Topics in the History of Eastern Europe: Poles and Others: the Making of Modern Poland

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course uses the devices of historical and literary interpretation to expose and analyze some of the lines of political and cultural development that have led to the Poland we now know.Beginning with the awakening of modern Polish nationalism, it traces the emergence of this Poland through the rise of mass society; the horrifying and exhilarating spectacles of World War I and national and social revolutions; first experiments with modern Polish statehood (especially policies toward ethnic minorities and socially marginalized groups); then the transformations wrought by a half century of totalitarian rule; ethnic cleansing, elite transfer, forces social stratification, and despite all of this, the defiant return of civil society.