Hello, and welcome to your course blog for BLHS 109, Nineteenth Century Europe!
This is the first time that the course will be entirely online. Fortunately over the past semester of hybrid coursework, we’ve honed a pretty good system. The online part of the course will allow us to carry out discussion more consistently throughout the week, giving students a space to interact on their own time rather than just during the block assigned to us by the registrar.
So what should you expect?
You will see three types of posts appear over the course of the semester:
1. The week begins on Friday with a post outlining our theme. These posts serve the function of an in-class lecture: they will give you facts, contexts, and assignments. You must comment and interact with these posts as part of your participation grade. After all, while we lecture we encourage you to comment, ask questions, and get into discussions with each other. So consider this a lecture that takes place at a more leisurely pace. (“asynchronous”, in the lingo of online courses)
2. Also on Friday, you will see a post previewing the book we are reading. You’ll find information about the author and context, and a few discussion questions from us to get you started. You must then take the reins! Post two to three of your own questions, and interact with those your colleagues post. (Note: Sometimes the Friday posts will vary in number from one to three or even four… It will be clear which one you are to post your discussion questions in, but also remember that you’re expected to participate in all the Friday posts as part of the larger discussion. I will be looking at these as a whole, so the bottom line is: participate! And then you won’t have anything to worry about.)
So all this means that a great deal of the work for this course takes place in online discussion about our course texts. For an example of how these conversations should go, you can consider a series of book club type discussions on 19th century American history that one of the writers at The Atlantic led when he was a regular blogger there. Consider, for example, the discussion of Georgetown history professor Chandra Manning’s What This Cruel War Was Over. Think about the following: how do the participants effectively further the discussion? What ways do they quote from the book in order to ask questions or argue opinions? How do they use outside resources to add to the discussion? Try to use these strategies in your own comments.
3. Finally, over the course of the week you might see additional posts filling out content we have discussed in the main posts, or linking to stories in present-day media that reflect on our themes. Feel free to interact with these posts as well if they inspire you. Consider it one more way to pump up your participation score and be an active collaborator in the course.
Online teaches offers the chance to learn at your own schedule, to interact with your colleagues in a thoughtful manner, and for the professors to deliver deeper and broader content. It also carries risks, in that it can be easy to get distracted and disengaged. Watch out for that! Keep in close touch, participate consistently, and you will be fine. I welcome your feedback during this process, so that we may all make it work as successfully as possible. Good luck, and see you online!
YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT: Reply in the comments to this post, so that I know you have successfully accessed the technology. For this response, please give your name, and answer the following question:
What is your favorite historical film and why? (Definition: A film set in an era before the one it was made. So some recent examples would be: 12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained, etc.)
This assignment will help break the ice and get us talking, but most importantly it will test whether you’ve got your tech up and running. If not, now is the time to discover it so that we can fix things before you need to participate in discussion!
Comment link dead. See you tonight.
And yet you commented? I’m confused. Ask me tonight.
Hello Class!
My name is Timothy Nelson, I am a Senior at GU and I plan to attend law school next year.
My favorite historical movie is actually not a movie but rather an HBO mini-series, “John Adams”. I am particularly interested in the 18th Century and the time period that lead up to the American Revolution.
Hello,
My name is William Powers, however I prefer my middle name Barry. Right now my favorite historical movie is also a mini-series, “Turn.” Growing up in Philadelphia, I’ve always been fascinated by Revolutionary War history. Also, my wife got me hooked on the show
Ahhh….GOT IT!
Hello everyone
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My Name is Ken and my favorite historical film is There Will Be Blood.
YAY….I’m tech smart now!
My favorite movie is “Separate but Equal,” because it shows how being separate does not mean being equal.
I’m trying but having no such luck.
Hi Everyone!! 🙂
hello everyone. test?
Hi, I’m Bryan.
I look forward to meeting everyone here. I live in Boston (crush it, PATRIOTS!!). I’ll be attending class from San Diego, where I plan to participate in a compressed MBA/transition program through December. Once all of that’s knocked out, I’ll spend the remainder of this winter providing instruction and mentorship to other wounded servicemembers for alpine/telemark skiing in the Rocky Mountain range.
Favorite historical flick? Certainly difficult to choose just one.
Allow me a few cliche favorites –
Dances with Wolves
Braveheart
Tombstone
Now for a very good one that beats the pants off Downton Abbey, or rather, was the foundation for that series in the first place:
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh’s wonderful 1945 novel, was turned into a 2008 film directed by Julien Jarrold. General theme is the “rise of mediocrity”; we watch the great estate of an aristocratic family decline and fall apart through post-WW2 revolutions.
Hi!
Hi folks –
My name is LaNae and I’m a junior in the BALS program. My fave historical (?) movie is Troy (don’t judge, I know it’s not 100% historical). My actual favorite history-based film is The King’s Speech.
Also reasons for film choices: Troy –> Greek mythology is a true favorite of mine. And Brad Pitt as Achilles & Eric Bana as Hector *insert heart emojis here*. The King’s Speech –> I’m an Anglophile and all things British are fascinating. But the story of the unlikely King George finding his voice in the new age of technology was really pretty cool.
Hi, Elvira O Phillips here, but I prefer Eva. Favorite historical movie? I like them all! I am a big fan… from Rome on HBO, Turn to more poignant films, like Sophie’s Choice. That one is hard to watch. I think anything about the Holocaust is hard to watch. But, I am excited to be here and I am glad I was able to log on.
Hello everyone, my favorite movies are The Patriot and Glory. Why? Because it shows that even the underdogs can come on top through strength and determination.
My favorite Movies are historical war drama, From In Harms Way to Hanoi Hilton. Mini Series I would say Generation Kill an HBO Mini Series based on Evan Wright’s book about his experiences as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the Iraq War’s first phase. The series is set during the invasion of Iraq, from late March 2003, to early April 2003. Touches more home to me because I was there not with the 1st Recon but with the 3/5 .
Hello, Angie here. I enjoyed Defiance and the series Band of Brothers.
There seems to be a relationship characterized in Chateaurbriand’s Atala/ Rene that focuses on the connection between nature and its influence on the human condition. The vivid descriptions of nature articulate the importance nature plays to liberate an individual. Chateaubriand writes “But after spending thirty moons in Saint Augustine I was overcome by a strong distaste for the life of the city.” (23). The character goes on to profess his yearning to return to the wilderness. The story progresses with an emphasis on nature and the perks of the wilderness despite the dangers that reside within the different territories controlled by native tribes. The desire to be one with nature seems to eventually transition into the adherence to Christianity.
As illustrated in the introduction after the death of Chaterbriands mother and sister it was as if the tombs had awoken him into conversion. This conversion seems to have inspired the tales written in Atala/ Rene because the characters each embark on a journey of self discovery where the characters eventually conform to religion. The connection between nature and the human condition is also explained through the characters adherence to Christianity. This is seen in Chactas’ reflection ” I could see the Indian growing civilized through the voice of religion.” (55) He goes on to say that he has witnessed the “wedding of a man and the earth, with man delivering to earth the heritage of his sweat, and the earth, in return undertaking to bear faithfully mans harvests, his sons and his ashes.” (55) This reflection explains how the relationship between nature and the human condition can be facilitated through religion. It is the notion that the prerequisites for happiness and liberation is set forth through self-reflection and self-discovery that can be hastened in the wilderness and as seen in the narrative achieved through the adherence to religion.
Christianity throughout Atala/Rene seems to take on both positive and negative connotations, although seen as a barrier between two star crossed lovers, it also pushes forth the idea that certain conventions and cultural standards take precedence over an individual’s temptations and desires. Christianity is also seen in a sense as a uniting force that could help the progression of civilizations by uniting different tribes. This is portrayed in the beginning of the text when we see Chactas make the decision to embark into the wilderness despite the troubles that await him. Chactas’s decision to embark into the wilderness also signals what can be understood as an internal transformation similar to the one that Chateaurbriand experienced with his conversion into the faith.