HIS 359 GERMANY & CENTRAL EUROPE 1618-1918
| Kenneth J. Orosz Fall 2018 Class Meetings: Classroom Bldg A212 TR 10:50-12:05 |
Office Hours: T 2:00-3:00
W 10:00-12:00 Office: Classroom Bldg C213 Telephone: 878-3203 E-mail: oroszkj@buffalostate.edu
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Despite their late unification, the German lands played a major role in shaping modern Europe. Students in this course will survey the evolution of Germany and Central Europe from the Reformation to the 20th Century within the larger context of European history, culture and society. Major themes include the effects of the Reformation, Austro-Prussian rivalry, the Napoleonic legacy, German unification, the Dual Monarchy, and World War I.
REQUIREMENTS:
Academic misconduct (including cheating and plagiarism) will not be tolerated. Buffalo State College policies on academic misconduct, including the possible use of textual similarity detection software, are outlined on page 46 of the college catalog. Please note that the minimum penalty for cases of academic misconduct will be an F on the assignment.
Reading assignments are to be completed by the dates given. There will a midterm and a final examination. Students are required to provide their own blank examination booklets (available in the bookstore) for each exam. Please note that in order to earn more than a B on the essay portion of the exams you must make use of the relevant assigned readings and historical documents. In addition students will write two 5 page analysis papers of assigned texts (Grimmelshausen and Mann) and a 10-12 page paper on a topic of their choice. All topics for the research papers must be authorized by me and must conform to the geographic and temporal confines of this course. As part of this process students are required to submit their paper topics in the form of written proposals no later than October 11. Failure to submit a passing proposal means that your paper will not be accepted and you will earn an F for that portion of the course. All papers and reviews must conform to the History Style Sheet. Detailed instructions on the writing assignments, including the style sheet, can be found in Blackboard or by clicking the syllabi and course materials links at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/oroszkj. For Blackboard help go to https://rite.buffalostate.edu/blackboard-student.html.
Please note that in order to pass this course you must make a good faith attempt to complete all components and requirements. LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT PRIOR ARRANGEMENT. Incompletes will be granted at the sole discretion of the instructor and require a written application outlining the rationale for granting an incomplete, a list of outstanding assignments and a timetable for their completion. This application must be signed and, if granted, will constitute a formal contract for the completion of the course.
Grades will be computed as follows:
Midterm 25% Final 25%
Grimmelshausen Analysis 15% Research Paper 20%
Mann Analysis 15%
Books: The following books are required reading and are available in the bookstore:
Ivan T. Berend, History Derailed: Central & Eastern Europe in the Long 19th Century ISBN 978-0-520-24525-9
Charles Ingrao, The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815 978-0-521-78505-1
Peter Wilson, From Reich to Revolution: German History 1558-1806 978-0-333-65244-2
John Breuilly, Nineteenth Century Germany 978-0-340-76235-6
Johann Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus 978-1-903-51742-0
Heinrich Mann, The Loyal Subject 978-0-826-40955-3
SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:
Supplemental readings (indicated in italics on the syllabus) can be accessed in one of 3 ways: 1) if it is a website, there will be a link to it from the electronic version of the syllabus available in Blackboard or on my web page at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/oroszkj Please note that the “Broadcast” links will take you to a central index where you will need to click on the title to hear the file. 2) Journal articles listed below can be accessed via the library’s Academic Search Premier or JSTOR databases; 3) highlighted readings are available in Blackboard under the Content tab.
Margaret L. Anderson, “Voter, Junker, Landrat, Priest,” American Historical Review 98, no. 5 (December 1993): 1448-1474.
Zbigniew A. Konczacki, “Economic and Social Thought in Poland During the Period Between the Partitions (1772-1795)” The Polish Review 39, no. 2 (1994): 169-183.
Lynn Lubamersky, “Women and Political Patronage in the Politics of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth,” The Polish Review, 44, no. 3 (1999): 259-275
Jerzy Lukowski, “Poland-Lithuania,” in A Companion to 18th Century Europe, edited by Peter Wilson, 244-259, Oxford: Blackwell, 2009.
Curtis G. Murphy, “ Burghers versus Bureaucrats: Enlightened Centralism, the Royal Towns, and the Case of the Propinacja Law in Poland-Lithuania, 1776–1793, Slavic Review 71, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 385-409.
Nancy Reagin, “The Imagined Hausfrau” Journal of Modern History 73, no 1 (March 2001): 54-86.
Bob Scribner, “Witchcraft and Judgement in Reformation Germany,” History Today 40, no. 4 (April 1990): 12-19.
Janusz Tazbir, “Polish National Consciousness in the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century,” Harvard Ukranian Studies 10, no. 3/4 (December 1986): 316-335.
Class Schedule
August 28 Introduction
August 30 Pre-Reformation Central Europe
Read: Wilson Ch 1; Ingrao Ch 1
September 4 Origins of the Reformation
Read: Wilson Ch 2-3; 95 Theses
September 6 Beyond Luther: Zwingli, Calvin and Mathys
Read: Wilson Ch 4;
September 11 Religious Warfare
Read: Ingrao Ch 2; Thirty Years War sources; Destruction of Magdeburg
September 13 Political Fragmentation
Read: Grimmelshausen novel; Scribner; “Witchcraft and Judgement;”
September 18 The Polish Commonwealth 1569-1795
Read: Lubamersky, “Women;” Tazbir, “Polish National Consciousness;”
Murphy, “Burghers vs Bureaucrats”
September 20 Poland: Deluge and Partition
Read Konczacki, “Economic & Social Thought”;
Lukowski, “Poland-Lithaunia”; Division of Poland
September 25 Absolutism and the Rise of Brandenburg Prussia
Read: Wilson Ch 5-6;
September 27 Frederick the Great
Read: Wilson Ch 7; Duties of a Prince; Political Testament;
October 2 Absolutism in Austria
Read: Ingrao Ch 3-4; Turkish Defeat
Grimmelshausen analysis due
October 4 Maria Theresa and Joseph II
Read: Ingrao Ch 5-6; Maria Theresa Describes Joseph II;
October 9 No Class
October 11 Central Europe and the French Revolution
Read: Wilson Ch 8; Ingrao Ch 7-8; To the German Nation
Paper topics due
October 16 Napoleonic Central Europe
Read: Breuilly Ch 1-2
October 18 Midterm
October 23 Metternich and the Congress of Vienna
Read: Berend Ch 1-2; Sedgwick: Student Life; Carlsbad Decrees
October 25 Vormärz
Read: Breuilly Ch 3-4; Prussian Reform Edict
October 30 Revolutions of 1848
Read: Breuilly Ch 5-6; Frederick IV’s Refusal of Imperial Crown;
November 1 Austrian Neo-Absolutism 1848-1866
Read: Berend Ch 3-4;
November 6 Otto von Bismarck and German Unification
Read: Breuilly Ch 7; Otto von Bismarck; Bismarck in Reichstag & home;
Ems Dispatch; Documents of German Unification;
November 8 Bismarckian Germany
Read: Breuilly Ch 8; Anderson, “Voter, Junker, Landrat, Priest”
Bismarck and the Polish Question; Bismarck on Kulturkampf;
November 13 Industrialization and Social Change in Germany
Read: Breuilly Ch 9; Reagin, “Imagined Hausfrau”;
Anti-Socialist Law; School in fight vs. Socialism;
Paul Goehre on living conditions; Moritz Bromme on living conditions; Friedrich Harkort on Social Question;
November 15 The German Colonial Empire
Read: Mann novel; German Colonies; Bismarck on Colonial Policy;
Imperialism: a German viewpoint;
November 20 The Ausgleich
Read: Berend Ch 5; Memoirs of the Ausgleich;
November 22 No Class
November 27 The Dual Monarchy
Read: Berend Ch 6;
November 29 Wilhelmine Germany: Culture and Social Change
Read: Breuilly Ch 10; Bismarck’s fall from power; Uriah Letter;
Day with the Kaiser; Erfurt Program; Caprivi on fight vs Socialists; German Banking 1910
Mann analysis due
December 4 Wilhelmine Foreign Policy
Read: Breuilly Ch 11; Program of Pan-German League;
A Place in the Sun; If I were Kaiser; Daily Telegraph Interview;
December 6 WW I
Read: Breuilly Ch 12; Berend Epilogue; Blank Check; Zimmerman Telegram;
SPD response to war; Hindenburg Program;
Research paper due
December 11 Final Exam 9:40-11:30
Guidelines for Writing Assignments
While your papers will be graded primarily on content, grammatical accuracy, style, presentation and organization will also be taken into account. All papers are required to adhere to the History Style Sheet which is available in Blackboard and on my web site under Course Materials. Failure to follow the style sheet will result in significant penalties; these consist of at least the loss of a full letter grade for each category of violation (i.e. use of contractions will cost you a letter grade, reducing an A paper to a B). This includes paper length, non-standard fonts, margins and line spacing. Please note that a short paper is not necessarily a bad paper; I am primarily interested in what you have to say, how well you say it and if you have developed your thesis and argument sufficiently.As you write your papers feel free to paraphrase or quote suitable passages that illustrate your points. However, if you quote or paraphrase, you must cite the relevant passage. You must also cite detailed information (i.e. statistics or items that are not common knowledge). The only exception to this rule is material gleaned from my lectures; you may assume that this is public knowledge and requires no citation. Proper citation formats can be found in the History Style Sheet. Please note that in addition to enforcing Buffalo State College’s policies on academic misconduct, including the possible use of textual similarity detection software, the minimum penalty for plagiarism is an F on the assignment.1 For more information on plagiarism, how to footnote, or how to write a research paper consult the relevant sections of Benjamin’s A Student’s Guide to History. If you are still unclear about when or how to cite please come see me during my office hours. That is why I am there.
Since much of what is out on the internet is of dubious quality, the use of web pages as source material is strictly forbidden unless authorized by me in writing. The only exceptions to this rule are the individual web sites that I have assigned as required reading material. On a similar note, the use of encyclopedias is also forbidden. While they may be useful reference tools or for providing an overview of a particular topic, encyclopedias have no place in college level work. Articles in historical encyclopedias (i.e. The Encyclopedia of European Social History) may be acceptable, but must first be cleared by me in writing.
I am obviously a firm believer in written assignments since they help develop your organizational, analytical and communication skills, all of which are things you will need in the workplace. Consequently, I expect you to treat all graded assignments (in this or any other class) as preparations for your future career. Turning in business reports that are filled with grammatical errors, failures in logic, poor argumentation and lack of evidence portrays a degree of incompetence, even if it is undeserved, and will probably get you fired. Get in the habit now of proofreading your work to catch typos, misspellings and nonsensical statements. Read your papers aloud to see how they sound. Better still, have a friend or roommate read your work since they are more likely to notice any problems. Most of you will be writing your papers on wordprocessors. No matter what program you use, they all have spell checkers. It is silly and self-defeating not to make use of them.
While I do not allow rewrites once papers have been graded, I will read and comment on rough drafts if I am given enough time. Alternatively, you may want to consult either the campus writing center or some of the history tutors for help or advice. Keep your notes and copies of your paper to facilitate rewrites and to safeguard against loss, computer errors, random destruction by pets and similar catastrophes. Finally, and most importantly, if you are having any problems in this course come see me.
Book Analyses
All students will write two 5 page (1500 words) analyses of assigned texts (Grimmels-hausen’s Simplicissmus and Mann’s Loyal Subject). Since these are analyses and not “book reports” I am not interested in plot summaries. Similarly, I am not interested in whether you liked the book or found it interesting. Your review should analyze and critique the author’s portrayal of some of the historical events or themes covered in this course. As you critique the books use the following questions as a rough guide: How do the authors portray historical events or issues covered elsewhere in the course? How accurate are these depictions? Have they added to your understanding of the period in question?
As you will discover, 5 pages provides barely enough room to introduce a topic, let alone go into much detail. Hence, your papers should have a narrowly defined thesis and must be very selective in both their use and presentation of supporting evidence or examples. Since these papers are so short keep quotations to a minimum so that you will have more room to develop your own thoughts and arguments. To strengthen your argument(s), however, your reviews should draw upon and cite specific examples from the novel as well as corroborating evidence. There is ample material on which to base your papers in my lectures and your textbooks; outside materials, although always welcome, are not required.
Research Paper
In addition to the book reviews, all students will write a 10-12 page (3000-3600 word) paper on a topic of their own choice. While the actual topics for your papers are up to you, they must remain within the geographical and temporal confines of this course. The paper should analyze some facet of German or Central European history in detail. To that end, and to help you identify sources, all paper topics must be cleared with me first in the form of a written paper proposal due no later than October 11. Complete proposals will outline your topic, specific issues you intend to address, and must include a bibliography. If, after you have begun researching and writing your paper, you choose to use additional sources, you must submit an amended bibliography to me in writing. Papers that use unauthorized materials will not be accepted. Similarly, papers that deviate significantly from your research proposal will also not be accepted. This does not mean, however, that you are permanently locked in to a particular paper topic; if you change your mind and opt to pursue some other topic you must submit a new paper proposal which may or may not be accepted at my discretion. Completed papers are due in class on December 6.
Possible paper topics include
The Stein Reforms Frederick the Great and Enlightened Absolutism
The Revolutions of 1848 The Kulturkampf
The Bismarckian Legacy Metternich and the Congress of Vienna
The German Enlightenment The Thirty Years War
Austrian Neo-Absolutism Hungary under the Dual Monarchy
1Buffalo State College, Undergraduate Catalog 2018-2019, 46.
