COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course explores the history of Europe from about 1890 to 1945. These years were marked by pitched social conflicts, economic crises, ideological struggles between liberal democracy, fascism, and communism, two devastating world wars, genocide. But it’s not all so bleak. This was also an age of exciting cultural and intellectual innovations and profound social transformations. The age of Hitler and Stalin was also the age of Einstein and Freud, Picasso and Eisenstein, the “new woman” and a newly empowered working-class.

There is too much history here to be comprehensive. We’ll approach this history in three ways, first through a survey of the forces that brought Europe to war against itself twice in this era, then through the close reading of important secondary sources and primary sources, and finally, through student research in an area of interest.

Class format will combine lecture, discussion, and student presentations.

There is a required text for the course: Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back, Europe 1914–1949 (Penguin 2016). It is a readable survey of the history of our period – and is available for purchase at the campus book store. We will also read other articles and books, which are available in the Readings folder of our Moodle site. Note: for those looking for a concise introduction to writing in history, I recommend Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (any recent edition, Bedford/St. Martins).

LEARNING GOALS

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• describe key developments and turning points in the history of Europe from 1890 to 1945
• explain and analyze important secondary sources
• explain and analyze key primary documents
• conduct historical research on a topic in the history of Europe from 1890 to 1945