HIS 382 WESTERN EUROPE IN THE AGE OF THE SUPERPOWERS, 1945-1989 Semester: Fall 2007 Time: MWF 1:00 - 1:50 Place: Main 104 Web Page: http://webs.wofford.edu/whisnantcj/

Professor: Dr. Clayton Whisnant Office:  Daniel 210 email:    whisnantcj@wofford.edu phone: x4550 office hours: MWF 10:00-10:50 TTR 9:30-10:50   or by appointment

 

 

 

CONTENTS         

Course Description	Texts	Grading	Attendance Policy
Late Policy	Other Remarks	Class Schedule

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course, students will examine western Europe during an age in which the previous powers of Europe--Great Britain, France, and Germany--were quickly eclipsed by the appearance of two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States. 

 

Course Goals

 

We will begin with a look at the impact of World War II in Europe, which will include an examination of the social chaos of the late 1940s, the economic miracle of the 1950s, and, of course, the evolution of the Cold War in Europe.  We will look at some of the major developments of the period in Western Europe: the process of decolonization, the growing fear of "Americanization," social changes that lead some scholars to postulate a new "postindustrial" society, and the changing values brought on in part by the commercialization of European culture.  Finally, we will pay close attention to the efforts at integrating Western Europe as a response to the influence of the two superpowers, while not ignoring the lingering forces of nationalism that still hampers this process.

 

 

 

TEXTS

• Robert Paxton, Europe in the Twentieth Century, 4th edition (Wadsworth, 2005) ISBN: 0534606326. 
• Todd Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization (Cornell, 2006), .
• Hanna Schissler, ed. The Miracle Years: A Cultural History of West Germany 1949-1968 (Princeton University Press, 2001) ISBN: 0691058202.
• On-Line Readings.  All the readings can be accessed separately by clicking on the hot text in the assignment column of the schedule below.  Or, if you prefer, you can access all the readings by going to the Library's web page for this class.  If you have any trouble printing these readings, see my troubleshooting tips.

 

The readings listed under each day should be done before the assigned day.  You need to bring a copy of the on-line readings to class.  I will give you a point for every day you do so, with all the points added up at the end of the semester to constitute a quiz grade.

 

 

GRADING

Attendance and Participation:	10%
1 Midterm	5%
1 reaction paper	10%
1 short (5-6 pages) essay:	20%
1 long (14-15 page) Final Essay	35%
Final exam (non-cumalitive)	20%

 

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Students are permitted two unexcused absences.  Additional absences will lead to a law participation grade which can seriously hurt the final grade.  Too many absences may also lead to an attendance warning and forced withdrawal from the class.

 

Excused absences are those due to approved college-related activities (e.g. sporting events), documented illness, and family emergencies.  Students have the responsibility to make up missed work.

 

 

LATE POLICY

Students with a doctor’s excuse (or another suitable excuse) can make up the exam up to a week after the exam date.  There will be no make-up for quizzes.  Paper should be handed in on time.  If you know you will need a little extra time to complete a paper, you may ask for an extension; however, the request must come before the day that the paper is due.  Otherwise, there will be a late-penalty of a letter grade per day the paper is late.

 

 

OTHER REMARKS

All cell phones must be turned off at the beginning of class.  Do not, of course, take phone calls during class.  Please be on time.  If you must arrive late or leave early, do so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible.  Finally, all work must be yours.  Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment.

Of course, all work must be yours.  Plagiarism and cheating will be punished with an F for the assignment.  Plagiarism, we should note, is defined in the following way according to the Wofford College honor code:

(1) the verbatim repetition, without acknowledgement, of the writings of another author.

(2) Borrowing without acknowledging the source.

(3) Paraphrasing the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement.

(4) Allowing any other person or organization to prepare work which one then submits as his or her own.

You should pay close attention to the third definition, especially when referring to ideas borrowing from a website.  If you have any questions, check out my handout "Avoiding Plagiarism."

 

 CLASS SCHEDULE

PART I: CREATING A NEW ORDER

Date	Class	Assignment
Week 1
9/3	Introduction
9/5	No Class	Read Avoiding Plagiarism. Paxton, Ch. 14
9/7	No Class	Paxton, Ch. 15 Antony Beever and Artemis Cooper, "Liberated Paris" from Paris after the Liberation, 1944-1949, rev. edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1994).
Week 2
9/10	The Origins of the Cold War	Selections on the "Outbreak of the Cold War"
9/12	The Cold War	Paxton, Ch. 16 Antony Beever and Artemis Cooper, "Fighting Back against the Communists," from Paris after the Liberation, 1944-1949, rev. edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1994).
9/14	Denazification	Michael Kelly, Elizabeth Fallaize, and Anna Ridehalgh, "Reconstructions of the French Nation," from French Cultural Studies: An Introduction, eds. Jill Forbes and Michael Kelly, (Oxford: Oxford University, 1995), pp. 99-109. Ralph Willet, "Reeducation" from The Americanization of Germany, 1945-1949 (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), pp. 16-44.
Week 3
9/17	West Germany after the War	Schissler, Ch. 1, 3.
9/19	Economic Planning and Integration and Europe Recommended Websites: GATT Membership; WTO Membership	no reading
9/21	The Economic Miracle	William I. Hitchcock, "Building Jerusalem," in The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945-2002 (New York and London: Doubleday Press, 2002).
Week 4
9/24	The Construction of the Welfare State
9/26	The Social Order of the 1950s	Schissler, Ch. 2 Robert Moeller, "Reconstructing the Family in Reconstruction Germany: Women and Social Policy in the Federal Republic, 1949-1955"
9/28	The Political Order of Western Europe Handout: Cold-War Consensus	Paxton, Ch. 18 Schissler, Ch. 9.
Week 5
10/1	The Appearance of Postwar Youth Culture Get Paper Topic #1	Ute Poiger, "The Wild Ones: The 1956 Youth Riots and German Masculinity" from Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California, 2000) Steven Stark, Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band that Shook Youth, Gender, and the World (New York: Harper Collins, 2005), pp. 39-89
10/3	Sexuality in the 1950s	Dagmar Herzog, "Desperately Seeking Normality," in Sex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005). Clayton Whisnant, "Styles of Masculinity in the West German Gay Scene," Central European History 39 (2006): 359-393.
10/5	Adjusting to a New World: Britain, 1945-1963	Start reading Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization
Week 6
10/8	France during the Fourth Republic	Continue reading Shepard
10/10	Intellectual Currents of Postwar Europe	Continue reading Shepard
10/12	Midterm Exam Handout: Dates to Know (First Exam)	Study for exam

 

PART II: BREAKDOWN OF THE POSTWAR ORDER

 

Week 7
10/15	Postindustrial Society	Read Shepard
10/17	Americanization	Richard Pells, "Mass Culture: The American Transmission," from Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture since World War II (New York: Basic Books, 1997). Victoria de Grazia, "The Consumer-Citizen: How Europeans Traded Rights for Good,: from Irresistible Empire: America's Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005).
10/19	Consumer Culture	Paxton, Ch. 19 Paper #1 Due
Week 8 Film: Battle of Algiers
10/22	The Algerian War	Finish Shepard Reaction Paper Due
10/24	Discuss Shepard	Review Shepard
10/26	Fall Holiday!
Week 9
10/29	Decolonization	Read Packet
10/31	Decolonization, cont.	Finish Packet if necessary
11/2	De Gaulle and the Fifth Republic
Week 10
11/5	Britain during the Wilson Years	Peter Clarke, "In Place of Strife, 1963-1970" from Hope and Glory: Britain 1900-1990 (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), pp. 283-318.
11/7	Youth Culture and Student Protest in the 1960s	Handout: The New Left
11/9	Student Protest, cont. Handout: Challenge to Cold-War Consensus
Week 11
11/12	Student Protest, cont.	Nick Thomas, "The Vietnam Campaign" from Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany: A Social History of Dissent and Democracy (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2003), pp. 69-85.
11/14	Student Protest, cont.	Schissler, Epilogue
11/16	Germany in the 1960s	Get Final Paper Topic
Week 12 Film: One Day in September
11/19	Terrorism of the 1970s	William Hitchcock: "The Red and the Black", from The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent (New York, London, and Toronto: Doubleday, 2003), pp. 257-262.
11/21	Thanksgiving!
11/23
Week 13
11/26	Terrorism, cont.	no reading (catch-up if necessary)
11/28	Western Europe in the 1970s	Paxton, Ch. 22
11/30	Western Europe in the 1970s, cont.	William Hitchcock: "Feminism and the Greens", from The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent (New York, London, and Toronto: Doubleday, 2003), pp. 262-268.
Week 14
12/3	Catch-Up	Work on Paper
12/5	Western Europe in the 1980s	Work on Paper
12/7	Western Europe in the 1980s, cont.	Final Paper Due
Final Exam: Thursday, December 13, 2-5 PM Study Guide for Final