INHABITING OTHER LIVES: REACTING TO THE PAST

The Honors College at FIU

Fall 2008 & Spring 2009 - IDH 2003 & 2004 Sections
Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:30 – 13:45

Faculty

Course Description
Guided by the epistemological questions of what we know, how we know it, and how we judge. Students will investigate and test competing theories of knowledge.

Most history courses teach what happened. Historians deduce the factors—usually economic, sociological, political, and technological—that caused some consequence and the outcome is sometimes viewed from the perfection of hindsight as an inevitable process. Often missing from scholarly studies is the importance of individual actions and decisions. This course presumes that individuals play a significant role in history; it asserts that broader economic and social forces place constraints on what individuals may do, but that those forces do not determine human events. People do.

”Reacting” seeks to replicate the historical context of a particular past, with all its causal forces:  economic, sociological, political, and otherwise. But it also provides students with the opportunity to explore counterfactual issues of individual agency: Would a different constellation of leaders in ancient Athens have effectively resisted the rise of Athenian democracy? Would a different set of arguments have prevented the execution of King Louis XVI in revolutionary France? Throughout the course, the vital significance of individual intervention is made apparent and all participants should be prepared to make significant contributions to the causes to which they are attached. This is not a course for the faint-hearted. Application, vigor, intellectual curiosity and flexibility are all vital attributes for those concerned.

more information on Reacting to the Past can be found here: http://www.barnard.edu/reacting/index.htm

Required Readings

Fall 2008

Plato. The Republic. New York City: Penguin Classics, 2007.
ISBN: 9780140455113

Carnes, Mark . Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.. New York: Longman, 2005.
ISBN: 9780321333032

supplemental reading as directed

Spring 2009

Carnes, Mark and Gary Kates. Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791. New York: Longman, 2005.
ISBN: 9780321332295

France, Anatole and Frederick Davies. The Gods Will Have Blood. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.
ISBN 9780140443523

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques and Maurice Cranston. The Social Contract. Harmondsworth Eng.: Penguin, 2003.
ISBN 9780140442014

Class Assignments

• Be prepared in each class session by having completed assigned readings.
• Written assignments are expected to have correct grammar and punctuation unless the assignment calls for something else.  You may contact the FIU Writing Lab for assistance or guidance on what this means.
• Regularly monitor WebCT and your personal FIU email account for assignments, announcements, discussion, etc. 
• All assignments must be submitted to TURNITIN.COM.  Instructions will be given later.  In addition, you will provide a paper copy to your professor.

Grade Calculation

Fall 2008
Reacting to the Past: 40 pts
Visual Thinking Project: 15 pts
Paper 1: 15 pts
Paper 2: 15 pts 
Quizzes: 10 pts
Honors Citizenship: 5 pts
victory objectives: up to 5 pts
extra-credit: up to 4 pts

Spring 2009
Reacting to the Past: 40 pts
Visual Thinking Project: 15 pts
Paper 1: 15 pts
Paper 2: 15 pts 
Quizzes: 10 pts
Honors Citizenship: 5 pts
victory objectives: up to 5 pts
extra-credit: up to 4 pts

Letter grades correspond to the following point scale:

Participation policy

As this class involves discussion, attendance and class participation are essential. Absences will result in a lowering of your grade as follows:

Class Schedule
Please note that the class schedule is subject to change. In addition, all four faculty members are likely to be away for small portions of the Semester as their other assignments so dictate. All such changes, will be announced in class.

FALL 2008
 

The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.

Josiah Ober and Mark C. Carnes

The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C. recreates the intellectual dynamics of one of the most formative periods in the human experience. After nearly three decades of war, Sparta crushed democratic Athens, destroyed its great walls and warships, occupied the city, and installed a brutal regime, “the Thirty Tyrants.” The excesses of the tyrants resulted in civil war and, as the game begins, they have been expelled and the democracy restored. But doubts about democracy remain, expressed most ingeniously by Socrates and his young supporters. Will Athens retain a political system where all decisions are made by an Assembly of 6,000 or so citizens? Will leaders continue to be chosen by random lottery? Will citizenship be broadened to include slaves who fought for the democracy and foreign-born metics who paid taxes in its support? Will Athens rebuild its long walls and warships and again extract tribute from city-states throughout the eastern Aegean? These and other issues are sorted out by a polity fractured into radical and moderate democrats, oligarchs, and Socratics, among others. The debates are informed by Plato’s Republic, as well as excerpts from Thucydides, Xenophon, and other contemporary sources. By examining democracy at its threshold, the game provides the perspective to consider its subsequent evolution.

Week 1

T 26 Aug: Introduction of Course and Professors

Th 28 Aug: Introduction of Students

Week 2

T 2 Sep: Historical Context (Davies)

Th 4 Sep: Religion & Philosophy (Garrote)

Week 3

T 9 Sep: Classical Greek Art (Bailly)
Democracy Film Project (Bailly): Due on T 28 Oct

Th 11 Sep: Guest Lecture (Dr. Darden Pyron)

Week 4

T 16 Sep: The Republic | Game Role lottery

Th 18 Sep: QUIZ: Athens Gamebook | Jeopardy

Week 5

T 23 Sep: QUIZ: The Republic | The Republic (Bailly at Texas State)

Th 25 Sep: Meet in Factions (Bailly at Texas State)

Week 6

T 30 Sep: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 1

Th 2 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 1                                                                                                                                          

Week 7

T 7 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 2

Th 9 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 2

Week 8

T 14 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 3

Th 16 Oct:  Reacting to the Past: Public Session 3
Due Th 16 Oct: Paper 1 (Davies)

Week 9

T 21 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 4

Th 23 Oct: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 4 (Bailly at NCHC)

Week 10

T 28 Oct: Democracy Film Festival

Th 30 Oct: Democracy Film Festival  

Week 11

T 4 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 5

Th 6 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 5

Week 12

T 11 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 6

Th 13 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 6

Week 13

T 18 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 7

Th 20 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Public Session 7
Due Th 20 Nov: Paper 2 (Garrote)

Week 14

T 25 Nov: Reacting to the Past: Final Session

Th 27 Nov: No Class: Thanksgiving

Week 15

T 2 Dec: Game Post-Mortem

Th 4 Dec: Class Party

SPRING 2009

Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791

Mark C. Carnes and Gary Kates

Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791 plunges students into the intellectual, political, and ideological currents that surged through revolutionary Paris in the summer of 1791. Students are leaders of major factions within the National Assembly (and in the streets outside) as it struggles to create a constitution amidst internal chaos and threats of foreign invasion. Will the king retain power? Will the priests of the Catholic Church obey the “general will” of the National Assembly or the dictates of the pope in Rome? Do traditional institutions and values constitute restraints on freedom and individual dignity or are they its essential bulwarks? Are slaves, women, and Jews entitled to the “rights of man”? Is violence a legitimate means of changing society or of purging it of dangerous enemies? In wrestling with these issues, students consult Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract and Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, among other texts.

Week 1

T 6 Jan: Introduction of Game

Th 8 Jan: Introduction of Students

Week 2

T 13 Jan: World before the French Revolution (Davies)

Th 15 jan: Science before the Enlightenment

Week 3

T 20 Jan: Religion before the French Revolution (Garrote)

Th 22 jan: Art Before the French Revolution (Bailly)

Film Project (Bailly): Due end of March

Week 4

T 27 Jan: La Nuit de Varennes | GMs select Roles for students

Th 29 Jan: La Nuit de Varennes

Week 5

T 3 Feb: Reacting to the Past: Rousseau | Discuss Possible Game Roles

Th 5 Feb: Reacting to the Past: Rousseau

Character Research Paper (Davies): Due Th 11 Oct

Week 6

T 10 Feb: Reacting to the Past: Faction Meetings | First National Assembly (Civil Constitution Clergy)

Th 12 Feb: Reacting to the Past | First National Assembly (Civil Constitution Clergy)                                                                                                                                          

Week 7

T 17 Feb: Reacting to the Past | Second National Assembly (Civil Constitution Clergy continued)

Th 19 Febt: Reacting to the Past | Second National Assembly (Civil Constitution Clergy continued)

Due Th 11 Oct: Character Research Paper (Davies)

Week 8

T 24 Feb: Reacting to the Past | Second National Assembly

Th 26 Feb:  Reacting to the Past | Second National Assembly

Week 9

T 3 Mar: Reacting to the Past | Third National Assembly

Th 5 Mar: Reacting to the Past | Third National Assembly

Week 10

T 10 Mar: Reacting to the Past | Fourth National Assembly

Th 12 Mar: Reacting to the Past | Fourth National Assembly                                

Week 11

T 17 Mar: No Class: Spring Break

Th 19 Mar: No Class: Spring Break

Week 12

T 24 Mar: Reacting to the Past | Sixth National Assembly

Th 26 Mar: No Class: 6th Annual SRAI Conference (Attendance Mandatory)

Week 13

T 31 Mar: End Reacting to the Past:

Th 2 Apr: No Class: Thanksgiving

Journal Paper (Garrote), Due T 20 Nov

Week 14

T 7 Apr: Effects of French Revolution (Garrote)

Th 9 Apr: Effects of French Revolution

Week 15

T 14 Apr: Effects of French Revolution (Bailly)

Th 16 Apr: Effects of French Revolution (Davies)

FIU Academic Misconduct Statement
Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook.

Misconduct includes: Cheating – The unauthorized use of books, notes, aids, electronic sources; or assistance from another person with respect to examinations, course assignments, field service reports, class recitations; or the unauthorized possession of examination papers or course materials, whether originally authorized or not. Plagiarism – The use and appropriation of another’s work without any indication of the source and the representation of such work as the student’s own. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas, expressions or materials taken from another source, including internet sources, is responsible for plagiarism.

Academic Integrity
Please read all information on the following link. Registration in this course requires an acceptance of The Honors College Policies for students

http://honors.fiu.edu/current_policy_standing.html.

In this learning community, we are expected to act as moral beings governed by a sense of ethics. These ethics are outlined in the University Code of Academic Integrity.(www.fiu.edu/~dwyere/academicintegrity.html) and the Honors College policy on plagiarism (http://honors.fiu.edu/current_policy_plagiarism.html).  In simple language, in this course you will not cheat, misrepresent others' work as your own (plagiarism), or lie to the instructor or others in this learning community. One act crossing that boundary and you will be recommended for expulsion from the Honors College.

The Honors College at FIU Plagiarism Policy

Honor in Honors
In The Honors College, the term “honor” refers both to academic accomplishment and character. Students in Honors should therefore adhere to and be held to the highest standards of personal academic accountability. Academic dishonesty in any form, including plagiarism, is antithetical to the very definition of being an Honors student at FIU. Consequently, an Honors College student found responsible for academic misconduct will be dismissed from the College.