Tuesday, June 22, 2010

FINAL EXAM review terms

Ken Saro-Wiwa
Jean Monnet
ECSC
Treaty of Rome
EFTA
EEC
Charles de Gaulle
"ethnic cleansing"
Maastricht Treaty
Kosovo
1999 NATO Air War
Chipko Movement
Chico Mendes
Ma Jun
Chapultepec Conference
OAS
Julian Huxley
IUCN
World Wildlife Fund
Linus Pauling
Barry Commoner
Rachel Carson
Stewart Brand
Anthropocene
Santa Barbara Oil Spill
Chernobyl
Exxon Valdez
Deepwater Horizon
Pebble Bed Reactors
GM Crops
Japan, Inc.
Four "Asian Tigers"
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Lin Biao
Hua Guofeng
Deng Xiaoping
Bandung Conference
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Josip Broz Tito
Jawaharlal Nehru
Mahatma Gandhi
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Nelson Mandela
Crusade
Jihad
Ottoman Empire
Balfour Declaration
1939 White Paper
Stern Gang
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
Suez Crisis
1967 War
Occupied Territories
PLO
Yassir Arafat
Yom Kippur War
OPEC
Anwar Sadat
Sinai
Menachem Begin
Camp David Accords
Shia
Sunni
Ayatollah Khomeini
Hostage Crisis
"Afghan Freedom Fighters"
Iran-Iraq War
Maronite Christians
Hezbollah
Iran-Contra
Desert Shield
Desert Storm
Somalia, 1993
"two-state solution"
Yitzhak Rabin
Operation Desert Fox
General Wesley Clark
unilateralism
Sayyid Qtub
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Bush Doctrine
Eric Shinseki
Paul Wolfowitz
Alberto Gonzales
Operation Enduring Freedom
yellowcake uranium
"shock and awe"
Geneva Conventions
Blackwater
Moqtada al-Sadr
General David Petraeus
Arthur C. Clarke
Newton Minnow
Marshall McLuhan
Telstar
"All You Need is Love"
ARPAnet
Tim Berners-Lee
photovoltaic
wind farm
solar-thermal
carbon neutral

Friday, June 11, 2010

DUE DATE EXTENSION

Dear Class,

I have had to travel on short notice this week because of a family emergency, and was thus unable to field student questions yesterday RE: the Primary Source Paper.

In light of this unanticipated schedule change, I have decided to give the class more time to complete the Primary Source Paper; I will now collect the papers on Thursday, June 17th.

Also, to advise students on their papers in progress, I will be available for extended office hours in the "Cyber Cafe" on the 1st Floor of Snell library on Monday June 14th and Tuesday June 15th from 8-9:30am.

all best,

RSD

Thursday, June 3, 2010

midterm review terms

The Midterm Exam will be held Tuesday, June 8th. It will consist of a multiple choice section of 30 questions (each worth two points) and an essay (worth forty points).


Here is a list of review terms for the multiple choice section of the exam. The eassy section will consist of a choice between two questions, both related to the themes explored in Achebe's novel A Man of the People

Atlantic Charter
Bretton Woods
Robert Oppenheimer
Security Council
"Iron Curtain"
George F. Kennan
Truman Doctrine
European Recovery Program
Guomindang (also spelled: Kuomintang)
Chiang Kai-shek
Mao Zedong
NSC-68
38th Parallel
Mohammad Mosaddegh
"A Cross of Iron"
Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán
Fidel Castro
Salvador Allende
Augusto Pinochet
Dien Bien Phu
Great Leap Forward
Eisenhower's Farewell Address
Bay of Pigs
Algerian War
Ho Chi Minh
"Domino Theory"
Ngo Dinh Diem
Strategic Hamlet
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Ranch Hand
Tet Offensive
My Lai
Vietnamization
Cambodia, 1970
Alliance for Progress
Cuban Missile Crisis
Rachel Carson
Wangari Maathai
Berlin Airlift
European Coal and Steel Community
Hungarian Uprising
"Cult of Personality"
Jean Monnet
Konrad Adenauer
Sputnik
DARPA
NATO
Warsaw Pact
Charles de Gaulle
Prague Spring
Détente
Berlin Conference
Haile Selassie
Kwame Nkrumah
Jomo Kenyatta
Patrice Lumumba
Idi Amin
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mau Mau Uprising
Rhodesian Bush War
OAU
SS 20
Pershing Missiles
Afghanistan
The Reagan Doctrine
Glasnost
Perestroika
Iran-Contra
June, 1989
November, 1989
The End of History
The Clash of Civilizations
Amartya Sen

Monday, May 24, 2010

HIST 1211 Primary Source Paper Prompt

For this paper you will compare two primary sources from the list of five options below. Your job will be to analyze each primary source, compare it to its counterpart, and relate both to their specific historical context. The Primary Source Paper is due at the beginning of class on June 14th.

OPTION ONE: Europe after 1945

Joseph Stalin's "Election Speech" of February 1946

and

Winston Churchill's "Sinews of Democracy" (a.k.a. "Iron Curtain") speech of March 1946



OPTION TWO: The Americas in the Cold War Era

Fidel Castro's 1960 Speech to the UN General Assembly

and

John F. Kennedy's 1961 "Alliance for Progress Speech"


OPTION THREE: Postcolonial Asia

Ho Chi Minh's 1945 Speech Declaring the Independence of Vietnam

and

Gandhi's 1947 Speech on Asia and the West


OPTION FOUR: Postcolonial Africa

Kwame Nkrumah's 1961 "I Speak of Freedom" Speech

and

Chenua Achebe's 1966 novel A Man of the People


OPTION FIVE: Technology and Nature in the 21st Century


Wangari Maathai's 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Address


and

2009 Yale Environment 360 interview with Stewart Brand

Thursday, May 20, 2010

1958: Nixon in Venezuela

Here is a newsreel depicting the violent protests that greeted Vice President Nixon's trip to Venezuela.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

March, 1946: Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech

On March 5th, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered a warning about the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. One phrase that he used, the "iron curtain," became an enduring metaphor of the Cold War decades:

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from -- from Moscow. Athens alone -- Greece with its immortal glories -- is free to decide its future . . .

The entire speech, with audio & video, is available here.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Syllabus

HIST 1211
World History Since 1945
Mon./Tues./ Wed./Thurs. 9:50-11:20
Summer I
Northeastern University
Instructor: R. S. Deese
Office Hours: Mon. 8-9:30 or by appt.
rsdeese@gmail.com


This course will examine the political, economic, environmental, and cultural trends in World History since the end of World War II. Topics will include the Cold War, independence and national movements in developing countries, the globalization of the world economy, scientific and technological innovations, wealth and poverty, pandemics and disease control, the fall of the Soviet Union, Middle East turmoil, and the emergence of environmental issues as a growing dimension of global affairs.

To succeed in this course, you must come to class each day fully prepared to discuss the assigned reading for the week, and you must prepare early for your midterm, primary source paper, and final exam.


Required Texts:

Achebe, Chenua. A Man of the People. (Anchor, 1998)

Keylor, William R. A World of Nations: The International Order Since 1945. (Oxford, 2008)


Basic Ground Rules:


1. Turn off all cell phones, etc. before all class meetings begin.

2. Always come on time to all class meetings, and participate in all discussions. Please don’t be shy about speaking up in class discussions, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Virtually all original scholarship begins by posing questions that others have overlooked or dismissed as simply not worth asking; therefore, the very question you might be afraid to ask because it seems naïve or unorthodox could well be the most interesting and groundbreaking question that anyone could raise. Don’t hesitate to ask it. Also, please remember that I am more than happy to field your questions and address your concerns via email, telephone, and during my regular office hours.

3. Always come to class prepared to discuss all readings for that week. When you do the assigned reading each week, be sure to underline passages that you see as important, and write down questions that you would like to raise in our section meetings and in my office hours.

Grade Breakdown:

Attendance & Participation: 25%
Midterm: 25%
Primary Source Paper: 20%
Final Exam: 30%


Midterm and Final Examinations: To prepare for these exams, be sure to review the assigned readings and your notes from lectures and discussion sections. Feel free to contact me via email or during office hours concerning any questions you might have. A [portion of the class prior to the midterm will be devoted to review, and I will also a hold review session prior to the final exam. Please bear in mind that these review sessions will be most profitable to those who have prepared for them by thoroughly studying the material at hand.

Term Paper: You are required to write a 6-page term paper analyzing two primary source documents. In this paper, you will be required to develop an original thesis that relates both primary sources to each other and to their historical context.

Regulations Against Plagiarism: Needless to say, the work you present must be entirely your own and all sources must be diligently credited in your footnotes and bibliography. Any attempt at plagiarism, representing the work of another person as your own, will be result in failure in this course and severe disciplinary action by Boston University. If you should need more information on this subject, consult the website of the History Department.





SCHEDULE OF READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS



Week One

The Bipolar World
Read Keylor, ch. 1 by May 13th

Week Two

The Militarization of Containment
Read Keylor, ch. 2 by May 19th

Week Three

Détente & the Fall of Soviet Power
Read Keylor, chs. 3 & 4 May 26th

Week Four

Postcolonial Africa
Read Keylor, ch. 10 and all of Achebe’s A Man of the People by June 2nd

Week Five

MIDTERM EXAM on Monday, June 7th

European Integration and Inter-American Relations
Read Keylor, chs. 5 & 6 by June 9th

Week Six
PAPER DUE IN CLASS on Monday, June 14th

East Asia and Southeast Asia
Read Keylor, chs. 7 & 8 by June 16th


Week Seven

The Evolving Middle East and the Era of Globalization
Read Keylor, ch. 9 & Epilogue


FINAL EXAM on Thursday, June 24th

What global problem presents the greatest threat to ourselves and future generations?

Which of the these leaders probably did the most to influence the course of World History after 1945?

What was the most important event in 1945?

Followers