History 416 Eastern Europe after WWI MW 8-9:50 Sonoma State University Spring 2016

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1 History 416 Eastern Europe after WWI MW 8-9:50 Sonoma State University Spring 2016 Professor Stephen Bittner Stevenson Hall 2070 ( ) Office Hours: MW 10-11, or by appointment Books Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Kate Brown, Biography of No Place Slavenka Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed Milan Kundera, The Joke Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism Library Reserve Joseph Roth, Hotel Savoy Habsburg Source Texts Archive (available via shared Dropbox folder) Fritz Kreisler, Four Weeks in the Trenches Tomas Masaryk, "Independent Bohemia" "The South Slavs before the First World War" Mark Twain, "Stirring Times in Austria" JSTOR Jan T. Gross, A Note on the Nature of Soviet Totalitarianism Larry Wolff, Voltaire s Public and the Idea of Eastern Europe: Toward a Literary Sociology of Continental Division Course Description The peoples of Eastern Europe experienced many of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century: the collapse of the Tsarist, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires; two world wars; the formation of nationstates; the Holocaust; the Cold War; the failed anti-soviet uprisings of 1956, 1968, and 1980; and the political upheaval of With primary and secondary historical texts and contemporary film and fiction, we will explore the realities of life in twentieth-century Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and their successor states. In the process, we will wrestle with a handful of questions that are central to the history of the region. What is Eastern Europe? Is it merely a construct of the 20th century? Or is it a product of a deeper schism that divides the continent? How does this schism resonate in the daily lives of Eastern Europeans? Successful completion of this course satisfies the European elective requirement for the history major. Course Requirements Your final grade in this course will be based on your performance on two essays, two detailed, in-class quizzes, and your participation in class discussions. Please carefully review and heed the following: 1. Essays Each essay should be 5 pages in length (roughly 1,500 words), double-spaced, and typed. You are welcome to discuss the prompts with other students, but if you do so please indicate their names on the cover of your essay. By turning in an essay, you acknowledge that you are familiar with SSU's policy on cheating and plagiarism. Because I use take-home essays in lieu of in-class 1

2 midterm and final exams, I will not review drafts beforehand. If you are worried about the quality of your writing, I encourage you to take advantage of the resources that the Writing Center offers. I expect you to write at a level appropriate for juniors and seniors in college. Consequently, your essay should be free of elementary grammatical errors. I also expect you to conform to conventional essay format. Your essays must have an introduction that includes some sort of hook for the reader, a clearly stated argument, and a description of the structure of the paper (or how you will illustrate the argument). Likewise, you must write transitions between the different components of your essay, and end with a conclusion that restates the argument. I encourage you to consult my style guide (available on my website), where I have listed the most common grammatical and stylistic snafus that I encounter in student writing at SSU. You must use Chicago-style footnotes when quoting or paraphrasing the readings. If you are uncertain what Chicago-style means, please consult the following link: In addition, please be sure to use ibid. and shortened citations where appropriate, as demonstrated here: 1 Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings (New York, 1995), ibid., Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (New York, 1968), Equiano, Interesting Narrative, Quizzes Your life will be considerably easier and your blood pressure lower if you use the footnote function in your word processing program. No block quotes, please. Finally, please identify yourself only on the cover page of your essay. The cover page should include your name, the names of anyone with whom you discussed the question, and the title of your essay. The quizzes will require you to identify a handful of persons/places/events that we have discussed in class, or respond to questions about the readings. Success on the quizzes requires that you attend class regularly, take comprehensive notes, and stay current with the readings. 3. Class Participation Course Goals Class participation means what it says: you are required to participate in class discussions. It is not sufficient merely to attend class. In general, every student begins the semester with a C- for class participation; whether you go up or down from there depends on what you do during the remainder of the semester. If you attend every class but say nothing, you will remain at a C-. I take attendance semi-regularly, and almost always when it's clear that a sizeable number of students are absent. If I notice that you are not attending class regularly, I will ask to meet with you privately so you can justify your continued presence on my course roster. If you are diligent about your work in this course, you will hone five essential skill sets that are easily transferable to other academic disciplines and, upon your graduation, to the professional world. You will learn to analyze and use primary and secondary sources to form arguments and make judgments. You will gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for historical debate and controversy. You will familiarize yourself with different and often contradictory historiographies, and see how present political and cultural phenomena inform understandings of the past. You will learn how to marshal empirical evidence to illustrate your arguments. And you will polish basic skills like written and oral expression that are at the core of any university class. Grade Distribution (in points) 2

3 Exams (2): 50 Quizzes (2) 30 Class Participation: 20 Final Grade Scale (in points) A A B B B C C C D D D- Less than 60 F Other Important Information I require that you show commonsense etiquette in class: turn your cell phone to vibrate, limit your computer use to taking notes, do not send or read text messages during class, and treat your classmates and professor with respect. Failure to show proper etiquette will result in exclusion from the classroom. In all but the most extraordinary cases, I will penalize an exam a letter grade for each day that it is late. Quizzes cannot be rescheduled under any circumstances without the appropriate documentation. If you have a legitimate personal crisis, please let me know beforehand so we can make the proper arrangements. I am happy to accommodate student with disabilities. Please contact Disability Services for Students (Salazar 1049) if you have any concerns in this regard. There are important university policies with which you should be familiar: the add/drop deadline, the procedures for grade appeals, the diversity vision statement, and especially, the policy on cheating and plagiarism. Plagiarism is a form of theft and has serious consequences. Penalties range from the grade of F for the assignment or course to temporary or permanent expulsion. The Internet has made it easier for students to engage in plagiarism, but it has also made it easier for professors to locate the provenance of suspicious work. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please feel free to ask me. Class Schedule Week 1 Jan Week 2 Feb. 1-3 Week 3 Feb Week 4 Feb Course Introduction Twain, "Stirring Times in Austria" (Dropbox) What Is Eastern Europe? Larry Wolff, Voltaire s Public and the Idea of Eastern Europe: Toward a Literary Sociology of Continental Division (JSTOR); Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, ( Tragedy of Central Europe ) The Experience of Empire "The South Slavs before the First World War" (Dropbox) WWI and the New States Roth, Hotel Savoy, ("The Bust of the Emperor," Library Reserve); Kreisler, Four Weeks in the Trenches (Dropbox); Masaryk, "The Independent Bohemia" (Dropbox) Week 5 Populations and Politics, I Feb Brown, Biography of No Place, Week 6 Populations and Politics, II 3

4 Feb. 29-Mar. 2 Brown, Biography of No Place, Week 7 Mar. 7-9 Week 8 Mar Week 9 Mar Occupation, Collaboration, Liberation Gross, A Note on the Nature of Soviet Totalitarianism (JSTOR) First Quiz (Wednesday) Spring Break No Classes Film: Everything Is Illuminated Midterm Essay Due (Wednesday) First Essay Prompt The UCLA historian Ivan Berend has referred to the interwar period in Eastern Europe as the "decades of crisis." Basing your answer on the course readings, please describe the social, political, and economic processes that resulted in "crisis." To what extent did these processes originate in the fin-de-siècle? Did they help lay the foundation for the political extremism of the Nazi occupation? Please carefully review the requirements for essays, which I have listed earlier in this syllabus, for information on appropriate length, format, style, and citation style. Week 10 Mar Week 11 Apr. 4-6 Holocaust Borowski, This Way for the Gas Reconstruction and the Rise of Communism Stones, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 9-77 (Part I: The Stalinist Moment) Week 12 Tito and the Yugoslavian Experience Apr Kundera, The Joke, parts 1-4 Week 13 Apr Week 14 Apr Dissent, part 1: Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague Kundera, The Joke, parts 5-7; Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, (Part II: The Marxist Critique) Dissent, part 2: Solidarity Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, , (Parts III and IV: Antipolitics and the Retreat to Ethics, and The Return of Politics) Week May 2-4 Drakulic, How We Survived Communism Week 16 May 9-11 Nationalism Unleashed Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, (Part V: After the Fall) Second Quiz (Wednesday) Second Essay Prompt Eastern European communism officially collapsed in Yet a closer reading reveals that cracks in the communist facade began to emerge as early as 1953, the year that Stalin died. Basing your answer on the readings and films where appropriate, please trace the origins of the 1989 revolutions in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Why did communism fail in Eastern Europe? Did its 40-year existence hinge solely on the use of force? Or did communism promise (and ultimately fail to deliver) something more progressive? Please carefully review the requirements for essays, which I have listed earlier in this syllabus, for information on appropriate length, format, style, and citation style. 4

5 Final exams will be due in my office at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 16 (which corresponds with our designated final exam period). Due to the deadline for submitting final grades, late exams will not be accepted under any circumstances. 5

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