After two devastating world wars, Europe, as it set out to recover, found itself divided socially, politically, economically and ideologically into two distinct entities. Caught between two adversarial superpowers, Western Europe and Eastern Europe face a Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation. This SDG looks at European development from 1945 to 2021. We will study the impact of the Cold War on Europe, the making of Western Europe, and the Sovietization of Eastern Europe. We will compare and contrast Eastern and Western European societies and cultures as we consider significant global events such as student protests and revolts in the 1960s, the 1973 oil crisis, and the slowing of economic growth. We will then turn to the impact of the end of the cold war, the reunification of Germany, the democracy movement and the expansion of the EU. Lastly, we will study the re-establishment of authoritarian governments, the impact of the 2008 global recession, the resumed Russian aggression and ending with a look at the post-Brexit Europe and its future.
We will use Ian Kershaw's The Global Age: Europe 1950 to 2017, his second volume of his history of 20th century Europe (published 2019), as well as Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century by Konrad H. Jarausch (2015).
Core Book
Ian Kershaw, The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017, 2019.
Konrad H. Jarausch, Out of Ashes: A New History of Europe in the Twentieth Century, 2015.
Reference Books
Tony Judt, Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, 2005.
Spencer M. Di Scala, Europe's Long Century: Volume 2: 1945-Present: Society, Politics, and Culture, 2012.
Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, 2012.