1.

Nov 13, 2019

This semester, you will access most of your weekly reading assignments as well as all the other study materials electronically, via the internet. Your "coursebook" is called A Biography of America. This is in fact a videocourse accompanied by a web site in one designed by US university professors and produced by WGBH Boston and funded by Annenberg Media, U.S. Apart from all reading materials, the Biography of America website gives you the possibility to watch all the accompanying videos online (now available on Youtube). 

1. Go to http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/

2.

Nov 13, 2019

This week we’re entertaining an Erasmus scholar in our department. His name is David Bret, his nationality is Irish, but he teaches at the University of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. As is the custom, Erasmus scholars are given by receiving institutions an opportunity to teach whatever they have to offer, academically speaking, provided this is related to the programmes taught at the host institution. Thus, David will be giving two lectures to us, this week, on Thursday. One of them will take place instead of our regular lecture at 11:25 (for students taught by R. Licko there’s a possibility to gain some extra points should they decide to write a lecture report. See me in my office for more details. The link with the guidelines for writing a lecture report is below). Here’re the two lectures:

1. Irish Rebel Songs. Thursday, Nov 14th, 8:15—9:45, Room: K012 
2. Irish history: An Overview, Thursday, Nov 14th, 11:25—12:05, Room: F313

In addition to the topics advertised, David will be introducing his home institution and promoting Erasmus student exchanges between his university and ours. Please pass this information on to any student of our department who might be interested. 

Guidelines: How to write a lecture report

Let me announce a change of programme to this week's seminars. Instead of Westward Expansion & Manifest destiny (i.e. the topic that we were supposed to look originally) we're going to do topic 10, which is the Civil War. So, in order to prepare for seminars this week, print out and read the article the Strange Advent of Emancipation. This is a scholarly article, so it should be read it carefully giving particular attention to the ideas and presented.

This is to remind you of what I told you at the lecture, last Thursday. It concerns a change of plan to our seminar topics. This week, we're looking at President Wilson's Fourteen Points. For this you have to read the article Wilson Imagines a Better Future, we'll be revising for it as one of your open-ended test questions. As far as our next week's seminars are concerned (our last seminar session), we'll be looking at WWII, particularly the US decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. Read the two articles and underline arguments in favour and against (from the WWII US point of view). In seminars next week, we'll be having a historical public debate on the topic.