Europe, 1918-1989

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module surveys politics and society across Europe from the aftermath of the First World War to the end of the Cold War, beginning with a particular focus on the epochal event that was the Russian Revolution of 1917 which brought a brought a form of revolutionary Marxism to power for the first time with reverberations, on the right and the left, across Europe leading to the clashes of Communism, capitalism, fascism, socialism and liberal democracy that were to dominate European politics and diplomacy until 1990. This course, of necessity, pays special attention therefore to key states such as Germany, France and the Soviet Union and to themes such as state repression under various regimes, the economic and strategic dimensions of the Allied victory in World War II and also to the repressive experience of wartime occupation in large and small states 2 such as Poland, France and the Netherlands. The final third of the course contrasts the fortunes of post-1945 Europe east and west before considering the factors that contributed to the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc in the 1980s. Students will be exposed to a broad range of historiographical interpretations, seeking to give a balanced overview that does not excessively privilege Western Europe or the totalitarian regimes.