The course is designed to provide a basic introduction to the twentieth-century history of the countries between Germany and the former Soviet Union. The materials are chosen to illustrate a variety of different types of issues: national, political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual. Similarly, the types of materials employed are varied: survey textbooks, selections from monographs, literary pieces, contemporary documents, interviews and films. The intent is both to explore the problematic history of the region, and to expose you to a variety of approaches and materials. It begins with World War One and the creation of what we now think of as Eastern Europe, and ends with the fall of communism.

Books required throughout (available at Labyrinth Books – 112^th between Broadway and Amsterdam):

R. J. Crampton. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Gale Stokes, ed. From Stalinism to Pluralism. A Documentary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945. NY/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

All other readings, unless otherwise noted, are (or will be) available in Butler Reserves.

Charles Ingrau. "Ten Untaught Lessons about Central Europe." [Handout]

Map collection. [Handout]

13-15 September. Historical Background before World War One. 171 (48)

Crampton. Chapter 1.

Alan Palmer. "Ferment Down the Danube" and "To Sarajevo." Chapters Five and Six of The Lands Between. New York: Macmillan, 1970. 71-119.

Gale Stokes. "Eastern Europe’s Defining Fault Lines" and "The Social Origins of East European Politics." In: Gale Stokes. Three Eras of Political Change in Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford, 1997. 7-22, 36-66.

Czeslaw Milosz. "Introduction," "Place of Birth" and "Ancestry." In: Czeslaw Milosz. Native Realm. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. 1-35.

Mark Twain. "Stirring Times in Austria." Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 96 (March1898) 530-40. Available online in three sections beginning at: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~habsweb/sourcetexts/twain1.htm

Discussion Section.

20-22 September. World War One and the Creation of the "New Europe." 186 (99)

Alan Palmer. "’The Universal War for the Freedom of Nations" and "The Making of Peace." Chapters Seven and Eight of The Lands Between. New York: Macmillan, 1970, 120-174.

Peter Hanák. "Vox Populi: Intercepted Letters in the First World War." Chapter Eight of The Garden and the Workshop. Essays on the Cultural History of Vienna and Budapest. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. 179-212.

Karl Kraus. The Last Days of Mankind. In: In These Great Times. Manchester: Carcanet, 1984. 159-258.

Small collection of statistical data. [Handout]

N.B. Quiz #1 will be on 22 September.
***Quiz delayed until 27 September

Discussion Section. Todd's questions for the sections.

Also, look here for the story of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

27-29 September. Postwar Instability: Structural and Political. 145. (26)

Crampton. Chapters 2 and 11.

Bradley Abrams. "Eastern Europe Between the Wars: A Schematic Approach." ±20pp.

Ivan Berend. "Class Revolutions – Counterrevolutions" and "Belated National Revolutions." Chapters Five and Six of Decades of Crisis. Berkeley: University of California, 1998. 119-84.

Josef Roth. "The Bust of the Emperor." In: Hotel Savoy; Fallmerayer the Stationmaster; The Bust of the Emperor. London: Chato and Windus, 1986. 157-83.

Discussion Section. Rebekah's questions for the sections.

4-6 October. East-Central Europe’s Short "Honeymoon" and the Rise of Authoritarianism. 68

Crampton. Chapters 3-6.

Discussion Section. Todd's questions for the sections.

11-13 October. Under German Eyes: Domestic Fascisms, Economic and Foreign Policy. 120 (75)

Crampton. Chapters 7-10.

Michael Henry Heim. “The Plague Years” and Karel Capek. The White Plague. In: Cross Currents. A Yearbook of Central European Culture 7 (1988) 429-504.

Discussion Section. Rebekah's questions for the sections.

Film: Eastern Europe 1914-1939. [Count the mistakes! Show how much you’ve learned!]

18-20 October. World War Two. 170 (96)

Crampton. Chapter 12.

E. A. Radice. "Economic Developments in Eastern Europe under German Hegemony." In Martin McCauley, ed. Communist Power in Europe. London: Macmillan, 1977. 3-21.

E. A. Radice. "The Collapse of German Hegemony and its Economic Consequences." Chapter Twenty of M. C. Kaser and E. A. Radice, eds. The Economic History of Eastern Europe 1919-1975. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986. 495-519.

Josef Skvorecky. "The Bass Saxophone." In: The Bass Saxophone. London: Picador, 1980. 73-125.

Tadeusz Borowski. "Auschwitz, Our Home." In: This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976. 98-142.

Film: Jan Kadar. The Shop on Main Street.

Discussion Section. Todd's Questions for the Sections.

25-27 October. The End of the Old East Central Europe. 42+

Stokes. Documents 1-4.

Bradley Abrams. "Morality, Wisdom and Revision: The Czech Opposition of the 1970s and the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans." East European Politics and Societies 9 (1995) 234-55.

Collection of information on World War Two and the postwar states of Eastern Europe. [Handout]

Holocaust Reading TBD.

N.B. MIDTERM EXAM 27 October. Midterm Information and Study Questions

1-3 November. The Communists’ Road to Power. 121 (63)

N.B. 1 November a holiday. Come to class if you want, but I won’t be here.

Crampton. Chapter 13.

Stokes. Documents 5-6.

Jan Gross. "The Social Consequences of War: Preliminaries for the Study of the Imposition of Com-munist Regimes in East Central Europe." East European Politics and Societies 3 (1989) 198-214.

Hugh Seton-Watson. "The Seizure of Power." In: The East European Revolution. New York: Praeger, 1951. 167-70.

Czeslaw Milosz. "Preface," "The Pill of Murti-Bing," and "Looking to the West." In: The Captive Mind. New York: Vintage, 1955. vii-53.

Film: Andrej Wajda. Ashes and Diamonds.

8-10 November. Stalinism in East-Central Europe. 170 (115)

Crampton. Chapters 14 and 15.

Stokes. Documents 9-11.

Czeslaw Milosz. "Ketman." In: The Captive Mind. New York: Vintage, 1955. 54-81.

Heda Margolius Kovaly. Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1987. 93-143.

Milan Kundera. The Joke. New York: Penguin, 1983. 22-43.

Teresa Toranska. Interview with Julia Minc. In: "Them." Stalin’s Polish Puppets. NY: Harper and Row, 1987. 13-30.

N.B. Quiz #2 will be on 8 November.

Discussion Section.

15-17 November. Destalinization Crises 1956. 150 (105).

Crampton. Chapter 16.

Stokes. Documents 12-13.

Milovan Djilas. "The New Class." From: The New Class. New York: Harper Torchbook, 1957. 37-69.

Selected documents from: Paul Zinner, ed. National Communism and Popular Revolt in Eastern Europe: A Selection of Documents on Events in Poland and Hungary, February-November, 1956. NY: Columbia UP, 1956.

Selected documents from: Edmund Stillman, ed. Bitter Harvest. The Intellectual Revolt behind the Iron Curtain. London: Thames and Hudson, 1957.

Films: Short documentary on Budapest, October 1956, and Andrzej Wajda. Man of Marble.

22-24 November. The Rise and Fall of "Reformed Communism." 135.

Crampton. Chapters 17-8.

Stokes. Documents 14-21.

Kieran Williams. "Part I: Liberalization, intervention, and normalization." In: The Prague Spring and Its Aftermath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 3-59.

Discussion Section.

29 November-1 December. Dissidency Under Communist Rule. 100+(73/70/97)

Stokes. Documents 22-9 and 37.

Vladimir Tismaneanu. "From Criticism to Apostasy" and "Peace, Human Rights, Dissent." Chapters Seven and Eight of The Crisis of Marxist Ideology in Eastern Europe. London/New York: Routledge, 1988. 121-82.

Václav Havel. "The Power of the Powerless." In: Steven Keane, ed. The Power of the Powerless. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1985. 23-96 OR Piotr Wierzbicki. "A Treatise on Ticks." In: Abraham Brumberg, ed. Poland. Genesis of a Revolution. NY: Vintage, 1983. 198-211, Adam Michnik. "Maggots and Angels," "A New Evolutionism," "The Prague Spring Ten Years Later" and "A Lesson in Dignity." In: Letters from Prison and Other Essays. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. 135-48 and 155-98 OR Gyorgy Konrád. Antipolitics. NY: Henry Held, 1984. 91-8, 104-96.

Film: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (or Blind Chance).

6-8 December. "It’s the Economy, Stupid!": East-Central Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s. 168 (66)

Crampton. Chapters 19-20.

Stokes. Documents 30-36.

Katherine Verdery. "The ‘Etatization’ of Time in Ceausescu’s Romania." Chapter Two of What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next?. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. 39-57.

Slavenka Drakulic. "Make-Up and Other Crucial Questions," "The Strange Ability of Apartments to Multiply and Divide," "A Communist Eye, Or What Did I See in New York," A Letter from the United States – The Critical Theory Approach" and "How We Survived Communism." How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. NY: Harper, 1991. 21-32, 82-92, 113-32, 179-90.

Roman Laba. "Introduction" and Chapter Nine, "Fashionable Myths and Proletarian Realities." In: The Roots of Solidarity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. 3-12 and 169-82.

Film: Andrzej Wajda. Man of Iron.

13 December. The Fall of Communism. 75.