The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.  This was the residence of Catherine the Great who had an on-again/off-again relationship with the philosophes.  On the one hand, she corresponded with them and urged them to travel to Russia--Diderot did come for a while but then fled back to France--on the other hand, she implemented none of their enlightened ideas for Russia.  See my materials on Catherine in HIS 241.  The Winter Palace is now part of the Hermitage Museum.

• Read chapters 16 and 17 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Check the course notes on the Scientific Revolution and the website on the Enlightenment, which was done by Patricia Niles, a former student in HIS 112. I also have notes on Voltaire and his ideas about religion.
• Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week.
• Post (or respond) your thoughts/ideas about this unit's reading and assignment in the Blackboard online discussion forum. Do not post your assignment there.
• Submit the Required American Declaration paragraph.

• Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file.  You can also read the information as a txt file.
• Check out the National Archives website devoted to the Declaration of Independence, which has images, transcripts and critical articles.
• When I teach this course on campus, I usually schedule a class on the development of classical music in the eighteenth century. Here is a link to my class notes on classical music (*.pdf). I have also put on www.nvcc.edu/itunesu/ (under HIS 102) a file with some of the selections of music that I play in that class.

• Courtenay Raia - UCLA, Newton and the Enlightenment
• The Seven Years War: Crash Course World History #26
• The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook: Crash Course World History #27
• Tea, Taxes, and The American Revolution: Crash Course World History #28
• Lynn Hunt - UCLA, The Enlightenment
• Isaac Newton (biography)
• Isaac Newton and a Scientific Revolution
• Voltaire: One of the Most Controversial Authors of All Time
• Steven B. Smith - Yale, Democracy and Participation: Rousseau, Social Contract
• For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the url and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.

• Take the short 5-point quizzes for chapters 16 and 17. Log into Blackboard and look under "Chapter Quizzes." You have five minutes to complete each quiz (multiple-choice questions).
• Watch Barry Lyndon and write a one-page paper (Was the movie an accurate depiction of eighteenth-century European life?) for a maximum of 50 points.
• In a well-researched, one-page paper, explain who fired the first shot of the American Revolution for a maximum of 50 points.
• For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, watch Amadeus and write a one-page paper in which you examine which aspects of the European Enlightenment the movie illustrated.
• For a maximum of 50 points, read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (free copy at art-bin.com/art/oweala.html) and explain, in a one-page paper, how his conception of capitalism does or does not match the characteristics of present-day capitalism.
• For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, read Nicholas Copernicus, The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543, excerpts, and write a one-page paper explaining some of the revolutionary ideas found in this text.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For a maximum of 50 points extra credit, in a one-page paper, explain the principle points of Immanuel Kant's idealist philosophy as expounded in his Critique of Pure Reason (free copy at www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/cpr/toc.html).
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, in a long paragraph, What did Voltaire mean, in terms of the European Enlightenment, when he wrote "let us cultivate our garden" at the end of Candide (free copy at www.literature.org/authors/voltaire/candide/).
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit (maybe more), have a look at Isaac Newton, Principia Mathematica and write a long paragraph explaining some of the revolutionary ideas found in this text.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, read Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), The Spirit of the Laws (1748), excerpts, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Montesquieu's main political ideas.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For a maximum of 25 points extra credit, read Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): A Discourse Upon The Origin and The Foundation of The Inequality among Mankind, and write a long paragraph in which you explain Rousseau's ideas about inequality.  Please be sure to include quoted material.
• For a maximum of 10 points, read the Proclamation of Rebellion by King George III as he reacted to the American rebellion (1775) and write a short paragraph summarizing the King's view of his American subjects.
• For extra credit, please suggest 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 unit.