| Credit |
6 points |
| Availability |
Semester 1 (see Timetable) |
| Old unit code |
090.121 |
| Outcomes |
Students (1) gain extensive knowledge of some of the major developments experienced by Europe in the years covered; (2) engage with a whole series of interpretative modes for understanding historical contexts; (3) engage with some of the most problematic facets of recent world history; (4) enhance their awareness about the world we live in through referral to some important aspects of humanity's past experience; (5) develop skills in the apprehension and organisation of knowledge (in this case the past, historiography, historical technique); (6) are able to research, present and interpret bibliographic knowledge; (7) formulate arguments and organise information; (8) formulate personal opinions with regard to contentious problems; (9) enhance skills in finding imaginative ways of filtering and juxtaposing information; and (10) enhance their capacity to communicate orally and in written form. |
| Content |
The vaulting ambitions and abysmal horrors of the twentieth century dominate our historical memory. Students explore the origins of these memories in Europe's experience of modernity during its moment of maximum crisis between 1914 and 1945. Beginning with the spectacular burst of creativity during the decades before World War I when figures such as Freud, Nietzsche and Picasso revolutionised how Europeans conceived themselves, this unit moves to the orgy of self-destruction that gripped the continent between 1914 and 1918. It then studies the inter-war years during which so many of Europe's best and brightest enrolled in the terrible crusades led by Stalin and Hitler. Their militant ideologies—the triumph and terror of Communism in Russia, the strutting arrogance of fascism in Italy and Germany—form the focus of the unit. It concludes with the unprecedented inhumanity of World War II, with its indiscriminate terror-bombing of Europe's ancient cities and the genocidal terrorism of the Nazis. The unit seeks the origins and meaning of this ultimate 'crisis of modernity'. |
| Assessment |
This comprises tutorial attendance and participation (20 per cent), a 1000-word essay (20 per cent), a major 2000-word essay (30 per cent) and a two-hour end-of-unit examination (30 per cent). All four elements of assessment must be completed (and passed) in order to pass the unit.
Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit except in the case of a bachelor's pass degree student who has obtained a mark of 45 to 49 and is currently enrolled in this unit, and it is the only remaining unit that the student must pass in order to complete their course. |
| Unit Co-ordinator(s) |
Dr Giuseppe Finaldi |
| Location |
UWA (Crawley) |
| Mode |
on-campus |
| Unit Rules |
Contact hours—lectures: 2 hrs per week; tutorials: 1 hr per week
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| Unit Outline | http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/students/outlines/history |
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- The availability of units in Semester 1, 2, etc. was correct at the time of going to press but may be subject to change.
- Assistance with study skills, including English language skills, is available free of charge from Student Services for all enrolled students (see http://www.studentservices.uwa.edu.au/ss/learning). Student Services location: Second Floor, South Wing, Guild Village; telephone: 6488 2423.
- Books and other materials wherever listed may be subject to change. Book lists relating to 'Preliminary Reading', 'Recommended Reading' and 'Textbooks' are, in most cases, available at the University Co-operative Bookshop (from early January) and appropriate administrative offices for students to consult. For first-year units the Bookshop will endeavour to make available photocopies of book lists for individual units. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are available in paperback.
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