Should rely on Spielvogel as your primary guide:
Final Essay:
The instructions for this assignment are almost identical to the two review essay assignments. However, in the case of this assignment, you will write a 6 page (double-spaced) historical essay in response to one of two questions listed below. As always, you should rely on Spielvogel as your primary guide, but you will also be expected to analyze at least two primary documents provided in the textbook and incorporate that analysis into your argument.
Remember: this essay is not a summary of your reading, but an argument. Start by stating your thesis (in the introductory paragraph) and then provide evidence (in subsequent paragraphs) to support it.
By writing this essay, you will practice both reading the material closely and developing your own thoughts and interpretation of that reading. The goal of the assignment is for you to come up with your own ideas and express those ideas in a convincing argument while using your best writing. Your paper should be written in your own words, but in an academic style, so no contractions or slang. You may use quotes to support your arguments, but if you do, they need to be used sparingly and must be cited. You may use simple parenthetical citations, but do remember to use citations wherever they are necessary (!), including every time you refer to, or quote from, a specific passage in one of our readings, and every time you incorporate someone else’s ideas. A bibliography is not necessary.
The final grade will be determined by how well you abide by accepted standards of grammar, formatting, and style, but also originality, and finally, whether or not you successfully argued your point and answered the question put forth in the assignment. For writing guidelines, see the essay guidelines and the essay sample provided under Course Content.
The essay is due at midnight (CET) on Sunday, October 12. Please submit to me via email. Good luck, and I look forward to reading your essay!
1. One of the noticeable themes resting behind almost any study of Western Civilization from the 17th century to the present is Western society’s search for order in the face of an almost inherent, self-inflicting instability.
Looking back over the time period in question, what would you identify as the source of this instability, or its sources? In what ways — cultural, political, social, and economic — did this instability manifest itself? Finally, how did
Western society and its institutions react to this instability over the centuries, and to what effect?
2. By 1991, any casual observer of world events would have noticed that the status of Europe’s political powers had dimmed substantially since the heyday of European ascendency at the turn of the 20th century. What do you think caused this decline? Was it overreach? Cultural degeneracy and a loss of nerve? Had states outside of Europe simply overtaken and surpassed Europe’s empires in power? Or was it some combination of these reasons, or even some other reason entirely? In answering this question, be sure to include a description of the decline of European political power as well as a discussion of why and how European states had risen to prominence in the first place since the 17th century.