Stalinism

The terror of the Stalinist regime is undeniable.  Perhaps it was mental illness on the part of Stalin himself.  Some may consider it as a Robespierrean necessity for the "success" of the revolution.  Or maybe it was the logical process of bringing a nation into the modern era, "birthing pains" of  progress.  In any case, who is to blame and why?   Why would Stalin ransack his own party? Or, why would the Communist party subject itself to to such destructive violence?  Use the the information you have gathered from the class readings from J. Thompson's Russia and the Soviet Union and the reading packet specific to the Purges, you will get in class.

You have a week for initial answers, so those should be submitted by next Friday, Oct. 28th. And then secondary submissions - peer review / critiques should be submitted by Friday, Nov. 4th.

If there are difficulties with submissions please let me know ASAP, so those may be addressed more readily.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing your replys. WD

Whither Russia?

You studied World War I last semester and you have recently been looking at the Silver Age in Tsarist Russia. The challenge at hand is why does the Russian revolution start when it does?  There are two causal reasons we have in play at the moment -- was it the general direction of Russian society in the modernizing process to overthrow the Romanov dynasty at this particular moment; or was it the catalytic moment of World War I destabilizing the old regime to such an extent that collapse and revolution were inevitable?  Consider one of these events for their necessity or sufficiency in causal relation to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Part 1:
You will have one week to complete this first part.  The initial posting is due by the end of the day Monday, Sept. 5th.  We will look to discuss them as part of class on Wednesday, the 7th.

Part 2:
You will need to critically respond to at least two of your colleagues' postings before the end of the day Monday, Sept. 12th.  These should be constructive, challenging their thesis, looking for clarification, pushing us all to think more analytically about how we understand and interpret these events.  We will look at those postings as part of class on Wednesday, the 14th.  Good Luck!  Enjoy the quest!

Summer IB

The Tribes have merged.  The challenges get harder.  How many of us will be victorious?  Who will survive?  IB Survivor has begun.  We will start the fall semester with the Russian Revolution and digging into your History IAs in earnest.  You should have at least an initial draft of your Plan of Investigation in hand when we regroup in August.  (As a gentle reminder you should also be working on all those other IB things like EE, CAS hours, TOK papers, Group 4,etc, the IB ad nauseam ...)

I will be working to get any back log of material back to you.  I am a tortoise at this point -- slow and steady, but hopefully soon.

Please complete the chapter from Acton's Russia: the Tsarist and Soviet Legacy: Ch. 6, The end of the Russian Empire.  It will also be good (read expected) for you to read one of the following titles on the Russian Revolution:
Fitzpatrick, Shelia. The Russian Revolution 1917-1932.  Oxford Press. 1982.
Thompson, John M. Revolutionary Russia, 1917. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1981.
Service, Robert. Studies in European History: The Russian Revolution 1900 - 1927.Humanities Press International. 1990.
Dupee, F. W.  ed. The Russian Revolution: the Overthrow of Tzarism and the Triumph of the Soviets from The History of the Russian Revolution by  Leon Trotsky. Anchor Books. 1959.
Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution. Vintage Books. 1991.

This is the year it all comes together.  Welcome aboard! Welcome back!  Keep at it and in the end, you will all survive and hopefully be better for the journey.
WD

A Place in the Sun

How are we to judge history? Is it by intent of action or results?  Here is where the interpretations get fun and understanding historiography is important.  For our next consideration to move us towards the end of the 19th Century consider the following:

“European expansion into the rest of the world across the 19^th century was essentially about realizing the fullness of human potential. It was the manifestation of the goals and aims or the humanism began in the renaissance and extended during the enlightenment.”  Use the documents and sources below to help you evaluate to what extent do you agree with the preceding assessment.  Clearly identify and focus on three sources for your commentary with at least two coming from the primary considerations selection.

You should make an initial entry by next Tuesday, March 15^th (Beware the Ides if March) and have two follow up constructive comments about at least two of your classmates’ commentaries by Friday, Mar. 18^th.

Primary Considerations:

William Blake, Preface to Milton, (1804) 

And did those feet in ancient time 
Walk upon England's mountain green? 
And was the holy Lamb of God 
On England's pleasant pastures seen? 

And did the Countenance Divine 
Shine forth upon our clouded hills? 
And was Jerusalem builded here 
Among these dark Satanic mills? 

Bring me my bow of burning gold! 
Bring me my arrows of desire! 
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold! 
Bring me my chariot of fire! 

I will not cease from mental fight, 
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand 
Till we have built Jerusalem 
In England's green and pleasant land.

The Colossus of Rhodes

Prince Albert’s International Exhibition 1851: http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/111206/depgal2.html

A Letter from King Leopold to Minister Beernaert:

http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/wawc2c01c/content/wciv2/readings/wciv2readingsleopold.html

Kaiser Wilhelm’s A Place in the Sun: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1901kaiser.html

Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html

Edward Morel’s The Black Man’s Burden: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1903blackburden.html

“The Colossus of Rhodes”

Additional considerations:

Platform of the US Anti-Imperial League:

 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1899antiimp.html

Excerpts from Heart of Darkness: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/conrad.html

George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephan”: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/

Wilfred Blunt, Britain's Imperial Destiny: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1899blunt.html

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1880tennyson.html

Long Time No See

We are now into a not so new semester and it is time to begin exercising our intellect with a little more focus and direction.  Zeitgeist presentations are almost finished and hopefully you have been ruminating over how all of these goings on in the 19th century are connected and shaping the history we have to understand, critique, analyze, and live with the results, before we can go out and make the world in our own image.  To that end here is the next prompt for our select blog-ites to respond to....  1)  Look at the following pieces and then write a brief reflection on how these three reflections on the century capture the various topics we have presented in class.  2) After everyone has posted.. this should be done by Thursday Feb. 3rd, you will have until Tuesday, Feb. 8th to make constructive comments, reflections, critiques of two of your peers insights.

Reflections from within the Century

Within these walls the future employer and the future artisan may sojourn together for awhile, and carry, through all their lives, the stamp of the influences then brought to bear upon them. Hence, it is not beside the mark to remind you that the prosperity of industry depends not merely upon the improvement of manufacturing processes, not merely upon the ennobling of the individual character, but upon a third condition, namely, a clear understanding of the conditions of social life on the part of both the capitalist and the operative, and their agreement upon common principles of social action. They must learn that social phenomena are as much the expression of natural laws as any others; that no social arrangements can be permanent unless they harmonize with the requirements of social statics and dynamics; and that, in the nature of things, there is an arbiter whose decisions execute themselves.

Thomas H. Huxley (1825-95):  Science and Culture, 1880; Essays, English and American, with introductions notes and illustrations. New York, P. F. Collier & son [c1910], Harvard classics ; no.XXVI

Honore Daumier, Third Class Carriage 1860-63.

http://www.romanticism-in-art.org/The-Third-class-Carriage-1860-63.html

 

J.M.W. Turner, The Lake of Thun, Switzerland

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/2000-40+lake-of-thun