Modern Intellectual History

TR 2:10-3:25 PM Room T-215

HIST 4350, 3-0-3 (CRN 89149)
Fall 2012
Dr. John Kohler
Office T-215
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday, 1:30-2:15, 3:25-4:00
Phone 770 640 1540
Fax 770 640 7534
Email: johnkohler@clayton.edu
Webpage: http://a-s.clayton.edu/jkohler/
Course Description:
An introduction to the global history of ideas, from the mid-eighteenth century to the present
with major emphasis on Europe and America.
Required Course Materials:
CourseTextbook: Marvin Perry, An Intellectual History of Modern Europe, 1993
Similar Related Works: Roland Stromberg, European Intellectual History since 1789 (6th
edition); Peter Watson, The Modern Mind,
Primary Sources: Franklin Le Van Baumer, Main Currents of Western Thought, Readings in
Western European Intellectual History from the Middle Ages to the Present, 1978. David A.
Hollinger and Charles Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition (vol. 1&2), 2001.
Online text: John Steven Kreis, The History Guide, Lectures on Modern European Intellectual
History, http://www.historyguide.org/
Manual of Style for History majors
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
List of books for assigned book reviews: (Available in our library or through inter-library
loan)
1. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), The Prince
2. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Leviathan
3. John Locke (1632-1704), Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
4. John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government
5. Charles de Secondat Montesquieu (1689-1755), The Spirit of the Laws
6. Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations
7. Voltaire (1694-1778), The Portable Voltaire
8. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), The Portable Jefferson
9. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Sorrows of Werther
10. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), The Social Contract

11. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Essays, The Divinity School Address, Self
Reliance, Nature, Politics.
12. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden Pond
13. Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Reflections on the Revolution in France
14. Adam Smith (1723-1790), The Wealth of Nations
15. Karl Marx (1818-1883) The Communist Manifesto
16. Charles Darwin (1809-1882), The Origin of Species
17. William Graham Sumner (1840-1910), What Social Classes Owe Each Other
18. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), On Liberty
19. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Civilization and its Discontents
20. Aldus Huxley (1874-1963), Brave New World
21. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), The Sun Also Rises
22. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), The Wasteland
23. Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), The Decline of the West
24. Franz Kafka (1883-1924), The Trial or The Castle
25. John Steinbeck (1902-1968), The Grapes of Wrath
26. George Orwell (1903-1950), Animal Farm, 1984.
27. Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), Darkness at Noon
28. John Dewey (1859-1952), Democracy and Education
29. Walter Rauschenbush (1860-1918), Christianity and the Social Crisis
30. Herbert Croly (1889-1930), The Promise of American Life
31. Southern Agrarians, Ill Take My Stand
32. Jean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980), Nausea or Being and Nothingness
33. F. A. Hayek (1899-1992), The Road to Serfdom
34. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), Capitalism and Freedom
35. Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), Eros and Civilization (1955) or One-Dimensional Man
(1964).
36. Theodore Roszak (1933-2011), The Making of a Counter Culture
37. Charles A. Reich (b.1928), The Greening of America, 1970
38. Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004), The Americans (3 vols)
39. Norman Podhoretz (b.1930), Breaking Ranks
40. Irving Kristal (1920-2009), Neoconservatism, The Autobiography of an Idea
Core Curriculum Outcomes:
http://www.clayton.edu/Portals/5/core_curriculum_outcomes_clayton.pdf

Student Learning Outcomes for the History Major

The History degree program is composed of courses on specific aspects of history drawn from a
range of time periods, cultures, and geographic areas to provide the context in which students are
able to demonstrate learning outcomes. Thus, graduates of the history program at CCSU will be
able to do the following:
1. Identify and describe basic chronologies of U.S. and world history.
2. Identify and critically evaluate primary and secondary historical sources.
3. Identify and evaluate conflicting historical interpretations of events and personalities.
4. Perform historical research using primary and secondary sources in libraries, archives, and
other repositories of historical records.

5. Write in a clear, analytical and organized manner, demonstrating appropriate professional

documentation methods.
6. Discuss historical findings in clear and coherent oral presentations.
Students in Hist 4350 will be evaluated on Outcomes 2 and 3.
Outcome 2. Addressed and assessed in book reviews.
Outcome 3. Addressed and assessed in 2 course exams.
Course Projects and Assignments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Oral reports
Course examinations (Midterm and Final)
Book Review I
Book Review II
Book Review III

Course grade
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Oral reports (4@25pts ea)

Course examinations (2 @ 100pts each)
Book Review I
Book Review II
Book Review III

Points
100
200
100
100
100
Total Points 600

A=90%
B=80%
C=70%
D=60%
F=below 60%
Make-Up Policy
Students will not be allowed to make-up exams or other required assignments in HIST 4350,
unless there is a legitimate and verifiable reasoni.e. absence due to circumstances beyond your
control. If you think you have a legitimate excuse (medical emergency, death in the immediate
family, or approved university event), contact me as soon as possible. Make-ups will be given
and allowances will be made only if you supply documentation supporting your reasons for
absence. Be warned that I am very reluctant to allow make-ups, in fairness to others who do
their work and complete it in on time, despite their adversities.
MidtermOctober 5. Last Day to Drop during Fall Semester.
October 5th is the deadline for dropping a course without academic accountability. For additional
information please see the University withdrawal policy. (Instructions for withdrawal:
http://www.clayton.edu/registrar/withdrawal)

Special Need Students

It is the policy of CCSU to afford equal opportunity in education to all qualified students.
Individuals with disabilities who need to request accommodations should contact
the Disability Services Coordinator, Student Center 255, (678) 466-5445,
disabilityservices@mail.clayton.edu
Computer-Requirement:
Each CCSU student is required to have ready access throughout the semester to a notebook
computer that meets faculty-approved hardware and software requirements for the student's
academic program. Students will sign a statement attesting to such access. For further
information on CCSU's Official Notebook Computer Policy, please go to
http://www.clayton.edu/hub/itpchoice/notebookcomputerpolicy

Computer Skill Prerequisites:

Able to use the WindowsTM operating system
Able to use Microsoft WordTM word processing
Able to send and receive e-mail using OutlookTM or Outlook ExpressTM
Able to attach and retrieve attached files via email
Able to use a Web browser.
Computer Use in This Course:
Student notebook computers will not be used in the classroom in this course. Computers will be
required to access course materials, prepare written assignments, and to communicate with your
instructor.
Class Responsibilities and Attendance Requirements
1. Students must abide by all policies stipulated in the College Student Handbook.
http://www.clayton.edu/Portals/46/docs/student-handbook.pdf

2. PLAGIARISM. Failure to do your own work or to pass off as your own work the work of
another (plagiarism) will result in a grade of F for assignments where plagiarism occurs.
NOTE: Copying material from the Internet without appropriate quotation marks and
references is the same as copying material from a text or other written source. If you are
at all confused about plagiarism please see me.
3. All written assignments are expected to be presented in proper written format and will be
evaluated according to college level writing criteria.
4. University Attendance Policy. Students are expected to attend and participate in every
class meeting. Instructors establish specific policies relating to absences in their courses
and communicate these policies to the students through the course syllabi. Individual
instructors, based upon the nature of the course, determine what effect excused and
unexcused absences have in determining grades and upon students ability to remain
enrolled in their courses. The university reserves the right to determine that excessive
absences, whether justified or not, are sufficient cause for institutional withdrawals or
failing grades.

5. As a seminar course, students are expected to attend all class meetings of History 4350.
As well, students are responsible for any information or work missed as a result of an
approved absence from class. Absences will affect grades for course experience
contribution.
6. Students are responsible for all subject matter content assigned during the progress of the
course. Class preparation and participation is expected and graded.
7. Students are expected to arrive for class on time and to remain until the end of the class
period. (If you must leave early, please inform me prior to class and sit close to the
door.)
8. University policy stipulates that it is not appropriate to bring children to class. If you
have an emergency situation regarding child care, notify me before class.
9. Turn off phones, beepers, and other electronic devices which will disrupt class activities-before class starts. Tape recorders may be used to record classroom lectures and activities
for the sole purpose of test and class preparation.
10. Incomplete grade form:
http://www.clayton.edu/Portals/5/docs/Request_for_Incomplete_Grade_Form.doc

11. Writers studio information: http://www.clayton.edu/arts-sciences/english/writersstudio

Disruption of the Learning Environment
Behavior which disrupts the teachinglearning process during class activities will not be
tolerated. While a variety of behaviors can be disruptive in a classroom setting, more serious
examples include belligerent, abusive, profane, and/or threatening behavior. A student who fails
to respond to reasonable faculty direction regarding classroom behavior and/or behavior while
participating in classroom activities may be dismissed from class. A student who is dismissed is
entitled to due process and will be afforded such rights as soon as possible following dismissal.
If found in violation, a student may be administratively withdrawn and may receive a grade of
WF. For additional information please see the following website:
http://www.clayton.edu/Portals/5/DisruptiveClassroomBehavior.pdf

Assignment Schedule: August 14-Dec 7

8/14 Introduction and Course overview. Read Steven Collini, What is history today?
http://www.historytoday.com/stefan-collini/what-intellectual-history
8/16

Medieval Matrix
Perry, Chapters 1,2; Kreis, Lectures 2,3.
Pre-Modern world view-Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas
Medieval matrix, Dantes Divine Comedy

8/21

The Renaissance
Perry, Ch2; Kreis, Lectures 4,5.
Oral reports on

Petrarch (1304-1374)
Erasmus (1466-1536) Christian humanism, Praise of Folly.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
8/23

The Scientific Revolution

Perry Ch 3; Kreis Lecture 6
Oral reports on
Rene Descarte (1596-1650)
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)Copernican Revolution, On the Revolution of
Heavenly Bodies.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)three laws of planetary motion
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Principia Mathematica

8/28

Reports continued.

8/30

Age of Enlightenment
Perry, Ch 4
Book Report: Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), The Prince
Book Report:Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Leviathan

9/4HOLIDAY
9/6

Enlightenment continued
Book Report: John Locke (1632-1704), Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
Second Treatise on Civil Government
Book Report: Charles de Secondat Montesquieu (1689-1755), The Spirit of the Laws
Oral Reports:
Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), The New Science
David Hume (1711-1776) Philosophical Skepticism
Book Report:Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations
Book Report: Voltaire (1694-1778), Candid, The Portable Voltaire
Oral Report: Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794), Sketch for a Historical Picture of the
Progress of the Human Mind.

9/11

Enlightenment characteristics:
Reports continued

9/13

Enlightenment in America,
Oral Report: Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
Book Report:Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), The Portable Jefferson
Oral Report:James Madison (1751-1836) Federalist, Number 10 and Number 51

9/18

Romanticism and German Idealism

Perry Ch 6,
Characteristics of Romanticism

Oral reports on
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Philosophy and German idealism
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1803) Philosophy
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)
Book Report: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1932), Sorrows of Werther, Faust
Book Report: Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), The Social Contract and Discourses,
Emile
Oral Reports:
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
William Blake (1757-1827)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
John Keats (1795-1821)
George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (17881824)
9/20

Reports continued

9/25

Romanticism in AmericaTranscendentalism
Perry Ch 6
Book Report: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Published Essays, The Divinity
School Address, Self-Reliance, Nature, Politics
Book Report: Henry David Thoreau, Walden Pond

9/27

First Exam

10/2

Age of Ideologies
Perry Ch 7
Book Report: Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Reflections on the Revolution in France,
Conservatism and the value of tradition,
Liberalism and the value of the individual
Political Economy, Adam Smith and liberal economics
Oral Report:
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Liberalism and Democracy
Oral Reports:
Saint Simon (1760-1825)
Charles Fourier (1722-1837)
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Rise of Modern Nationalism:French Nationalism, German Nationalism,
Oral Reports
Johann Gottfried Herder (1774-1803)

10/4

Reports continue

10/5

MIDTERMLAST DAY TO WITHDRAW WITHOUT ACADEMIC PENALTY

10/9

Philosophies of Progress
Perry Ch 6, 8
Oral reports on
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Auguste Comte
Book Report: Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

10/11 Reports continued

10/16 Perry Ch 8
Realism
Positivism
Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Evolution and the Crisis of Faith
Book Report: Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Book Report:William Graham Sumner 91840-1910), What the Social Classes Owe Each
Other
Oral report: Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932), Frontier Thesis
10/18 Perry Ch 8
Marxism Characteristics
Anarchism
Marxism after Marx, Leninism
British liberalism,
Book Report, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), On Liberty
Oral Report: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924)
Oral Report: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), The Man versus the State
Feminism and Equality
10/23 Irrationalism
Perry Ch 9
Oral report: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Book Report: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Civilization and Its Discontents
10/25 Sociological thought
Oral reports on
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Max Weber (1864-1920)
10/30 Irrationalism in political thinking
Perry Ch 10
Characteristics of Volkish thought
Racial theorists
Anti-Semitism
Christian anti-Semitism

Modern anti-Semitism
11/1

Rise of Fascism
Oral report: Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)
Characteristics of Fascism
Hitlers world view
Totalitarianism, Stalin, Soviet style
The Holocaust

116

Thought and Culture in the Era of World Wars and Totalitarianism

Perry Ch 11
Book Report: Aldus Huxley, Brave New World
Book Report: Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Book Report: Franz Kafka, The Trial, The Castle
Book Report: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Book Report: George Orwell, Road to Wigam Pier, Animal Farm, 1984.
Book Report: Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon

11/8

Pragmatism and Reaction

Perry Ch 11
Oral reports: Charles Pierce, William James, John Dewey
Progressivism,
Oral Reports: Lester Frank Ward,
Book Report: Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis
Book Report: Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life
Cultural Conservatism,
Book Report: Fugitive-Agrarians, Ill Take My Stand

11/13 Perry Ch 11
Existentialism
Book Report: Jean-Paul Sarte, Nausea
11/15 From Liberalism to Libertarianism
Perry Ch 12
Book Report: Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life
Book Report: F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Book Report: Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
11/20 The Sixties in America
The Frankfurt School,
Book Report: Herbert Marcuse Eros and Civilization (1955) and One-Dimensional Man
(1964).
Book Report: Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture
Book Report: Charles A. Reich, The Greening of America, 1970
11/27 Neo-conservatism

Book Report: Daniel Boorstin, The Americans (3 vols)

Book Report: Norman Podhoretz, Breaking Ranks
Book Report: Irving Kristal, Neoconservatism, The Autobiography of an Idea
11/29 (LAST DAY OF CLASS) From Modern to Post Modern
Structuralism, Fernand de Saussure (1857-1913), Claude Levi-Strauss
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida
12/6

FINAL EXAM STARTS AT 12:30pm, Room T-215