A research seminar on the history of Nazi Culture.
Prof. Mark Walker
Lippman Hall 216
Office hours: Wednesdays, 2:00-5:00, and by appointment.
walkerm@union.edu
Honor Code
Union College recognizes the need to create an environment of mutual trust as part of its educational mission. Responsible participation in an academic community requires respect for and acknowledgement of the thoughts and work of others, whether expressed in the present or in some distant time and place.
Matriculation at the College is taken to signify implicit agreement with the Academic Honor Code. It is each student’s responsibility to ensure that submitted work is his or her own and does not involve any form of academic misconduct. Students are expected to ask their course instructors for clarification regarding, but not limited to, collaboration, citations, and plagiarism. Ignorance is not an excuse for breaching academic integrity.
Please read through this statement on plagiarism.
Students are also required to affix the full Honor Code Affirmation, or the following shortened version, on each item of coursework submitted for grading: “I affirm that I have carried out my academic endeavors with full academic honesty.” [Signed, Jane Doe]
Please include the Honor Code Affirmation on each assignment you submit.
Goals
(1) Formulate a clear, focused and appropriate research question and thesis.
(2) Identify and locate evidence appropriate for examining your research question and thesis.
(3) Critically analyze evidence obtained for examination of your research question and thesis.
(4) Develop and organize a logical argument grounded in the analysis of evidence that supports or refutes your research question and thesis.
(5) Present a logical analytical argument supported by evidence in an appropriate written form without errors of grammar, usage, or spelling.
(6) Incorporate and cite evidence.
Or in other words: Why do you know what you know? Unless you have to, why should you take someone else’s word for it? Do your own research, find your own evidence, and construct your own argument.
Cell Phones, Tablets, and Laptops
The use of phones is not allowed. All phones must be shut off before class begins. If you use phones during the class, then your final grade will be lowered. Tablets or laptops may only be used if I have given you permission to do so ahead of time. Please come to my office hours to discuss this.
Disability Accommodations
Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first be registered with Accommodative Services to verify the disability and to establish eligibility for accommodations. Students may call 518-388-8785 or visit http://www.union.edu/offices/accommodative-services/ to begin the process. Once registered, students should then schedule an appointment with the professor to make appropriate arrangements.
Class Participation
I expect you to do all of the assigned reading, come to every class, and participate in the classroom discussion. If you have a good reason to miss class, please tell me. I will use index cards to call on students by name but also invite voluntary comments and questions.
The baseline class participation grade for a student who comes to class and responds to my questions will be a B. For a B+ a student has to respond well, and for an A a student has to volunteer comments, questions, and answers.
Individual Student Meetings with Professor Walker
Twice during the term each student will meet with me. The first meeting will take place during the fifth week of term, on Wednesday, January 31st, Thursday, February 1st, and Friday, February 2nd; the second meeting during the ninth week, on Wednesday, February 28th, March 1st, and March 2nd. I will post a schedule of possible meeting times on Nexus, which will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
During the first meeting, please be prepared to discuss the following:
(1) the topic of your research paper;
(2) why you are interested in this topic;
(3) what if any knowledge you already have of it;
(4) what your (preliminary) thesis is.
Please note that your assignment is to find a topic for which sufficient secondary and primary sources can be found through Shaffer Library, including its online resources. If any some point it becomes clear that you cannot find enough sources, then you should switch to a different topic.
During the second meeting we will discuss the first draft of your research paper.
Readings Outside and Inside of Class
One book is required for this class, Anson Rabinbach and Sander L. Gilman (eds.), The Third Reich Sourcebook (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013). All other reading will be available as pdf files on the class Nexus site.
Several times during the term, we will analyze readings in class. Students will be divided into three groups for this purpose. Three different sources will be distributed, along with guidelines about what students should look for and analyze. Students should spend approximately fifteen minutes to read the sources, ten minutes to discuss them among their group, and ten minutes to present them to the entire class.
When reading secondary sources, ask and try to answer the following questions:
(1) What are they about?
(2) What are the author’s thesis, or to put it another way, what is the author trying to do?
(3) How does the author support his or her thesis?
(4) How might these source(s) fit into your research paper?
When reading primary sources, ask and try to answer the following questions:
(1) What are they about?
(2) What do they tell you about Nazi Culture?
(3) How might these source(s) fit into your research paper?
Primary Source “Archive” in Shaffer Library
I have put several collections of primary documents and some secondary sources on reserve in Shaffer Library. You will not be able to take these books out of the library. The list of these books, including their contents, is posted on Nexus. Although you are welcome to find primary sources elsewhere, please be sure to look thoroughly through these during your research. You may be able to find additional copies of the secondary sources on reserve in Shaffer Library or through Connect NY.
Note-Taking
You should take notes as you read your sources, either handwritten or typed into your word processor. If you take notes, make sure to write down the complete citation of the source at the beginning of your notes, keep a running tally of the page numbers of what you write down, and be sure to distinguish between your paraphrase and direct quotations.
Citation of Sources
You must use footnotes, not references in the text, to document your sources. It is important that you understand that footnotes are not reserved for direct quotations. If you get significant information from a source, then you have to cite it even if you do not take a direct quotation from it. If you have any questions about using citations, please see this part of the Shaffer Library website. Students often cut and paste or copy citations from various sources. This is fine, but you thereby have to make sure that all your citations are in the same format, and are complete. Please also make sure that you provide the complete citation the first time you cite something, with the first name of the author or authors coming first. The second and subsequent times you cite a source, use an abbreviated citation. You do not have to include a bibliography.
Internet Sources
You may only use certain internet sources, and only in certain ways. In particular, websites like wikipedia may be used only in order to find other sources, not for information, and certainly not for copying text. Although some webpages are valuable, articles and books found only on the internet may also be problematic. Before you use a website in any way in your research paper, you have to get my approval first. Online sources should either be cited by one of the following.
(1) their “DOI” number: Elisabeth Crawford, “German Scientists and Hitler’s Vendetta against the Nobel Prizes,”
Assignments
Please send me all assignments as word processing files (not PDFs) via Google Docs. In particular, please do not give me paper and ink copies. I will return them with comments via Google Docs as well. Late assignments will receive lower grades. Assignments that do not fulfill the requirements (see below) will be returned. You will be better off submitting a complete assignment late, than sending me an incomplete assignment on time.
Research Log
Because this is a research seminar, the most important thing for you to learn is how to do research. You will only be able to do research of high quality if you also do research of high quantity, and do it consistently across the entire ten week term. Beginning the third week of the term, on Wednesday, __________, you are required to submit a research log to me once a week on Wednesdays by 5:00 pm. You must use the provided form (see below) and may either email me a word processing file or share this as a Google Doc (my preference).
This log should be a running collection of all the secondary and primary sources that you have found and read for this seminar, updated as you do more research. Each source must be cited correctly, with the citation being complete and in the citation format you are using for this course, and you must make clear whether or not you have read this source by providing a brief description of its contents. If you add a source to the list one week, but read it the next, then you should include the source both weeks.
There is no specific number of sources that you must have for the research log. It should reflect the work you have done thus far. After each log submission I will receive give you a cumulative grade for the research log up to that point. The grade will be based on the number of weeks you have had to do research, the number of sources, and your descriptions of them. Your final research log grade will be determined by the log you submit in the tenth week.
Secondary Source Presentations, Papers, and Peer Review
First of all, understand the difference between secondary and primary sources. Find a relevant and acceptable peer reviewed secondary source or sources. There should be a minimum of ten pages. Read the source or sources (if it is a book, part of it). These sources should be significant in length and content, and relevant for the student’s eventual research paper.
Present the source(s) in class, including posing and answering the questions listed above in “Readings Outside and Inside of Class.”
Students will be broken up into three groups for this purpose, with the dates of their presentations on the syllabus. Students have to send me a copy of the source(s) as a PDF file no later than three full days before the presentation, so that I can make sure that they are appropriate. You can scan sources in Shaffer Library. If they are not appropriate, then the students will have to find alternate sources. After the presentations, each student will write this up as a five-page, double-spaced essay, including the correct and complete citation of the secondary source(s) at the very top of the first page. Please write this paper in Google Docs, or transfer it to Google Docs, because this is required for the peer review process.
Finally, we will use student peer review for these papers. Each student will be given two papers from other students. The guidelines with regard to how they should critique them have been posted on Nexus.
Your grade for the secondary source assignments will be based on all three components, the presentation, the paper, and your peer review of other students’ papers.
Examples of Secondary Sources
Suzanne Marchand, “Nazi Culture: Banality or Barbarism?” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 1 (March 1998), pp. 108-118
Robert Proctor, “The Nazi Diet,” in The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 120-172.
Primary Source Presentations, Papers, and Peer Review
Once again, understand the difference between secondary and primary sources. Find a relevant and acceptable primary source. There should be a minimum of ten pages. If one is not long enough, then find a set of related primary sources. Read the source or sources. These sources should be significant in length and content, and relevant for the student’s eventual research paper.
Present the source(s) in class, including posing and answering the questions listed above in “Readings Outside and Inside of Class.”
Students will be broken up into three groups for this purpose, with the dates of their presentations on the syllabus. Students have to send me a copy of the source(s) as a PDF file no later than three full days before the presentation, so that I can make sure that they are appropriate. You can scan sources in Shaffer Library. If they are not appropriate, then the students will have to find alternate sources. If you want to use sources in Rabinbach, you need only email me the page numbers. After the presentations, each student will write this up as five-page, double-spaced essay, including the correct and complete citation of the primary source(s) at the very top of the first page. Please write this paper in Google Docs, or transfer it to Google Docs, because this is required for the peer review process.
Finally, we will use student peer review for these papers. Each student will be given two papers from other students. The guidelines with regard to how they should critique them have been posted on Nexus.
Your grade for the primary source assignments will be based on all three components, the presentation, the paper, and your peer review of other students’ papers.
Examples of Primary Sources
“The Public Burning of Outlawed Works,” Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (May 10, 1933), in Anson Rabinbach and Sander L. Gilman (eds.), The Third Reich Sourcebook (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 453-454.
Hans K. Günther, “The Nordic Rase as ‘Ideal Type,'” (1929), in George L. Mosse (ed.), Nazi Culture: A Documentary History (New York: Schocken Books, 1966), 61-65.
Research Presentations
During the ninth week of class you will have fifteen to twenty minutes to present your research to the class. Please use PowerPoint or Keynote software to create a presentation that will accompany and complement your research paper.
First Draft of Research Paper
Your first draft of your research paper may be rough in many ways, but it must include the following.
(i) It must be complete, that is, have a beginning, middle, and end, including thesis and argument, and should be a minimum of twelve double-spaced pages long, without a separate title page.
(ii) It must be based on and cite correctly, as a minimum, the following number and types of sources: eight peer-reviewed secondary sources, which can be books (including book chapters) that I can find through Shaffer Library, Connect NY, or the Shaffer Library databases; and eight primary sources from books, articles, or other publications. It is important to be able to distinguish both peer-reviewed from non-peer-reviewed secondary sources, and primary from secondary sources.
If you think that it is not feasible for you to find these types and numbers of sources, please contact me well in advance of the deadline for submitting this assignment. If you want to use other internet sources in addition to these sixteen sources, then you have to submit them to me for my approval before you submit your draft.
(iii) It must contain all the footnotes (not endnotes or sources in the text), and the footnotes must be complete, including the specific page numbers you have read. If you cut and paste or copy citations from other sources, then you have to make sure that you translate them all into the specific footnoting format you are using.
Please read through these directions carefully. If (i), (ii), & (iii) are not satisfied, then I will return your draft to you without having read it, and ask you to fix the problems and resubmit.
Final Draft of Research Paper
Your final draft should take the comments I make on your first draft into account, benefit from additional research and writing, and and should be a minimum of fifteen double-spaced pages long, without a separate title page. This final draft should be a significant improvement on the first draft, and will be judged according to a higher standard.
Denazification Trial
At the end of the term, we will have a denazification trial with all students assigned one of three possible roles: prosecutors; defendants, or jurors.
Step 1: Prof. Walker will announce which students will play which roles, and provide information on what the defendants did, and what the Denazification process was supposed to do.
Step 2: Prosecutors will prepare and lay out the case against them on Wednesday, March 7th. The students should meet outside of class to prepare this, and their presentation should take the entire class.
Step 3: Defendants will prepare and defend themselves on Friday, March 9th. The students should meet outside of class to prepare this, they should also respond to the prosecutors’ arguments, and their defense should take the entire class.
Step 4: The jurors will prepare, announce, and defend their verdicts on Monday, March 12th. The students should meet outside of class to prepare this, they should respond to both the prosecutors’ arguments and the defendants’ defense, and their verdicts should take the entire class.
Grades
15% Research Log
15% Secondary Source Presentation, Paper, and Peer Review
15% Primary Source Presentation, Paper, and Peer Review
15% Class Participation
20% Research Paper First Draft
20% Research Paper Final Draft
Video
I will show some video clips during some classes.
Weekly Schedule
Week 1
Wednesday, January 3
What was “Nazi Culture?”
Friday, January 5
Research Workshop in Shaffer 232. Please bring a laptop or memory stick.
Monday, January 8
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Ian Kershaw, “Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2004), 239-254. [On Nexus]
Week 2
Wednesday, January 10
In-Class Reading of Secondary Sources: “Seizure of Power.”
Friday, January 12
In-Class Reading of Secondary Sources: Social Revolution?
Monday, January 15
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Stephen Pagaard, “Teaching the Nazi Dictatorship: Focus on Youth,” The History Teacher, 38/2 (2005), 189-207. [On Nexus]
Week 3
Wednesday, January 17
Group 1 Secondary Source Presentations
Research Log Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, January 19
Group 2 Secondary Source Presentations
Monday, January 22
Group 3 Secondary Source Presentations
Week 4
Wednesday, January 24
In-Class Reading of Primary Sources: Art
Research Log and Secondary Source Papers Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, January 26
In-Class Reading of Primary Sources: Strength Through Joy
Monday, January 29
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Joshua Hagen and Robert Ostergren, “Spectacle, Architecture and Place at the Nuremberg Party Rallies: Projecting a Nazi Vision of Past, Present and Future,” Cultural Geographies, 13 (2006), 157-181. [On Nexus]
Week 5
Wednesday, January 31
Group 2 Primary Source Presentations
Research Log and Peer Analysis of Secondary Source Papers Due by 5:00 pm
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Thursday, February 1
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Friday, February 2
Group 3 Primary Source Presentations
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Monday, February 5
Group 1 Primary Source Presentations
Week 6
Wednesday, February 7
In-Class Reading of Primary Sources: University Education
Research Log and Primary Source Papers Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, February 9
In-Class Reading of Secondary Sources: “Seductive Surface?”
Monday, February 12
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Frank Uekötter, “Green Nazis? Reassessing the Environmental History of Nazi Germany,” German Studies Review, 30/2 (2007), 267-287. [On Nexus]
Week 7
Wednesday, February 14
In-Class Reading of Secondary Sources: Killing
Research Log and Peer Analysis of Primary Source Papers Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, February 16
In-Class Reading of Primary Sources: Physics
Monday, February 19
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Mark Walker, “National Socialism and German Physics,” Journal of Contemporary History, 24/1 (1989), 63-89. [On Nexus]
Week 8
Wednesday, February 21
In-Class Reading of Secondary Sources: Resistance?
Complete First Drafts Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, February 23
In-Class Reading of Primary Sources: Cinema
Monday, February 26
Discussion of Assigned Reading: Wolfgang König, “Adolf Hitler versus Henry Ford: The Volkswagen, the Role of America as a Model, and the Failure of a Nazi Consumer Society,” German Studies Review, 27/2 (2004), 249-268. [On Nexus]
Week 9
Wednesday, February 28
Group 3 Research Presentations
Research Log Due by 5:00 pm
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Thursday, March 1
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Friday, March 2
Group 1 Research Presentations
Individual Student Meetings Outside of Class
Monday, March 5
Group 2 Research Presentations
Week 10
Wednesday, March 7
Denazification Prosecution
Research Log Due by 5:00 pm
Friday, March 9
Denazification Defense
Monday, March 12
Denazification Judgement
End of Exam Period
Tuesday, March 20
Final Research Paper Due by 11:59 pm