History 358-01

Europe Since 1945

Spring, 2004

 

Professor Weisensel

Main 307

Office Hours: 3:30-5:00 MWF

Telephones: x6570; 222-5794

 

Syllabus

 

            This course will offer a survey of European history from the end of World War II to the present day. It will focus primarily on social, economic, and political history. The course is organized chronologically, and within each time period we will concentrate upon that era’s controversial issues; we will not merely discuss the political events of the time.

            Arching over the whole course, though, will be the problematic question: is there such a thing as “progress” in Europe in the late 20th and early 21st centuries? Our approach will be critical, that is, it will weigh both the gains and failures of “progress.” Our course will offer a corrective to the belief that somehow what has happened since 1945 should be accepted on the face of things as “normative” or “proper”.

            Because of the lack of other courses at Macalester on the history of Eastern Europe, that area is included in the course. The history of the USSR is, however, excluded, except when events there effect the rest of Europe in a dramatic way. 

            Students will be evaluated on the basis of four 5-7 pp. take-home essay- exams, which are spaced out roughly every three weeks throughout the term. In addition, on alternate Fridays there will be quizzes (10-15 minutes each). Note that the accumulative grade for the quizzes (only the best 5 of the 6 will count) has the equivalent weight of one of the take-home essay-exams in the computation of your final grade; so, the quizzes are important. There will be no make-ups of quizzes unless you have a very strong excuse; so, be sure to be in class on quiz days. The essay exams will ask you to respond to broad interpretive questions, and the quizzes, to narrower factual questions. 

            Active participation in class discussions will help to earn a higher grade. Attendance is required. More than two unexcused absences will cause your grade to be lowered.

 

 

 

 

 

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

average of 4 essay-exams.....................……...........................70%

average of the best 5 of 6 quizzes......................................20%

contribution to discussions....……........................................10%

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                       100%      

                              

                                                REQUIRED READINGS

               (Available at the Macalester Bookstore (Lambert Bldg.)):

Wegs, Europe Since 1945 (1991. 3rd edition or later editions). Recommended only;

Deak, Gross, and Judt, eds, The Politics of Retribution in Europe (2000);

Pells, They Aren't Like Us (1997);

Judt, A Grand Illusion? (1996)

            www.alibris.com;

            www.amazon.com;

            www.bookfind.com;

            www.powells.com

Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (1993);

Jarausch, The Rush to German Unity (1994);

Strasser, McGovern and Judt, eds., Getting and Spending (1998);

Caplan and Feffer, eds., Europe’s New Nationalism (1996);

Reprints.

(Some of these will be available on our course’s web folder (“Electronic Reserve”, indicated ER). Log into the Macalester home page, choose “Dewitt Wallace Library” and then “electronic reserves”). All the others (marked HO, “Hand-out”) will be turned over to you in class.

 

 Week of:

 

Introduction. New and Old Europe in 1945. Europe between the Superpowers.

                                                            Readings:

 

Jan. 26 (M).      Introduction. No readings.

 

Jan. 28 (W).       1. Wegs, Chs. 1,3;

                   2. Hogan, “The Marshall Plan,” in Meier, Cold War in Europe (HO).

 

 

Jan. 30 (F).         1. Maier, “Alliance and Autonomy," in Lacey, The Truman Presidency (HO).   

                        2. Milward, “The Reconstruction of Western Europe,” in Meier, Cold War in Europe (HO);

 

Feb. 2 (M).         1. Carew, “Labor and the Marshall Plan,” in Meier, Cold War in Europe (HO).                   

 

Memory, Collaboration and Retribution

Readings:

 

Feb. 4 (W).                 1. Deak, “Introduction,” in Deak, Gross and Judt, eds., The Politics of Retribution in Europe          

            in  Deak, Gross and Judt;

                        2. Deak, “A Fatal Compromise? Debate Over Collaboration and Resistance in Hungary,” in Deak, Gross and Judt;

                                    3. Quiz #1. Feb. 4th. 

 

Feb. 6 (F).                  1. Conway, “Justice in Postwar Belgium,” in Deak, Gross and Judt.

                        2. Huyse, “The Criminal Justice System as a Political Actor in Regime Transitions: The Case of Belgium, 1944-50,” in Deak, Gross and Judt.

 

Feb. 9 (M).     1. Farmer, “Postwar Justice in France: Bordeaux 1953,” in Deak, Gross and Judt.

                        2. Abrams, “The Politics of Retribution. The Trial of Jozef Tiso in the Czechoslovak Environment,” in Deak, Gross and Judt.

                        3. Judt, “The Past is Another Country,” in Deak, Gross and Judt.

 

Decolonization and Neo-Colonialism.

Readings:

 

Feb. 11 (W).  First Essay Due in Class. Feb. 11th.

                       

Feb. 13 (F).    1. Wegs, Ch. 6.

           

Feb. 16 (M).               1. Panter-Brick, “Independence, French Style,” in Gifford and Louis, Decolonization and African Independence (ER).

 

Feb. 18 (W).  1. Quiz #2. Feb. 18th.

                                    2. Nkrumah, “Neo-Colonialism;” and

            Fanon, “The Collaborating Class.” (ER, both under Nkrumah’s name);

                                    3. Aldrich, “Epilogue: After the Empire.” (ER)

 

Stalinist and Khrushchevite Eastern Europe.

                                                            Readings:

 

Feb. 20 (F).                1. Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, (pp. 43-77) (ER).

                                                           

Feb. 23 (M).               1. Stokes, "The Hungarian Revolution," (pp- 81-93) (ER);

 

Feb. 25 (W).  1. Djilas, “The New Class” (pp. 101-06); “The Clerks” (pp. 137-43) (ER);

                        2. Steiner, “Dissolution of the ‘Dictatorship over Needs’”? in Strasser, McGovern and Judt, eds., Getting and Spending (1998), pp. 167-186.

 

Americanization of Western Europe.

                                                            Readings:

                         

Feb. 27 (F).                1. Pells, Not Like Us, start.

 

Mar. 1 (M).                 1. Pells, Not Like Us, continue.

 

Mar. 3 (W).                 1. Pells,Not Like Us, finish.

                                    2. Quiz #3. March 3rd.

 

European Economic Recovery. Embourgeoisment of the Working Class?

                                                            Readings:

 

Mar. 5 (F).                  1. DeGrazia, “Changing Consumption Regimes in Europe,” in Strasser, McGovern and Judt, eds. Getting and Spending, pp. 59-83.

                                    2. Wegs, 9;

 

Mar. 8 (M).                 1. Wildt, “Changes in Consumption as Social Practice in West Germany in the 1950s, in Strasser, McGovern and Judt, eds.  Getting and Spending, pp. 301-16.

       2. Gorz, Farewell to the Working Class(1982)

            (excerpts)(ER);         

                                    3. Wegs, 10  

 

 

 

 

1968 and 1973: Their Impact on Politics, Economics and the European Welfare State.

Readings:

 

Mar. 10 (W).   Second Essay Due in Class March 10th.

 

Mar. 12 (F).                1. Rose, “Dynamics of the Welfare Mix in Britain,” in Rose and Shiratori, eds., The Welfare State East and West (1986), 80-106 (ER);

                                    2. Wegs, 12, 14.       

 

March 13-21. Spring Break.

 

Mar.  22 (M).  1. Zopf,”Development, Structure and Prospects of the German Social State,” in Rose and Shiratori, eds., The Welfare State East and West (1986),  pp.126-155 (ER);

                        2. Allardt, “The Civic Conception of the Welfare State in Scandinavia,” in Rose and Shiratori, eds., The Welfare State East and West (1986), pp. 107-125 (ER);      

 

Mar. 24 (W).   1.  Kalyvas, “Hegemony Breakdown: The Collapse of                 Nationalization in Britain and France,” Politics and Society v. 22

            (1994) (ER);

                                    2. Quiz #4. March 24th.

 

Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Totalitarianism and Survival.

Readings:

 

Mar. 26 (F).                1. Wegs, 13;

                        2. Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, Introduction, 1-7.     

           

Mar. 29 (M).               1. Drakulic, 8-14.      

 

Mar. 31 (W).   1. Drakulic, 15-19, Epilogue;

                        2. Merkel, “Consumer Culture in the GDR,” in Strasser, McGovern and Judt, Getting and Spending, pp. 281-299.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reemergence of Defense in Politics in the 1980s. Disarmament and the Peace Movement. Protest Movements in European Politics.

Readings:

 

Apr. 2 (F).       1. deMaiziere, “Arguments”(ER);   

                        2.  Hyland, “Peace Movements”(ER)

 

Apr. 5 (M).                  1. Threlfall, “Women’s Movement in Spain,” New Left Review no. 151 (ER);

                        2. Haug, “Women’s Movement in West Germany,” New Left Review no. 155 (ER).

 

Apr. 7 (W).                 1. Kramer, “Place Dauphine” (ER);

                        2. Brochmann, European Integration and Immigration from Third Countries, Chapter 1: “Immigration Control and Nation-States,” (ER)

                         

Apr. 9-11. Easter Break

 

Apr. 12 (M).                1. Quiz #5. April 12th;

                        2. Costa-Lascoux, “Immigration Policies and the Single European Market.” (ER);

                        3. Fijalkowski, “Aggressive Nationalism and Immigration in Germany,” in Caplan and Feffer, eds., Europe’s New Nationalism.

 

European Unity and Its Pitfalls

Readings:

 

Apr. 14 (W).   Third Essay Due in Class April 14th.          

 

Apr. 16 (F).    1. Judt, A Grand Illusion? (1996), pp. 1-82.

 

Apr. 19 (M).               1. Judt, A Grand Illusion?, pp. 83-128.

 

Collapse of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe and Communism’s Ideological Replacement, Nationalism.

                                                            Readings:

 

Apr. 21 (W).   1. Caplan and Feffer, eds., Europe’s New Nationalism, 1(Michnik), 3(Mastnak);

                                    2. Quiz #6. April 21st.

 

Apr. 23 (F).                1. Caplan and Feffer, 2(Tishkov), 6 (Voss).          

 

Apr. 26 (M).                1. Caplan and Feffer, 10(Schöpflin), 11(Milic)

 

What Now?

Readings:

Apr. 28 (W).   1. Fukuyama, “The End of History,” The National Interest, 1989,                                    no. 16 (ER);

                        2. Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations,” Foreign Affairs 72 (ER)  

 

Apr. 30 (F).                1. Kaldor, “Cosmopolitanism Versus Nationalism: The New Divide?,” in Caplan and Feffer, Europe’s New Nationalism.

                        2. Nodia, “Nationalism and the Crisis of Liberalism,” in Caplan and Feffer, Europe’s New Nationalism.

 

May 3 (M).                  T.B.A.

                                                           

Fourth Essay due in my office by May 4th, 5:00 p.m.