Books

E. Garrison Walters, The Other Europe: Eastern Europe to 1945
Edward Crankshaw, The Fall of the House of Habsburg
Joseph Rothschild, Return to Diversity, 2nd edition
Ivo Andrić, The Bridge on the Drina
 

Course Requirements
 
The subject of this course is Eastern Europe.  While this term is open to all sorts of definitions, the course will define it as, roughly, the area of Europe east of Germany and west of Russia. The events in this area which fill the newspaper headlines today are scarcely comprehensible without reference to the area’s complex, fascinating, and often tragic history.  This course will attempt to introduce the main forces and personalities that shaped Eastern European history in the past, and continue to shape it today.
 
Your grade in the course will be computed from three noncomprehensive tests and an 8-page paper.  For the latter, you’ll choose one of the modern states of Eastern Europe, discuss the problems it faces since the collapse of communism, and, based on an assessment of its past historical record, analyze its prospects of overcoming them.  The paper and the three tests will each be weighted 25% of your total grade.
 

Proposed Class and Reading Schedule
 

Aug 31: Introduction: The “Lands Between”    Sept 5: Origins  Sept 7: Árpáds and Hussites        Walters, 1-25    Sept 12: The Turkish Wave  Sept 14: The Rise of the Habsburgs        Walters, 25-46        Crankshaw, 3-15        Andrić, 13-81.    Sept 19: Enlightenment and Revolution  Sept 21: Absolutism and Liberalism        Crankshaw, 19-45        Walters, 110-131        Andrić, 82-112    Sept 26: 1848: Springtime of the Peoples  Sept 28: The Road to the Ausgleich        Walters, 47-90        Crankshaw, 169-230    Oct 3: From Austria to Austria-Hungary  Oct 5: Fin de Siecle Vienna        Crankshaw, 233-320        Andrić, 113-223    Oct 10: Shtetls and Stock Exchanges  Oct 12: FIRST TEST    Oct 17: Balkan Ferment  Oct 19: Sarajevo        Walters, 90-109        Crankshaw, 323-389        Andriæ, 224-314  Oct 24: World War I  Oct 26: 1919: The New Europe        Walters, 132-149        Crankshaw, 390-419

Oct 31: The Twenty Years’ Truce  Nov 2: Winners: Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania        Rothschild, 3-24        Walters, 150-188, 219-250    Nov 7: Losers: Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania  Nov 9: Masaryk’s Czechoslovakia        Walters, 205-218, 251-269        Rothschild, 25-75    Nov 14: World War II        Walters, 270-307  Nov 16: SECOND TEST    Nov 21: The Communist Takeovers        Rothschild, 76-123        Walters, 308-363    [Thanksgiving Vacation]    Nov 28: Stalin’s Eastern Europe  Nov 30: From Nagy to Dubèek        Rothschild, 124-190    Dec 5: PAPERS DUE    Dec 5: The First Cracks: Poland and Hungary  Dec 7: 1989        Rothschild, 191-265    Dec 12: Disaster: Yugoslavia  Dec 14: Conclusion: Plus Ça Change...?    THIRD TEST