HIST 235 Empire, Total War, and Ideology: Twentieth Century Europe

This course examines the history of modern Europe with a focus on popular and state-supported ideologies of exclusion and violence in the long 20th century (spanning 1890-2011). Central to this course is a focus on the discursive boundaries of civil society based on race and class. Throughout the course, we situate European developments in a world-historical framework as a way to understand the increasingly interdependent political, social, and economic relationships between Europe and the colonial periphery. We begin in fin de siècle Europe, and trace the polarization of national politics and the development of the contending state ideologies of fascism and communism. We explore the consequences of various programs of decolonization, as well as the popular revolts against cultural diversity and post-colonial immigration to the metropole. The course also investigates the origins and consequences of the neo-liberal "revolution" of the 1980's, the ethnic violence stemming from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and eastern bloc nations, and the return of the radical right throughout Europe in the 1990's. Our course readings combine secondary and primary sources, literature, as well as a wide range of cinematic and musical sources, in order to understand the evolution of European notions of race, national belonging, and political violence.

Survey Requirement Met: Europe