A Podcast to Help You Prepare for Your Essay Question on the Final Exam

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This podcast only concerns Part One of the Final Exam, which consists of the following question that you must answer in an essay. I include the rubric that I will use to grade the essay. Part Two of the Final exam is covered in the Study Guide for the Final Exam for our course in Western Civilization.

Discuss TWO major ideas, developments or events whose origins can be located in the nineteenth century that helped to cause the First World War (1914-1919), and explain how they did so.

Rubric for Essay Question:

8-9

-contains a well-developed thesis that fulfills all topical requirements of the question

-supports the thesis with substantial, relevant information

-understands the complexity of question; deals with both examples in depth although the treatment may not be equal

-exhibits an effective description

-may contain minor errors

5-7

– contains a well-developed thesis that fulfills most but not all topical requirements of the question

-supports the thesis with some factual information

-has a limited understanding of complexity; will deal with both examples but only one in some depth, or with both examples in a more general way

-has limited description

-may contain errors that do not detract from the overall essay and argument

2-4

-lacks a thesis, or the thesis may be confused or undeveloped

-lacks supporting information, or information that is given is minimal, even confused

-ignores complexity; may deal with one example in a general way or both examples in a superficial way

-has no real description

-may contain major errors

0-1

-has an irrelevant or incompetent response

-may simply paraphrase or restate the question

-shows little or no understanding of the question

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Primary Source Assignment: Analyzing Vichy France Propaganda

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Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast Episode

About Your Primary Source Assignment

In this assignment you will analyze a propaganda poster, “Revolution Nationale,” produced by the government of Vichy France between 1940 and 1942.  The student will analyze the image utilizing the graphic worksheet provided by the Library of Congress. 

A Copy of the Library of Congress Cartoon Analysis Outline is here. There are 12 questions on this outline.  All 12 questions will appear on the Quiz that you will take for this assignment, which is also linked below.

Lin

Analyze the graphic or cartoon that you see below and, using the Outline as a reference, answer the questions in the Quiz in as much detail as you can.  Make sure that you work alone so that your answers are original to you. If they are not, your work will be scored as a “0.”  You can then transfer your answers from the worksheet to the textboxes for each question in the Quiz.  But make sure that your answers are as specific and as detailed as possible, and in complete, grammatically correct sentences.  A student will lose points for grammatical or other errors that lead to loss of clarity in the student’s answer(s).

I will post an informational podcast here and on the homepage of the course to help you prepare for the assignment. I will post the podcast shortly before this assignment opens. See Calendar for date when this assignment opens and closes.

Make sure that you submit the Quiz by the due date listed in the Calendar.  Your answers will not be accepted in any other format but via the Quiz submission.

You can find a link to the assignment in your GeorgiaVIEW course site

Vichy France Poster

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Out of Class Assignment (No Class Meeting on October 24): Podcast by Dr. Reiman on the Federalist Era, 1789-1801

Federalist Era

Since we will not have a class meeting on Thursday, October 24, complete the following four steps as an out of class assignment:

  1. Listen to the Podcast Recording above, which completes my lecture on the Federalist Era of the 1790s.
  2. Look over the PowerPoint presentation, “The Federalist Era,” under the Unit 4 Content as you listen to the above podcast
  3. Complete the Unit 4 Discussion Assignment on parties and politics in the 1790s, by completing the readings listed there and posting your response to the instructions in the Unit 4 Discussion assignment
  4. Complete the One-Question Quiz on the above podcast episode, which is on your GeorgiaVIEW site under “Quizzes,” by October 30.

All those students who complete the Google Docs form that you get to by clicking on this link will be awarded 1 bonus point added to your final course grade average. Please tell any friend of yours who is in this HIST 2111 section and who has not yet completed this form. This bonus point offer will expire at 11:59 pm, Wednesday, October 23.

Alexander Hamilton, yes, THAT Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (Yes, THAT Alexander Hamilton)

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A Podcast Shortcut: How to Do Well on “The Good War” Discussion Assignment

HIST 2112

In this podcast, I get more specific about the structure of your Good War Discussion post.  How many examples of your topic do you discuss? What might be good topics for you to discuss?  Which ones were positive and which were negative? You need to give one specific example each and explain how it was negative or positive.  I hope that this helps.  This is what you need to listen to instead of coming to class the week of October 21.  You also should spend your time that week preparing for and submitting your Good War Discussion post.

"I'm Proud"

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Unit 2, Episode 2: Comparing the American Revolution and the French Revolution

Revolutions, Unit 2, Western Civ
Why did the American Revolution stop being a revolution and, in the words of historian Eugen Weber, the French Revolution by contrast became an avalanche of social change? Why was it that the American Revolution escaped the fate of all other revolutions, and did not become, like the French Revolution, a prelude to a violent overturning of the social order? Listen (or read) here for my answer.

Click here for a Transcript of this Episode

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unit 2 Overview: The Age of Revolutions and Romanticism, 1776-1848

Revolutions, Unit 2, Western Civ

 

n this brief overview, we preview the other podcasts in this episode, which define the ideas of liberalism, nationalism and romanticism, and we preview their role as triggers of two very different kinds of revolution in the nineteenth century to come.

n this brief overview, we preview the other podcasts in this episode, which define the ideas of liberalism, nationalism and romanticism, and we preview their role as triggers of two very different kinds of revolution in the nineteenth century to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unit 1 Overview: From the Age of Absolutism to the Enlightenment, Inventing the Modern, 1648-1776

Absolutism, Unit 1 The Age of Absolutism

 

In this audio podcast I introduce the first Unit of the Course, “Inventing the Modern West,” with this three-minute video, “The Seventeenth Century, Inventing the Modern.”  Each Unit has 5 to 6 audio podcasts, each about ten minutes long. The first is the introduction or “Overview,” the next three each look at a different example of the themes set out in the first podcast.  The final podcast of each Unit discusses the consequences of this pivotal period in the History of the Modern West (1650-present).As you listen, or re-listen, to this podcast in your home, please have the PowerPoint for this Unit, “The First Modern Century, the 1600s,” open for you to follow along with.

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Unit 1, Discussion 3: The Scientific Revolution

Absolutism, Unit 1 The Age of Absolutism

 

Here we look at the role of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century (the 1600s) in making that century the first modern century. This podcast will help you with that portion of your 500-word description of this period that is devoted the the example of the Scientific Revolution (75 to 125 words).  At the end of this podcast episode I give you a question to try to answer in this 75-125 word portion of your 500-word Unit Essay.

Link to Transcript of this Episode, The Scientific Revolution

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Unit 1, Example 3: Theories of Government in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Absolutism, Uncategorized, Unit 1 The Age of Absolutism

 

The Age of Absolutism also gave birth to the first modern theories of government. What did they have in common? What made them “modern?”  How did the theories of each of the three men (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) differ?   Once you know the answers to these questions, which this podcast episode will help you with, you will have unlocked the key to writing well another 50 to 75 words in your 500-word review of the Age of Absolutism.

Episode Transcript for Theories of Government in the 17th and 18th Centuries

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Unit 1, Example 4: The Enlightenment, 1700-1789

Absolutism, Uncategorized, Unit 1 The Age of Absolutism

 

Benjamin Franklin, Exemplar of the Enlightenment

We look in Unit 1, Example 4 at the philosophical movement of the 18th century that owed so much to the 17th century: the Enlightenment.  Join Dr. Reiman on a tour of its most important ideas and philosophers and the impact that they had on the society–and the Revolutions–of the Eighteenth century.

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Unit 1 Vignette: Louis XIV and the Fronde

Absolutism, Unit 1 The Age of Absolutism

In this vignette of the life of Louis XIV, you will listen to contact that will serve as the source material for your topics to write your 500-word “Personification” essay.  How did Louis personify the Age of Absolutism. This podcast contains topics that are excellent for such an analysis.  Choose one and show how. The podcast speaks of Hyacnith Rigauld’s portrait of Louis XIV, the palace of Versailles and El Cid, by Pierre Corneille, among other things.  Here are images that show these three subjects.

 

Episode Transcript for Unit 1 Episode, Louis XIV and the Fronde

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For Those in a Hurry: Summarizing the Evidence in the JFK Assassination

John F. Kennedy, Kennedy Assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, Memory

In this first part of two brief episodes, I summarize the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald.  The evidence discussed was presented first by the Warren Commission investigation in 1964 and has only been further strengthened in the years since.  This episode focuses on only one of the two key questions: Did Oswald fire the shots that hit JFK and Texas Governor John Connally?  For Oswald’s motives, click here to buy my NEW Amazon ebook entry on the subject.

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New in our “Minute Biographies” series: Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Germany, Holocaust, Memory, World War II

Our minute biography series continues with this reflection on the life of Anne Frank, Holocaust victim and diarist non pareil. Many people regard her diary as the most famous “Holocaust book.” Yet the diary is not a book about the Holocaust nor was it written by one who was, at the time she wrote it, a Holocaust victim.  Nevertheless the story of Anne Frank is essential for those hoping for a world of respect for diversity and human rights.  This year, the ninetieth anniversary of Anne Frank’s birth, is the perfect time for this new addition to the “Minute Biography” series on Hijacking History.  Audio segments are used in this program by permission as provided under Creative Commons licenses. They include “Amesterdam Bells Birds,” by everythingsounds, licensed under the Attribution CC Unported license, no changes made; “Angry Nazi Clatters,” by kineticturtle, licensed under the Attribution CC 3.0 Unported license, no changes made; and “The Letter from Anne Frank,” by stanrams, licensed under the Attribition Non-Commercial 3.0 Unported license, no changes made.

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A New Episode for a New Series of Minute Biographies, this one, the inaugural episode on “Franklin D. Roosevelt”

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A projected new series of “Hijacking History,” “Pod Pops: History in a Blitz,” will present “minute biographies” of 5 to 10 minutes or so in length on famous individuals in American history. Here, while on the on the go or on your commute, you can catch up on the people you thought you knew from school, but wanted a refresher on, or a more updated dive from the latest knowledge of historical scholarship. For more information on FDR, see: Roger Daniels, Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Road to the New Deal, and Roger Daniels, Franklin D. Roosevelt: The War Years (University of Illinois Press, 2016), William Leuchtenberg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (Harper Perennial, 2009), Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (Little, Brown, 1990).

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Peter Jackson’s New Film, “They Shall Not Grow Old”

Films, Memory, Reviews, World War I,

This podcast episode reviews the film director Peter Jackson’s new film about World War I, “They Shall Not Grow Old.”  Using new technologies and old-fashioned respect for the facts, Jackson has crafted a documentary that brings old newsreels vividly to live, converting what the film was able to capture into what the cameramen of 1918 actually saw through their lens.

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The Causes of the Civil War: The First Century After

Civil War, Historiography, Memory

Historians today largely agree that slavery was central to the causation of the American Civil War. Prior to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, however, other factors had pride of place in the estimation of most (though not all) historians. After the nationalist historians of the late nineteenth century, who did see slavery as central to the causing of the war, historians, reflecting their times, seemed to stress everything but slavery. Economic differences between North and South, geographic determinism, irrationality and incompetence all seemed more central to historians in the first half of the twentieth century than did slavery. This is ironic because in the last half century, slavery has resumed its position as the crucial issue, without which the coming of the Civil War makes little sense.

In this podcast, I summarize the issues and discuss the conclusions of Thomas J. Pressly, in his book, “Americans Interpret Their Civil War.”

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Five-Minute Review on the Audiobook of Philippe Sands’s “East West Street: on the Origins Of ‘Genocide’ and ‘Crimes Against Humanity'”

Audiobook Review, Holocaust, Memory, World War II, ,

Here is my five-minute review on the remarkable, recent book by Philippe Sands on the intersection of four individual lives and the sweeping changes in international law brought about by World War II and the Holocaust, today in “Hijacking HIstory.”

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About America’s Electoral System, for Europeans (and Americans)

Elections, Politics, U.S. Constitution, ,

In the wake of the American Midterm elections in November 2018, “Hijacking History” looks at how the elections are likely to be viewed in the light of history.  In order to understand how, we have to see them in the context of the rules of the Constitutional process in America. What to outsiders may have seemed like a mixed verdict on the Trump administrations, looks very different when framed by the structure of America’s political system.  Some knowledge of how America’s electoral system is structured give Democrats reason to hope in 2020, based on the outcome of the Midterm elections of 2018.

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My Germany: Teaching and Living in Germany on an American Fulbright, 2007-2008 (Episode 2 of 2)

Fulbright, Germany,

In this second of two episodes I conclude my recollections of my Fulbright semester in Halle an der Saale, Germany in 2007-2008.  What did Germans want to know most about Americans, and what do Americans need to know about Germans?  I discuss my talks before German audiences in Chemnitz, the former Karl Marx Stadt.  Interest in the American presidential election of 2008 was keen here, even though these citizens hardly ever even saw an American.   The positive and negative aspects of the German way of life are subjects of reflection. The rise of the radical right neo-Nazi party, NPD, and the day it made an appearance in Halle is also discussed.  Few nations have to deal with political factions so radical as does Germany, but few nations have the experience in doing so that Germans have had in the last 72 years.

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