Course Description and Goals (back to top)
This course is designed for undergraduates of all disciplines (natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, fine arts) with no prior college-level coursework in history. It has two main goals: to examine the history of one of the most complex and troubling events of the 20th century, and to explore some of the different ways people have attempted to explain why it happened.
I define the Nazi Holocaust as a program to eradicate entire groups of people. This course is designed as an examination of a series of case studies in which methods of different scholarly disciplines are used to attempt to explain why certain events transpired as they did. Some of the core topics we will also look at are: Adolf Hitler, concentration camps, eugenics and euthanasia, Kristallnacht, hands-on murderers, and Anne Frank. In all of these cases our focus will be on portrayals of the perpetrators: how they saw themselves, how their contemporaries saw them, and how we view them today.
Your Contribution (course requirements): (back to top)
- Attendance & participation at all classes, the evening films sections, and the Oct. 16 field trip. Why take a course if you don't take the time to learn what it teaches? Lectures include images, music, video and discussion not available elsewhere. I call roll to learn your names. You should also come to class with 2 questions about the day's topic. I will randomly call on students to present these. (10 pts.)
- Four questions in lieu of a midterm examination. You will write a short paragraph on a simple question about the assigned readings, speakers or films, roughly once every two weeks. These will be announced one lecture in advance. (4x4=16 pts.)
- Access to the internet. Using the internet is an integral part
of this course.
You must sign up for the course listserv, hist133@mail.lsit.ucsb.edu, at: https://lists.lsit.ucsb.edu/listinfo/hist133.
Actually, I'll be using u-lists, with the address: 51276-F2005@ulists.ucsb.edu - A journal with 1-2 entries per week, for a total of 8 entries. Each entry, averaging 450 words, will be based on your thoughts about newspaper or magazine articles that you relate to the course, or about the lectures, course readings or outside events. (For details, see the blue "Hist 33D Journal and Final Project" handout.) (8x4=32 pts.)
- A final project, done in groups of 3-4 students. Topics will be chosen in consultation with the professor. For due dates of prospectus, draft and final version, see the schedule on reverse, and the blue handout. Half of the project grade will be based on the overall quality of the project, half on each student's individual contribution. (10+10=20 pts.) (web project details handout)
- A two-hour final examination will have 3 IDs chosen from 5, and one essay question from a choice of two. A study guide will be distributed on November 29. Students whose final projects receive a B+ or above may elect to take an oral final examination. (12+10=22 pts.)
Required Books
(back
to top)
- Textbook: David Engel, The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews (2000), $12/$16 (new/used).
- Reflections: Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale, vols. I & II (1986, 1991), $18-28 for combined ed.
- Reader: packet of photocopied articles, available at AS
Copy in the UCen, 200 pages, ca. $18 (available
ca.Sept.2930). [not at the UCSB library, as stated in printed syllabus!] (table of contents)
Grading and Policies (back to top)
Grading is on a point system. You can accumulate up to 100 points,
distributed as follows:
participation: 10; 4 questions: 16; journal: 32; final exam: 22 (12+10);
final project 20.
Late work will be graded down one point per day. Call or e-mail me
in advance if you must be absent.
Plagiarism—presenting someone else's work as your own, or failing
to credit or attribute the work of others on whom you draw (including
materials found on the web)—is a serious academic offense, punishable
by dismissal from the university. It hurts the one who commits it most
of all, by cheating them out of an education. I report offenses to the
university authorities for disciplinary action.
Cell phones ringing in class are an annoyance and distraction for
me and other students. If your phone rings during class, I will stop the
lecture and answer your call myself.