UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY
HH367: History of the Balkans

Fall 2003 Course Syllabus

Assoc. Prof. Tucker and LCDR Segal

(Last Updated: 12/01/2003)


COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will provide an overview of Balkan history from the Ottoman era to the present.  It will focus on the development and emergence of nations in this region over the last two centuries.


COURSE REQUIREMENTS: (% of semester grade)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

 

ASSIGNMENT AND COURSE POLICY: If any class assignment is not completed before the end of the term, the student will receive an "F" in the course. GRADES OF ALL ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE REDUCED BY 10 POINTS FOR EACH CALENDAR DAY OF LATENESS IN SUBMISSION.



REQUIRED READING:
USNA HISTORY DEPARTMENT PLAGIARISM STATEMENT


I. PAPERS:

A. TOPICS:

            1. One 4-6 page paper that answers the following question:

How did the Bridge on the Drina portray the roles of different ethnic and religious groups in shaping the history of the Balkans from the beginning of Ottoman rule to the end of World War I? 

            DUE DATE: October 1, 2003. (10%)     

            2. One 2-3 page paper that answers the following questions:

a.  What historical question (posed about any aspect of Balkan history from the coming of the Ottomans to 1990) will your research paper try to answer and why is the answer to this question significant in Balkan history?

b. What is your tentative answer to the question posed by your research paper?

c.  What sources of evidence and information will you use to answer this question and why are they the best sources for answering the question you posed?

This paper is called a précis and is designed to get you to start working on the research well before the paper is due.  It is perfectly acceptable for the question posed by your paper to shift substantially as your research develops. 

            DUE DATE: November 1, 2003. (5%)

3. One 7-9 page research paper that answers the question identified in your précis. 

DUE DATE: December 12, 2003. (15%)

B. PAPER WRITING GUIDELINES:

 

In all cases, the papers will be assessed according to style, syntax, grammar, and spelling, as well as content. ALL PAPERS ARE DUE AT 1700 ON THE DAYS INDICATED ABOVE. Late papers will be docked one full letter grade for each calendar day, not class, that they are late. Excuses based on computer foul-ups will normally not be accepted; you are responsible for making and maintaining backup files of all papers.  

Proofread your essays carefully. You will be held accountable in the paper grade for grammar, syntax, and spelling mistakes. You must cite every reference that you make to a work, either directly or indirectly, in a way which allows the reader to locate the source from which you took the information or quotation that you are presenting. PLEASE NOTE: Papers without citations will receive a maximum grade of 65 (D).  All papers must be double-spaced with a 1" margin on all sides, using an 11 or 12 point font. I will be glad to discuss your papers with you before they are due.

i. BASIC CRITERIA:

1. Be sure to pay careful attention in your essays to spelling and grammar. With spellcheckers, there is no longer any excuse for sloppy spelling.

2. Be careful not to shift verb tenses in the middle of a paper.

3. Never, I repeat, NEVER spell the possessive form of "it" as "it's". "It's" is a contraction for "it is." The possessive form of "it" is spelled "its."

4. Avoid using contractions and slang words at all times.

ii. DOCUMENTATION FORMAT AND PENALTY:

1. Papers lacking full documentation--endnotes or footnotes or parenthetical references with proper bibliography--will receive, at best, a 65. You are to use the CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE  format for your notes. Failure to do so will cost you thirty points off of your grade.

2. FORMAT FOR NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ENTRIES:

1Plato, The Republic, trans. G.M.A. Grube, revised by C.D. Reeve, book VI, section 490d, in Classics of Moral and Political Theory, ed. Michael L. Morgan, 3rd ed (Indianapolis: Hackett Publ. Co., 2001), p. 151.
[Note that I have provided both a section number and a page number. The section number allows the reader to find the passage in any edition of Plato's Republic. It also is a more precise reference, which allows the reader more easily to locate the cited text. The page number locates the text in the assigned book. If you must choose between the two--and you ought to have both--the section number is more useful since it is a more precise reference.]

2David Underdown, Revel, Riot and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England 1603-1660 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 121-7.
[The first reference to a work must provide all the publication information. The basic format for a first reference to a book is as follows:
First and last name of author, Title of Book [in italics, not underlined] (Place of Publication: Publisher [optional], date of publication), p. number.]

3Raoul of Cambrai, trans. Jessie Crosland, rev. Richard Abels (New York: American Heritage Custom Publishing Group, 1994), p. 3 (stanza 10).
[Here the author is anonymous, so the title appears first, followed by the translators.]

4Ernst Badian, “Rome and Antiochus the Great: a study in cold war,” Classical Philology 54 (1959), 85.

The basic format for a first reference to an article is:
    First and last name of author, "Title of the article," Name of the Journal volume number of the periodical (year of publication), page number.

Note the punctuation. You separate author and title with a comma. There is no comma, however, before a parenthesis. The note ends with a period. The title of the article is set off with quotation marks. The title of the journal is placed in italics.

Shorten second and subsequent references:
5Plato, Republic, section 561d, in Morgan, ed., Classics, p. 201.
6Underdown, Revel, p. 56.

INTERNET CITATIONS: To cite sources on the internet, follow the format provided by the following link: Citing Internet Sources
The basic rule is to provide a full note reference followed by the URL and the date accessed:

7Peter Abelard, The Story of My Misfortunes, ch. 16, translated by Henry Adams Bellows (1922; reissued N.Y: Macmillan, 1972), in Paul Halsall, ed., Internet Medieval Sourcebook, revised by Richard Abels [http://www.nadn.navy.mil/Users/history/abels/hh205/abelardhel.html], 23 Oct. 2003.

8Paul Rahe, "The Martial Republics of Ancient Greece", Wilson Quarterly (1993) [http://www.nadn.navy.mil/Users/history/abels/hh205/rahe.htm], 23 Sept. 2003.

The format of an internet citation is basically the same, except for the addition of the URL address in square brackets followed by the date accessed

iii. PLAGIARISM (READ CAREFULLY AND NOTE):

All direct quotations, paraphrases, allusions to specific passages in a text, and use of another's interpretations and research must be documented with a note that includes a specific page/section reference to the work used.  You need not document "common knowledge," which includes the factual information in your textbook. To 'paraphrase' means to put another's ideas into your OWN words. If you take another's words and fail to indicate that fact with quotations marks, that is PLAGIARISM. See the History Department's plagiarism statement linked to this syllabus. If you commit "unintentional" plagiarism, that is plagiarism not intended to deceive, through carelessness or laziness, the paper will receive a ZERO.  If I believe that you intended to pass off another's work as your own, I will regard it additionally as an HONORS OFFENSE. If you have any questions about what needs to be cited, ask me.

iv. PAPER STYLE:

1. Avoid writing a paper as a series of long quotations strung together by a few connective sentences. What I would like to see is what your thoughts are about what you have read, not how well you can introduce long excerpts from primary material.

2. Although it is good to be eloquent, eloquence most often grows out of simplicity. Keep it simple, and do not try to use impressive words just to reify an efflorescence of pseudosemiotic prestidigitation.

3. All analytical essays (as distinguished from short stories, editorials, personal letters, etc.) must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You must state the points that you want to cover in summary in a couple of paragraphs at the beginning.  The end of the introductory section should be your thesis statement: the one or  two-sentence statement which gives the main point that your paper is designed to make. This is the THESIS PARAGRAPH.  Papers lacking a coherent thesis paragraph that states a coherent thesis will be penalized.

4. You should then immediately launch into the middle of the paper, which should cover those points in the same order in which you mentioned them in your introductory paragraph. Finally, you should summarize them again in a conclusion at the end.  This format asks you to repeat the same points three times, once in the thesis, once in the body, and once in the conclusion of the paper.  There is much wisdom in the old saying about speechmaking: "First you tell them, then you tell them what you told them, then you tell them again."

 


II. Riddles:

Each student will answer one of the riddles in the syllabus below and lead a 7-10 minute discussion about it on the assigned day. Each riddle presenter will use a Powerpoint presentation of which a hardcopy should be submitted to the instructors on the day of the presentation. (10%)


III. Class participation (10%)


IV. Exams:

            1. Midterm exam on September 24, 2003 (15%)

            2. Midterm exam on November 7, 2003 (15%)

            3. Final Exam (place and time TBA) (20%)


COURSE TEXTS:

Ivo Andric, The Bridge on the Drina (Chicago)

Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars (Basic)

Misha Glenny, The Balkans (Viking)

Norman Itzkowitz, Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition (Chicago)

Laura Silber and Allan Little, Yugoslavia: Death of A Nation (Penguin)

Additional Internet readings are linked on the syllabus. These are not supplementary, but primary course readings. You are responsible for reading them as you are responsible for reading the printed material for the course. The web address for this page is:

http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/tucker/hh367/367syll.htm

 

Date

Topic

Main Instructor

Main Reading

Andrić Readings

(pages to be completed by the date specified)

Riddle

Aug 20

Intro to the Balkans

Tucker/

Segal

Gerolymatos:

1-5

Glenny:

xxi-xxvi

 

 

Aug 22

Yugoslavia Death of a Nation” video

Tucker/

Segal

“Butchery at the Bridge”

 

Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbor

 

 

 

Aug 25

Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia Today

Tucker

Gerolymatos: 233-245

1-52

 

Aug 27

Ottoman History I

Tucker

Itzkowitz:

3-36

 

 

Was Suleyman so “Magnificent”?

 

Aug 29

Ottoman History II

Tucker

Itzkowitz:

37-61,

87-109

 

 

Sep 3

Balkan Mythology: Kosovo and Beyond

Tucker

Gerolymatos: 61-84

53-93

Who cares who lost the battle of Kosovo?

(Geary)

Sep 5

The Greek War of Independence

Tucker

Gerolymatos:

163-190

 

Why did a bunch of Englishment get involved with Greece in the 1820s?

(Brewer)

Sep 8

The Stirrings of National Feeling in Serbia and Croatia

Segal

Glenny:

1-22, 39-57

 

What was “Illyrianism”?

(Brandon)

Sep 10

Outlaws, Nationalism, and Klephts

Segal

Gerolymatos

85-119

94-133

What parts of the Balkans could be viewed as “kleptocracies” in the nineteenth century?

(Tisdall)

Sep 12

Ottoman Decay and the Tanzimat

Tucker

Glenny: 70-84, 90-106

 

Who was Namık Kemal?

(Drewiske)

Sep 15

Serbia and the Rise of Pan-Slavism, 1840-1875

Segal

Glenny:

120-151

134-185

What did Otto von Bismarck once say about the Balkans?

(Flint)

Sep 17

Macedonia, Bosnia, and Serbia after Berlin

Tucker

Glenny: 

151-178

 

Who were the başi-bözöks?

(Gill)

Sep 19

Conflict in Macedonia, 1900-1912

Tucker

Glenny:

178-205

 

Where were most of the Jews in Salonika originally from?

(Horst)

Sep 22

The Balkan Wars

Tucker/

Segal

Glenny:

223-248

186-234

How was Skutari part of the powder trail towards the powder keg of Europe in 1912-1913?

(Hotchkiss)

Sep 24

EXAM 1

Study Guide

 

Sep 26

World War I part I

Tucker

Glenny:

293-306,

308-323

 

What happened to the exact spot and artifacts associated with Franz Ferdinand’s association?

(Stochel)

Sep 29

World War I part II

Tucker

Glenny:

339-356

 

What was the “Big Idea” (or “Great Idea”) in the Balkans?

(Anderson)

Oct 1

Bridge on the Drina discussion

Segal

 

235-314

 

Oct 3

Versailles

Segal

Glenny:

361-377

 

 

Oct 6

The Creation of Modern Greece and Turkey

Tucker

Glenny:

378-396

 

How did Lausanne cancel Sevres?

(Boodakian)

Oct 8

The Creation of Modern Albania

Tucker

Glenny:

412-423

 

Who claimed the Mare Nostrum after World War I?

(Vitollo)

Oct 10

Yugoslavia in the 1920s and1930s

Tucker

Glenny:

402-412, 423-436

 

Who wore grey uniforms in Croatia in the 1930s?

(Trembula)

Oct 15

The Outbreak of World War II

Segal

Glenny: 436-460

 

 

Oct 17

The Chetniks

Segal

Glenny:

485-495

 

What happened in Kragujevac in October, 1941?

(Robins)

Oct 20

Greece in WW2

Tucker

Glenny:

460-485

 

 

Oct 22

The Ustashe

Tucker

Article on the Ustashe

 

 

Oct 24

The Partisans and Tito

Segal

Fitzroy Maclean: Eastern Approaches

 

Why was Tito called “Tito”?

(Fletcher)

Oct 27

The Holocaust in the Balkans

Segal

Glenny:

495-518

 

 

Oct 29

The End of the War in Yugoslavia

Tucker

Glenny:

529-544

Research

Paper Precis Due 

What was the OZNa?

(Berke)

Oct 31

 Tito breaks with Stalin: 1945-1952

 (guest speaker: Prof. Thomas Sanders)

Glenny:

545-552

Fitzroy Maclean: The Heretic

 

Why did the Cazin Muslims revolt?

(Edwards)

 

Nov 3

Tito’s Yugoslavia: 1952-1980

Tucker

Glenny:

570-593

 

 

Nov 5

Albania and Enver Hoxha

Tucker

Glenny:

559-569

 

What country was Enver Hoxha’s greatest ally and why?

(Rolfs)

Nov 7

EXAM 2

Study Guide

Nov 10

Rumania under Ceaucescu

Segal

Glenny:

552-559,   594-608

 

 

Nov 12

Greece and Turkey: The Conflict over Cyprus

Tucker

Glenny:

608-622

 

Who was Nikos Samson?

(Bower)

Nov 14

The End of “Freedom and Brotherhood”: 1980-1989

Segal

Glenny:

622-633