Hist 100: New Blog

I have relocated Hist 100 to a new blog called History 100. If you are joining one of my Hist 100 courses at Mason this fall, please go there and bookmark it. You'll need to visit it several times per week during the fall semester.

Hist 34-20: Grading Done

I just sent out everyone a breakdown of their grades via email. I also entered course grades in Access+. Since I did the data entry a bit after midnight, I'm not sure whether students will see the change in Access+ on their end by tomorrow or the day after.

Hist 34-20: Films in Class

Here are the films we saw in class today, in case you want to do more on your own. In most cases, the links lead to Lauinger's copy. The exception is "East Side Story," which it doesn't seem to have.

• "Die Mörder sind unter uns [Murderers are among us]," dir. by Wolfgang Staudte (Germany 1946) — first 15 mintutes
• "Ladri di biciclette [The Bicycle Thief]," dir. by Vittorio de Sica (Italy 1948) — first 21 minutes
• "East Side Story," dir. Dana Ranga (Germany 1994) — last 40 minutes, meaning you have seen all but the first 10 minutes and last 5 minutes or so, since we saw the Soviet pieces earlier

If I had my druthers, I would also show "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," dir. by Stanley Kubrick (USA 1964). Unfortunately, I could not think of a good short clip that would work, except perhaps the trailer, which you should view. It is the classic cultural response to the doctrine of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction).

Hist 388-C02: Parting Shots

1. Remember your blue books and backup pens for Monday night.
2. Look in your email later this week for feedback about grades on your most recent work as well as your class participation and course grades.
3. You know James Montgomery Flagg's famous Uncle Sam poster from the Great War, but you can see another of the many he did on the Library of Congress' website: Wake Up America!
4. Good luck on the exam.

Hist 34-20: More History in Film: Vichy, Nazis, and World War Two

The footage we saw in the second half of class on Friday was from "The Eye of Vichy," directed by Claude Chabrol (France 1993). Lauinger has a copy on VHS. It is 110 minutes long, and we saw approximately the first 45 minutes.

I also recommend that people see the classic German propaganda movie, Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl (Germany 1935), which Lauinger has on DVD. I haven't done that, because I wanted to show footage that you are less likely to see in other classes.

For more related films, see these recommendations.

Hist 34-20: Soviet Musicals

The excerpts of Soviet musicals we saw are from a full-length movie about musicals in Communist Europe during the Cold War. "East Side Story," directed by Dana Ranga (Germany 1997), includes the segment on Stalin's Russia, because it was the only example of musicals anyone knew. The problem was, though, that Stalin became a taboo subject, and the musical genre was pretty much at odds with the ideals of "socialist realism."

Hist 34-20: Totalitarianism

The syllabus promises sources online, but I shall provide what we need in class. Just make sure you are up to date on your textbook reading.

Hist 34-20: Berlin

The movie we saw in class on Wed. was "Berlin: Symphony of a Great City," directed by Walther Ruttmann (Germany 1927). The soundtrack is more recent, but I don't have information on whether it has any relationship to the piano score that survived.

As I said in class, "Great City" is a very loose translation of the German "Grossstadt," which is a term used to talk about big cities. In other words, "great" here is like "great" in the "Great War," really big.

The movie is in the library on DVD 1990, which also contains the experimental animation "Lichtspiel [Light Play]: Opus 1" (1922). Here's a copy someone posted to YouTube, albeit with the date of 1921:

Hist 34-20: Paper 2

In case you misplaced the copy I handed out in class, here is the second paper assignment.

Hist 388-C02: Terms (Second Installment)

Here is Monday evening's handout, the second term list for the final.