Welcome to History 135, the history of the contemporary world.  This course covers the
history of the contemporary world since 1945 and the end of World War Two.  My name
is Charlie Evans, and I will be your instructor for the course.  I designed this course in
1998 to take advantage of the resources that were becoming available on the world
wide web for the study of history.  I concluded that in many ways the web had become
the ultimate expression of what the contemporary world was all about, and the fantastic
growth of the web has clearly revealed the increasingly technological nature of life in
the twenty-first century.  Since the course is web-based, it uses the web as a medium
of instruction (It allows me to transmit to you instructions for the assignments and
information for those assignments.) and as a source of information that allows you to
successfully complete assignments.
To succeed in the course, you do need to follow the specific directions in the course,
and you do need to submit the assignments in the specific order indicated.  In some of
the other courses that I teach there is much more flexibility in how and when you can
submit your assignments, but in this course the assignments need to be submitted in
order.  If there are any questions about any the assignments or any of the materials,
please contact me.  The best way to reach me is by e-mail, and all of my contact
information is listed on my letter of introduction that you will be reading this week. 
Before you actually begin submitting assignments, you should scan everything in the
course (all the assignments, all the web pages) to make sure that you get a clear
overview of what will be required of you.  Finally I encourage all students to consider
doing the optional web module creation assignment in lieu of the four module essays.  I
wish you success in the course.