HIS 102 WEEK 7: SOCIALISM
Reading Assignment for the week:
- Read the appropriate chapter in the
textbook (chapter 24 in the 7th or 6th ed. of Perry).
- Read the excerpt from the
Communist Manifesto (You may wish to
participate in an Online Discussion of this reading.).
-
Listen to some further information about socialism
as a Realaudio file
or as a wav file. You can also read the information as
a txt file.
Questions to
Consider while studying this week's material:
- What were the main points
of Marx' critique of capitalism?
- What were the main ideas
of Darwin's theory of natural selection (evolution)?
Key Terms to study
while reading the textbook:
- Karl Marx
- Friedreich Engels
- Friedreich Hegel
- Mikhail Bakunin
- Charles Darwin
Suggested Websites for further study:
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a
relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the url and a
brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to
the material being studied this week.
Submit the Midterm Exam:
Please review the
ELI rules and
regulations for examinations and my
exam general information.
The following is a
summary of the exam process: prepare for the exam;
call the closest Testing Center for its hours;
take a photo ID and
the appropriate MIDTERM EXAM PASS
(for Professor Evans or
Professor Borgiasz) to the
Testing Center; allow yourself plenty of time; and take (and pass) the exam.
If you live outside metropolitan
Washington or are incarcerated or handicapped, see the information in the
ELI rules and
regulations. Please do not let fear of the exams stop you from completing
the course. If you have great difficulty getting to a Testing Center or are
concerned about taking exams, please contact your instructor.
There is no specific time
limit, but allow about 75 minutes to complete the exam. YOU CANNOT USE
YOUR TEXT, NOTES OR A COMPUTER TO TAKE THIS EXAM.
The midterm will
consist of four parts: map quiz
(25 points); five identification questions (25 points); surprise
question (25 points) and essay (75 points).
You already have a copy of the
Western Civilization Blank Map
and the list of His 102 Map Items to be located
on the map. For the exam,
you will receive another blank map and be asked to locate twenty-five items. The
identification items will be taken from the Key Terms listed in the
weekly assignments. In a few sentences you will be asked to completely
identify a historical term and note its importance. See the
Sample Test Items. The
surprise question will be taken from the Questions
to Consider listed in the weekly assignments. The surprise question
will require only a long paragraph to complete.
The essay question, approximately two-three
pages in length, that you will write in the testing lab, is as follows:
After reading the excerpt from
the Communist Manifesto, briefly explain
Marx's view of history? What were his major points? How did he periodize
history? Was history linear, progressive, evolving or was it circular? Did
it repeat itself? What forces did Marx identify that influenced the
course of history? (A copy of the text will be
provided for you.)
Please take the time to organize your thoughts
in a logical manner and cite evidence to support your analysis. Please
be sure to read the short background information and study questions accompanying
the Communist Manifesto before you take your exam.
You may also wish to post or respond in the
Blackboard online discussion forum
for this assignment. Please review the instructions for
Using the Blackboard
Discussion Forums, if necessary.
NOTE that midterm exams will not be
returned to students. Your exam grade and instructor comments will be sent
by e-mail to you. Please be sure to write your email address
on the cover sheet of your exam.
The Midterm Exam is worth a maximum of
150 points.
Notes:
The socialist movement, in a manner of
speaking, was a direct result of the Industrial Revolution that produced
a working class. The socialists challenged the expansion of capitalism
and the dominance of the middle class. One of the most famous, and influential,
critiques of capitalism appeared in a small pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto,
published in early 1848 by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedreich Engels (1820-1895). These
two close collaborators made socialism a revolutionary
force, and at the same time, they developed perhaps
the most influential (maybe powerful) critique of contemporary capitalist society. Their work
inspired legions of revolutionaries to try and overthrow the capitalist order.
Marx and Engels were not the only individuals
to develop critiques of capitalism in the nineteenth century, nor were
they the only revolutionaries seeking to overthrow, or reform, "bourgeois"
democracy. Charles Dickens, with Hard Times, offered bitter criticism of
industrialization, as did Emile Zola (1840-1902), the French novelist,
in such works as Germinal. As opposed to Marx, Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876),
the Russian revolutionary anarchist, devoted his life to inspiring a spontaneous
peasant uprising against modern society.
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