RUSSIA, AMERICA AND THE WORLD
A Social-Science Group-Satisfying Course
Table of Contents


19th-century Russian hand-driven printing press named "Amerikanka" [American Girl]

Table of Contents =

 

Russia, America and the World: Shared Histories
Alan Kimball
General Description of the Course

The histories of Russia [Muscovy, the Russian Empire, the USSR, the Russian Federation] and America [North American English Colonies, USA] when viewed in their global setting are what I call "shared histories". The shared historical experiences are often as much to be contrasted as to be compared. Russia and America have sometimes been like peas from the same pod and sometimes like boxers in a ring.

Concentration on shared histories helps us break down certain artificial intellectual dividers between peoples. When historical experiences are partitioned off or isolated in packaged histories of this and that nation-state, they are shorn of their broader significance, their global significance. Shared histories, however, also seek to identify what is distinct, to identify the point at which the search for universals comes a cropper. The neat national, geo-political, and governmental labels, Russia and America, attach themselves to diverse, roguish and powerful historical experiences. There is always a beautiful variety within and between cultural traditions. The Russian circus performer wrestles the bear and the American cowboy clings to the bronco, but vast historical trends animate the whole globe and will continue for some time to shape the destinies of both wrestler and rider. The course explores these trends, often discovering important similarities where one might expect stark contrasts, and distinctions where one might expect identities.

Out of this grows, I hope, an appreciation of the historical foundation of current affairs. Behind everything lurks the problem of historical judgment [TXT] which is very similar to political judgment. In what seems a more wholesome analogy, historical judgment is somewhat like the work of trial juries [here are four paragraphs on that issue = TXT].

After defining and describing the shared historical experiences with all their comparisons and contrasts, how does one judge them, especially when most who take part in the course are citizens of one of these two great states? We must not neglect the philosophy of history, especially the eternal problems of subjectivism and objectivism [here are a few paragraphs on the question of interests and the variety of human groups = TXT].

Nor will we neglect some of the techniques of history, ways of organizing and thus mastering historical knowledge. Just to get everyone thinking about this, I provide the following suggestions and systematic information:

The course concentrates on published secondary and primary documentation [ID] (all translated or originally in English). The central component of the course, The Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography [SAC Alan Kimball] which structures all this information [TXT], contains guides to primary and secondary sources. The bibliographic details about the collections of primary sources are gathered in a Glossary, which identifies the sources and tells you where to find them [W].

The course also provides some pointers on

 

HAND-OUT SYLLABUS

HIST 245: RUSSIA, AMERICA AND THE WORLD
Alan Kimball office hours:
MW 10:00-11:00 in McKenzie 367. Phone= 346-4813
KIMBALL@UOREGON.EDU

Most course materials are in the Knight Library or the course webpage.  You will purchase a lab book, and there you will keep a record of library work and webpage work, draft two take-home "draft" essays, & write your midterm & final exams.   Here is a basic calendar of the term's work:

!! ja29: -- FIRST SUBMISSION OF JOURNAL
!! fe14: -- MIDTERM EXAM IN JOURNAL, FIRST TAKE-HOME ESSAY
!! mr20: at 10:15 -- FINAL EXAM IN JOURNAL, WITH SECOND ESSAY

First exercise:  Purchase a blue lab book (9x7 inches; Stock # 43-571, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE; ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (lets call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Please leave the inside cover & the first 5-6 pages blank for keeping your own table of contents & a comprehensive list of books & other library material consulted. It is your responsibility to guide the reader to each part of the journal, and you best do that with your table of contents. Leave the final two pages of the lab book blank for my comments & grading. Separate from the journal, keep another notebook for lecture, course handouts, etc. The journal is where you keep a record of YOUR WORK, and the notebook is where you keep what you gather in class time of MY WORK.

Second exercise:  Locate this course on the following webpage [ Alan Kimball]:

    http://www.uoregon.edu/~kimball/courses.htm | Add this page to your web-browser "favorites" page. You'll go there often this term.

These first two and ten further exercises are listed and explained on the course website.

ABOUT GRADES: Essays & exams are due at the time the class meets on the days specified. Late exercises are penalized one grade. Exercises AWOL 24 hours after due date are given a failing grade. Failure to complete any one of the essays or exams will result in a failing grade for the course. Unpenalized postponement of an exercise is possible only when documented illness or happenstance forces delay, or when arranged in writing beforehand. If you attend class regularly, keep a good lecture notebook, devote eight or nine hours of your study-week to your reading & writing, & keep a good record in your journal, you may be sure that you are meeting course expectations.

 

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS, IF YOU WISH

 

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

The calendar guides you to topics we will cover in the classroom and readings available in libraries and on this website. These readings cover the larger topics suggested in the headline for each week of class. Select from among the readings as you wish to complete 9 hours of weekly out-of-class work. It is not wise to try to read everything. You can trust yourself to make decisions, following your own sense of what is both interesting to you and important to the big issues raised in the course.

Think of both weekly reading lists and the suggestions in SAC as menus. When the 9 hours are up, congratulate yourself. We will pass through mountains of material, and you will see many bibliographic suggestions through the term, but you need deal directly with only 9-hours-worth every week. Put in the time, and you will be satisfied.

1st Week INTRODUCTION:
Key concepts and terms
In other words, the first week is about the course itself,
but also we will consider the broad chronological sweep of our topic.
We will begin to define "when" our histories happen

Complete exercises one, two and three this first week =

Exercise 1)  Purchase and set up your journal, a bright blue canvas lab book (9x7 inches; Stock # 43-571, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE; ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Please leave the inside cover & the first 5-6 pages blank for keeping your own table of contents & a comprehensive, numbered list of books & other library material consulted. It is your responsibility to guide the reader to each part of the journal. Leave the final two pages of the lab book blank for comments & grading. Separate from the journal, keep another notebook for lecture, course handouts, etc. The journal is where you keep a record of YOUR WORK, and the notebook is where you keep a record of MY WORK.

Read this extended description of the journal [TXT]. Keep lecture notes and other handouts in another notebook.

Exercise 2)  The course website.  In the first days of the term, quickly read through descriptions of all 12 exercises here, including linkages to auxiliary explanatory pages [TXT]. Get a feel for the larger shape of course requirements. It seems a lot when considered all together, but remember the old proverb: "inch by inch, life's a cinch; it's mile by mile that life's a trial".

Two elementary website techniques may be known to you, but, if not, you need to become familiar with the following two web functions =

1) how to click on a word or phrase that has a hyperlink to another site, and how to hop back from it to where you first clicked. A hypertext link is indicated when a word or phrase is underlined and of a different color than surrounding text. Click on this hyperlink to a paragraph that explains how you can come back here.

2) Come back here after you read the five paragraphs about how to "FIND" keywords.

Now its down to business. Read "Ways of Seeing History" [TXT] (which links to three "sub-essays": "Taxonomy" [TXT], "Interests" [TXT], and "Dozen Categories" [TXT]). These narratives present a "philosophical" discussion of some the guiding historical concepts behind the course, but they also explain some of the technical peculiarities of the course.

Prepare yourself so that we can discuss the concepts and techniques at our second class meeting.

Most of the technical peculiarities you will meet in this course are connected with 

Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography [SAC]
Alan Kimball

Read this extended description of SAC and how to use it? Don't neglect the "CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ABOUT SAC" [TXT].

You may print any part of the electronic material I provide this class & place it in your lecture notebook. All of your own notes on internet and library materials should be in your journal.

Class attendance is essential to the successful completion of this course. The course does not "happen" on the internet or even in the library; it happens when you bring the internet and library materials into contact with lectures in order to expand and refine that most important historical arena: Your own mind.

Exercise 3) Now you may then hop directly to the following entries in SAC that describe the "big picture" of our course. Take two hours here in the early going this term to move quickly through some of the most important moments, issues and possible readings you will later consider (about three minutes per hypertext link below). For now, just consider the big sweep of topics. There will be ample opportunity for more concentrated reading later.

1786:The conceptual foundations of the revolutionary American Constitution
1835:1840; Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville looked to USA for inspiration
1839je05: Frenchman Marquis de Custine looked to Russia for inspiration
1841:1844; German economist Friedrich List took lessons from Russia and USA
1843:1844; German Baron von Haxthausen looked to Russia for inspiration
1861ja28: First Russia, then USA, freed bound laborers (serfs and slaves)
1867mr30: Russia sold Alaska to USA
1868:1912; Japan entered era of dramatic modernization, as did Russia & USA
1887:USA social critic Edward Bellamy's utopian prediction of world in 2000
1889jy14:Second International founded on centennial of French Revolution
1889:1905; Russian industrialization in full swing, and so it was in USA
1892je11:Russian and USA urbanization altering traditional rural ways
1893my01:"Turner Thesis" of US frontier expansion had broad implications
1895my19: Here begins a big 6-year chronological LOOP (1895-1901) on the key-word hypertext phrase "USA imperialism" [sometimes "USA imperialist"]. This chronological LOOP describes the first significant overseas efforts to build an American empire. We see USA on a collision course with Russian imperialist ambition. This LOOP currently has six hypertext "hops" from the key phrase. In this and other LOOPs, as you hop from hypertext phrase to the next relevant chronological entry, you must occasionally read through several entries (text between divider sign <>) before you come upon the next hypertext link on the key-word phrase
1904:1905; German sociologist Max Weber tried to understand Russia & USA
1904:USA Chicago was sight of Pavel Miliukov's plea for American understanding
1913mr03: Feminism gripped the European cultural world. Follow LOOP on keyword "women"
1917mr02:1918jy28; USA entered World War One when Russian autocracy collapsed. The Soviet Revolution 8 months later inspired some Americans, terrified others. Never mind, the USA was now for the first time deeply embedded in European politics
1919:Oregon-born John Reed published his account of the Soviet Revolution
1927:1937; An epoch of global economic crisis as the capitalist economy collapsed; the power of centralized states expanded
1927de02: World economic crisis pitted Soviet Communism against staggering capitalist economies
1928my28: Dramatic changes were taking place in Russian and USA agriculture
1936:English economist John Maynard Keynes designed a way out for "the West". For the Soviet Union, the old "NEP" (1921-1927) no longer worked. In 1946, Nikolai Voznesenskii described and justified the first post-war version of the Stalinist "Five Year Plans"
1939au23:World War Two began [if you have time, try the main LOOP on WW2]
1946mr05:WW2 just over, tensions between USSR & USA opened "Cold War"
1946se27: Soviet Ambassador to USA warned of USA motives (follow "compare" link)
1947au:Soviet theorists saw that the "Cold War" would concentrate on "Third World"
1948:English historian Arnold Toynbee reflected on meaning of "The West"
1955jy:Many Europeans were suspicious of the bi-polar nuclear standoff
1958:Cultural exchanges helped smooth the edges of hostility
1961ja17:However, powerful military industrial tensions dominated events [read through to 1963]
1964:Many asked how USA stacked up against its Cold-War rival, the USSR
1979de: USA war in Vietnam and newly opened USSR hostilities in Afghanistan brought attentions back to the "Third World" and predicted the decades to come
1985:+; The Contemporary age witnessed a dramatic and fundamental reform movement in the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev's "Perestroika", while the USA entered the "Reagan Era"
1988de07:Gorbachev announced dramatic changes in Russian Cold-War militarization. Over the next year, the Soviet Warsaw Pact system began to come unraveled, then =
1991de31:the collapse of the USSR
1993fe26:+; USA became involved in helping the post-Soviet government and economy, but the "Western" military alliance, NATO, expanded into ex-Soviet territories and there emerged an era variously known sometimes as "New World Order" and other times as "New World Dis-order"

This has been a "big gulp", but think of it as a complicated chronological snapshot of "when" our shared histories happened.

We will now turn in the second week to geography, "where" our histories happened, thus to put things on stable ground, so to speak. And then we will begin to put a magnifying glass to that chronological snapshot above. We will look at these histories arranged in a conceptual "taxonomy" [ID], then we will begin to roll that taxonomy forward in time [TXT]....

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2nd Week Geography, or
"Where" our histories unfold

Time and space are the two fundamental organizational principles of history. In the first week, our goal was to get a general sense of chronology (time). Here our goal is to develop broad familiarity with geography (space), and with certain other visual/spatial dimensions of our history.

Read N. C. Field, "Environmental Quality and Land Productivity", 1968:Canadian Geographer #12:1-14 [TXT]. Bear in mind that Field draws all North America together (the lands of two nation-states USA and Canada), comparing that vast territory with the old Soviet Union (the lands of fifteen independent nation-states since 1992). There is no Soviet Union any longer. But our first question might be, what difference does the geo-political terminology make when we engage in serious geo-physical analysis of environmental quality and land productivity? Here are other questions we should be able to answer = What is the main argument of Field's technical article? What are the broadest "non-technical" implications of the article? For example, what might Field's findings suggest about the shared history of frontier and imperialist expansion, to which we now turn =

Explore SAC links indicated in the top half of this webpage =
 "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion",
down to the section on "Indigenous Peoples" [TXT]

Read excerpts from D.W. Treadgold's book, The Great Siberian Migration [TXT]

Then give "The Turner Thesis" at least an hour (beyond what you may have already spent following the hypertext links from the Treadgold readings) Check out this SAC entry on the Turner Thesis, with its guides to some comparative perspectives. You may make a hypertext hop from there, or directly from here, to the "Turner Thesis" on the significant of the frontier in American History [TXT]. Do you think there is anything "universal" about Turner's thesis? Does it seem right as an explanation of USA in particular? On the basis of what you see in Turner, would you alter or expand on what Treadgold says in his chapter?

 

This week you should complete exercises four and five =

Exercise 4)  Tour UO collections, round one.

Here I link you with descriptions of three library locations that are vital to our course =

KNIGHT Reserve Book Room
KNIGHT Reference Division
KNIGHT MAP Room

In KNIGHT MAP room and REFERENCE (including the MAP Room), spend a hour with some of these atlases, being particularly attentive to events in our two areas of the globe, Northern Eurasia and North America. I especially recommend the first four listed =

<>Cassell atlas of world history | On 20th-c world, see scts 5.05, 5.06, & all of sct 6
<>National Geographic atlas of world history | On 20th century world, see pp. 302-79
<>Rand McNally Historical atlas of the world maps #67, 75-78, 80-84, & 86, & pp. 168-82
 <>Wheatcroft, Andrew. The world atlas of revolutions: 78-95, 134-9, & 182-5

<>Atlas zur Zeitgeschichte : Europa im 20. Jahrhundert
<>Collins atlas of twentieth century world history
<>Hammond atlas of the 20th century
<>Hupchick, Dennis P, and Harold E. Cox. A concise historical atlas of Eastern Europe (1996)
<>Natkiel, Richard, et al. Atlas of the 20th century
<>Times atlas of the 20th century

As the term progresses, learn to sketch maps of Russia and USA, locating major paths of frontier expansion, major high points, seas, waters that flow between, and a dozen or so major cities. Here is our guide through the shared history of frontier and imperialist expansion. You will find many website maps to aid your personal mastery of the geo-physical foundations of Russian and American shared history

Exercise 5)  Tour UO collections, round two. Acquaint yourself with five further research locales =

KNIGHT stacks
KNIGHT Information Technology Center
University of Oregon Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Architecture & Allied Arts Library
All UO students ought at least once to visit the Jacqua Law School Library

BACK TO THE COURSE TABLE OF CONTENTS, IF YOU WISH

 

3rd Week FRONTIER AND EMPIRE:
Indigenous peoples, native Americans, Alaska and the Pacific Basin

This week move toward final decisions on exercises seven, eight and nine.

Both Russian and American societies are "multicultural" and have been from the beginning. German-speaking Mennonite communities emigrated to Russia in the 1770s. One hundred years later, many of them emigrated yet again to the USA. Another example = USA and Russia share the distinction of being the homes of more Jews than anywhere else on the globe, except Israel after its creation in the 1940s. Yet the shared historical experience of the Jewish "national minorities" in these two areas has been different in several notable ways.

Saul is an especially good source for information on Mennonites and Jews in Russia and USA. Does Gaddis touch on these topics?

These books are on reserve.

Both societies have developed under the influence of non-European peoples, at home and abroad. Confrontation with native peoples have left a profound mark on both histories. Both have offered themselves as models for the development of "third-world countries". Both histories have been shaped by peoples confronted in the process of frontier and imperialist expansion.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Keeping in mind the puzzle of how to distinguish "frontier expansion" and "imperialist expansion", we note that it was common in the era of the Cold War (1945-1990) to think of the United States and its NATO allies ("The West") as one world, while the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies ("The Communist Bloc") were thought of as another.  All other nation-states, most particularly those nations just emerging from under the power of declining imperialist Europe, were lumped together as "The Third World" [ID]. Understanding the role of the Third World in 20th-century history is an interpretive problem associated with the larger issue of global imperialism in the modern historical era.

Now, in the aftermath of the Cold War, attention is being drawn to what some call "The Fourth World", namely native or indigenous peoples who have been absorbed into larger nation-states. It is not clear whether the question of the fourth world is a frontier or imperialist question. What do you think?  Check this web index page on indigenous peoples [W]. And check this one on indigenous peoples of North America [W]

Here are two helpful maps =
1783:Native American tribes and
1783:European possessions bordering rebellious colonies

Russia and America have rich and perplexing shared historical experiences in both the "third" and "fourth" worlds.

Look briefly at how Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, understood the question of the USA "fourth world" in the 1830s. After all the praise you have heard heaped on Tocqueville, you might be surprised by the tone of  his discussion of the USA black population. [TXT] [I have put certain passages in bold face]

How do you square his views on blacks and native Americans with his famous words on the two great expanding civilizations, Russia and USA, at the conclusion of this same chapter? [TXT] How do these words square with what you see in next weeks readings in White and Kolchin?

For some SAC links related to this shared experience, return to the web page "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion" and continue with the entries on indigenous peoples [TXT]. Tocqueville's famous words comparing Russia and USA could also be tested against the historical record of US policy toward native Americans outlined here.

Exercise 6) On the first day of class next week, you will submit the journal for an early "no-fault" evaluation. What should be in the journal by this time? The journal should contain notes related to all of your course work outside of class-meeting time, especially notes that record discoveries as you work on the enumerated exercises and notes that you can use when you write your draft essay and, later, take the mid-term exam. This suggests some balance of notes on the following course exercises =
Exercise 2 = Notes on "Ways of Seeing History" and other course-related concepts and techniques
Exercise 3 = SAC chronological summary of the whole term
Exercise 4 & 5 = Library tours
Week Two reading = Field
Week Two reading = Course page "Frontier and Imperial Expansion"
Week Two reading = Treadgold
Week Two reading = Turner
Week Three reading = Tocqueville and indigenous peoples

You might be started with the following three exercises =

Exercise 7 = Those who experience both histories
Exercise 8 = A specific shared history
Exercise 9 = Your first draft essay

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS, IF YOU WISH

4th Week Slavery and Serfdom

!! ja29:-------------------FIRST SUBMISSION OF JOURNAL
Here are some benchmarks to measure progress with the journal

This week we consider the remarkable shared historical experience of "bound labor". Over the long haul, the two social structures have been very different, nonetheless Russia and USA have shared the experience of slavery and serfdom

A. Consult the following two readings =

(1). Colin White, Russia and America: Roots of Economic Divergence (1987). Begin your reading with the title page and table of contents for the whole book [TXT]. Then jump to ch2:18-40 (for at least one hour) [TXT]. I want you to concentrate on chapter 2.We are first interested in Colin White's sense of the influence of geography and peoples on the frontier expansion of Russia and America. What does White emphasize about indigenous peoples, frontiers, and early industrialization?

Then go back to ch1:1-18 (30 minutes) [TXT]. We will discuss the theoretical material in chapter 1 together.

Then read ch9:211-219 [TXT]

Before our discussion in class, follow the hypertext hops and "FIND" [ID] suggestions provided by SAC editor, just to get a better grasp of the key concepts in White's work [TXT]

If you wish to read more of White, you might look at chapters 6, 7 and/or 8 (on reserve) where you learn more about White's ideas on "risk" and the role of the state in the commercial market.

(2). Peter Kolchin, Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (1987) Read pages 1-46 and 359-75 (pp. 41-44 summarize Kolchin's main arguments about the similarities and differences in Russian serfdom and US slavery) [TXT]. An additional hour with the KNIGHT library hardcopy would also be useful = from title page through the table of contents, then p. 49 (chronology of world-wide emancipation of unfree labor), ch.3:157-191 ("Ideals and Ideology"), and some rebellions:250-51.

B. SAC readings =

For origins and some main moments in the history of serfdom and slavery as recorded in SAC =

Serfdom & slavery 1568:1670; origins 1680:1730; apex 1797mr24: nadir 1852: opposition
Russian serfdom   1765ja17: managed 1773oc05: rebellion 1861: emancipation
USA slavery   1786: slave=person? 1788ja19: world 1862: emancipation

Notice that you could choose to follow LOOPS on either keyword, "serf" or "slave", to visit more entries

LOOKING AHEAD, you should now or very soon make decisions about exercises seven and eight =

Exercise 7)  THOSE WHO EXPERIENCE BOTH HISTORIES:

Consult general description of exercises 7 & 8.

Exercise 7 asks you to select a person (or identifiable group) whose life was in some way and to some degree rooted in Russian and American realities. Take a few hours to determine the main outline and main significance of that shared experience.

Here are some suggestions=

I will supply more suggestions about points 7 & 8 as the term progresses. And your are encouraged to find your own

Exercise 8)  SPECIFIC SHARED HISTORY:

Consult general description of exercises 7 & 8.

Select some aspect of Russian and American shared economic history after 1862, agricultural and/or industrial development. Lectures and SAC entries ought to help you make your choice, but also the important books on reserve, especially White and Brzezinski.

Here are some SAC entries that might help:

  • Click on "labor" LOOP from 1861fe19 to 1914au04
  • 1889:1905; This entry contains useful bibliography on shared history of industrialization
  • 1927de02:Suprising shared history of centralized business management
  • 1928my28:This entry contains useful bibliography on Russian and American agricultural economies

Over the next week, before the midterm exam, complete exercise nine =

Exercise 9)  Research and draft first essay. Remember that the topics suggested in exercises 7 & 8 above do not require that you write specific essays. They simply call for some special attention (note taking and analysis) in your journal. Exercise 9 is in this way very different from exercises 7 & 8.

Read the general instructions and advice about what is meant by "Draft Essays"

The first of two draft essays will be written in your journal prior to the midterm exam. Here's my suggestion=

Select one or two of the biggest and in your estimation most important and interesting themes or episodes in the shared history of frontier and/or imperialistic expansion.

Explore your topic in the following places=

Saul will be of use on any topic through World War One and the Russian Revolution, and Gaddis is of general use for the whole period since 1780.

Gaddis' first three chapters correspond very closely to the chronology and central focus of Saul's three volumes, except that Saul endeavors a comprehensive account of intellectual, political, social & economic relations between the two areas, while Gaddis provides a more focused account of foreign relations.

Comparisons of Saul and Gaddis on selected topics (using indexes) would be of interest. Can you discover differences of attitude or tone in these two authors, Gaddis and Saul, as they deal with the same topics? Choose some of the key topics from the webpage Frontier and imperialist chronology. For now, don't spend more than two hours on this project.

Think about how the sources you consult relate to one another and to the themes I have developed in lectures. Write an essay about what all these sources, together or separately, contribute to your understanding of some important aspect of the "shared history" of frontier and/or imperialistic expansion.

If your first choice of theme or episode doesn’t pan out (that is, if your choice of topic is poorly represented, or absent, in the sources or anything I’ve said yet), then choose another theme or episode!

As you think about your draft essay, you might want to consider something that relates to one or more of the following big topics:

1) Judging from class discussion and a review of maps, what appear to be the main similarities and differences in the geographical features of Russia and the USA? You might want to note something about the meaning of these similarities and differences for agriculture in the two areas. Check this SAC entry.

2) Why did Russia not maintain its hold on the North-American continent? Why did the United States inherit, through purchase, the Alaskan territories? What does this all suggest about the "shared historical experience" of the two nations? Check these two SAC entries = (1)  (2)

3) How do you explain the "heritage of harmony, 1781-1867" in the relationship between the USA and the Russian Empire? Here I think Saul and Gaddis are the most helpful.

Here are some more specific ideas. Consider the pros and cons of the following bold statements, being careful about the meanings of the key words:

1) The Russian frontier in Siberia is in no way like the US frontier in the West.

2) Russias colonialism or imperialism was uniquely blighted by mercantilist policies [LOOP on "mercantilism"]

3) Russia sold Alaska to the USA simply because it wanted to turn its attentions back to Asia.

4) US policy toward native peoples on its frontier was more humane than parallel Russian policy.

After reading and thinking about this exercise, sit down with your journal and compose a first-draft of an essay describing your conclusions. Notice that you have a great deal of latitude in deciding what your topic should be, but you are still confined, so to speak, within the limits set by the published sources, SAC, and my lectures.

Dont write for more than two hours. Writing usually means re-writing, but this time you should not worry about re-writing. Just write the first "draft", and you’re done.

Some Additional Bibliography

They are many outstanding secondary (books by historians) and a few primary sources that present aspects of the history we are studying. SAC contains references to many more.

Primary sources here, as in SAC, are divided from secondary by "\\" =

*--A Soviet View of the American Past: An Annotated Translation of the Section on American History in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Bolshaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopedia) (1960) (this title is available through ORBIS only, however Knight has full translation, GSE, check index)
*--E. Anschel, ed., The American Image of Russia, 1775-1917 (1974) [ORBIS]
*----------------------, American Appraisals of Soviet Russia, 1917-1977 (1978)
*--Peter Filene, ed., American Views of Soviet Russia, 1917-1965 (1968) (ORBIS)
*--Benson Grayson, ed., The American Image of Russia, 1917-1977 (1978)
*--Olga Hasty et al., eds., America through Russian Eyes, 1874-1926 (1988)
\\
*--L. S. Bourne., et al., eds., Urbanization and Settlement Systems: International Perspectives
*--Max Laserson, The American Impact on Russia, 1784-1917 (1950)

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5th Week  ECONOMIC REVOLUTIONS:
Industrial Revolutions in the late 19th century;
Free Market vs. Five-Year Plans in the mid-20th century

Our main topic this week is "industrialization" or economic modernization. Russia and America industrialized at about the same time, yet the two experiences were notably different. With the help of White, we see the complications and contradictions of laissez faire or market economics and their relationship to statist or mercantilist economic practices

Here are seven main issues and some SAC entries that relate to our topic =

*ISSUE ONE-- Economic modernization in USA:

Take this hypertext hop to the complex SAC entry covering the years 1786:1789. Here certain general features of USA revolutionary economic development are described. We will take up revolution as a distinct topic later. For now, concentrate on the 1789:Tariff and Tonnage Acts. Follow all the hyperlinks. Read to the end of this long entry

1864:1866; USA government aided creation of railroad corporations, just as it helped farmers to settle in the dry, short-grass plains

*--ISSUE TWO = Friedrich List:

Spend some time reading and thinking about the views of the German economist Friedrich List on Russia and USA

*--ISSUE THREE = Economic modernization in Russia:

1889:1905; Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte might have been List's most important "pupil"

Russian statist corporation

*--ISSUE FOUR = Labor: In the aftermath of two emancipations in the 1860s (serfs in Russia, slaves in USA), wage laborers appeared in great numbers and with new force in both Russia and USA. Wage labor is the greatest modern social novelty. There had never been anything like this, the overwhelming majority of the population living outside the bonds of traditional communities and customs, linked to society solely via the rate at which they could sell their time and labor =

Click on the huge "labor" LOOP from 1862, over 30 hops, covering a half century to 1914au04. A new social formation arose and organized itself in unprecedented ways, all in response to unprecedented developments in the productive economies of Russia, USA and the rest of the world

Follow the "farm" LOOP from 1862 to 1972

The labor and farm LOOPS explore some of the social results of industrialization

*--ISSUE FIVE = Welfare: Even conservative European states were pressured to adopt various social welfare measures when the radical labor and socialist movement organized internationally in the Second International. That  hypertext hop indicates the following main reading =

Gaston Rimlinger, Welfare Policy ... in Europe, America, and Russia (1971) [TXT]

The hardcopy on reserve would allow you to read the conclusion (ch.9:333-43) if you wish

For more on welfare (plus more Rimlinger readings), follow the 15-hop welfare LOOP, beginning 1868

*--ISSUE SIX = "Globalization": This is not at all a new feature of life in our world

Overseas corporations, a 12-hop LOOP
Russian-America Company picks up in the middle of this previous LOOP with its own 9-hop LOOP

From the 16th century on, the whaling industry was part of an intensifying "global economy". Trade in whale products, like trade in pepper, tea, tobacco and humans (slaves), required ocean-going transport. In its greatest years, until the middle of the 19th century, whaling was a  peculiarly "American" contribution to global economic life. Try this 7-hop LOOP on whaling

Rise of the more modern trans-national corporation =

International grain trade [5-hop LOOP]
Global petroleum [3 hops]

*--ISSUE SEVEN = "Managerial revolution of the 20th century: We will touch on the WW1 and Russian Revolutionary background to Stalinist economic policy, but for now we are focused on the question industrialization and economic modernization as a world-historical example of shared history. Spend four hours with the following two website readings =

*--Further reading suggestions: Concentrate on the entries that relate to shared economic history = Saul,2:335-64 is especially good on the 1891 famine in Russia, and Saul,2:529-57 & 570-82 are good on economic relations on the eve of WW1

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6th Week Revolutionary Traditions

Exercise 10) =

!! fe14:----------------- MIDTERM EXAM IN JOURNAL, WITH
            FIRST TAKE-HOME DRAFT ESSAY WRITTEN IN JOURNAL BEFORE EXAM TIME

Here is a study-guide
in the form of
taxonomy of keywords relating to the shared Russian & American Historical experience
Read down the column named "midterm" and click to websites that will help you review
(compare with the general taxonomy)

Our topic this week is revolution. Our earlier work on shared histories of economic modernization now mixes with the consideration of two revolutionary traditions, Russian and US. These two constitution-building and legal historical experiences call out for comparison and contrast, every bit as much as the comparisons and contrasts of economic systems. However different, these two revolutionary traditions posed a similar threat to old Europe. Both revolutionary traditions have in different ways reshaped the world.

Consider this page on three phases of world-revolutionary events

*--Read in Saul,1 about the American Revolution and its impact on Russia. Read about the correspondence of Russian Emperor Alexander I with Thomas Jefferson, about the Russian conspirators called "the Decembrists", about the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and Alexander II, and about George Kennan’s expose of Siberian penal colonies (Saul,2:281-93). Spend a couple of hours with Saul,3 and Gaddis to get some sense of the impact on USA of the 1917 revolutions in Russia

A distinctive outcome of the American Revolution was the habit of two-party rule, whereas the Soviet Revolution established one-party rule as the norm.

Consider this LOOP (nearly 40 hops, from the 1820s to the post-WW2 period) on the key words "political party"

 

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7th Week  REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS CONTINUED

*--Once the Russian Revolution got beyond the bloody Civil War period, it introduced a moderate policy known as NEP
*--But that lasted only seven years, giving way to a nasty decade of  statist centralization in Europe and the "Stalinist Revolution" in the crisis years between the two world wars
*--In these same years, 1927:1937, the global capitalist system collapsed temporarily, presenting a greater challenge to the American system than anytime since the Civil War. The collapse of the global market economy reached the USA when the stock market crashed
*--Then came Roosevelt's "New Deal" for economic recovery. On the place of the Roosevelt administration in world history, consider Rimlinger:193-232 [TXT]

Four SAC entries concentrate on macro-economic or political-economic comparisons of Russia and USA in the 20th century:
*--1927de02:Where corporate managerial styles are considered
*--1928my28:Where agricultural economies are considered
*--Look at this SAC analysis of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samuel Huntington, Political Power: USA/USSR (1964), then spend two hours with this [TXT]. How well (and in what way) do you think the book has "aged"?  Seek out 2-3 examples where the book seems outdated and 2-3 examples where the book shows more lasting or "timeless" qualities. Check these observations about religion [TXT].. Notice Brzezinski and Huntington's surprising skepticism or lack of enthusiasm for liberty and democracy [TXT]. What about the attitude toward China? Would it be fair to say that the authors work to show the USSR could never be like USA but that they are unwilling to consider the possibility that USA might become like the USSR? Even more complicated, do the authors consider the possibility that both USSR and USA are moving less toward one another than toward a new third point? In this regard, consider their views, expressed toward the very end, on managerial technocracy [TXT]. Perhaps some of the insights of 1964 still apply to this time

*--A good comparative test of these two revolutions is provided by the shared historical experience of DISSENT in the years 1967:1972

*--By 1985, the Soviet System approached a "revolutionary situation" as serious as the collapse of the global capitalist system sixty years earlier. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's answer was Perestroika, a Soviet-style "new deal" that did not work. Gorbachev was nearly toppled by a coup organized by military-industrial elites who feared his democratization
*--In the years after the collapse of the USSR (perhaps we should say the disintegration of the USSR into 15 components earlier federated), Russia worked to Europeanize its economy and democratize its government. Yeltsin dissolved elected legislative bodies, sent mobile artillery to attack them, and engineered acceptance of a constitution drafted by his presidential faction (statist or executive-branch managers of Russian political life)
*--We might ask "Are Russians Ready for Democracy?" This essay brings James Madison and the Federalist Papers to bear on the problems of Russian reform in the post-Soviet period of Russian history.

Two contrary experiences--one being the American political revolution of 1776 vs. the Russian social revolution of 1917, and the other being the American laissez faire economy vs. the Russian statist economy--shed light not only on the two separate national histories, but also on problems of global politics in our time and the prospects for "privatization" and "marketization" and for "social welfare" in both areas.

 

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8th Week WAR AND PEACE:
World War One and World War Two

The first modern total war, World War One, destroyed old Russia and built the new America. Working in hostile tandem with one another, Russia and USA competed with old Europe.

World War One [WW1] and its imperialist background:
Read the section devoted to imperialism and WW1 in "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion" [TXT]

I will describe Arno Mayer’s ideas about "Wilson vs. Lenin". For those who would like to try Mayer, here are excerpts from his conclusion [TXT]

Read about half of Saul’s descriptions of US/Russian relations in war time (e.g., Saul,2:87-165 & 421-507; Saul,3 is dedicated fully to that topic).

World War Two [WW2]:
Read the section devoted to WW2 in "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion" [TXT]


This is the point in the calendar when you need to be wrapping up exercises seven & eight, and thinking seriously about your second draft essay.

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9th Week WAR AND PEACE CONTINUED

By now you should have completed your reading in White, Kolchin, and Rimlinger. You may not have yet composed your second draft essay, but you should be making progress toward defining what you want to do with that essay.

COLD WAR

The USA and Russia (USSR) not only both fought in World War Two but were the two most important allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. Yet relations were strained to the utmost between the two giant partners, and their experiences of the war were vastly different. The Cold War grew largely from a shared historical experience of modern total war with ambiguous and divergent consequences for each of the main partners.

Read the section devoted to the Cold War in "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion" [TXT]

Wrap up your reading in Brzezinski. This book suggests a great deal about how US scholarship played a role in the Cold War, providing a challenging but perhaps all too complacent comparison of the two superpowers. But notice also the role of the scholar Brzezinski as President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser in the time of the Soviet war in Afghanistan =

Two disastrous "limited wars", America in Vietnam and Russia in Afghanistan, provide fascinating comparisons and contrasts. These wars were deeply lodged in the broader historical experience of Russia and America (not forgetting the experiences of the French, Japanese, and English, or of the Vietnamese and Afghans themselves), and they lend a new complexity and richness to the notion of shared history.

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10th Week   "NEW WORLD ORDER" 

A. Shared "mentalities"

Warren Wagar [ID] explores the comparative intellectual history of Russia and USA, from 19th-century "rationalism" to 20th-century "irrationalism". Consider the way Wagar links conditions of national political, social and economic development with the character of national world views [TXT].

The fate of creative intellectuals under conditions of modern industrialization and the evolution of commercial economies is the center of attention in the following highly linked page on SHARED MENTALITIES [TXT]

How about the blues? Here's an optional reading by Michael Urban and Andrei Evdokimov which explores the surprising shared experience of the blues [TXT]

B. Post-Soviet "New World Order"

Read the section devoted to The New World Order in "Russian and American Frontier and Imperialist Expansion" [TXT]


Complete exercise eleven =

Exercise 11) Research and draft a second essay.  In structure, your second draft essay is like the first. But here I can offer two main options for the topic of your second draft essay. As you make your choice, do not select a topic that overlaps with the earlier draft essay or midterm exam. It is good also to expand your attention beyond the choices you made in exercises eight and nine. In other words, avoid duplication. Do not write the second draft essay on frontier or imperialist expansion.

Option one leans toward secondary works, and option two leans toward primary sources [ID], and you might also find ways to combine both options. Here are the options:

(1) Compare and contrast what, in your opinion, are the most interesting and important lessons about the nature of "shared history" (history seen beyond borders of individual nation states), as learned in some selection from among some combination of your readings, for example, the following =

Saul
Gaddis
White
Kolchin
Rimlinger
Mayer
Merkle
Granick
Brzezinski
Wagar
Kazin (or Van Wyck Brooks)
SAC

Make your own choice of topical or chronological emphasis and concentration or focus. When appropriate, you may use information and interpretations that come from lectures. Be as sweeping as you wish in your generalizations and as broad in your references to these sources; or be as focused, detailed and concentrated in your reference to sources as you wish.

The strictest requirement is that your ideas and your examples must be directly related to the main themes of our course and from the materials you have studied for this course. And I think it is important to recognize that your reader [I am your reader] prefers essays that manage to bring together several course sources (lectures, library readings, web texts linked to the course syllabus, and SAC).

(2) You decide what you want to write about. You may want to base your essay on some selection of primary documents (as you find them indicated in brackets within individual SAC entries). Your title might be something like this: "The contribution of [fill in the blank with your choice of primary documents] to my understanding of the shared histories of Russia and America". In other words, describe how your specific documents illuminate some of the general trends of the history we are studying.

If you're interested in law, political institutions and social structure, you might want to write about the shared history of revolutionary struggles for democracy, social freedom and equality. You might explore some dimension of the issues raised in lectures on the two revolutionary experiences. Email me for some specific recommendations.

 

Exercise 12) Take a final exam and submit the journal to me with the second draft essay complete. Here is some vital information =

!! mr20: at 10:15 -------------- FINAL EXAM IN JOURNAL, WITH
                SECOND DRAFT ESSAY WRITTEN IN THE JOURNAL BEFORE EXAM TIME

Here is a study-guide
in the form of
taxonomy of keywords relating to the shared Russian & American Historical experience
(compare with the general taxonomy)

You may submit a self-addressed and stamped envelope of proper dimension to me at the end, and I will mail your journal to you after grades are submitted. Or email me that you wish to pick up your journal. I will reply telling you where and when you may do that. Good luck to all.

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