HISTORY 9 SYLLABUSTWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE - FOCUS ON "EASTERN"
EUROPE
TWENTIETH CENTURY EUROPE
PRINT OUT THIS PAGE. IT IS THE PUBLIC SYLLABUS.
TO DO WELL IN THIS COURSE? STUDENTS NEED
ONGOING, CONTINUOUS, RELIABLE WEB AND EMAIL
ACCESS.
created
for Netscape and 15" screen
ORDER YOUR PAPERBACK TEXT QUICKLY - NOW!
Gilbert Felix: The End of the European Era, 1890 to the Present
(Norton, 1991)
Order it online from Bookpassage, the great bookstore which takes care of
my online students. They ship all books over $20 for free and they act on
orders for my "stuff" quickly. You can phone them on their 800 number
or You can order by clicking here:
Professor Konnilyn Feig
SPECIAL
DIFFICULTIES
SUMMARY SYLLABUS
FORUM.
WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING?
1. Basic Reading: Your paperback - Gilbert - for your
information.
2. The Web Books as the replacement each week for 5 hours of "regular"
class lectures.
3. Two essay exams. The responses will be written in the form
of "mini-articles" - solid and thoughtful and analytical enough for them
or parts of them to be posted on the Web site. They are "take home" for one
week.
4. One major research or analytical paper which for most
of you will be on one country - on which you will become an expert - and
be able to predict what will "happen" to that country in the next two - five
years. It will serve as your "final" exam grade. Depending on how many
are in the seminar, we may also assign a few of you to special current projects
such as the current search for Nazi Gold - and the coming to grips with the
Hitler years in Eastern Europe. And the privitization problems in all
EE countries. And the complex and tense negotiations over getting into
NATO and the Europeon Union.
5. The Online HISTORY 9 FORUM - Initially,
where you will log on, "claim" your country on which you wish to focus this
quarter. Then each week you will post to your country "little" forum
information and thoughts about your country (on which you will be graded).
. It also provides a discussion opportunity for students to talk with
each other, ask each other or the group questions, comment on each others'
country postings (these will not be graded and will be run by the students
and the TA). Finally, the Forum is where each student will post their Research
Paper and then their comments on each others'
papers.
Web Books - THE CORE OF THE
COURSE
And then the Feig Internet Books which took 5 long years to do and are
still in process: You may want to use both the Western Civilization Web book
and the Eastern European Books - Part I and II. The Western Civ Book
is good for background, WWI, Interwar and WWII. The Eastern European
Books are filled with much of you information you may want for this course.
(You MUST spend time each week with them). You may wish to go
through all of these bit by bit, country by country now:
1. Feig, Konnilyn: Eastern Europe:
2. Feig, Konnilyn: Eastern Europe:Part II
<http://www.omnibusol.com/bosnia-yugos.html>
3. Feig, Konnilyn: Western Civilization:
Obviously, the EE books are still and very constantly in process.
"One" focus of this seminar is the development and expansion of your talent and ability to:
Yes, this course is about the past - but in order to shed light on the present, and to help us analyze what should be the appropriate foreign policy actions of the US, we need to try to understand:
We are always breaking new ground. We must be flexible as with any seminar. "Things" will change over the quarter. But clearly the following prevail:
Your most important resource is your
own head. Some of you are from "foreign" countries. Some of you have
been to "other" countries. Some of you are language or science, or psychology,
or literature, or art, or computer science, or political science, or economics,
or biology, or sports, or sociology, or women studies, or film, or business,
or environmental studies majors. Just think about how much you can
contribute from what you already know. I will "disseminate" information,
continue to write online essays on every country, upgrade the Eastern Europe
Web Pages,raise questions. But my most important role is to stand by
and coach. And the last 1/4 of the course is governed by the students
with their research papers. We learn
together.
WHILE YOU ARE "WAITING" FOR THIS COURSE TO
BEGIN, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:
1. Go to your Video Rental Store - Wherehouse, Blockbusters, etc.
and rent and see Welcome to Sarajevo. It is important.
2. Pay attention to the news about Eastern/Central Europe - particularly
Macedonia, Serbia and KOSOVO.
3. Read, surf, read. Use the most important Internet
Books on the Web, surf.
There are great news sites to find out what is going on - on the Web.
You can find them in my Internet books, or search for new ones
yourself..
TWO ESSAY EXAMS:
40%
RESEARCH PAPER: 25%
PAPER CRITIQUES AND ANALYSIS:
15%
THE OTHER: Postings,Interest, Energy:
20%
College rules for cheating and plagiarism are in effect. I will explain what plagiarism is.
A CIVIL SOCIETY: This class will be conducted as a civil society. I expect students and myself to treat each other with respect and dignity in class and/or online.
When you EMail the Professor your EMail address, WAIT FOR and RESPOND TO the Beginning EMail from the Professor. You should receive it within 3 days of your contact (but not after August 27)). It will contain instructions and a Form you must immediately fill out and returned. Until you return that form, you are not in the class. Once you do, you receive the URL of the core page which you use in conjuction with this syllabus page. THIS CORE PAGE WILL CONTAIN THE SPECIFIC INFORMATION YOU NEED FOR THIS COURSE, INCLUDING BOOKS. And the URL of the CRITICAL FORUM SITE.
Dr. Konnilyn
Feig, 1998. ALL COPYRIGHT LAWS APPLY
As several of you know, I have spent a part of almost every year in the past 35 in Eastern Europe - Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, East Germany, USSR - as well as all the countries of Western Europe. Fall 97 - just before class began, I had just returned from Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia - with involvement in a wide variety of projects, including serving as an unofficial election observer in Sarayevo.
August 97, I was in Slovenia working with computer specialists and professors, and then in Croatia sitting in, going through the burned out villages across the line from Bosnia - and shaking in frustration and anger in the desecrated and ruined WWII Croatian concentration camp and museum in Jasenovic.
Christmas 97, I was marching in the streets of Belgrade in the demonstrations against Milosevic, and January 98, I was in Romania working with country leaders and doctors on the Cancer Project I started four years ago.
May 98, I spent time examining the excavations on the Greek islands and Ephesus, etc. I thought I should know how much of this history of ours began. Much more important, I spent a lot of time in Turkey going through the historically critical Dardanelles, working in Istanbul, and then crisscrossing the Bosphorus by boat for 3 days, imaging where the French fleet sat before it sailed into the Black Sea, imagining the diplomatic conferences trying to decide what to do with this vital area which determined so much of late 19th Century and early 20th Century history, wars, conferences - and most important, who got what country in Eastern Europe, what boundaries would be changed, et.al. And then a day into Ukrainian waters - the Black Sea.
September 98, I spent time in Bucharest, Romania, and in other parts of Romania, meeting with folks, analysts, academicians, and contacts. Privatization and the economy were on my mind as well as how Romania is fairing with its major multicultural, orphans, unemployment challenges. Then I flew to Bosnia and Sarajevo. The elections there were vital and I traveled to Pale and Bosnian Serb territory, met with professors and scientists, and again, learned a great deal. Met with all sorts of folks in Romania, Bosnia, Sarajevo, Austria, etc. Ministers of Foreign Affairs, students, University Rectors, UN Election Commissioners, relief workers, doctors, et. al.
April 99 catalyzed a trip to Paris to restudy the effects of Hitler's occupation of France and his Final Solutions of the Jews and Gypsies in Paris. I helped catalogue the sites and places in Paris, building by building, which held the Nazi elite, the interrogation and torture sites, the embassies, the temporary holding pens for shipment to the concentration camps. I met with officials who were working on upgrading the French history of that time.
July 99 was the time I took to review the history and developments of the Middle Period of Western Civilization from about 1000 to 1900 AD. I focused on Britain and particularly Scotland and roamed through the "old" bastions and museums of Scotland, particularly on the West Coast and the Islands. I spent time again trying to understand the ages-old cultures of those places.
August and September 99,
I was back in Sarajevo, Romania, Croatia, Belgrade.
In August and September of 99, I spent 3 weeks in Belgrade and then in
Kosovo. Because of sanctions, it was a long trip by bus from Budapest to
Belgrade. The bombing had just recently ended. I met with all
the Serbian opposition leaders and/or their staffs, with the leading dissidents
from the past, with the directors of the major Milosevic and opposition radio
and television stations, students, professors, "ordinary people," friends.
I then took the long drive through Serbia to the "border" between Kosovo
and Serbia, past the Serbian and KFOR tanks to hitch a ride in a waiting
car through all the bombed out villages to Pristina. There I met with
just about "everyone." And set up several
projects.
AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, 2000, I had just returned from Kosovo, Albania,
Montenegro
I met with the major Kosovo, UN, KFOR leaders; with leading journalists,
with the head of the University and Deans and faculty and students, with
survivors of massacres, with the leading businessmen; with Albanian friends
and leaders; and with just plain folks. I particularly enjoyed talking
at length with the President of Kosovo, the very courageous Dr. Rugova. He
became a friend. What a wonderful man.
AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, 2001, I am leaving
on August 26 for Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Serbia,
Slovenia.
To meet again with leaders and students and just plain folks
So - as usual, We will be sharing.
So - as usual, We will be sharing.
