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Course Description

The World History AP course goes tremendously further than traditional history courses in requiring students to interpret primary sources, draw inferences based on larger repetitive themes and, in a very real way, become historians. While this course offers an opportunity to learn how to think critically and interact with the world on new levels, it would be untrue to proclaim the course does not have  series of idiosyncrasies that make it a more challenging course…like teaching 10,000 years of history, test-taking and essay-writing skills. I believe, however, that with organization and preparation, with academic transparency and a commitment to joining this truly learning community,  the select few who have chosen to embark down this path this year will be forever changed by the experience. 

Sherer History Blog

Unit 15: Between The World Wars

UNIT OVERVIEW FROM SHERER

1920's Culture

whap_20sculture_depression.pdf
File Size: 3386 kb
File Type: pdf
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sh_wwi_2.1_20sculture.wma
File Size: 6636 kb
File Type: wma
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WESTERN CULTURE during the roaring 20's
Slide Show
Sherer Commentary
  • Scientific Advancements
    • Theory of ​Relativity
  • Effects in Visual Art - Surrealism
  • Effects in Music - The Jazz Age and Prohibition in the USA
    • ​Have Access? Like Jazz? Ken Burns' JAZZ Documentary

Capitalism's Collapse

Crisis within the West's Capitalist System
SLIDE SHOW
Sherer Commentary
  • Stock Market Crashes, The Great Depression and Banking Institutions [Ind vs Community Rights!]
    • Watch and Learn!
      • ​Short Music Video
    • ​Listen and Learn!
      • Bing Crosby – “Brother Can You Spare A Dime?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU
      • Woody Guthrie – “Pretty Boy Floyd” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4YKUJZI5Bg
        • ​one of my favorite lines, and the reason Woody is a hero to me (just like Bob Dylan) - Yes, as through this world I've wandered
          I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen
      • Woody Guthrie – “Tear the Fascists Down” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKVnur5DkdI
      • Woody Guthrie – “All You Fascists Bound to Lose” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ
      • Woody Guthrie – “This Land Is Your Land” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s&list=RDwxiMrvDbq3s#t=7
        • ​So, you have heard the last one. Did you know the original meaning? Do you now?
        • ​Link to an American Hero - The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie - Oklahoma Archive
  • The American Dust Bowl 
    • ​​Ken Burn's link
  • FDR's New Deal, Democratic Socialism and The "Cure"
    • ​​Social Welfare History Project - VCU
    • Excerpt from John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath
      • ​​honestly, one of my favorite chapters in literature...lets talk about it!

Ideologies of Major Combatants During World War II

Basically, after learning about WWI and the economic destitution left in its wake, we have to focus on HOW nations respond to the economic/human tragedy. Honestly, you all see the parallel, right? How will nations respond to huge economic crises, like the one happening NOW! Short answer, some nations are more readily willing to forsake Enlightened ideals for immediate economic relief. What was the cost of this shortcut? Well, most historians suggest the number of deaths in WWII to be  around 100 million, but then there are the 50 million or so that die in Stalin's Great Purge in the 1950s and there are smaller stories outside the Soviet Union that would push that number even higher. 
ASSIGNMENT
Answer the following questions for each of the ideologies in competition during WWII.
a) Fascism (Italy)
b) Nazism (Germany)
c) Communism (USSR)
d) Democratic Socialism (France and Britain / USA)
​e) Authoritarian of the Radical Right (Japanese)
  • 1. Who was/were the human leader(s)?
  • 2. How did they assumed power?
  • 3. What was the political party / ideology's ultimate goal?
  • 4. Was propaganda used on their population? Was it successful? Have a cool example? [POV practice]
  • 5. Create a list of virtues, held beliefs, and principles associated with each ideology.

Looking for a flick?
​- Best war (any era, any war) "movie" in my opinion is an HBO series known as Band of Brothers. Based on a book that tells a historically accurate retelling of the exploits of the 101 Airborne in WWII. Interviews the real soldiers at the beginning of every episode, then becomes 10 1-hour episodes. If you can make it through the series without falling in love with the characters and becoming emotionally bound, then you are a stiffer human than I. Captain Winters...wow, what a story. Did I sell it?

Song of the Day: Rush 2112
- Bonus Bonus points, if you can tell me how this song is relevant to what we are studying. Hint, Ayn Rand philosophy...RIP Neil. 


Totalitarianism vs. Democraticism

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."
​
George Orwell's famous quote from the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" 

Let us start with a basic review of governmental forms dating back to the period of most intense change, the Western World's Enlightenment.
  • Watch THIS:
  • Answer THIS:
    • What are the PROS of authoritarian / totalitarian governmental systems?
    • What are the weakness?
    • Same questions with democratic states.
      • No need to respond unless you have remaining questions, make it a hypothetical thought experiment. 
  • Check out THIS:
    • reading the above document is essential
    • after this portion, you should understand the various strengths and weakness of political ideologies relevant to WWII
    • this should assist you in your chart construction
    • next step, analyzing HOW these forms of government achieved power in the lead up to WWII

Japanese Authoritarianism

whap_japanese_authoritarianism.pdf
File Size: 1465 kb
File Type: pdf
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Italian Fascism and German Nazism

Video Clip #1: March on Rome

Video Clip #2: Hitler Victory

Video Clip #3: Nazi Youth Rally

Video Clip #4: Kristallnacht

Pretty powerful stuff, right?
Final Thoughts:
  • ​Additional Fascism Links
    • Kahn Academy video series
    • excerpts from Mein Kampf - Hitler's book that he wrote while imprisoned after the failed Beer Haul Putsch
      • Yes, I have read it and no, I don't think it is a must. Why? Well, in short, it was one of the hardest books to read because the thoughts on paper are so nonlinear, more a stream of consciousness. I have provided some pertinent excerpts, or at least those the larger Jewish community believes to be the most powerful. You can always to a little research for some quotes from it, but basically the most chilling aspect about it is that it literally states everything he wants to do. Right there, black and white. 
  • Practice DBQ [from another AP teacher]
    • Question: Analyze the worldwide response to the rise of fascism in the 1930s.  
    • Historical Background: Fascism became a prominent social and political movement worldwide in the 1930s.  By the late 1930s fascism represented the greatest threat to world peace and Western democracies.  Fascist governments used a variety of means and groups to obtain and maintain power in their countries while trying to become world powers.  Outside political groups and non-fascist countries responded in a variety of ways to the fascist governments
      • This DBQ exercise is about the content of the docs, and not the essay procedure itself
      • just read the docs and make it a thinking exercise unless you would like the practice
  • ​​What about America you ask?
    • ​I would have shown you excerpts of this film in class. It is the first in a series of videos by famed director Frank Capra shown to all American servicemen upon joining any branch of the armed services. It was also viewed by the general public. He was hired by the American government to make a propaganda video about what WWII was really about, in short, to form public opinion. As we have learned , propaganda was used by all sides of the conflict and propaganda tends to be the most effective when the population want to believe it. The series is fittingly titles, WHY WE FIGHT. 
      • ​Please watch it as it has amazing primary images
      • High Level Challenge: Is it all TRUE?
  • ​​Assignment:
    • ​With all of this information and your own collaborative research, complete yesterdays chart challenge and post on the now unlocked IDEOLOGIES OF MAJOR COMBATANTS Blog Post Thread
  • ​​​Review:
    • ​Here is a short SLIDE SHOW that reviews USA, USSR, Italy and Germany
    • Here is a short OUTLINE that focuses solely on Britain and France's Domestic and Foreign Policy before WWII

Crash Courses

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"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all" - Bob Dylan​
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