Mrs. Dillon Website: mrsdillonshistorysite.weebly.

com
dillonp@mdusd.org
Twitter: @MrsDillonNHS

AP European History
Course Syllabus 2017-2018

Course Description

AP European History is a challenging college-level course that is structured around the

investigation of six course themes and 19 key concepts in four different chronological
periods from the Renaissance to the present. Besides covering the relevant historical
facts from these eras and linking these facts to the analysis of the themes, the course
requires you to master nine historical thinking skills. During the year, you will be
provided with the opportunity to examine primary sources, such as documentary
material, pictures and graphs, maps, political cartoons, statistical tables, and works of
art. In addition, you will be provided with exposure to both factual narratives and to the
interpretations of European history from the perspectives of a variety of different writers
and historians. Historiography is the history of history. You will be examining how
people have thought about and written about historical events over the course of time.
You will also be provided with the opportunity to develop your analytical and interpretive
writing skills, practicing short answer questions as well as document-based and long
essay question essays. Besides the short answer questions, you will me writing at least
one essay in each unit.

This course includes history as both content and methodology. Students must
demonstrate knowledge of basic chronology and major events and trends since the
High Renaissance, and will develop academic skills, including 1.) Effective analysis of
such primary sources as documents, maps, statistics, art, pictures, and graphs;
2.) Effective note-taking; 3.) Clear and precise written expression; and 4.) The ability to
weigh evidence and reach conclusions on the basis of fact.

Themes that are addressed in the course:

1. Interaction of Europe and the World (INT)

2. Poverty and Prosperity (PP)

3. Objective Knowledge and Subjective Visions (OS)

4. States and other Institutions of Power (SP)

5. Individual and Society (IS)

6. National and European Identity

AP Disciplinary Practices:
1. Analyzing Historical Evidence
a. Primary Sources
b. Secondary Sources
Students will interpret, describe, explain, and analyze historically relevant
information and arguments.

2. Argument Development
Students will make historically defensible claims in the form of an evaluative
thesis, support an argument using evidence, and use historical reasoning to
explain relationships among events.

AP History Reasoning Skills:

1. Contextualization- describe relevant context and explain its significance.
2. Comparison- describe and explain historical similarities and differences.
3. Causation- describe and explain causes or effects of historical processes
4. Continuity and Change Over Time- describe and explain patterns of change and
continuity.

Course Format

Guided Reading
The Spielvogel textbook is known as one of the most “student-friendly” textbooks in AP
Euro classrooms nationwide, however it may challenge your vocabulary. Use it to your
advantage

Primary Source Analysis

For each unit, you will be expected to read, analyze, and interpret a wide variety of
primary sources such as:
- Written sources (letters, journals, government documents, newspapers, etc.)
- Maps
- Statistics tables
- Works of art

Secondary sources and Interpretations

Aside from the textbook, we will look at historical scholarship of various viewpoints and
historical eras. This will help you develop your own historical interpretation.

APEH Writing
Each unit will give instruction and practice in writing the DBQ (Document-Based
Question), SAQ (Short Answer Question) and LEG (Long Essay Question) essays.
Some of these will ne peer-reviewed, while others will be timed and graded in the AP
style.

Simulations, Discussions, and Socratic Seminars

Students will regularly engage in simulations, discussions, and seminars that will require
ACTIVE participation, critical thinking, collaboration, and group problem solving.

AP Practice Tests
Each unit will include a summative assessment based upon the AP Exam. These will
include AP-style multiple choice questions as well as timed LEQ, SAQ, and DBQ
essays.

Key Concepts within Four Chronological Periods:

Unit 1: 1450-1648: The Renaissance, Columbian Exchange, Reformation, and Age

of Religious Wars.
Key Concepts:
 1.1 The rediscovery of works from ancient Greece and Rome and
observation of the natural world changed many Europeans’ view of their
world.
 1.2 Religious pluralism challenged the concept of a unified Europe.
 1.3 Europeans explored and settled overseas territories, encountering
and interacting with indigenous populations.
 1.4 European society and the experiences of everyday life were
increasingly shaped by commercial and agricultural capitalism,
notwithstanding the continued existence of medieval social and economic
structures.

Unit 2: 1648-1815: Absolutism, Constitutional Government, the Scientific

Revolution, Transatlantic Economy, Colonial Revolutions, The French Revolution,
and Napoleonic Era.
Key Concepts:
 2.1 Different models of political sovereignty affected the relationship
among states and between states and individuals.
 2.2 The expansion of European commerce accelerated the growth of a
worldwide economic network.
 2.3 The spread of Scientific Revolution concepts and practices and the
Enlightenment’s application of these concepts and practices to political,
social, and ethical issues led to an increased, although not unchallenged,
emphasis on reason in European culture.
 2.4 The experiences of everyday life were shaped by demographic,
environmental, medical, and technological changes.

Unit 3: 1815-1914: The Conservative Restoration, Industrial Revolution,

Revolutions of 1832 and 1848, the new bourgeoisie, realpolitik in Germany and
Italy, and New Imperialism in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Key Concepts:
 3.1 The Industrial Revolution spread from great Britain to the continent,
where the state played a greater role in promoting industry.
  3.2 The experiences of everyday life were shaped by industrialization,
depending on the level of industrial development in a particular location.
 3.3 Political revolutions and the complications resulting from
industrialization triggered a range of ideological, governmental, and
collective responses.
 3.4 European states struggled to maintain international stability in an age
of nationalism and revolutions.
 3.5 A variety of motives and methods led to the intensification of
European global control and increased tensions among the Great Powers.
 3.6 European ideas and culture expressed a tension between objectivity
and scientific realism on one hand, and subjectivity and individual
expression on the other.

Unit 4: 1914 to the Present: World War I, the rise of communism in Russia and the
Soviet Union, Economic Collapse, Rise of Totalitarianism, World War II, The Cold
War and Decolonization.
Key Concepts:
 4.1 Total war and political instability in the first half of the 20th century
gave way to a polarized state order during the Cold War, and eventually to
efforts at transnational union.
 4.2 The stresses of economic collapse and total war engendered internal
conflicts within European states and created conflicting conceptions of the
relationship between the individual and the state, as demonstrated in the
ideological battle among liberal democracy, communism, and fascism.
 4.3 During the 20th century, diverse intellectual and cultural movements
questioned the existence of objective knowledge, the ability of reason to
arrive at truth, and the role of religion in determining moral standards.
 4.4 Demographic changes, economic growth, total war, disruptions of
traditional social patterns, and competing definitions of freedom and
justice altered experiences of everyday life.

Required Texts:

 Spielvogel, Jackson. (2018) Western Civilization, Since 1300, AP Edition. 10th

edition. Cengage Learning.

 Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince.

Please note: I expect you to read the assigned readings ahead of time. You cannot rely on
me to lecture on what was assigned in the reading. Rather than dictate events to you
(“This happened, then that happened”), you must come to class prepared to answer
questions about the reading.
Supplemental Reading:
Some readings will be assigned from other texts, including, but not limited to:
 Perry, Chapman, and Hastings: Primary Source Documents in Western
Civilization. Volume Two: Since 1400.

 McKay, Hill, Buckler, Crowston, Wiesner-Hanks, and Perry. (2011) A History of

Western Society, 10th edition. Bedford-St. Martin’s.

 Sherman, Dennis, ed. Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations,

from the Renaissance to the Present. 8th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.

 Kagan, Ozment, and Turner. (2014) The Western Heritage, 10th edition. Pearson.

Required and Recommended Materials:

 An AP test prep book, if you plan on taking the AP exam in May.

MUST BE PUBLISHED AFTER 2016!!
 A spiral bound notebook exclusively for this class for taking notes on lectures
and/or reading.
 A binder for keeping reading materials organized.
 Pens, pencils, and highlighters.
 Post-it notes. You will often want to write notes in your textbook, but since you
cannot write in the text, use post-it notes instead to annotate what you read.
 Index cards. You may want to use these for making flash cards.(Not required)

Useful Resources and Websites:

- The AP College Board website for students:
https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-european-history

- YouTube’s Crash Course channel: Great history videos by author John

Green: http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse

- www.khanacademy.org has great tutorial videos as well.

- Tom Richey, an AP Euro teacher from South Carolina, has placed his
lectures and rubrics online. Go to www.tomrichey.net to access his lecture
videos and review materials.

- Paul Sargent’s AP Euro Bit by Bit YouTube videos: Go to www.youtube.com

and search “Paul Sargent AP Euro” to find his “Worldwide Classrooms”
series.
Course Planner and Readings: “Napoleon by winter break, Hitler by spring break” is
the typical AP Euro teacher’s mantra. We will try to adhere to the following schedule.
This is a planned outline for the course calendar, along with selected readings,
activities, assignments, and quizzes/tests for each chapter unit. Primary and secondary
sources will be assigned for each chapter throughout the year. In addition to the
“Selected Readings” we will also be analyzing various styles of art in painting, sculpture,
and architecture as a source of historical thought, from the Renaissance through
Modern Art.

SEMESTER ONE:

Week ½: August 22-25

- Introduction, Course Syllabus
- Historical Thinking Skills and GPERSIA
- Test: Summer textbook reading and The Prince discussion

Weeks 1-2: August 28- September 6

- Understanding Point-of-View Analysis and the DBQ
- Answering the SAQ (Short Answer Question)
- CHAPTER 12: Recovery and Rebirth: The Renaissance
o The Making of Renaissance Society
o The Italian States in the Renaissance
o The Intellectual Renaissance
o The Artistic Renaissance
o The European State in the Renaissance
o The Church in the Renaissance
- Selected readings:
o Petrarch: A Letter to Bocaccio
o Christine de Pizan: The City of Ladies
o Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier
o Peter Paul Vergerio: On the Liberal Arts
o Pico de la Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man
o Erasmus: A Humanist Prescription for the Education of Princes.
o Jacob Burhardt: The Civilization of the Renaissance
o Peter Burke: The Myth of the Renaissance

Week 2-3: September 8-15

- Historical Thinking Skills and the LEQ
- CHAPTER 13:Reformation and the Religious Warfare in the 16th Century
o Prelude to Reformation
o Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany
o The Spread of the Protestant Reformation
o The Social Impact of the Protestant Reformation
o The Catholic Counter-Reformation
o Politics and the Wars of Religion in the 16th Century
 - CHAPTER 15 selection: Social Crises, War, and Rebellions (pp. 433-439)
- Selected readings:
o Erasmus: Julius Exclusus (Julius Excluded From Heaven)- a play
o Johan Tetzel: Indulgences
o Martin Luther, Justification of Faith; Bondage of Will; Condemnation of
the Peasant Revolt
o John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion
o Saint Teresa of Avila: The Way of Perfection
o Ignatius Loyola: Constitution of the Society of Jesus
o Several selected secondary sources, including Euan Cameron’s What
was the Reformation, G.R. Elton’s A Political Interpretation of the
Reformation, and Boxer & Quartert’s Women in the Reformation.
o Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq: Civil War in France
o Cardinal Richelieu: Political Will and Testament
o John Knox: The First Blast of the Trumpet…
o The Edict of Nantes, Henry VI of France
o The Hammer of Witches, by Kramer and Spengel
o The Devil’s Handmaid: Women in the Age of Reformations, by William
Monter
o Hajo Holborn: A Political Interpretation of the Thirty Years War
o Carl Freidrich: A Religious Interpretation of the Thirty Years War

Week 4-5: September 21- 29

- CHAPTER 14: Europe and the World, New Encounters 1500-1800
o On the Brink of a New World
o New Horizons: The Portuguese and Spanish Empires
o New Rivals on the World Stage
o The Impact of European Expansion
o Toward a World Economy
- Selected Readings:
o Christopher Columbus: A Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella
o Bartolome de las Casas: Amerindians and the Garden of Eden
o Travels by Marco Polo
o The Spanish Conquistador: Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico
o The Atlantic Slave Trade
o West Meets East: An Exchange of Royal Letters
o An Imperial Edict to the King of England- Qianlong
o The Mission- Felix de Azara
- PERIOD 1 UNIT EXAM
- DBQ ESSAY

Week 6: October 2-6

- CHAPTER 15: State Building and the Search for Order in the 17th Century
o The Practice of Absolutism: Western Europe
o Absolutism in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe
o Limited Monarchy and Republics
 o The Flourishing of European Culture
- Selected readings:
o How the Spice Trade Changed the World
o The Powers of the Monarch in England, by James I
o The Powers of Parliament in England, by the House of Commons
o War and Peace in the Old Regime, by M.S. Anderson
o Memoirs for the Instruction of a Dauphin, by Louis XIV
o Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
o Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke
o The Great Czar, by Feofan Prokopovich
o A Secret Letter: Monarchical Authority in Prussia, by Frederick William
o Correspondence with Alexis, by Peter the Great

Week 7: October 9-13

- CHAPTER 16: The Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern
Science
o Background to the Scientific Revolution
o Toward a New Heaven: A Revolution in Astronomy
o Advances in Medicine and Chemistry
o Women in the Origins of Modern Science
o Toward a New Earth: Descartes, Rationalism, and a New View of
Humankind
o The Scientific Method and the Spread of Scientific Knowledge
- Selected Readings:
o The Discourse on Method, by Rene Descartes
o Letter to Christina of Tuscany, by Galileo Galilei
o Papal Inquisition of 1633: Galileo Condemned
o Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, by Isaac Newton
o Nature as a Machine: The Clock, by Steven Shapin
o Newton’s Rules of Reasoning
o The Starry Messenger
o Kepler and the Emerging Scientific Community
o The Education of Women, by Margaret Cavendish
o What is a Man in the Infinite? By Pascal

Weeks 8-9: October 16-24

- CHAPTER 17: The 18th Century: An Age of Enlightenment
o The Enlightenment
o Culture and Society in the Enlightenment
o Religion and the Churches
- Selected Readings:
o What is Enlightenment?, by Immanuel Kant
o The System of Nature, by Baron d’Holbach
o Prospectus for the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences, by Diderot
o Philosophical Dictionary: The English Model, by Voltaire
o Philosophical Dictionary: Religion, by Voltaire
 o The Age of Reason: Deism, by Thomas Paine
o The Social Contract, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
o On Crimes and Punishment, by Cesare Beccaria
o Women: Especially Constituted to Please Men, by Rousseau
o A Vindication of the Rights of Women, by Mary Wollstonecraft
- Selected Readings:
o The Complete English Tradesman, by William Dafoe
o Letter to Lady R., 1716, by Lady Mary Montagu
o Women of the Third Estate
o The Ancien Regime: Ideals and Realities, by John Roberts
o The Resurgent Aristocracy, by Leonard Krieger
o Lords and Peasants, by Jerome Blum

Weeks 9-10: October 25- November 3

- CHAPTER 18: The 18th Century: European States, International Wars, and
Social Change
o The European States
o Wars and Diplomacy
o Economic Expansion and Social Change
o The Social Order of the 18th Century
- Selected Readings:
o Political Testament, by Frederick the Great
o In Defense of Mercantilism, by Thomas Nun
o The Slave Trade, by Anonymous
o Description of the West Coast of Guinea, by William Bosman
o Slaves in the City
o A Description of the Middle Passage, by Oloudah Equiano
o A Speech in the House of Commons in India, 1772, by Sir Robert Clive
o The Complete English Tradesman, by William Dafoe
o Letter to Lady R., 1716, by Lady Mary Montagu
o Women of the Third Estate
o The Ancien Regime: Ideals and Realities, by John Roberts
o The Resurgent Aristocracy, by Leonard Krieger
o Lords and Peasants, by Jerome Blum

Weeks 11 and 12: November 6- 17

- CHAPTER 19: A Revolution in Politics- The French Revolution and Napoleon
o The Beginning of the Revolutionary Era: The American Revolution
o Background to the French Revolution
o The French Revolution
o The Age of Napoleon
- Selected Readings:
o Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
o Travels in France: Signs of Revolution, by Arthur Young
o The Cahiers: Discontent of the Third Estate
o What is the Third Estate? by Abbé Sieyes
 o Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
o Declaration of the Rights of Woman, by Olympe de Gouges
o A Speech to the National Convention, by Robespierre
o A Soldier’s Letter to his Mother: Revolutionary Nationalism
o Memoirs: Napoleon’s Appeal by Madame Remusat
o Memoirs: Napoleon’s Secret Police by Joseph Fouché
o Napoleon’s Diary
o Napoleon’s Proclamation to his Troops in Italy, 1796
o Napoleon’s Account of the Internal Situation in France, 1804

***** Thanksgiving Break is November 20-24*****

Weeks 13 and 14: November 27- December 6

- DBQ Essay, LEQ Essay
- CHAPTER 20: The Industrial Revolution and its Impact on European Society
o The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
o The Spread of Industrialization
o The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution
- Selected Readings:
o Testimony for the Factory Act of 1833: Working Conditions in England
o The Condition of the Working Class in England, by Friedrich Engels
o The Industrial Revolution in Russia, by Peter Stearns
o Early Industrial Society: Progress or Decline?

Weeks 14 and 15: December 7-15

- CHAPTER 21: Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850
o The Conservative Order
o The Ideologies of Change
o Revolution and Reform
o The Emergence of an Ordered Society
o Culture in an Age of Reaction and Revolution: The Mood of
Romanticism
- Selected readings:
o Secret Memo to Tsar Alexander I, by Prince Metternich
o The Carlsbad Decrees
o Address to Second National Congress, by Simòn Bòlivar
o The Congress of Vienna, by Hajo Holburn
o Western Liberalism, by E.K. Bramsted and K.J. Melhuish
o English Liberalism, by Jeremy Bentham

Week 16: FINAL EXAMS: DECEMBER 20,21,22.

***WINTER BREAK: DECEMBER 23- JANUARY 7*** (You may have homework!)
SEMESTER TWO:
Weeks 17 and 18: January 8-19
- CHAPTER 22: An Age of Nationalism and Realism
o The France of Napoleon III
o National Unification: Italy and Germany
o Nation Building and Reform: The National State in Midcentury
o Industrialization and the Marxist Response
o Science and Culture in an Age of Realism
- Selected Readings:
o Speeches on Pragmatism and State Socialism; Blood and Iron, by Otto
von Bismarck
o The Duties of Man, by Giuseppe Mazzini
o Militant Nationalism, by Heinrich von Treitschke
o Sybil, Or the Two Nations, by Benjamin Disraeli
o German Unification, by David Blackbourn

Weeks 19 and 20: January 22-31

- CHAPTER 23: Mass Society in an “Age of Progress”: 1871-1894
o The Growth of Industrial Prosperity
o The Emergence of a Mass Society
o The National State
- Selected Readings:
o Sybil, Or the Two Nations, by Benjamin Disraeli
o The Department Store and the Beginnings of Mass Consumerism
o Prostitution in Victorian London
o The Voice of Evolutionary Socialism: Eduard Bernstein
o The Housing Venture of Octavia Hill
o Advice to Women: Two Views
o Women’s Soccer: 1881
o Bismarck and the Welfare of the Workers

Weeks 20 and 21: February 1-9

- CHAPTER 24: An Age of Modernity, Anxiety, and Imperialism, 1894-1914
o Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural
Developments
o Politics: New Directions and New Uncertainties
o The New Imperialism
o International Rivalry and the Coming of War
- Selected Readings:
o Socialist Women: Becoming Socialist, by Anna Meier
o Why We Are Militant, by Emmeline Pankhurst
o Foundations of the Nineteenth Century: Racism, by Houston
Chamberlain
o Judaism in Music: Anti-Semitism, by Richard Wagner
o A Suffragette Goes to Prison, by Emmeline Pankhurst
o Official Report on Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg
o The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin
 o Liberalism and Social Darwinism, by Herbert Spencer
o Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), by Pope Leo XIII
o The Subjection of Women, by John Stuart Mill
o “J’Accuse!” An Indictment of France’s Military Elite, by Emile Zola
o A Doll’s House, Act III, from a play be Henrik Ibsen
o Does Germany Need Colonies? by Friedrich Fabri
o The White Man’s Burden, by Rudyard Kipling
o The Gentlemen of the Jungle, by Jomo Kenyatta
o Controlling Africa: The Royal Niger Company Standard Treaty
o Social Darwinism and Imperialism by Karl Pearson
o Imperialism, the Highest State of Capitalism, by Vladimir Lenin

Weeks 22 and 23: February 13-23

- Period 3 Unit Exam and Essay
- CHAPTER 25: The Beginnings of the 20th Century Crisis: War and Revolution
o The Road to World War I
o The Great War
o War and Revolution (Russia)
o The Peace Settlement
- Selected Readings:
o Dulce Et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen (and other WWI poems)
o The Battle of the Somme: Conflicting Reports
o The Battle for Verdun, 1916 Report from the Front
o April Theses and Speech to the Petrograd Soviet, by Vladimir Lenin
o Program of the Provisional Government in Russia
o The Fourteen Points, by Woodrow Wilson

Weeks 24 and 25: February 26-March 9

- CHAPTER 26: The Futile Search for Futility: Europe Between the Wars,
1919-1939
o An Uncertain Peace
o The Democratic States in the West
o The Authoritarian and Totalitarian States
o The Expansion of Mass Culture and Mass Leisure
o Cultural and Intellectual Trends in the Interwar Years
- Selected Readings:
o The Road Back and Restless Days, by Erich Maria Remarque
and Lilo Linke
o With Germany’s Unemployed, by Heinrich Hauser
o Program of the Popular Front, 1936
o Civilization and its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud
o The Doctrine of Fascism, by Benito Mussolini
o Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler
o The German Woman and National Socialism, by Guide Diehl
o The Theory and Practice of Hell: The Nazi Elite, by Eugene Kogon
o Soviet Collectivization: Problems of Agrarian Policy, by Josef Stalin
 o Report to the Congress of Soviets, 1936, by Josef Stalin

Weeks 26 and 27 : March 12-23

- CHAPTER 27: The Deepening of the European Crisis: World War II
o Prelude to War (1933-1939)
o The Course of World War II
o The New Order
o The Home Front
o Aftermath of the War
- Selected Readings:
o A Justification of Japanese Expansion, by Ryusaku Tsunoda
o Two Poems of the Spanish Civil War
o Report from Guernica
o The Evacuation of Dunkirk, by Douglas Williams
o The Battle of Britain, by Mrs. Robert Henrey
o A German Soldier at Stalingrad, by William Hoffman
o The Informed Heart: Nazi Concentration Camps, by Bruno Bettelheim
o Witness to the Holocaust, by Fred Baron
o Race and Space, by Doris Bergen
o Speech to the House of Commons, June18,1940, by Winston Churchill
o The Nuremburg Laws, 1935
o The Jewish Question as a World Problem, by Alfred Rosenberg

Weeks 28 and 29: March 26-April 10

****SPRING BREAK IS APRIL 2-6*****
- CHAPTER 28: Cold War and a New Western World, 1945-1965
o Development of the Cold War
o Europe and the World: Decolonization
o Recovery and Renewal in Europe
o The United States and Canada: A New Era
o Postwar Society and Culture in the Western World
- Selected Readings:
o The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
o The Cold War: A Soviet Perspective, by B.N. Ponomaryov
o The Cominform Defines Conflict Between the USSR and the U.S.
o Khruschev Denounces the Crimes of Stalin: The Secret Speech
o The Berlin Wall, by Jens Reich
o Declaration Against Colonialism, The United Nations
o Nonviolence in Peace and War, by Mohandas Gandhi
o The Balfour Declaration, U.N. Resolution 242, and a Palestinian
Memoir
o Who Started the Cold War? American and Soviet Perspectives
o The Cuban Missile Crisis from Khruschev’s Perspective
Weeks 29 and 30: April 11-20
- CHAPTER 29: Protest and Stagnation: The Western World 1965-1985
o A Culture of Protest
o A Divided Western World
o The Cold War: A Move to Détente
o Society and Culture in the Western World
- Selected Readings:
o British Labor’s Rise to Power, by Harry W. Laidler
o The Second Sex and Feminist Manifesto, by Simon de
Beauvoir
o Existentialism and Humanism, by Jean Paul Sartre
o The Times They Are A-Changin: The Music of Youthful Protest
o 1968: The Year of Student Revolts
o Czechoslovakia, 1968: The Two Faces of Communism
o “Thatcherism and the Free Market, by Margaret Thatcher
o The Fury of the Red Guards
o The Limits of Modern Technology

Weeks 31 and 32: April 23-May 4

- CHAPTER 30: After the Fall: The Western World in a Global Age (since 1985)
o Toward a New Western Order
o After the Cold War: New World Order or Age of Terrorism?
o New Directions and New Problems in Western Society
o Western Culture Today
o Toward a Global Civilization: New Challenges and Hopes
- Selected Readings:
o The Short Century- It’s Over, by John Lukas
o The End of the Cold War, by R.L. Garthoff
o After Communism: Causes for the Collapse, by Robert Heilbroner
o Terrorism and the Clash of Civilizations, by Samuel P. Huntington
o Religious Terrorism, by Mark Juergensmeyer
o Speech on Russia’s Development Strategy through 2020, Vladimir
Putin
o Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexievich
o CNBC European Business, 2008 editorial by Richard Lofthouse
o Globalization, by Thomas L. Friedman
o Global Warming, by Elizabeth Kolbert
o Ecological Threats by J.R. McNeill

Weeks 33 and 34: May 7-18

- REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW
- Field trip: The Legion of Honor in San Francisco
- AP EXAM: FRIDAY, MAY 18!!!
Weeks 35- 37: May 11- June 4
- AP Euro Film Festival
- Final projects
- Final Exams

Grading System:

Grades are weighted in the following categories:

- Chapter/Unit Tests: 35%
o Test Corrections given for those earning less than a C. Half a point awarded back for
each corrected answer.
- Essays (DBQ, LEQ, and SAQ): 35%
- Homework and Reading Quizzes: 20%
- Participation: 10%

Based on recommendations of the College Board, the following scale will be used:
 90-100%= A  60-69%= D
 80-89%= B  0-59%= F
 70-79%= C

All DBQs (Document-Based Question Essay) will be based on a 7-point scale (no half
points). The standards for grading will focus on thesis statement clarity, logic of
argument, evidence, outside information provided, etc.
 7= 100% = A+  3= 65% = D
 6= 95% = A  2= 55% = F
 5= 85% = B  1= 45% = F
 4= 75% = C

All LEQs (Long Essay Question) will be based on a 6-point scale (no half points). There
are four different types of LEQs: Causation, Comparison, Continuity and Change Over
Time, and Periodization.
- 6= 100% = A - 3= 72% = C-
- 5= 92% = A- - 2= 62% = D-
- 4= 82% = B- - 1= 52% = F

Final Note:
Please remember that this class may be challenging, but at the end of the year, you will find that you
have acquired great skills in reading, analysis, critical thinking, and writing. If you try your best and do not
fall behind in the homework, success is possible and attainable. If you are struggling with any material or
reading, please contact Mrs. Dillon as soon as possible- don’t wait! Best of luck in this school year.
 “Europe was created by history.
America was created by philosophy. “
- Margaret Thatcher
 AP EUROPEAN HISTORY STUDENT CONTRACT

I, _______________, have read and understand the course, rigor,

and requirements for success in the class. I promise to try my
best and always ask for help when I need it. I understand that this
course requires me to pull my own weight and keep up with the
assigned reading. I also understand that by preparing for and
passing the AP exam in May, I can earn college credit, and
therefore will give it my best effort. Finally, I understand that I
must be an active participant in the class in order to gain as much
knowledge as I can from this course.

Student Name: __________________ Student Signature: ___________________

Parent Name: ___________________ Parent Signature: _____________________

Date: ______________________________

______________________________
Mrs. Paula Dillon, AP European History teacher

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