Modern Central European History Compared - JMMZ111

• Title: Central European History Compared
• Guaranteed by: Department of German and Austrian Studies (23-KNRS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2017 to 2017
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 9
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (3)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: PhDr. Václav Šmidrkal, Ph.D.

Annotation

Last update: PhDr. Václav Šmidrkal, Ph.D. (24.10.2019)

The course covers the historical development of Central Europe in 20th century. The focus is laid on crucial historical tendencies and nodal points in history of this macro-region with regard to the European and global historical development. The course will highlight convergences and divergences in the modern history of ethnic groups, nations, territories and states that Central Europe has consisted of.

Literature

Last update: PhDr. Václav Šmidrkal, Ph.D. (27.09.2018)

Recommended literature

 

Austria

Beller, Steven. A Concise History of Austria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Rathkolb, Oliver. The Pradoxical Republic: Austria 1945–2010. New York: Berghahn Books, 2010.

 

Czechia/Czechoslovakia

Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. The Czechs and the lands of the Bohemian crown. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2004.

McDermott, Kevin. Communist Czechoslovakia, 1945–89: A Political and Social History. London: Palgrave, 2015.

Pánek, Jaroslav, Oldřich Tůma et al., A history of the Czech lands. Prague: Karolinum, 2009.

 

East-Central Europe

Pittaway, Mark. Eastern Europe, 1939–2000. London: Hodder Arnold, 2004.

Rothschild, Joseph and Nancy M. Wingfield. Return to diversity: a political history of East Central Europe since World War II, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Ther, Philipp. Europe since 1989: A History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.

Wandycz, Piotr S. The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from Middele Ages to the Present. London: Routledge, 2001.

 

Europe

Jarausch, Konrad H. Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. London: Vintage, 2010.

Kaelble, Hartmut. The social history of Europe, 1945–2000: recovery and transformation after two World Wars. New York: Berghahn Books, 2011.

Kershaw, Ian. To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914–1949. London: Penguin Books, 2016.

Kershaw, Ian. Roller-Coster: Europe, 1950–2017, London: Penguin Books, 2018.

 

(East) Germany

Fulbrook, Mary.  A History of Germany: 1918–2008: The Divided Nation. Malden, Mass: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Grieder, Peter. The German Democratic Republic. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

 

Historical Geography

Magocsi, Paul R. Historical atlas of Central Europe. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.

 

Hungary

Kontler, Laszló. A History of Hungary. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

 

Poland

Davies, Norman. God’s Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2 1795 to present. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.

Kemp-Welch, Anthony. Poland under communism: a Cold War history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

 

Slovakia

Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. Historical Dictionary of Slovakia. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007.

Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2005.

Syllabus

Last update: PhDr. Václav Šmidrkal, Ph.D. (27.09.2018)

JMMZ111 - Modern Central European History Compared

 

PLEASE NOTE: This course is only for the English speaking master's programme Central European Comparative Studies (CECS).

 

Course Structure

 

The course is made up by double lessons, each of which is divided into a lecture and a seminar. 

 

1. Introduction to the course

2. What is Central Europe? Definition, geography, identity

3. La Belle Époque: Central Europe at the beginning of the 20th century

4. Nation, War and Revolution: Downfall and reconstitution of Central Europe, 1914–1918

5. Democracy, autocracy and minorities in interwar Central Europe, 1918–1939

6. Occupation, resistance and collaboration in Central Europe, 1938–1945

7. Forced migrations, transitional justice and the “Iron Curtain”, 1945–1950

8. Central European Stalinism(s), 1950–1956

9. On different paths towards 1968

10. The limits of growth: consumer society in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s

11. Annus mirabilis 1989: Why so easy?

12. Neoliberal Central Europe, 1989–2008