Write a 3 to 5 page paper in response to ONE (1) of the following questions. You must use both primary and secondary sources to support your answer. Your papers are due to the WebCT drop box by NOON on Wednesday December 10.
1.In his Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx sets forth his theory of the role of the "working class" in modern History. What role does Marx assign to the working class? What role does he assign to other classes and groups in modern Europe? Compare Marx's theory of History with the criticisms of Marx's view of History expressed by Edouard Bernstein , and V. I. Lenin and the criticism implied by the Marshall Plan ?
2. One of the most powerful forces for change in 19th- and 20th-century Europe was the advocacy of "national awakening" and for a "nation," once awakened, to have a territorially coherent state with political sovereignty. Mazzini's article on "progress through nationalism" offers a good example of an intellectual claiming that a given group of people – in this case, Italians – constitutes a "nation" that should have its own government and territory (a "state"). What does Mazzini suggest needs to take place for such a "national awakening" and the formation of an Italian "nation-state"? Does he consider violence necessary for this to take place? If so, what is the justification for that call to violence?
By comparing Mazzini's views on violence in national unification with those expressed or implied by such documents as Bismarck's "Proclamation of the German Empire" , "The Anthem of the International"; Mussolini on Fascism or Hitler's call for war, address the following question:
To what extent the desire for national unity should be seen to account for the violence of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
Be sure to use the relevant textbook chapters to put these documents in context.
3. The final document you should read this semester is the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948) . What specific ideas, events, and processes that we have covered this semester do you think contributed to the concept of human rights that is expressed in this Declaration? What aspects of our course seem to be left out of the Declaration? Does the concept of human rights either emerge from Western Civilization as we have discussed it this semester, or is this idea an ideal that represents a departure from the reality of Western Civilization such as we have discussed it this term?