Central European University, Budapest Department of History Department of Political Science

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1 Central European University, Budapest Department of History Department of Political Science The Great War and Its Consequences: one hundred years later M.A. Course, 2 Credits, Fall 2014 Prof. Julian Casanova casanova@unizar.es, VisCasanovaRuiz@ceu.hu Classes: Office Hours: COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides an introduction to the Great War and its consequences, to the relationship between national tensions and international conflict in Europe from the beginning of the First World War and the end of the Second. When that war began, all the powers expected a short war, with a few incisive campaigns followed by a negotiation that would confirm the military results, presumably in an enjoyable aristocratic get-together like the Congress of Vienna a hundred years earlier. But the war lasted more than four years, and the zeal felt for it in all the belligerent nations, working classes included, soon evaporated especially in Central and Eastern Europe. The scarcity of everything, and the vile conditions of the war, were the background to the revolutions of 1917 in Russia, which first toppled the tsarist regime, then put the Bolsheviks in power. This was the sharpest change produced by the war, at whose end only the British and French empires were left standing. The others, along with the armies, bureaucracies and landowners that sustained them, were gone. The social dislocation consequent upon the First World War intensified such tensions and pushed the international system to heating point. Faced by the existence of Communist Russia, the Western Powers attempted to reconstruct their political and economic systems in such a way as to build defences against the Left. The emergence of fascism as an extreme form of such defences had important consequences for the international relations between states, as did the social and economic crisis of the democratic Powers in the 1930s. The course also examines the most important 1

2 developments of the period , including the impact of the War, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, the breakdown of democracy, the decline of liberalism and the appeal of dictatorship. A huge body of literature exists on the large and important themes that we shall pursue in the course. The following readings are specially recommended: - CLARK, Christopher, The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914, Allen Lane, London, HOSBSBAWM, Eric, Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century , Abacus Book, London, KERSHAW, Ian, Wars and Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe, Contemporary European History, 14, 1 (2005), pp LANGDON, John. W., July The Long Debate, , Berg, Oxford, LUEBBERT, Gregory M., Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy. Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe, Oxford University Press, Nueva York, MAZOWER, Mark, Dark Continent: Europe s Twentieth Century, Penguin Books, PAYNE, Stanley, Civil War in Europe, , Cambridge University Press, New York, STEVENSON, David, : The History of the First World War, Penguin Press, London, VINEN, Richard, A History in Fragments. Europe in the Twentieth Century, Abacus, London, 2002 COURSE REQUIREMENTS: The course is intended to be general in nature. The course is organised into lectures and seminars. Typically the first meeting of the week is a lecture, while the second is a seminar. Regular participation in discussions is necessary and expected. Students are required to read the items marked with an asterisk (*) under each week topic. There will be a final writing assignment (ca. 7-page) to compare the views of two modern authors. The students should be able to elaborate a thesis/argument and support it with evidence taken from the texts. Please note that class attendance is required. GRADING: 2

3 The final paper will weight 50 percent of the grade. The remaining 50 percent will be assigned for presentations (30 percent) and class participation (20 percent). LEARNING OUTCOMES AND THEIR ASSESSMENT The overall grade will primarily indicate the ability of the students to comprehend the principal events and historical processes that have helped to shape the history of Europe in the Twentieth Century. They will also be introduced, through the study of political, social and economic background in individual nation states, to a conceptual understanding of the determinants of International relations. The learning outcomes of the course are supported and measured by the present course in the following ways: The ability to deploy effective oral presentation and discussion skills is assessed through the seminars. The skills to analyze historical events and evaluate them in a comparative perspective are reflected by the final paper. The discussions and final paper will also measured the ability of students to elaborate a critical review of the most recent socio-historical research and debates concerning the history of Europe between the Wars. COURSE SCHEDULE Week 0: Course description, content and works of relevance to the course. Week 1 Session 1: Europe against Europe, : a panoramic view -CARR, Edward H., The Twenty Years Crisis. An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, Harper & Row, New York, 1964 (first published 1939) *-HOSBSBAWM, Eric, The Age of Total War, in Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century , Abacus Books, London, 1995, pp LUEBBERT, Gregory M., Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy. Social Classses and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe, Oxford University Press, New York, MAZOWER, Mark, Empires, Nations, Minorities, in Dark Continent: Europe s Twentieth Century, Penguin Books, 1999, pp OVERY, R.J., The Inter-War Crisis , Longman, New York,

4 *-PRESTON, Paul, The Great Civil War. European Politics, , in T.C.W. Blanning, The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, pp VINEN, Richard, A History in Fragments. Europe in the Twentieth Century, Ed. Da Capo, Cambridge, Mass., 2002 Session 2: Seminar (Discussion) The Origins of the First World War *-CLARK, Christopher, Introduction and Conclusion, in The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914, Allen Lane, London, HASTINGS, Max, Catastrophe. Europe goes to War 1914, William Collins, London, HENIG, Ruth, The Origins of the First World War, Routledge (Lancaster Pamphlets), London, MARTEL, Gordon, The Origins of the First World War, Longman, London, 1987 *-MACMILLAN, Margaret, Introduction: War or Peace? (pp. XXI-XXXV) and Turning out the Lights: Europe s last week of Peace (pp ), in The War That Ended Peace. The Road To 1914, Random House, London, Week 2 Session 1: The Great War and Its Impact: Revolution and the Rise of Communism -ACTON, Edward, The Bolshevik Victory Revisited, in Rethinking the Russian Revolution, Edward Arnold, London, 1990, pp DEFRONZO, James, The Russian Revolutions and Eastern Europe, in Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2011, pp *FIGES, Orlando, A People s Tragedy. The Russian Revolution: , Penguin Books, New York, 1996, Conclusion (pp ) -HOBSBAWM, Eric, The World Revolution, in Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century ), pp OVERY, R.J., Revolution and Counter-revolution, in The Inter-War Crisis , pp *PIPES, Richard, Reflections on the Russian Revolution, in A Concise History of the Russian Revolution, Vintage Books, New York, 1996, pp SEBAG-MONTEFIORE, Simon, Stalin: the court of the Red Tsar, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2003 Session 2: Seminar (Discussion) The Great War and its impact: Versailles and Peacemaking: the Historical Debate 4

5 -FUSSELL, Paul, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1975 (new edition in 2013, with a new introduction by Jay Winter) *-HENIG, Ruth, Summary, in Versailles and after, , Routledge,(Lancaster Pamphlets), London, 1995, pp KITCHEN, Martín, The Peace Treaties, in Europe between the Wars. A political history, Longman, New York, 1988, pp LENTIN, Anthony, Treaty of Versailles: Was Germany Guilty?, History Today, Volume 62, Issue 1 (2012) *-VINEN, Richard, The Legacy of the War, in A History in Fragments. Europe in the Twentieth Century, pp Week 3 Session 1: Fascism: A Comparative Perspective -BOSWORTH, R.J.B., Mussolini, Oxford University Press, Nueva York, DE GRAND, Alexander J, Italian Fascism. Its Origins & Development, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln & London, 1990, Preface and Conclusion. ---Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Fascist Style of Rule, Routledge, EVANS, Richard, Towards the Seizure of Power, in The Coming of Third Reich, Penguin Books, London, 2003, pp GEARY, Dick, Weimar and the rise of Nazism, in Hitler and Nazism, Routledge, New York, 1993, pp GRIFFIN, Roger (ed), International Fascism. Theories, Causes and the New Consensus, Arnold, London, KERSHAW, Ian, Hitler , hubris and Hitler , nemesis, Allen Lane, London, 1998 and KOLB, Eberhard, The Weimar Republic, Unwin Hyman, London, The Nazi Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, Edward Arnold, Lodon, 1989 *-MANN, Michael, Conclusion: Fascist, Dead and Alive (pp ), in Fascists, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004 *-MORGAN, Philip, Introduction: the historical problem of fascism, in Fascism in Europe, , Routledge, London, 2003 (1-14) -PAYNE, Stanley G., A history of fascism, , Taylor & Francis Group, London, PEUKERT, Detlev, The Crisis of Classical Modernity,The Weimar Republic, Ed. Hill&Wang, 1991, pp Session 2: Seminar (Discussion) Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives *-BULLOCK, Alan, Perspective , in Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992, pp *-OVERY, Richard, The Dictators. Hitler s Germany and Stalin s Russia, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004, Conclusion (pp ). Weeek 4 Session 1: The Spanish Civil War and Franco s Dictatorship 5

6 *-CASANOVA, Julian An International War on Spanish Soil, in A Short History of the Spanish Civil War, I.B. Tauris, London, 2013, pp *--- and GIL, Carlos, Franco s peace, in Twentieth-Century Spain: A History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, pp GRAHAM, Helen, The War and its Shadow. Spain s Civil War in Long Twentieth Century, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, PRESTON, Paul, Franco. A Biography, HarperCollins, London, RICHARDS, Michael, After the Civil War: Making Memory and Re-Making Spain since 1936, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013 Session 2: Seminar (Discussion) The Europe of Dictators - LEE, S.J., The European Dictatorships , Routledge, London LINZ, Juan J. and STEPAN,Alfrred eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Europe, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, LUEBBERT, Gregory M., Narrowing the Aliberal Outcomes: Liberalism s Final Failure and the Irrelevance of Traditional Dictatorship, in Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy. Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe, pp *-MANN, Michael, Explaining the Rise of Interwar Authoritarianism and Fascism, in Fascists, pp PAYNE, Stanley, A history of fascism, , Chapters 8, 9 and 10. *-VINEN, Richard, Civil Wars, in A History in Fragments. Europe in the Twentieth Century, pp Week 5 Session 1 and Session 2: Seminar (Discussion) The Second World War and Its Impact: Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide -ALY, Götz, Final Solution : Nazi Population Policy and the Murder of the European Jews, Oxford University Press, New York, BACON, Edwin, The Gulag at War: Stalin s Forced Labour System in the Light of the Archives, Macmillan, London, 1994 *DEAK, István, Victims, in Essays on Hitler s Europe, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln & London, 2001, pp *-EVANS, Richard, Towards the Racial Utopia, in The Third Reich in Power, Penguin Books, London, 2006, KITCHEN, Martin, The Origins of the Second World War, in Europe between the Wars, pp NAIMARK, Norman M. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, *SNYDER, Timothy, Final Solution, in Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin, Basic Books, New York, 2010, pp TRAVERSO, Enzo, Understanding the Nazi Genocide: Marxism after Auschwitz, Pluto Press, London,

7 -VINEN, Richard, Genocide, in A History in Fragments. Europe in the Twentieth Century, pp Week 6 Session 1: Postwars: A Comparative Perspective Readings -DEÁK,István, GROSS, Jan T. and JUDT, Tony, The Politics of Retribution in Europe. World War II and Its Aftermath, Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ), 2000 *-JUDT, Tony, Postwar. A History of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Books, London, 2005, Chapters I and II. *-LOWE, Keith, Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, St. Martin s Press, New York, 2012, Conclusion -MACDONOGH, Giles, After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation, Basic Books, London, 2009 *-MAZOWER, Mark, The Deserted Temple: Democracy s Rise and Fall, in Dark Continent: Europe s Twentieth Century, pp Session 2: Wars, Nations and Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe (General Discussion): *-MAZOWER, Mark, Violence and the State in the Twentieth Century, The American Historical Review, 107, 4 (2002), pp *-KERSHAW, Ian, Wars and Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe, Contemporary European History, 14, 1 (2005) Conclusions. 7