Opening Blog

IB 2010 First Post to class of 2012

We begin our two years together looking at the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.  The question I want to start with comes from an essay by Charles Tilly, “Does Modernization Breed Revolution?”  In other words, are revolutions inevitable due to the forces unleashed in society through modernizing industry, political institutions, social mobilization, etc.?

I would like your discussion to be in two stages.

Part the first, your initial submission should be completed by next Tuesday’s class, Sept. 24^th.  This should just be your initial gut reaction / answer to the question. 

Part the second, will be after clarification and readings in class about the Enlightenment, models of revolution and consideration of the French Revolution, in approximately three weeks.  And you will be expected to post a clarified answer along with two critical responses to your classmates.

As with any discussion, I expect this to be developing, so you may have reconsiderations, reflections along the way, which are fine, desirable even, so post them as we go.

Spring BLog the First

As we get ready for May, here is a prompt from a previous test to get us thinking about how much we know and how much we don't know.  As with previous entries, you should have one original post that attempts to answer the question.  Then for your follow up I would like you to work with a call and response blog to develop a more coherent answer to the test prompt.  This will be due in two weeks -- Feb. 24th in time for class to open up the discussion.  Good luck.


"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace."  Select one peace treaty and by examining its clauses, explain how the winners treated the losers, and if you agree with the quotation.

IB Winter Final Blog

While Mussolini asserted in his “What is Fascism”  entry of the Italian Encyclopedia  that “The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual , but the State alone…”; Hannah Arendt has suggested that “fascist regimes build on the fragmentation of their societies and the atomization of their population.” (R. Paxton The Anatomy of Fascism, p 157.)  

To what extent do you agree with Arendt’s evaluation of fascism?  Be sure to offer support for your answer.  

You need one original entry and at least two reflections / responses to your peers’ entries before December 24^th –that way you can enjoy the holidays.

Don’t forget to read the selections on Nazism. We’ll start there on January 6^th.  Season’s Greetings!

Revolutions and Emerging Single Party States

We concluded the last blog discussion with the consideration of Tilley’s thesis regarding the correlation between modernization and revolutions.  Let’s extend the discussion and tilt it a little more towards the dilemma of those “revolutions” and the resulting regimes that emerge on the heels of those revolutions.

Three different ways to ask the question then are:

Do modern revolutions breed single party states? 

Can modern revolutions – read 20^th century – create democratic regimes?

 To what extent do modern revolutions further democratic regimes?

Use the sites listed below to help you in your exploration and give consideration to handouts coming Wednesday in class for a specific consideration of the rise and rule of single party states.

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20c-govt.htm#definitions

http://www.revision-notes.co.uk/IB/History/Rise_and_Rule_of_Single_Party_States/index.html

Blog entries for full credit should include at least one original posting and two substantial responses to your peers.

Deadline for full credit contribution is Wednesday, November 4^th by 7:20 AM.

Russia's Other Revolutionary Forces

The Russian Revolution is often placed in the context of a political revolt by a small minority of radical extremist with the Bolsheviks. In considering the broader cultural environment of Russia at the turn of the 19th century you have been challenged to see what other forces were in play to bring about the destruction of Tsarist power and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The underlying question of whether or not art inspires or imitates life is in full play here. Is the Mir Iskusstva movement of the Silver Age merely reflection of the social unrest of a modernizing Russia or is it further instigation to change, highlighting the insufficiencies of a decrepit political and economic regime?

How does the Silver Age of Russian Culture contribute to Russia's increasing foment at the turn of the century? Is there more in play than radical political and econmic ideologies? How do the visual arts, literature, music, dance, etc. move Russia to a new future? How does the Silver Age help discredit the Tsar? Looking ahead, why do many of the artist from this period break from the revolutionaries of the Bolsheviks?

Another way to think about this historic episode is a test of Charles Tilley's thesis regarding the relationship between modernization and revolution. [See Class Handout] "Does modernization breed revolution?"

I look forward to your responses here and continuing our conversations through this year as we finish the project you began with IB.

WD

Opening the Conversation

This is our class's venture into expanding the discussion beyond the constraints of bricks and mortar, desks, the class day, etc. I welcome you into the process of our IB class as we approach the completion of what you began more than a year ago and as you move on beyond your tenure here at LHS. I invite you, a polite way to say I require you to join in this conversation. I will post prompts here related to our class topics this year and ask that you respond constructively with your own answers and reply to at least two other peer posted responses for each posted prompt.

Here's to throwing the educational doors open. Come in, go out, learn and teach whereever you go and in whatever you do.

WD