Class Syllabus

Meeting 1

Sept. 4

 Introduction, the organization of the course, sources and readings. General remarks on the area and the period.

Meeting 2

Sept. 11

Nobles, burghers, and peasants East and West of the Elbe River.

Readings:
  • William Carr, A History of Germany, 1815-1945 (Fifth edition), chap. 1
  • Robin Okey, Eastern Europe, 1740-1985: Feudalism to Communism, pp. 9-58

Meeting 3

Sept. 18

 Nationalism, liberalism, social radicalism, the crisis of the multi-national Habsburg Empire and the aborted movement for German unification in 1848.

Readings:
  • Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851, pp.� Okey, 59-102
  • Alan Sked, The Decline and Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815-1918, pp. 1-136
  • Istv�n De�k, Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848-1918, pp. 3-19, 31-41

Meeting 4

Sept. 25

 The struggle for German, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, and Romanian unification in the 1850s and 60s.

Readings:
  • Carr, chapters 2-4
  • Okey, pp. 102-118
  • Sked, pp. 137-218

Meeting 5

Oct. 2

The multinational Habsburg Monarchy, its constitutional experiments and its supranational armed forces.

Readings:

  • De�k, pp. 53-67, 78-113, 126-138, 165-189
Oct. 9 No meeting. I'll be attending a conference in Vienna, Austria. Make-up class on Tuesday, Dec. 11

Meeting 6

Oct. 16

The nationalist and socialist movements at the turn of the century. Fin-de siecle culture in Germany and the Habsburg Monarchy.

Readings:
  • V. R. Berghahn, Modern Germany, chapter I, and/or Carr, chapters 5-8
  • Okey, pp. 118-151
  • Sked, 218-258

Meeting 7

Oct. 23

 World War I, a stage in Germany's "Drang nach Osten?". Agitation for peace, democracy, and national self-determination.

Readings:
  • Berghahn, pp. 38-56, and/or Carr, chap. 9
  • Okey, pp. 151-156
  • Sked, pp. 258-269
  • De�k, pp. 190-204

Meeting 8

Oct. 30

Revolution and counter-revolution. The Bolshevik bid for power in Germany and East Central Europe. The White counter-revolutions. The Paris peace treaties and the partitioning of East Central Europe.

Readings:
  • Berghahn, pp. 57-114, and/or Carr, chapters 10-12
  • Okey, pp. 158-180
  • Barbara Jelavich, Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 1800-1986, pp. 130-165

Meeting 9

Nov. 13

 The triumph of National Socialism in Germany and the rise of East Central European right-wing authoritarian regimes.

Readings:
  • Berghahn, pp. 115-148, and/or Carr, chapters 13-14
  • Jelavich, pp. 165-208
  • Joseph Rothschild, Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe Since World War II, chap. 1

Meeting 10

Nov. 20

 World War II. The German conquest of East Central Europe. Collaboration,resistance, and the rise of anti-fascist coalitions.

Readings:

  • Berghahn, pp. 149-176
  • Gordon Wright, The Ordeal of Total War
  • Jelavich, pp. 208-244
  • Rothschild, chapter 2

Meeting 11

Nov. 27

 The Holocaust. The defeat and expulsion of the Germans. The Soviet conquest of East Central Europe.

Readings:
  • Michael R. Marrus, The Holocaust in History
  • *Istv�n De�k, "The Incomprehensible Holocaust" and other essays on the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question in The New York Review of Books
  • Jan T. Gross, Neighbors, pp�

Meeting 12-13

Dec. 4-11

 From the 1953 revolt in East Germany through the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, the Prague Spring in 1968, and the Solidarity movement in Poland to the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the coming down of the Berlin Wall
Readings:
  • Berghahn, pp. chapter 5
  • Rothschild, chapters 3-8
  • Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Recommended for the entire course:
  • Bideleux, Robert, and Jean Jeffries, A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change
  • Gordon Craig, Germany, 1866-1945
  • Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalisms
  • David F. Good, The Economic Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1750-1914
  • Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe
  • John Lampe, Yugoslavia as History
  • Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March, 1983 (1932); a novel
  • Joseph Rothschild, East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars
  • Peter F. Sugar and Ivo J. Lederer, eds., Nationalism in Eastern Europe
  • Peter F. Sugar, ed., Native Fascism in the Successor States
  • Last but not least, Paul Robert Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe
All the books listed on the bibliography and syllabus pages are paperbacks and in print, or at least were in print in June when I prepared this syllabus. The books should be available at Labyrinth Bookstore in 112th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. They are also on reserve in the Columbia College Reading Room in Butler Hall. Articles marked with an asterisk will be distributed in class or will be made available to you on the course web page.