Assignment .
1) By the late 18th century, much of Europe was divided between two popular socio-political structures, constitutionalism and absolutism. Looking back during the period covered in the course thus far (~1000 – 1780s), what do you feel led to the development of these two models of rule? What do you see as the important events that pushed Europe toward the need for greater socio-political stability? What were these two systems in theory, and using at least one model, how did they function in reality once implemented (i.e. how did the practice of absolutism or constitutionalism actually work in one of the countries analyzed in lecture when compared to how they were meant to work in theory)? Do you feel that either model improved the political situation in Europe? Why or why not?
GUIDE FOR WRITING THE ASSIGNMENT .
Introduction This guide will help you prepare and compose essays that meet the expectations of a college-level history course. As already stated, both in the syllabus and in class, college history courses are significantly different from what you may have experience with in grade school or a community college. In many cases, previous history courses that you possibly took may have only required you to know and display knowledge of basic facts: who was who, when was what, what happened, etc. However, a college-level history course goes above and beyond basic fact and requires you to also display some individual thought, critical thinking, and analysis skills. Specifically, you are constantly expected to be able to answer the real questions about history: “why” and “why is this important?” How to Answer a Question about History The most important question about anything in history is “why?” Why did this event happen? Why did it happen the way it did? Why do we care about it today? In this class, you are expected to be able to put your critical thinking and analysis skills to answer such questions. What this means is that you will need to go beyond the answer of “This happened. Then this happened. Then this happened.” No written assignment that you receive here will ever ask you to give a timeline. Every essay question on assignments and exams will require that you provide some detailed analysis and explanation of your ideas and arguments. Essentially, you are going to be asked to explain why you see these historical events as important. Not only will you be expected to explain your ideas, but you must be able to prove them. This is where the use of historical fact becomes critical. Throughout the course you are provided with numerous primary source documents. A primary source document is something created during the time or by someone who experienced an event as it happened. These are first-hand accounts and can be a written document, an artifact, a structure, a painting, etc. The primary sources provide your historical evidence that will contribute to the basis of your analysis and critical thinking and the evidence to support your arguments and ideas. You may also use secondary sources to shape your ideas, however, to truly display your own critical thought you will want to interpret and use the primary sources. A secondary source is a work completed using primary sources. This means that someone else interpreted the primary source materials. So using someone else’s argument and interpretations can be useful, but remember these are your assignments and your grade. Ultimately, the question that you want to avoid being asked after your analysis and interpretation is “so what?” If someone can ask you “so what” then you are not making a very strong or well-supported argument. At the college level, you should be able to write a well-argued and well-supported essay in which you not only clearly state your arguments, but clearly support them with evidence as well too. So if you were to argue, “the most important invention of the last 300 years was the steam engine” you will need to provide the evidence to