History 3B: Modern Europe, 1890 to the Present
The Age of Democracy and Dictatorship
Spring 2004
Bob Weinberg
Office Hours: Mondays 2-4
Trotter 218
Tuesdays
2-4
8133
Wednesdays 2-4
rweinbe1
This course is designed to introduce you to how historians have studied the events of the twentieth century in Europe. We will not attempt to narrate the entire history of the period. Instead, we will focus on a variety of themes and problems in order to illustrate key features of twentieth-century European history. As a PDC this course will help you learn how to think and write like a historian. You will discover the joys of analyzing primary sources, revel in the wonders of historiography, and realize that understanding the human past is subject to multiple interpretations and open to constant revision. I plan to mix lectures and discussions. It is therefore imperative that you keep up with the assigned readings so you can participate actively in the class.
You will work with a Writing Associate during the course of the semester, and you are required to work with the Writing Associate on all written assignments before you submit them to me for evaluation.
Course
Requirements:
Attendance
and participation in class discussions
Final
examination
Three
four-page essays. You will have a
choice of selecting from four essays during the course of the semester.
Eight-page
historiographical essay
Except for required books, all readings are on Blackboard. Required books are on course reserve and available for purchase. They are:
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men
Slavenka Drakulic, CafŽ Europa
Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism
Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis
Heda Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star
I
have not asked you to buy a textbook.
Instead I have placed the following books on course reserve and expect
you to read one of the texts as the semester progresses. They are:
Lynn
Hunt, ed., The Challenge of the West (also known as The Making of the West)
John
Merriman, A History of Modern Europe, volume 2
Spencer
Di Scala, Twentieth Century Europe
January 19: The Study of
History
January 21: Europe on the
Eve of World War I: Political Concerns
ÒDeclaration of the
Rights of Man and CitizenÓ
January 23: Europe on the
Eve of World War I: Social Concerns
Rosa Luxemburg, ÒSocial
Reform or RevolutionÓ
Alexandra Kollontai,
ÒWomen and the Family in the Communist StateÓ
January 26: Europe on the
Eve of World War I: National Concerns
Ernst Renan, ÒWhat is a
Nation?Ó
Katherine Verdery,
ÒWhither `NationÕ and `NationalismÕ?Ó
January 28: Europe on the
Eve of World War I: The Jewish Question
ÒProtocols of the Elders
of ZionÓ
Theodor Fritsch, ÒThe
RacistsÕ DecalogueÓ
Houston Steward
Chamberlain, ÒThe Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
January 30: Europe on the
Eve of World War I: The Malaise of Modernity
February 2: The Cataclysm
of War
Denis Winter, ÒThe Strain
of Trench WarfareÓ
Ernst Junger, ÒCopse 125Ó
and ÒThe Storm of SteelÓ
February 4: The Cataclysm
of War
February 6: The Impact of War
February 9: The
Bolsheviks Come to Power: Russia in 1917
February 11: The
Bolsheviks Come to Power: Russia in 1917
Leon Trotsky,
ÒPeculiarities of RussiaÕs DevelopmentÓ
LeninÕs Theory of the
Party
February 13:
Understanding the Russian Revolution
Ronald Suny, ÒRevising
the Old StoryÓ
February 16: Europe After
the War
February 18: The
Emergence of Fascism: Mussolini and Italy
Benito Mussolii, ÒThe
Political and Social Doctrine of FascismÓ
February 20: The
Emergence of Nazism in Germany
Adolf Hitler, Excerpts
from Mein Kampf
Peter Fritzsche, Germans
into Nazis
February 23: The
Bolshevik Dilemma: The Soviet Union in the 1920s
Joseph Stalin, ÒSocialism
in One CountryÓ
Leon Trotsky, ÒPermanent
RevolutionÓ
February 25: Revolution
from Above in the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin, ÒThe Hard
LineÓ
Lev Kopelov, ÒTerror in
the CountrysideÓ
Miron Dolot, ÒFamine in
UkraineÓ
February 27: Living with Stalinism
Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday
Stalinism
March 1: Stalin and the
Great Terror
Stephen Cohen,
ÒBolshevism and StalinismÓ
Documents on the Purges
March 3: Women and Politics on the Eve of War
Watch Degenerate Art (60 minutes) for class
March 5: No Class
March 15: The Middle
Falls Out; Reflections on Modernity, the State and Violence
March 17: The Road to the
Final Solution
Michael Marrus, ÒThe
Final SolutionÓ
or
Christopher Browning,
ÒThe Decision Concerning the Final SolutionÓ
March 19: The Final
Solution: Understanding the Killers
Christopher Browning, Ordinary
Men
Film: The Story of
Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz
(58 minutes)
March 22 Europe after the
War: The Search for Renewal and Stability
Gerald Frank, ÒThe
Tragedy of the DPÕsÓ
Bruno Foa, ÒEurope in
RuinsÓ
George C. Marshall,
ÒLaying the Foundations for RecoveryÓ
Stephen Spendler,
ÒEuropean WitnessÓ
March 24: Bipolar
Disorder: The Cold War
Winston Churchill, ÒThe
Iron CurtainÓ
George F. Kennan,
ÒContaining the Soviet UnionÓ
G. E. R. Gedye, ÒWitness
to the Czechoslovak CoupÓ
Wolfgang Leonhard, ÒThe
Communist Takeover of East GermanyÓ
March 26: StalinÕs Last
Years
Document on The DoctorÕs
Plot
Document on Rootless
Cosmopolitanism
March 29: Life after
Stalin
Nikita Khrushchev,
ÒReport to the Twentieth Party CongressÓ
March 31: Library Tour
April 1: Coming to Grips
with the Past: The Issue of Guilt and Responsibility
Gitta Sereny, Excerpts
from her Interviews with Franz Stangl
Robert Moeller, ÒWar
Stories: The Search for a Usable Past in the Federal Republic of GermanyÓ
Film: Mein Krieg (90 minutes). Also titled My Private War
April 5: Decolonization
and the Dissolution of EuropeÕs Empires
Jawaharlal Nehru,
ÒIndiaÕs Resentment of British RuleÓ
Ayatollah Khomeini, ÒThe
Meaning of the Cultural RevolutionÓ
Film: The Battle of
Algiers (123 minutes)
April 7: Cracks in the
Wall: The Emergence of the Dissident Movement in the Soviet Union
Documents on Andrei
Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Roy Medvedev
April 9: Surviving Hitler
and Stalin in Eastern Europe
Heda Kovaly, Under a
Cruel Star
April 12: The Welfare
State
Margaret Thatcher, ÒThe
1980 Steel StrikeÓ
Tony Blair, ÒNew Labour
and the UnionsÓ
Ludwig Erhard, ÒWest
GermanyÕs Social Market EconomyÓ
April 14: Bombs,
Kidnapping and the Perils of Middle-Class Comfort
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, ÒThe
French Student RevoltÓ
Red Brigades Communique
No. 1 and No. 6
April 16: Can Communism
be Reformed?
Mikhail Gorbachev on Perestroika
and Glasnost
Nina Andreeva, ÒWhy I
Cannot Forgo My PrinciplesÓ
April 19: The Failure of
Communism in Eastern Europe
Vaclav Havel, ÒFarce,
Reformability, and the Future of the WorldÓ
Stasi Report on Motives
for Emigration
Timothy Garton Ash,
ÒBerlin: WallÕs EndÓ
April 21: The Collapse of
the Soviet Union
Victoria Bonnell and
Gregory Freidin, ÒTelevorot: The Role of Television Coverage in RussiaÕs
August 1991 CoupÓ
April 23: Life in Postcommunist Europe
Slavenka Drakulic, CafŽ
Europa
April 26: Reconstructing
Europe
Timothy Garton Ash,
ÒMitteleuropa?Ó
Jorg Haider,
ÒMulticulturalism and Love of OneÕs CountryÓ
Jocahim Krautz, ÒThe
Grapes of NeglectÑViolence and Xenophobia in GermanyÓ
Ingo Hasselbach, ÒInside
the Neo-Nazi SceneÓ
April 28: Nationalism
Rears Its Ugly Head Again
Norman Naimark, Ethnic
Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe
April 30: What Does the
Future Hold?
REVISED VERSION DUE BY 5 PM ON APRIL 30