The Turbulent Century: Eastern Europe 1914-1989

Columbia History Faculty

THE TURBULENT CENTURY: EASTERN EUROPE, 1914-1989

History W3213/Fall 2005
TR 1:10 – 2:25
310 Fayerweather

Bradley F. Abrams
East Central European Center
Columbia University
1230 International Affairs Building
420 West 118th Street, MC 3336
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212.854.6287
Fax: 212.854.8577
E-Mail:bfa4@columbia.edu

Office Hours: TH 2:30-4:30
and by appointment.

This 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.

Grading (undergraduate):

Quizzes:                                  10%
Discussion Section:                10%
Movie Response                     10%
Wikipedia Entry                      10%
Midterm exam:                        25%
Final exam:                             35%

Grading (graduate):

Quizzes:                                    15%
Final exam:                             42.5%
Research paper:                      42.5%

Note: The midterm exam will have a take-home, essay component, and IDs, which will be done in class. The movie response is a 2-4 page essay on one of the films you will be watching this semester. The Wikipedia entry will be explained in more detail in class. The final will be in-class, during the scheduled exam time.

Books required throughout (available at Columbia University Bookstore):

R. J. Crampton. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century – And After. Second ed. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Gale Stokes, ed. From Stalinism to Pluralism. A Documentary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945. Second ed. NY/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

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

6/8 September. Introduction: What Is Eastern Europe, and Why Is It Different From Western Europe?

Charles Ingrao. “Ten Untaught Lessons about Central Europe.” Available online at:

     http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~habsweb/occasionalpapers/untaughtlessons.html

Map collection. [Handout]

13/15 September. Historical Background before World War One: Empires, Empires, Empires.

Crampton. Chapter 1.

Czesław Miłosz. “Introduction,” “Place of Birth” and “Ancestry.” In: Czesław Miłosz. Native Realm. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. 1-35.

Gale Stokes. “The Social Origins of East European Politics.” In: Gale Stokes. Three Eras of Political Change in Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford, 1997. 36-66.

Mark Twain. “Stirring Times in Austria.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 96 (March, 1898) 530-40.

Available online at: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~habsweb/sourcetexts/twain1.htm

Discussion Section.

20/22 September. The Empires Strike Out: From The Bosnian Crisis to World War One.

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 27 September.

Discussion Section.

27/29 September. Postwar Instability: Structural and Political.

Crampton. Chapters 2 and 11.

Ivan Berend. “Class Revolutions – Counterrevolutions” and “Belated National Revolutions.” Chapters Five and Six of Decades of Crisis. Berkeley: UC Press, 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.

N.B. Quiz #1 on 27 September.

Discussion Section.

4/6 October. Interwar Politics: From Instability to Stability and Back Again.

Crampton. Chapters 3-6.

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

Discussion Section.

11/13 October. Interwar Politics Concluded, but Unfortunately Succeeded by the Great Depression and the Rise of Nazi German Hegemony.

Crampton. Chapters 7-10.

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

Discussion Section.

18/20 October. And Then Things Get Even Worse: World War Two.

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.

Holocaust readings to be determined.

N.B. The midterm will be on 27 October.

Film: Divided We Fall.

Discussion Section.

25/27 October. The End of the Old East Central Europe.

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]

N.B. MIDTERM EXAM 27 October.

1/3 November. A Moment’s Breather, but then More Trouble When the Communists Come to Power.

Crampton. Chapters 13 and 14.

Stokes. Documents 1-6, 9.

Bradley F. Abrams “The Second World War and the East European Revolution.” East European Politics and Societies 16:3 (Fall 2002) 623-64.

Hugh Seton-Watson. “The Seizure of Power.” In: The East European Revolution. NY: Praeger, 1951. 167-70.

Czesław Miłosz. In: The Captive Mind. New York: Vintage, 1955. vii-53.

N.B. Quiz #2 will be on 10 November.

Film: Ashes and Diamonds.

10 November. Stalinism (It’s Bad) and Part One of Destalinization (Better, but Still Not Good).

Crampton. Chapter 15.

Stokes. Documents 10-11.

Czesław Miłosz. “Preface,” “The Pill of Murti-Bing,” “Looking to the West,” and “Ketman.” In: The Captive Mind. New York: Vintage, 1955. vii-81.

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

N.B. Quiz #2 is on 10 November.

Discussion Section.

15/17 November. See? Things Don’t Just Get Worse: Part Two of Destalinization and the “New Relationship” of the 1960s.

Crampton. Chapters 16-7.

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. NY: Columbia UP, 1956.

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

Film: Man of Marble.

22 November. The Misadventures of “Reformed Communism”: What To Do Next?

Crampton. Chapter 18.

Stokes. Documents 14-18. 27, 29 and 37.

29 November/1 December. The Prague Spring, Dissidency, and the Economics of Late Communism

Crampton. Chapter 19.

Stokes. Documents 19-21, 24-27, 29 and 37.

Václav Havel. “The Power of the Powerless.” In: Steven Keane, ed. The Power of the Powerless. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1985. 23-96.

Slavenka Drakulić. “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.

      Discussion section.

6/8 December. It’s Finally Over: The End of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Crampton. Chapters 21-2.

Stokes. Documents 30-6, 38-43.

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.

Rossen Vassilev. “Modernization Theory Revisited: The Case of Bulgaria.” East European Politics and Societies 13 (1999) 566-99.

Film: Man of Iron.

Discussion section.

It appears, preliminarily, that the final exam will take place Tuesday, 20 December, 1:10-4:00.

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Last modified: Tuesday, August 30, 2005