Prof. Julie Hessler
Office: McKenzie 351
Office hours: M 3:30 - 5:00
F 10:00 - 11:30 (or by appointment)
Telephone: 346-4857 (o), 302-9032 (h)
HISTORY 428/528 EASTERN EUROPE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
MWF 9:00-9:50
Straub 154
Course description: This course is intended to provide an intensive introduction to the history of Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. The course has no prerequisites, and assumes no specific knowledge of Eastern Europe, but does presuppose some familiarity with European history. Themes for the quarter include the territorial settlements after World War I and the emergence of the new states; national minorities and nationalism; economic development in Eastern Europe; Soviet and Nazi occupation; the communist takeovers; Stalinism and destalinization in Eastern Europe; intellectual responses to communism; civil society in the Soviet bloc; the collapse of communism; the Yugoslav wars.
Format: Lecture and discussion.
Grades will be based on:
(undergrads) map quiz, 5%; midterm, 25%; final exam, 30%; paper, 30%; participation, 10%.
(grads) midterm, 25%; final exam, 25%; final paper (ca. 15-page review essay on a subject of your choice), 50%. Participation is also expected and could affect your grade by up to one notch.
Required readings (available at bookstore):
Edward D. Wynot, Jr., Caldron of Conflict: Eastern Europe, 1918-1945
Jan T. Gross, Neighbors
Joseph Rothschild and Nancy M. Wingfield, Return to Diversity
Vaclav Havel, Open Letters: Selected Writings, 1960-1991
Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism (documents)
Course packet
Grads only: Joseph Rothschild, East-Central Europe between the Two World Wars
TOPICS:
Week 1. Nationalism and war in the Balkans. Reading: Wynot, 1-27; documents on the Balkan wars (course packet); Pearson, "A New Europe" (course packet); Paul Magocsi, A Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, p 150 (in Map Library at Knight, call # G2081.S1 M3 1993.
Mon., Jan. 6 Introduction: themes, fissures, and constraints in interwar Eastern Europe
Wed., Jan. 8 Nationalism and war in the Balkans, 1912-1913 (Reading for discussion: Wynot, 1-9; Balkan war documents, course packet)
Fri., Jan. 10 The postwar settlements and ethnic minorities (Reading for discussion: Wynot, 10-27; Pearson, "A New Europe," course packet)
Week 2. Interwar Eastern Europe: politics, culture, economics. Reading: Wynot, 28-56; Bartok, "On the significance of folk music" (course packet); Iovkov, ?; Moricz? Grads: Rothschild on Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania.
Mon., Jan. 13 Bulgaria and Hungary: political turmoil in the defeated states (Reading: Wynot 37-39, 46-48). Map quiz
Wed., Jan. 15 High art and folk art in interwar Eastern Europe: examples from Bulgaria and Hungary. (Discuss Bartok, "On the significance of folk music"; Iovkov, ...; Moricz, ..).
Fri., Jan. 17 Land reform, economic development, and the Great Depression. (Reading: Wynot, 28-56; Stokes?).
Week 3. Anti-democratic politics. Reading: Wynot, 56-80; Ezra Mendelsohn, "Relations between Jews and Non-Jews Between the Two World Wars," in François Furet, ed., Unanswered Questions (Schocken, 1989).. Weber: Grads: more Rothschild.
Mon., Jan. 20 Martin Luther King Day: no class.
Wed., Jan. 22 The 1930s: decade of dictatorships
Fri., Jan. 24 Ethnic minorities revisited: The Jews of Eastern Europe and the rise of anti-semitism. Discuss Mendelsohn, "Relations between Jews and Non-Jews Between the Two World Wars" and Weber, "The Men of the Iron Cross."
Week 4. War and Holocaust. Readings: Gross, Neighbors; Wyka, "The Excluded Economy" (course packet).
Mon., Jan. 27 Oasis of democracy: Czechoslovakia (lecture)
Wed., Jan. 29 German occupation, collaboration, and genocide in Poland (discuss Gross, Neighbors).
Fri., Jan. 31 German occupation from the Polish point of view (discuss Wyka)
Week 5. World War II, cont. Pearson, "War and the Minorities" (course packet); Rothschild, Return to Diversity, 1-22 (optional - you may find it useful for exam preparation), 23-73 (required); maps in Magocsi, 152-9 (on reserve).
Mon., Feb. 3 World War II as civil war in Yugoslavia (lecture)
Wed., Feb. 5 War, Holocaust, and Porajmos: review (discuss Pearson, "War and the Minorities" and Rothschild).
Fri., Feb. 7 Midterm exam
Week 6. The communist takeovers. Readings: Return to Diversity, 74-123; Magocsi, 160-8 (on reserve or in Map Library).
Mon., Feb. 10 Introduction to the communist era (lecture, but prepare Rothschild)
Wed., Feb. 12 Reschedule class for 2-hour film by Vojtech Jasny, All My Good Countrymen
Fri., Feb. 14 Discuss film; lecture on agriculture and rural life in the 1940s-50s.
Week 7. Stalinism. Readings: Return to Diversity, 125-60; From Stalinism to Pluralism (documents), 43-105.
Mon., Feb. 17 Stalinist repression and political culture (discuss documents, 43-78?; Return to Diversity, 125-46)
Wed., Feb. 19 Stalin's death, the "New Course," and the uprisings of 1953, 1956 (discuss documents, 81-92; Return to Diversity, 147-60).
Fri., Feb. 21 Yugoslavia in the Tito era: from Stalinism to federalism (lecture and discussion; prepare documents 57-65, 94-105).
Week 8. A cultural revolution? Reading: Return to Diversity 160-90; From Stalinism to Pluralism, 122-36; Havel, "The Power of the Powerless," in Open Letters, 125-214; Slavenka Drakulic, three short essays in course packet.
Mon., Feb. 24 Prague Spring: cultural revolution, controlled liberalization, intervention (lecture and discussion; prepare documents, 122-36 and Return to Diversity, xx).
Wed., Feb. 26 Discuss Havel, "The Power of the Powerless"
Fri., Feb. 28 Discuss Drakulic: consumption as conformity or consumption as dissent?
Week 9. From Solidarity to the revolutions of 1989. Readings: Return to Diversity, 191-264; From Stalinism to Pluralism, 204-14; 225-48, 257-64.
Mon., Mar. 3 Solidarity. (lecture, with film clip, and discussion; prepare documents pp. 204-215).
Wed., Mar. 5 Towards revolution: Poland, Hungary, and the USSR in the 1980s (discuss documents, 225-48).
Fri., Mar. 7 Communist backwaters: Romania and Bulgaria (lecture, but prepare documents 257-64). Paper topics and preliminary bibliography for final research paper due.
Week 10. Brave new world. Readings: Return to Diversity, 265-302; Gale Stokes, "Lessons of 1989" and "The Devil's Finger" (course packet); Havel, "New Year's Address," in Open Letters, 390-96; From Stalinism to Pluralism, 217-23; maps in Magocsi, 140, 173-6.
Mon., Mar. 10 The aftermath of 1989 (discuss Stokes, "Lessons of 1989"; Havel, "New Year's Address")
Wed., Mar. 12 The breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars of succession (discuss Stokes, "The Devil's Finger")
Fri., Mar. 14 Conclusion: "Central Europe" and "unified" Europe (discuss documents, 217-23).
Final exam; final paper