Political Projects of the Twentieth Century Higher School ...

Political Projects of the Twentieth Century Higher School of Economics (Moscow) – School of History (2015-2016)

Instructor: Martin Beisswenger ([email protected])

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Course description: This course studies the political history of twentieth-century Europe, Russia (the Soviet

Union), China, Iran and the United States and the political systems they represented, such as democracy, Fascism, National Socialism, and Communism. It examines how political ideas and concepts shaped political decisions and realities and how, in turn, the challenges of reality influenced political ideas.

In addition to providing an outline of the political history of particular states, this course aims at developing a comparative perspective, determining similarities and differences between various political projects, their successes and failures in achieving their goals. Although the main focus will be on traditional politics, attention will also be paid to how politics were shaped by cultural and social factors and developments.

Lectures will provide a survey of the most important political events and concepts, whereas in seminars we will discuss key primary sources and analyze historiographical controversies and debates. Course aims and learning objectives:

• to introduce students to the political history of twentieth-century Europe and the world • to gain knowledge about important political events, systems and politicians • to familiarize students with key historiographical debates about twentieth-century history • to develop skills in close reading, critical evaluation and analysis of political documents

and relevant secondary literature • to enable students to explore the topic of twentieth-century political history further and to

relate it to their own field of research interests • to enhance students’ foreign language skills and apply them to individual research and

presentations Assignments, exam and grades: Your grade for this course will depend on the following:

regular participation in class discussions, degree of preparation for class, familiarity with all required readings, write one book review (2-3 pages) in English on a monograph (written in English) of

your choice (and in consultation with the instructor) related to the topic of our course; the review is due TWO WEEKS before the last day of class,

the final exam. Participation in class and the book review will count for 30% of your final grade each, while the final exam determines the remaining 40% of your grade. Attendance: This is a lecture and discussion course. You will be expected to do the reading assignments and participate in class discussions. Attendance is mandatory, and you must be on time and prepared. You can have three unexcused absence throughout the course. More absences may lower your course grade. More than six unexcused absences may result in a failing grade for the course. Arriving more than 15 minutes late in class counts as an unexcused absence as well. It is your responsibility to make up missed work, or to meet with the instructor to go over lectures or assignments that were covered while you were absent. Academic integrity: As in all university courses, students are required to maintain the personal integrity of their work at all times. In this class, any instances of major plagiarism on any assignment may result in a

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failing grade in the course and in referral to the Faculty’s Dean’s Office. Plagiarism includes submitting a paper written or significantly revised by someone else, lifting ideas or words from sources without giving credit, quoting without the use of quotation marks, or any other borrowing of materials or writing skills without appropriate acknowledgement. Please come and see me if you are ever unclear about what constitutes plagiarism or how to avoid it. See also: http://www.hse.ru/org/hse/antiplagiat_info/plagiat Course program: CLASS ONE: Introduction: European Economy and Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century [L1] CLASS TWO: Politics and Society in Major European Countries [L2] CLASS THREE: World War I [L3] CLASS FOUR: Revolutions and the Emergence of a New Europe [L4] CLASS FIVE: The 1920s [L5] CLASS SIX: Italian Fascism [S1] CLASS SEVEN: The Great Depression [L6] CLASS EIGHT: The New Deal [S2] CLASS NINE: The 1930s [L7] CLASS TEN: National Socialism [S3] CLASS ELEVEN: Stalinism [S4] CLASS TWELVE: World War II [L8] CLASS THIRTEEN: The Recovery of Europe and the Cold War [L9] CLASS FOURTEEN: The State of Israel [S5] CLASS FIFTEEN: Social Market Economies [S6] CLASS SIXTEEN: Prosperity and Reform in Europe (1960s-1970s) [L10] CLASS SEVENTEEN: “Gaullism” in France [S7] CLASS EIGHTEEN: “Socialism with a Human Face” in Czechoslovakia [S8] CLASS NINETEEN: Decolonization and the Emergence of the “Third World” [L11] CLASS TWENTY: The Islamic Republic of Iran [S9] CLASS TWENTY-ONE: Singapore [S10] CLASS TWENTY-TWO: The Rise of China [L12] CLASS TWENTY-THREE: “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” [S11] CLASS TWENTY-FOUR: Europe and the US in Crisis Again (1980s) [L13] CLASS TWENTY-FIVE: A Neoliberal Response: Thatcherism in Great Britain [S12] CLASS TWENTY-SIX: Another Neoliberal Response: “Reaganism” [S13] WEEK TWENTY-SEVEN: “1989” and the Reshaping of Europe [L14] WEEK TWENTY-EIGHT: European Unification and its Consequences [L15] WEEK TWENTY-NINE: The European Political Project [S14] WEEK THIRTY: Political Projects of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Conclusion) [S15]

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CLASS ONE: Introduction: European Economy and Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Readings: Felix Gilbert and David Clay Large. The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present. 6th edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009: 4-34 (ch.1: “The Beginning of a New Century”). CLASS TWO: Politics and Society in Major European Countries. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 35-89 (ch.2: “Politics and Society, 1890-1914”). CLASS THREE: World War I. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 90-139 (ch.3: “The First World War”). CLASS FOUR: Revolutions and the Emergence of a New Europe. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 143-178 (ch.4: “Peacemaking”). CLASS FIVE: The 1920s. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 179-228 (ch.5: “The Era of Stabilization”). CLASS SIX: Italian Fascism. Readings:

Stone, Marla. The Fascist Revolution in Italy: A Brief History with Documents. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012: 35-37, 58-69, 77-86, 95-97, 106-108. Paxton, Robert O. “The Five Stages of Fascism.” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 1. (Mar., 1998): 1-23. CLASS SEVEN: The Great Depression. Readings: Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991. London: Abacus, 1995: 85-108 (ch.3: “Into the Economic Abyss”). CLASS EIGHT: The New Deal. Readings: Kennedy, David M. “What the New Deal Did.” Political Science Quarterly 124,2 (2009): 251-268. Divine, Robert A. et al., America: Past and Present. Vol.2: From 1865. 3rd ed. New York, 1991: 766-795 (ch.26: “Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal”).

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CLASS NINE: The 1930s. Readings:

Gilbert and Large: 229-305 (ch.6: “The Economic Crisis and the Rise of Nazism” and ch.7: “Toward the Inevitable Conflict”). CLASS TEN: National Socialism. Readings: Moeller, Robert G. The Nazi State and German Society: A Brief History with Documents. New York and Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2010: 53-108. Kershaw, Ian. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation.4th ed. Oxford: Arnold, 2000: 1-19 (ch.1: “Historians and the problem of explaining Nazism”) and 69-92 (ch.4: “Hitler: master of the ‘Third Reich’ or ‘weak dictator’?”). CLASS ELEVEN: Stalinism. Readings: Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995: 1-25 (“Introduction: Understanding the Russian Revolution”) and 198-201, 215-230 and 235-237 (chapter 5: “Speaking Bolshevik”). CLASS TWELVE: World War II. Readings:

Gilbert and Large: 306-342 (ch.8: “The Second World War”). CLASS THIRTEEN: The Recovery of Europe, the early Cold War and the Emergence of Israel. Readings:

Gilbert and Large: 345-403 (ch.9: “Postwar Uncertainties” and ch.10: “Reconstruction and Revolt: The 1950s”). CLASS FOURTEEN: The State of Israel. Readings:

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20of%20establishment%20of%20state%20of%20israel.aspx);

Shindler, Colin. A History of Modern Israel. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 [excerpts]. CLASS FIFTEEN: Social Market Economies. Readings: Müller-Armack, Alfred. The Sociopolitical Model of the Social Market Economy (December 1962) [excerpts] (http://www.germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/Chapter9Doc1.pdf).

“Documents - Life during the Economic Miracle: West Germany” (http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_doclist.cfm?sub_id=381&section_id=14)

Van Hook, James A. Rebuilding Germany: The Creation of the Social Market Economy, 1945-1957. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004: 1-18 (“Introduction”).

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CLASS SIXTEEN: Prosperity and Reform in Europe (1960s-1970s). Readings:

Gilbert and Large: 407-456 (ch.11: “Europe’s Abundant Decade: The 1960s” and ch.12: “The Years of Disillusionment: 1967-1973”). CLASS SEVENTEEN: “Gaullism” in France. Readings: De Gaulle, Charles. Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor, 1958-1962. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971: 270-301 (ch. “The Head of State”).

Sowerwine, Charles. France since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society. New York: Palgrave, 2001: 296-327 (ch.21: “The Fall of the Fourth Republic, 1958” and ch.22: “De Gaulle’s Republic, 1958-68”). CLASS EIGHTEEN: “Socialism with a Human Face” in Czechoslovakia. Readings: Navrátil, Jaromír et al. (ed.). The Prague Spring 1968: A National Security Archive Document Reader. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2006: 92-95 (The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s “Action Program”) and 177-181 (L. Vaculík’s “Two Thousand Words” Manifesto). Pauer, Jan. “The Dispute about the Legacy of the Prague Spring,” 2011 (http://www.enrs.eu/images/Teksty%20pdf%20ang/Pauer_ang.pdf). CLASS NINETEEN: Decolonization and the Emergence of the “Third World”. Readings: Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991. London: Abacus, 1995: 344-371 (ch.12: “The Third World”). CLASS TWENTY: The Islamic Republic of Iran. Readings:

Khomeini, Ruhollah. Islamic Government (http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/book/islam-9780195174304/islam-9780195174304-chapter-53)

Axworthy, Michael. Revolutionary Iran:A History of the Islamic Republic London: Penguin, 2014: 133-168 (ch. “Like the Person He Ought to Be: Islamic Republic, 1979-80”). CLASS TWENTY-ONE: Singapore. Readings:

Tan, Kenneth Paul. “The Ideology of Pragmatism: Neo-liberal Globalisation and Political Authoritarianism in Singapore.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 42 (1): 67–92. CLASS TWENTY-TWO: The Rise of China. Readings: Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012: 559-563, 587-599 and 604-614 (chapter 24: “Redefining Revolution”).

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CLASS TWENTY-THREE: “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”. Readings: Cheng, Pei-Kai, Michael Lestz, Jonathan D. Spence (eds.). The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999: 493-513 (ch. 24: “Redefining Revolution”). CLASS TWENTY-FOUR: Europe and the US in Crisis Again (1980s). Readings:

Gilbert and Large: 457-505 (ch.13: “The Decade of Détente: 1969-1979” and ch.14: “Western Europe in the Troubled 1980s”). CLASS TWENTY-FIVE: A Neoliberal Response: Thatcherism in Great Britain. Readings: Margaret Thatcher’s speech to the Conservative Party conference in Brighton, 10 October 1980. (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104431). Jackson, Ben and Robert Saunders (ed.). Making Thatcher’s Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012: 1-21 (“Introduction: Varieties of Thatcherism”). CLASS TWENTY-SIX: Another Neoliberal Response: “Reaganism”. Readings:

Troy, Gil. The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 [excerpts]. CLASS TWENTY-SEVEN: “1989” and the Reshaping of Europe. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 506-589 (ch.15: “A New Order in Eastern Europe” and ch.16: “Continental Drift”). CLASS TWENTY-EIGHT: European Unification and its Consequences. Readings: Gilbert and Large: 590-613 (ch.17: “Europe and the Challenges of Globalization”). CLASS TWENTY-NINE: The European Political Project. Readings:

TBA CLASS THIRTY: Political Projects of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Conclusion).