Discuss this theme, i.e. the interplay of improvement/reform with destruction using works we read this semester with reference to at least three of the following topics/periods: the Englightenment, the French Revolution, “Utopian Socialism,” Marxism, Imperialism, the Russian Revolution, Fascism, and the Holocaust. Speculate about the relationship between the impulse to improve and the legacy of destruction in modern European history.
Intro
– Include statement that recognizes that history is not a linear line of improvement but has ups and downs – that improvement/reform and destruction interplays throughout history
Body paragraph 1: The Englightenment
– The pros of “the enlightenment.”
– Thinkers and new ideas
– Refer to Rousseau’s “the Second Discourse”
Body paragraph 2: French Revolution
– The initial intention of the french revolution (which was good and purely influenced by the rational notion of thinkers especially Rousseau
– BUT Counter-revolutions and terrors (this is the main point of the paragraph (the destruction part))
– The later problems and conflicts caused by the french revolution
– how the initial intention has diverged
– Basically talk about the limits of the revolution (compare and contrast to the BP1)
Body paragraph 3: Marxism
– Refer to Marx and Engels’ “Communist Manifesto”
– Explain how the idea of marxism started as a good thing to reconstruct the economy and improve people’s lives
Body paragraph 4: Imperialism
– Connect marxism with imperialism – that marxism was used in bad ways too and imperialism is one of the example of bad use of marxism
– Imperialism uses marxism one of the reasons to validate imperialism
– Refer to Cesaire’s “Discourse on Colonialism”
Body paragraph 5: Fascism, War and Genocide (destructions in history)
– State/recognize that there were so many destructions in recent history
– Talk about italian facism
– Briefly talk about wwi
– Refer to Stone, “Fascist Revolution”
– Talk about holocaust and Nazi
– Briefly talk about wwii
– Talk about the Cold War, ideological conflicts (communism vs capitalism)
Conclusion
– Eventhough we survived through those multiple destructions, there are still destructions today. eg. ukraine and russian war
– Also there are things left from the past for us to clean and rebuild eg. systemic racism