 20th century. Her privileged but unhappy childhood, her marriage to Baron Blixen and their immigration to Africa on the eve of World War I, and her passionate affair with Denys Finch Hatton are among the distinctive events in a life that was full of tragedy and triumph.

Her literary career began in earnest with the undisputed masterpiece, Seven Gothic Tales, which was first published in the U.S. in 1934 under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, a pseudonym she chose – of course – to ensure that her works in a male-dominated world were accepted by publishers and the public. Her second book, now the best known of her works, was Out of Africa, published in 1937, and its success firmly established her reputation as an author. Later followed books such as Winter´s tales, Anecdotes of destiny and Last tales that made her one of the most talked about authors of her day. The two movies Out of Africa (1985) and the adaptation of a story from Anecdotes of destiny, Babette´s feast (1987), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture, further increased the public awareness about Karen Blixen as did Judith Thurman´s biography, Isak Dinesen – The life of a storyteller (1983).

In this course we will make close readings of Karen Blixen´s works in order to get a deeper understanding of her artistic means. Furthermore, we will look at Africa in a post-colonial context, sexuality as empowerment, Blixen´s occupation with destiny and the timelessness in her traditional storytelling. Lastly, we will examine Karen Blixen´s position within the literary tradition.

The course aims at increasing your ability to think and work analytically. This includes developing the ability to read and analyze literary and non-literary texts, to voice criticism through coherent argumentation, to reason by analogy, to pose interesting questions and to communicate your discoveries to others.

Course materials:

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Seven gothic tales

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Out of Africa / Shadows on the grass

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Winter’s tales

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Anecdotes of destiny / Ehrengaard

Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen: Last tales

Grading:

Writing assignments/essays: 25%

Quizzes: 20%

Midterm: 15%

Participation: 20%

Final essay: 20%

How did Czechs imagine and construct themselves and the "other," and how, by contrast were they perceived by others? What did Czechs create, and how do they relate to other Slavs, Germans, and wider world? Is there a Czech identity and culture? To what extent did Czechs construct their identity based on the difference from others, and how accommodating they were to “strangers” in their midst? What was the role of translation, creation of language, and literature in negotiating their identity? What did the Czechs gain and lose by attaining their own linguistically and nationally defined culture? We will read authors such as Palacký, Havlíček, Masaryk, Hašek, Kafka, Patočka, and Havel, and secondary texts on Central Europe, translation, nationalism, transnationalism, and “Orientalism.” We will pay special attention to the role of language and translation, to Czech Jews and anti-Semitism, Roma (Gypsies), Germans, and the complex identities of Prague German Jewish authors such as Kafka, Werfel, Rilke, Brod, and Eisner. The course materials will include literary texts, films, and artworks.

Prerequisites:

Readings:  The Czech Reader; selection of texts assembled by the instructor. 

Grading: Midterm 20%, Research Paper 30%, Response Papers, Participation, Presentation 50%.

Students will study cultural and intellectual history represented in the major works of Polish literature in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Readings and discussions are in English.  No knowledge of Polish is required.

Students who read Polish are encouraged to do so.

Films will be used to show the media interpretation of the major works of Polish literature.

Prerequisites: None

Readings:

The History of Polish Literature by Czeslaw Milosz

Selected readings

Movies

Grading:

10% Attendance

20% Participation

10% Readings Quizzes

10% Movie Quizzes

10% Literary Works Quizzes

20% Project

20% Final Paper

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE:

A survey of the sources and main features of Germanic religion and of the transition from paganism to Christianity in northern Europe and the Germanic territories of western Europe: Anglo-Saxon Great Britain, the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland and Austria--diachronically, from the statements of Caesar and Tacitus about Germanic religion to the last pre-Christian documents in the continental area (Merseburg charms, early runic inscriptions, etc.) and in England (Beowulf) as well as the Scandinavian texts of the Eddas and sagas.  Course coverage may include: cosmogonic myths, the origin of man (in Tacitus and the Eddas) and of society (in the Rigsthula), the concept of the soul (fylgja, etc.), the great gods and goddesses and their mythology (Odin, Thor, Tyr, Njord, Freyr, Freyja, Heimdall, Loki, Balder, etc.), and the organization of worship (temples, sacrifices, etc.).  Attention will also be devoted to the survival of Germanic myth in epic/legendary literature (Sigurd/Siegfried, Hervor, Starkad, etc.), and realistic sagas (“magic” in Egils saga, Eiríks saga raudha, Gísla saga, etc.), as well as to information about pagan worship in Christian writings (lives of the saints, Adam of Bremen, etc.).  The background and expansion of Germanic worship and belief will also be examined (Indo-European heritage, correspondences with Celtic, Slavic and Finno-Ugric traditions, Arab sources, and the Thor-cult of Vikings in the diaspora [Normandy, Eastern Europe, etc.]).

TEXTS:

The Poetic Edda, tr. Carolyne Larrington.  Oxford University Press, 1996. 

The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, tr. Jesse Byock.  Penguin Books, 2005. 

The Saga of the Volsungs, tr. Jesse L. Byock.  University of California Press, 1990. 

Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals and Beliefs, by John Lindow.  Oxford University Press USA, 2002.

Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, by Thomas A. DuBois.  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. 

GRADING:

Quizzes on Reading (on most days when readings are due):     10 %

Two six-page reaction papers or position papers, 15% each =     30 %

In-class peer review activities on these papers:             10 %

Three one-page film reports, 5 % each =                 15 %

One three- to five-page group project (groups of 3-4):         15 %

One six-page research paper:                         20 %

Instructor:  Garrison, J            Areas:  III / F

Unique #:  35510            Flags:  n/a

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  EUS 347            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: E356 will consider representative continental novelists from the 18th to the 20th century.  We will try to distinguish the different national traditions of the novel – the erotic novel in French, the psychological novel in Russian, the domestic novel in German, and the historical novel in Italian -- while at the same time asking how these traditions might converge to create a transnational European form.  The reading will be demanding but rewarding, offering a chance to become acquainted with major works of fiction that have an enduring claim on the western imagination.

Texts: Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons, trans. Helen Constantine (Penguin); Flaubert, Madame Bovary, trans. Lydia Davis (Penguin); Dostoievsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokonsky (Vintage); Tolstoy, Resurrection, trans. Anthony Briggs (Penguin); Mann, Buddenbrooks, trans. John E. Woods (Everyman); Roth, The Radetsky March, trans. Joachim Neugroschel (Everyman); Bassani, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, trans. William Weaver (Everyman); Lampedusa, The Leopard, trans. Archibald Colquhon (Pantheon).

Requirements & Grading: Short (4-5 page) paper or midterm exam (20%); Longer (8-10 page) paper or final exam (50%); Reading journal (20%); Attendance and contribution (10%).

Prerequisites

None (but Comparative Politics and especially European Politics recommended)

Course Description

This course is designed to provide students with a detailed introduction to the European Union, one of America?s major economic  and political partners and one of the major actors (and problem areas)  in contemporary international relations. In this course students will  learn how the EU came about, how the EU component institutions are  designed and how they work with each other, and how the EU functions  in international relations. Students will also be able to more fully understand the causes and consequences of the European sovereign debt crisis that threatens to undermine not merely the euro currency but the survival of the entire European Union itself.

During the first part of the course, students will be exposed to the  geopolitical history of the EU from its beginning as a supranational  organization designed to regulate the coal and steel economic sectors  to its present status as the political and economic force second only to the United States. Students will also learn to think about the European Union in theoretical terms and will explore various theoretical explanations for the creation and continuation of the European integration project. In Part Two, students will learn the history and politics of the EU?s major treaties. Part Three examines the EU?s major decision-making institutions, specifically the Council of Ministers, the Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice. In Part Four, the course will examine some major EU policies and their consequences, and Part Five looks at the future of the EU.

The research requirement for this course will consist of a structured policy memo with individual sections integrated into a cohesive whole. Students will be divided into research teams by the end of week one. Working in those teams over the course of the semester, students will be given a current or potential problem area for the European Union from the case studies and, using the political and economic history learned during the course of the semester, develop a strategy memo for  EU leaders. Students will present their memos to the class in the last meetings of the semester.

Student Learning Outcomes: At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to analyze the European Union across time and space. Students will achieve a  comprehensive understanding of the European Union, and will be able to synthesize complex arguments concerning alternative mans of  international organization. Students will conduct collaborative research and present evaluative arguments in a group setting.

Grading Policy

Grading and Assignments:

Grading for this course will be composed of a combination of an end-of-the-semester map quiz, in-class formal exams, student presentations, and in-class (and electronic) discussion. The map quiz will count for 5% of your grade. There will be two midterm exams which together will count for 30% of the course grade. Each midterm will  cover only the portion of the course before it (or between it and the prior exam, in the case of the second midterm). The cumulative final exam will count for 35% of the grade, while the student presentations will count for 20% (10% individual and 10% group). In-class/online discussion will count for 10% of your grade.

Grading Standards:

I will use the following grade standards. Grades for individual assignments will be weighted according to the scale in the preceding paragraph. All grades given during the course of the semester will be converted to a 100-point scale. Group projects will be given both a group grade and an individual grade.

93 >            A

90-92         A-

87-89         B+

80-86         B

77-79         B-

75-76         C+

70-74         C

67-69         C-

60-66         D

< 60            F

Texts

Required:

Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union  

(7th edition)

The Economist magazine. Students are required to sign up for at  

least 12 issues (more if they choose). See  

https://www.economistsubscriptions.com/students/us/ for subscription  

information.

Readings from the official EU website (http://www.europa.eu)

Readings from various scholarly journals or books, available online at the Blackboard site or as in-class handouts.

Recommended Readings:

Nathaniel Copsey and Tim Haughton (eds.) The JCMS Annual Review of  the European Union in 2009 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)

It is also a good idea to follow European events via contemporary news sources such as the New York Times or the Christian Science Monitor, or the Economist. Attempting to garner an in-depth understanding of European events via local news sources is not recommended.

Course Description

This class is a study of international relations through the lens of political philosophy.  Through a careful study of classic texts, we will raise and attempt to answer basic questions about relations among states, including: What place does justice in issues of war and peace?  Under what circumstances is war just?  How do religious teachings affect one’s approach to foreign policy, and whatdifferences are there between different religions?  Are there any natural laws which govern how states should conduct themselves to each other?  How have modern political institutions shaped international relations?  Is it reasonable to hope for an era of lasting international peace, and if so, how might it be attained?  How can looking at war and peace help us come to a better understanding of what justice itself is?

We will see the answers which competing philosophic schools have given to these questions, and the arguments they made for them. 

 Our study will cover: the classical republican struggle for and against empire in Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War; Christian Just War theory in Aquinas and Vitoria; Islamic Jihad Theory; the moral supremacy of independent national sovereignty in Hobbes; the defense of a globalizing moral community achieved through commercialization by Montesquieu; and the proposal of a world legal order achieved through international legal organization byKant.

 By studying these works, we will gain a better understanding of the most common contemporary approaches to war and peace.  Our goal is not only to get a better sense of where the reigning answers to our questions came from, but to try to answerthem for ourselves as best we can.  As such, this class requires serious engagement, a willingness to think critically about one’s own beliefs, and regular, active participation. 

Grading Policy

Grading will be based on two short papers, a midterm, a final exam, quizzes, participation in discussion sections, and attendance.

Course Description

Europe has experienced major change since World War II, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to European enlargement, with Bulgaria and Romania increasing the size of the EU to 27 member states.  Enlargements of Europe, European integration, and ethnic conflict have presented major challenges for the governments of Western Europe. The current fiscal crisis has complicated politics in the EU, and challenged the survival of both the Euro and the broader European project. This course will introduce the governments and politics of countries in Western Europe and a comparative politics approach will be used.

What is comparative politics?

Comparative politics is the field within political science that tries to explain why countries vary in their domestic political institutions, their level of political and economic development, and their public policies.  Other fields in political science include international relations, political theory and American politics.

Grading Policy

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the political institutions of European governments and the European Union.  By the end of the course students will be expected to be able to describe the different types of government institutions and how they impact politics and policy making in Europe. They will also be expected to describe some of the important issues facing European governments, including issues related to immigration, the financial crisis and European enlargement. Student achievement of these goals will be assessed through exams and written assignments as described below.

To receive credit for the course, students are required to complete all assigned readings and to attend lecture (the TA will be taking attendance after the first week of class).  Any assignments not completed within a week of the due date will be given a zero.  There will be two exams and weekly assignments.  The overall grading breakdown is as follows:

Exam 1                                                            20%

Exam 2                                                            30%

Weekly assignments                                          40%

Participation                                                      10%

Total                                                                100%