Revolution in the Modern World (HIST*3270)
Code and section: HIST*3270*01
Term: Fall 2022
Instructor: Oleksa Drachewych
Details
Course Synopsis:
This course reviews the concept of revolution in a historical and analytical framework, examining several political revolutions, such as the French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, Russian Revolutions, and Chinese Revolutions, struggles for independence in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Revolutions of 1848, and the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Students will also discuss the influence of revolutions on other revolutions and on international relations, the differences and similarities between liberal, constitutional, and communist revolutions, revolutionary ideologies and their influence, and the role of revolution in different parts of the world. The course will have pre-recorded lectures to help provide background for class discussion, while class time will be discussion-based, often split between two groups.
Students will engage in critical and creative thinking and literacy skills, exemplified through reading primary and secondary sources, by engaging in regular discussions on with their fellow students on these readings, and finally, in planning, researching, and writing a research paper.
Methods of Evaluation and Weights:
20% In-class Discussion Participation
15% Essay Proposal and Bibliography for Research Paper
35% Research Paper
30% Take-Home Final Exam
Texts and/or Resources:
Required:
David Motadel, ed., Revolutionary World: Global Upheaval in the Modern Age (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
Recommended:
William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2018)
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2017)
*Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.