From: The Modern World Global History since 1760 Course Team <noreply@coursera.org>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 3:41 AM
To: jeeproject@yahoo.com
Subject: Starting Week 3

Dear jeffrey epstein,

Dear class,

The material for Week 3 is now posted.

If you are just joining the class, or are falling behind, remember that the=weekly quizzes remain open. The later you complete them, there is a modes= discount on the possible score. But the scoring system builds in some he=droom. Anyone who works their way through all 14 weeks of quizzes and get= the majority of the questions right will have well earned our Statement o= Accomplishment and (perhaps more important) an enriched understanding of =ow the world got to be the way it is today.

A lot of enrichment is apparent in the discussion forums. In Week Two, for=instance, a recurrent question is, as one student put it: Who is revoltin= against whom?

Well, that answer changes. You start with a context in which aristocrats a=e rebelling against the king, with the aristocrats invoking ideas of liber=y against tyranny. In the American case, it is essential to understand th=t the rebellious Americans — many of them representing their colon=es' version of an aristocracy -- resent the role of a Parliament in London=that is not their constituted body. In effect, they are feeling ruled by = British aristocracy and appealing to the King. Independence comes when s=me conclude the King has become part of the problem, not part of the solut=on.

Then, in America and in France, what begins as an upper-class movement rese=tful of royal assertion (with the King often the one claiming to act on be=alf of the whole nation) becomes, when mobilized into action, something el=e. The ideas have a power and logic that keeps spreading in a society whe=e authority of all kinds has been growing more diffuse (the points in 2.1)= An Estates General turns into a National Constituent Assembly — =he Third Estate effectively seceding from the other two and asserting itse=f. A National Constituent Assembly turns into a National Convention. And=so on.

And that argument spreads back again from France back to the United States =f America, where the 1790s were dominated by a bitter political and cultur=l argument about the social inclusiveness of their new republic. Federali=ts accused Republicans of being "democrats" (at that time a term of abuse,=a synonym for mob rule). Republicans accused Federalists of being "monarc=ists," trying to restore aristocratic tyranny with its fiscal-military sta=e.

So what began as one kind of revolt morphed into another, giving birth to h=ge and lasting arguments about who should be "citizens," what "liberty" me=ns, and what methods government should use in relation to traditional ways=of life.

You'll see this 'who is revolting against whom' problem come up again in We=k 3, especially in the presentation about Latin America. The answer may s=metimes surprise you.

Last point: And what are they revolting against? Not necessarily against = strong ruler, or in favor of "democracy" as we understand that term in ou= generation. First Consul Bonaparte, the man on horseback for the French =epublic, was still widely seen as a revolutionary hero. Because many thou=ht he was the necessary dictator in the fight against ...

I'll just stop there and let the presentations for Week 3 pick up the story=

Best wishes,

Philip Zelikow

The Modern World: Global History since 1760 Course Team You are receiving this email because jeeproject@=ahoo.com is enrolled in The Modern World: Global History since 1760 <https://class.coursera.org/modernworld-=012- 001/class/index> . To stop receiving similar future emails from this class, please cl=ck here chttps://class.coursera.oremodernworld-2012-

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