HIS 112
Special Projects
 
 
Video review (50 points). Watch one of the videos listed below and write a review of the movie as if you were a critic.  Explain how the movie was (or was not) historically accurate.  You can suggest a different movie.
 
Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon (1975); Nicholas Hytner, The Madness of King George (1994); Abel Gance, Napoléon (1927); Andrzej Wajda, Danton (1983); Richard Attenborough, Gandhi (1982); David Lean, Passage to India (1984); William Wellman, Beau Geste (1939); Cy Endfield, Zulu (1963); Bruce Beresford, Breaker Morant (1979); Sydney Pollack, Out of Africa (1985); Sergei Eisenstein, Bronenosets Potëmkin (Battleship Potëmkin, 1925); Lewis Milestone, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); Peter Weir, Gallipoli (1981); David Lean, Lawrence of Arabia (1962); Frank Borzage, A Farewell to Arms (1932); Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory (1957); Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935); Charles Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940); Steven Spielberg, Schindler's List (1993); Alain Resnais, Night and Fog (1955); Alain Resnais, Hiroshima, Mon amour (1960); David Lean, Bridge on the River Kwai (1957); Wolfgang Petersen, Das Boot (The Boat, 1981); John Ford, They Were Expendable (1945); Joseph Vilsmaier, Stalingrad (1992); Franklin J. Schaffner, Patton (1970); Grigori Chukhrai, Ballada o soldate (Ballad of a Soldier, 1959); Bernardo Bertolucci, The Last Emperor (1987); Richard Attenborough, Cry Freedom (1987), Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (1964); Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter (1978); Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979); Roland Joffé, The Killing Fields (1984); Bill Courturie, Dear America - Letters Home from Vietnam (1987), Christian Carion, Joyeux Noel (2005).
 
 
Book review (50 points). Write a review of the book. Do not just summarize the book's contents but also examine its strengths and weaknesses and place the book in its proper historical context.  You can suggest a different book.
 
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan; John Locke, Second Treatise of Government; Charles Darwin, On the Origins of the Species; Karl Marx, Capital; John Stuart Mill, On Liberty; John Reed, Ten Days That Shock the World; Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf; Nicholas Gage, Eleni; Pa Chin, Family; Naguib Mahfouz, Fountain and Tomb; Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War; Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North; William McNeill, Plagues and Peoples; Edward Said, Orientalism; Ida Pruitt, A Daughter of Han; The Last Manchu; Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children; Deneys Reitz, Boer Commando; Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika.
 
 
Vacation. 50 points. If, during this course, you vacation in some place that has significant historical importance (before 1600 ce), write and submit a short, two-page report, along with some pictures, in digital form if possible, about that place.  Consult your instructor for approval of your selection before proceeding.
 
 
Vietnam Memorial. 75 points. Visit the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. and submit a two-page essay on one of the following themes: (1) explain how the monument was characteristic of the artistic movement known as "Minimalism" (after defining Minimalism); (2) explain how, first, France and, then, the United States became involved in Vietnam and what the outcome was.
 
 
National Gallery of Art. 75 points. Visit the collection of the Impressionists at the National Gallery of Art and submit a brief, two-page essay explaining how certain, specific paintings illustrate some of the characteristics of Impressionism.   Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (75 points). Visit the Korea Gallery at the Museum of Natural History and submit a one-two page essay explaining what you discovered. Note some specific artifacts from the exhibit.  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 101 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Dumbarton Oaks. 75 points. Visit Dumbarton Oaks at 1703 32nd St., NW, and describe what you saw. Also include a brief, two-page report of the founding of the United Nations (part of which took place at 1944 meetings at Dumbarton Oaks) and its development.   Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
National Air and Space Museum. 75 points. Visit the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall and write a short, two-page report that describes the exhibits and how they fit into the space race.   Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Classical music concert. 75 points. Attend a classical symphony, chamber concert or opera and submit a short, two-page report explaining what you heard, who the composer was and how his music fit into the classical era.   Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
.
 
 
Holocaust Museum. 75 points. Visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC and write a short, two-page report describing the Holocaust and its impact on the Western World.   Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Interview project. 100 points. Interview and record the views of at least five people who lived through, or participated in, one of the following: the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, the postwar Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War or the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Using the information in the textbook and the quotations of the people interviewed, write a short, organized three-page paper about the impact of that event on the lives of people in the world.
 
 
Freer Gallery (75 points).  Visit the Asian art collections at the Freer Gallery and submit a brief essay explaining how certain specific paintings/sculptures/artworks defined some characteristics of Asian art in the nineteenth century.  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (75 points).  Visit the Asian art collections at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and submit a brief essay explaining how certain specific paintings/sculptures/artworks defined some characteristics of Asian art in the twentieth century (Cite some specific examples.).  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
National Museum of African Art (75 points).  Visit the collections at the National Museum of African Art and submit a brief essay explaining how the museum's collection of masks and sculpture indicate some of the characteristics of African art (Cite some specific examples.).  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Art Museum of the Americas (75 points).  Visit the collections at the Art Museum of the Americas and submit a brief essay explaining how the museum's collection illustrates some of the directions taken by Latin American art since 1945 (Cite some specific examples.).  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
The Phillips Collection. 75 points. Visit the collection of modernist paintings at the Phillips Collection and submit a brief, two-page essay explaining how certain, specific paintings illustrate some of the characteristics of modernism.  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Walters Art Museum (75 points).  Visit the Walters Art Museum and submit a brief essay explaining what is so wonderful about a Chinese vase (Cite some specific examples.)  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Hillwood Museum & Gardens (75 points).  Visit the beautiful collections of the Hillwood Museum & Gardens and submit a brief essay describing the work of Fabergé's Russian workshop (Cite some specific examples.).  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
International Spy Museum (75 points).  Visit the International Spy Museum and submit a brief essay examining the role of espionage in the Cold War (Cite some specific examples.).  Please send a brochure or ticket (will not be returned) as evidence of your visit to:
Extended Learning Institute
ATTN:  HIS 112 (Put your instructor's name here)
Northern Virginia Community College
8333 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, VA 22003-3796
 
 
Note that if you have any other proposals for a project, such as a visit to an out-of-town museum like any of those located in New York, please contact your instructor for approval and point value before you begin.
 
 

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For information contact cevans@nvcc.edu