HIEU 128: Europe Since 1945
Course Description:
This course aims to introduce students to the main themes and problems of European history from end of the Second World War to the post-Cold War era. The most salient feature of this period was the division of Europe into two opposing political blocs that in many ways faced sharply diverging fortunes. But the period since 1945 also witnessed various trends and developments that swept across national and bloc boundaries. This course covers the period from a transnational and comparative perspective that focuses especially on parallel and divergent trends in both halves of the divided continent. We will concentrate on developments inside Europe but also address Europe's relationship to the wider world. In particular, the course will follow four themes throughout European History since 1945. First, we we analyze European history specifically as postwar history, that is we will analyze the ways in which Europeans confronted the legacies of the Second World War in the postwar period. Secondly, we will analyze the international and transnational context of European history, especially as it pertains to the Cold War and to the collapse of European Empires. Thirdly, we will analyze the relationship between economic developments (first unprecedented growth, then stagnation) and political transformations in Eastern and Western Europe. Finally, we will discuss the dramatic transformation of European societies and cultures, especially as they manifested itself in youth cultures in East and West.
Course Readings:
William Hitchcock, The Struggle for Europe
Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star. A Life in Prague, 1941-68
Carolin Elkins, Imperial Reckoning. The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
George Perec, Things. A Novel from the Sixties
Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern. The Revolution '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague
(Books are available at UCSD Bookstore and on reserve in Geisel Library)
A Reader with articles and documents.
Several films will be shown as well.
Course Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction and Background
April 3: Introduction
April 5: The Decline of Europe, 1914-1945
Readings:
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, "Europe in Ruins"
April 10: Post-War Retribution
April 12: Divided Memory
Robert Moeller, "Remembering War in a Nation of Victims"
Donald Sasson, "Italy after Fascism"
April 11 Film: Rome. Open City (7 pm, CTR 105)
April 17: The Cold War
April 19: The "German Question"
Readings:
Hitchcock, Struggle for Europe , 13-39.
The Truman Doctrine," March 12, 1947
Andrei Zhdanov, "The Two-Camp Policy," September 1947
East-West German Immigration Statistics, 1950-1989
Primary Documents on the Building of the Berlin Wall
Start Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star. A Life in Prague
Film: Dr. Strangelove or How I Learnt To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (only HITO192)
April 24: Western Europe: The Resurgence of Liberalism
April 26: Eastern Europe: The Establishment of Communism
Readings:
Hitchcock, Strugle for Europe, 40-130, 192-220
Finish Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star. A Life in Prague.
Sir William Beveridge, "New Britain" (1942)
The Bad Godesberg Program of the German Social Democratic Party (1959)
Film: The Man of Marble (only HITO 192)
Week 5: Culture and Society in the 1950s
May 1 : Culture and Society in the 1950s
May 3 : MIDTERM
Readings:
Uta Poiger, "Rock'n'Roll, Female Sexuality, and the Cold War Batttle over German Identity
Udo Lindenberg, "Rock'n'Roll and German Teenagers"
Film: Hunde Wollt Ihr Ewig Leben? (only HITO 192)
Week 6: Decolonization and its Consequences
May 8: The Fall of European Empires
May 10: The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Immigration
Readings:
Hitchcock, Struggle for Europe , 162-192, 410-434
Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning(selections)
May 9: Film: The Battle of Algiers (7pm, CTR 105)
Week 7: 1968
May 15: Paris
May 17: Prague
Readings:
Hitchcock, Struggle for Europe 247-257, 288-93.
George Perec, Things
Ludvik Vaculik, Two Thousand Words to Workers, Framers, Scientists, Artists and Everyone," June 27, 1968
The Brezhnev Doctrine
Film Masculin Feminin (only HITO 192)
Week 8: Drifting Apart: The 1970s and 1980s
May 22: Economic Crisis and Political Transformations
May 24: Detente and Ostpolitik
Readings:
Hitchcock, Struggle for Europe, 243-46, 269-341
Peter Schneier, The Wall Jumper
Egon Bahr, "Change Through Rapprochement" (1963)
The Moscow Treaty (1970)
Brandt's Visit to the GDR (1970)
The Basic Treaty (1972)
East-West German Immigration Statistics, 1950-1989
Film Marriane and Juliane (only HITO 192)
Week 9: 1989 and Beyond
May 29: The European Revolutions
May 31: The Nightmare Come True: War in Yugoslavia
FINAL PAPER DUE
Readings:
Hitchcock, Struggle for Europe , 347-409.
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern
Vaclav Havel, "Letter to Husak"
Solidarity's Program, October 16, 1981.
The Tageszeitung on the Opening of the Berlin Wall, Nov.11, 1989
Week 10: A New Europe?
June 5 : Contemporary Europe
June 7: Conclusion and Review
Film: June 6: Good Bye Lenin (7 pm, CTR 105)