Calendar for HIST 104 DCE – Spring 2008

 

The course calendar is organized mainly around the lectures, or episodes. In association with each lecture you have readings from Tocqueville to discuss via the list and an online quiz to take. Be sure to read this calendar in conjunction with the study guides for the lectures, because the study guides provide more information about documents to review and themes to emphasize. Also, keep an eye on the weblog framed into the home page of the course. That’s where updates and explanations will be posted. Here are a few things you’ll notice about the dates posted in the calendar.

 

·        Generally, units (time periods during which we focus on a particular lecture and on particular readings from Tocqueville) are scheduled on a Monday noon-through-Monday noon basis. Feel free to post discussion items to the list and carry on discussions pertaining to the unit Monday through Monday. Make sure you take the quiz for the unit by NOON the Monday ending the unit.

 

·        The calendar ignores holidays. No holiday takes up a whole week.

 

·        The calendar builds in a little slack time at the beginning. We need this for the sake of logistics. During the first week of term, we need to get the roster settled, get access and permissions arranged, get mailings out, that sort of thing.

 

I emphasize again: keep up with the work! The course has a lot of flexibility—do your work in your pajamas at two in the morning, no problem—but you have to stay on schedule with the class.

 

7-11 Jan

Preliminaries

Explore website, familiarizing yourself with course requirements and procedures

Send an e-mail to your instructor, who will subscribe you to a section of Cumberland Gap and mail you your CDs

14-18 Jan

Unit 1

Read the introductions to Tocqueville (a.k.a. TQ), so you understand where the book is coming from

Study Episode 1, complete Quiz 1

Send your introductory message to Cumberland Gap (a.k.a the list)

21-25 Jan

Unit 2

Discuss TQ Ch 20, “Why the Americans Are More Addicted to Practical Than to Theoretical Science,” & Ch 35, “How Democracy Renders the Habitual Intercourse of the Americans Simple and Easy”

Study Episode 2, complete Quiz 2

28 Jan - 1 Feb

Unit 3

Discuss TQ Ch 18, “Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man,” & Ch 34, “How an Aristocracy May Be Created by Manufactures”

Study Episode 3, complete Quiz 3

4-8 Feb

Unit 4

Discuss TQ Ch 12, Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States and Its Consequences”

Study Episode 4, complete Quiz 4

11-15  Feb

Unit 5

Discuss TQ Ch 3, “The Sovereignty of the People in America

Study Episode 5, complete Quiz 5

18-22 Feb

Unit 6

Discuss TQ Ch 44, “Why the National Vanity of the Americans Is More Restless and Captious than that of the English”

Study Episode 6, complete Quiz 6

25-29 Feb

Unit 7

Discuss TQ Ch 48, “Why Great Revolutions Will Become More Rare”

Study Episode 7, complete Quiz 7

3-7 Mar

Spring Break

10-14 Mar

Unit 8

Discuss TQ Ch 49, “Why Democratic Nations Are Naturally Desirous of Peace, and Democratic Armies of War”

Study Episode 8, complete Quiz 8

14 Mar

Deadline noon today for earning bonus hard points for early submission of soft-point assignments (see Evaluation page)

17-21 Mar

Unit 9

Discuss TQ Ch 39, “Young Women in a Democracy”

Study Episode 9, complete Quiz 9

24-28 Mar

Unit 10

Discuss TQ Ch 53, “That the Opinions of Democratic Nations About Government Are Naturally Favorable to the Concentration of Power,” & 54, “That the Sentiments of Democratic Nations Accord with Their Opinions in Leading Them to Concentrate Political Power”

Study Episode 10, complete Quiz 10

31 Mar -

4 Apr

Unit 11

Discuss TQ Ch 50, “Causes Which Render Democratic Armies Weaker than Other Armies at the Outset of a Campaign, and More Formidable in Protracted Warfare”

Study Episode 11, complete Quiz 11

7-11 Apr

Unit 12

Discuss TQ Ch 15, “Future Prospects of the United States

Study Episode 12, complete Quiz 12

14-18 Apr

Unit 13

Discuss TQ Ch 52, “Equality Naturally Gives Men a Taste for Free Institutions”

Study Episode 13, complete Quiz 13

21-25 Apr

Unit 14

Discuss TQ Ch 56, “What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear”

Study Episode 14, complete Quiz 14

28 Apr -

2 May

Unit 15

Discuss TQ Ch 25, “Some Characteristics of Historians in Democratic Times”

Study Episode 15, complete Quiz 15

2 May

Deadline

All written assignments for soft points must be submitted by noon this day; no credit for any work submitted after this

5-9 May

Wrap-up

Take authorized make-up quizzes

Complete final assessment (via e-mail reply to instructor)

 

HIST 104 DCE Home Page