Course Description:
This one semester course is open to juniors and seniors. A seminar course in which individual students bear the primary responsibility for presenting the majority of the material to the rest of the class, Contemporary History examines issues in contemporary culture in the historical context that created the issues. One part history, one part economics, one part political science, one part psychology, and one part public speaking, this course is a survey of the entire gamut of offerings in the Walker Social Studies Department.
Prerequisite: World History and US History

Book List:
Newsweek magazine
Student created readings

Special Considerations Concerning this Course:

Students will be assigned one news story per week. For each news story, a detailed summary of the historical background explaining the context of the story will be researched, written and distributed to the remaining students.

For each major news story, a detailed written analysis will be required in preparation to present the analysis orally before the class. Subsequently, the student will then lead the class in discussion of the background, content, and analysis of the story.

 

Important Links:
Syllabus Fall Semester
Syllabus Spring Semester
Survival Guide
Class Presentations

Subscribe to Newsweek

 

 

 

 

Useful Links (Media):

Media Ownership

Media Self Censorship

Useful Links (Voting):

How do I Register to Vote

Where do I vote?

How do I use Georgia's new touch screen voting system?

 

 

Useful Links (General):
The CIA World Fact Book

Political Resources on the Net

Election World

Area Studies and Comparative Government

Foreign Government Sources

Nationmaster

The United Nations

Library of Congress Country Studies

Yahoo Links to World Governments

The United States State Department

 

Useful Links (Print News):

The Economist (UK)

BBC Online (UK)

The Guardian (UK)

The Washington Post

The New York Times

Newsweek MSNBC Online

National Public Radio

The Atlantic Monthly

Christian Science Monitor

Voice of America (US Government)

Pravda (Russia)

Reuters News Service (German)

Der Spiegel (German)

La Monde (France)

Turkish Weekly (Turkey)

Arab News (Saudi Arabia)

The Times (India)

Asahi Shimbun (Japan)

Asia Times (Hong Kong)

Al Jazeera (Qatar)

 

Useful Links (TV):

Jump TV

United Nations TV

BBC Nightly News Video Podcast

 

Useful Links (Specialized):

Freedom House (World Human Rights Information)

Human Development Reports

Transparency International

Corruption Perception Index

Test My Foreign Policy Preferences

International Forum on Globalization

History House

Parliament of the UK

The European Union

 

Political Satire:

The Capitol Steps

Generic political jokes

National Debt Clock :

The following is a running total of the US national debt based on an algorithm provided by zFActs.com.

 

National Debt Clock

 

Divide the total you see by the population of the country (300 million) to determine your share of the national debt. This is how much more money the government must now take from you in taxes or deny to you in benefits (in the form of national defense, student grants and loans, highway construction, law enforcement, etc.)

Since the 1960s, the national debt has gone up in every administration, Repbublican and Democrat. It has gone up when Democrats have controlled Congress and when Republicans have. No party is solely responsible. The voters who have chosen the politicians are. Who do you blame if you have never voted? Have you ever seen the bumper sticker on the expensive car, "I am spending my children's inheritance!" It is more true than you thought.