H512B The Age of Dictators and Contemporary Europe
MWF: 11-11:50am P-148
Instructor: Dr. Annika Frieberg
Office: AL 576
Office Hours: MW noon-1pm, F 9.30-10.30am or by appointment
Email: afrieberg@mail.sdsu.edu
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
This course is an upper-level seminar which will investigate some of the darkest moments of 20th
Century European history. The course is particularly concerned with aspects of industrialization,
science and mass media, war and ethnic cleansing in 20th century European dictatorships.
COURSE STRUCTURE:
We will meet three times a week. Generally, I will lecture for background and context on
Monday and we will have a discussion based on the week’s reading and occasionally a film on
Wednesday and Friday.
GRADES
Grading System
A=93-100
A-=90-92
B+=87-89
B=83-86
B-=80-82
C+=77-79
C=73-76
C-=70-72
D+=67-69
D=63-66
D- =60-62
F=below 59
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Grades (%)
1 primary source analysis
1 film review
Essay 1:
Essay 2:
Midterm:
Take-home final:
Participation:
Total:
10
10
15
20
15
20
10
100
The primary source analysis paper will analyze two of the primary source documents used in
class. The papers are intended to train you to read and think critically about primary sources.
Please, use the Bowdoin writing guide’s discussion about how to read primary sources to
complete this assignments: http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/primaries.htm and Kalani
Craig’s “The 5 P’s of reading primary sources” (Blackboard). The primary source analysis is
due on the day that we read the source in class at the beginning of class. It will be 2-3 pages
long.
The film review will review a film about dictatorship in Modern Europe, either a film we view
in class (“Lives of Others” or “Tales of the Golden Age”) or an independently chosen film which
still needs to be cleared with me beforehand. Like the primary source analysis paper, the film
needs to be evaluated as a primary source, using the same questions, in addition to discussing its
aesthetic qualities, literary value, historical accuracy and political message. The film review
should also be about 2-3 pages long.
The two essays are argumentative in nature (meaning, you will develop an argumentative thesis
and defend it based on your sources). The prompts can be found in in the weekly schedule of the
syllabus. You must cite your sources using Chicago Manual of Style citations. This format can
be found on the history department’s website or following this link:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html . Failure to cite your
sources with page numbers in the essays will result in an F.
The midterm and final will be take-home exams. I will give you the questions for them about
one and a half week before they are due.
Graduate Student Assignments:
2 focus questions based on graduate readings - 10%
1 film review (same as undergraduates) – 5%
1 midterm (same as undergraduates) – 25%
1 final paper (15-20 pages on a historiographical question related to 20th century Europe and the
course themes)
- Draft due November 15 – 20%
- Final paper due December 10 – 40%
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To critically analyze and evaluate historical documents
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2. To compare multiple historical sources to one another in shorter and longer writing
assignments.
3. To recognize that sources represent multiple perspectives on the same event and to
compare these perspectives critically.
4. To write and present your own perspective and analysis of sources in a clear, concise and
convincing manner.
COURSE LITERATURE
Undergraduate Readings
 Norman Naimark. Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN-13: 978-0674009943
 Heda Kovály. Under a Cruel Star:A Life in Prague 1941-1968. New York: Holmes and
Meier Publishers, Inc., 1997. ISBN-13: 978-0841913776
 Mark Mazower. Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century. New York: Vintage, 2000.
ISBN-13: 978-0679757047
Graduate Readings (see syllabus for each week for additional articles on Blackboard)
 Hiroaki Kuromiya, Stalin (Profiles in Power). New York: Longman, 2005.
 Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands. Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic
Books, 2012 (excerpt on Blackboard)
 Orlando Figes, The Whisperers. Private Life in Stalin’s Russia. New York : Metropolitan
Books, 2007 (excerpt on Blackboard)
Primary Sources available on Blackboard
POLICIES AND EXPECTATIONS:
Attendance:
I will not take attendance. However, you are responsible for any material covered in class and
you will need to find out from a friend, from the text book and readings or by coming to my
office hours if you have missed anything. You will only be able to make up quizzes, exams or inclass assignments in case of an excused absence. Excused absences should be discussed with me
BEFORE or as they occur. I will only grant an excused absence if you can present official
documentation.
Cheating and Plagiarism:
Will not be tolerated in this class. For a minor case of plagiarism, you will receive an F for the
assignment. For a major case of plagiarism (such as lifting an entire paper from the internet), you
will receive an F for the course. If you are unsure of what constitutes plagiarism, consult the
American Historical Association’s definition via this link:
http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/professionalstandards.cfm#Plagiarism
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Expectations and a Contract:
College should be a preparation for professional life and an institution for adults. For our mutual
work place to function well, we need a contract of expectations on each other in order to
maintain a professional, pleasant atmosphere in this class (see attachment A, sign and return).
Disabilities and Special Needs:
I am happy to accommodate any student with a special need or disability but in order to help you
effectively I need to be notified of this need early in the first two weeks of class. You may
contact Student Disability Services for documentation/assessment. You do have the right to
privacy with regards to your special needs, and to simply provide me with the documentation
from SDS stating which accommodations you would need. For directions on how to receive
accommodations, call SDS at (619)594-6473 or consult: http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/sds
Paper late policy:
 The source analysis papers cannot be turned in late except in the case of an excused
absence.

If you turn in either of the two exams, or the two papers late, you will lose 1 grade off the
grade I would have given your paper (B to C, B- to C-, etc.) and 1/2 grade for each
additional day the paper is late (C+ to C-, C- to D) except in the case of an excused
absence. You cannot turn the final in late except if you have a documented and serious
reason approved by me. If you do, I will calculate and submit your grade without the final
exam grade.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1: Politics in Fin-de-Siécle Europe
Monday, August 26: Introduction and Syllabus
Wednesday, August 28: Lecture: Monarchies, Communism, and the Democratic Idea
Friday, August 30: Discussion: Primary Documents
Read: http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/primaries.htm
Kalani Craig, “The 5 P’s of reading primary sources” (Blackboard)
Primary Sources: John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty.”
Karl Marx. “The Communist Manifesto.”
1. Who was the intended audience for either of the two sources?
2. When were they written?
3. What is the main problem/challenge in setting up society that these philosophers are
trying to solve?
Week 2: World War 1
Monday, Sept. 2: Labor Day – no class
Wednesday, Sept. 4: lecture: WWI
Primary Source: Lenin, “Imperialism. The Highest Stage of Capitalism.”
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Friday, Sept. 6: discussion
Read: Mazower, 3-40
To Think About:
1. Describe the political development in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of WWI?
2. What did the constitutions of the new democracies in Eastern Europe share?
3. Why did fascism become popular?
4. Why did WWI break out according to Lenin?
Graduate Students:
Jay Winter. “Under the Cover of War. The Armenian Genocide in the Context of Total War.”
The Specter of Genocide. Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Eds. Robert Gellately and Ben
Kiernan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. 189-214 (Blackboard)
Week 3: Interwar Era
Monday, Sept. 9: lecture: The Early Soviet Union
Primary Source: Lenin: “The State and the Revolution,” chapters 1 and 5 (Blackboard)
Wednesday, Sept. 11: lecture: The Versailles Treaty, Wilson, and the Great Depression
Primary Source: “The Versailles Treaty” (Blackboard)
Friday, Sept. 13: discussion
Read: Mazower, 41-137
To Think About:
1. Why were minorities a problem in interwar Europe?
2. How did the Soviet Union deal with minority issue?
3. How did the League of Nations deal with the minority issue?
4. What were the problems with the new democracies in Eastern Europe – why did they
fail?
5. What caused the financial crisis in Europe in the late 1920s?
6. How did communist and fascist states deal with the economic crisis?
Graduate students:
Hiroaki Kuromiya, Stalin (Profiles in Power). New York: Longman, 2005.
Week 4: Proto-Fascism and Fascism
Monday, Sept. 16: lecture: Spain and Italy
Wednesday, Sept. 18: lecture: Proto-Fascism and the Utopian Ideal of the Nation-State
Friday, Sept. 20: discussion/class-exercise
Read: Naimark, “Introduction,” “Chapter 1 (Armenians)” and “Chapter 3 (Chechens-Ingush and
Crimean Tatars”)
1. How does Naimark define ethnic cleansing and genocide?
2. What are modern and ancient elements of the Armenian genocide?
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3. What were Stalin’s main reasons for the deportations of the Chechens-Ingush and the
Tatars?
Graduate Students:
Emily Greble Balić, “When Croatia Needed Serbs: Nationalism and Genocide in Sarajevo, 19411942,” Slavic Review 68:1 (Spring 2009), 116-138 (Blackboard)
Victoria de Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women. Italy 1922-1945 (Berkeley: University of
California Press), 1-76.
Week 5: The Rise of Hitler
Monday, Sept. 23: lecture: Hitler and Nazi Germany
Primary source: The Nazi Party Program 1920 (Blackboard)
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Writing workshop (DO NOT MISS THIS!)
Friday, Sept. 27: film: Triumph of the Will
Read: Naimark, “Chapter 57 (The Nazi Attacks on the Jews),” Mazower, 138-181
To Think About:
1. How did Hitler and the Nazis plan to organize Europe and its economy?
2. What were examples of the Nazi race war? (i.e. instances where race superseded military
or economic goals in the German warfare)
3. Why, according to Naimark, does the Holocaust turn from an action of ethnic cleansing
to genocide? Which factors contribute to intensifying the efforts to destroy Jewish
existence in Europe?
Graduate Students:
A.D. Moses. “Structure and Agency in the Holocaust: Daniel J. Goldhagen and His Critics.”
History and Theory 37:2 (May 1998), 194-219.
Week 6: The Second World War
Monday, Sept. 30: lecture: WWII
Wednesday, Oct. 2: lecture: The War State, Total War, and Ethnic Cleansing
Essay 1 due
Prompt:
Use “Triumph of the Will,” The Nazi Program of 1920 and Mazower to develop an argument
about the most attractive aspects of fascism to a broader population. You may also draw on
DeGrazia, Naimark, Moses (the graduate reading).
Friday, Oct. 4: Class cancelled.
Week 7: Expulsions and Population Policies in Europe
Monday, Oct. 7: lecture: Stalin’s population policies and the Ukrainian Famine
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Wednesday, Oct. 9: lecture: Hitler’s Population Policy
Friday, Oct. 11: lecture: Allied Population Policy in post-war Europe
Primary Source: Potsdam Settlement
Graduate Students:
Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands. Between Hitler and Stalin (New York: Basic Books, 2010), viixix, 1-58 (Blackboard).
Week 8: Stalinism in Eastern Europe
Monday, Oct. 14: lecture: Postwar Settlements (Potsdam and Yalta)
Primary Source: Charter of United Nations
Wednesday, Oct. 16: lecture: Communist Take-Overs in Eastern Europe
Friday, Oct. 18: discussion
Read: Margolius-Kovály, 5-66, Mazower, 182-249
To Think About:
1. How did political thinkers reconceive of the role of the state during the later stage of the
war according to Mazower?
2. Why does Mazower call the peace “brutal”?
3. What was Margolius-Kovály’s personal experience during the war?
4. How did the Czechs receive her when she returned to Prague?
Graduate students:
Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless.” (Blackboard)
Orlando Figes, The Whisperers, 1-75 (Blackboard)
Week 9: Communism in Eastern Europe
Monday, Oct. 21: film: Lives of Others
Wednesday, Oct. 23: film: Lives of Others
Friday, Oct. 25: film: Lives of Others
Read: Margolius-Kovály, 67-125
To Think About:
1. Which forms of violence are evident in the film (between the main characters, and
between the state and the individuals)?
2. How does the state influence Jerska’s, Christa-Maria’s, and Georg Dreyman’s personal
relationships? How might it influence Gerd Wiesler’s personal life?
3. How does Margolius-Kovály explain Rudolf’s decision to join the communist party and
leadership?
4. In which ways does his position impact their marriage?
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Week 10: Communism in Eastern Europe
Monday, Oct. 28: lecture: Daily Life in Eastern Europe
Wednesday, Oct. 30: lecture: Opposition and Resistance during Communism
Primary Source: Adam Michnik, “Letters from Prison” (Blackboard)
Friday, Nov. 1: discussion:
Read: Margolius-Kovály, 126-192, Slavenka Drakulić, “How We Survived Communism and
Even Laughed” (Blackboard)
To Think About:
1. In which way did politics influence the hospital’s treatment of Heda?
2. Describe the ways in which Heda Margolius-Kovály learned to work the system? Was
she successful?
3. In which ways did she oppose and fight communism?
4. Slavenka Drakulić describes another aspect of women’s lives under communism. What
are the ways in which the communist system influences her and her friend’ daily lives in
1970s and 1980s Yugoslavia?
Midterm due.
Graduate Students:
Katherine Verdery and Gail Kligman, “How Communist Cadres Persuaded Romanian Peasants
to Give Up Their Land,” East European Politics and Societies 2011 25: 361 (Blackboard)
Week 11: Tales from a Golden Age
Monday, Nov. 4: film: Tales from a Golden Age
Wednesday, Nov. 6: film: Tales from a Golden Age
Friday, Nov. 8: film: Tales from a Golden Age
To Think About:
1. What are the greatest problems which the individuals in “Tales from a Golden Age” face
and how do they cope with these problems?
2. In which ways does the film create comedy out of the problems of late communist
dictatorship in Romania?
3. Consider questions of agency and powerlessness in the film – what kind of agency do the
characters in the film have? How and against what are they powerless?
4. How does the representation of 1980s dictatorship differ in “Tales from a Golden Age”
from “Lives of Others”?
Week 12:
Monday, Nov. 11: Veteran’s Day – No Class!
Wednesday, Nov. 13: lecture: Fall of Communism
Friday, Nov. 15: discussion
Read: Mazower, 361-394
To Think About:
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1. How does Mazower explain the fall of communism?
2. What were the challenges of state transitions in Eastern Europe?
Week 13: The Yugoslav Wars
Monday, Nov. 18: lecture: The Yugoslav Wars
Primary Source: Bill Clinton. My Life. Pp. 502-513, 665-674 (Blackboard).
Wednesday, Nov. 20: discussion.
Read: Naimark, “Chapter 5 (The Wars of Yugoslav Secession)” and “Conclusion”
1. Post-communist Croatia and Serbia were democratic states. Why did this not prevent
ethnic cleansing?
2. Why the particular violence against women? How was it justified and explained?
3. Which parallels do you see in the origins of the Holocaust and the Wars of Yugoslav
Secession?
Friday, Nov. 22: class cancelled
Week 14: Never Again? Memories of Dictatorship and Ethnic Cleansing
Monday, Nov. 25: lecture: Debates about the Holocaust, Its Origins and the Ordinary Germans
Wednesday, Nov. 27: lecture: Collaboration, anti-Semitism, and Victimhood in Central and
Eastern Europe
Essay II:
Prompt 1:
Use Mazower, Naimark, lecture and potentially Clinton to discuss the most significant reasons as
to why the Yugoslav Wars broke out and why they were not prevented.
Prompt II:
Use lecture, “Tales of a Golden Age,” Drakulić, Margolius-Kovály to discuss gendered
differences in the experience of daily life under communism. Were women’s challenges and
experiences different from men’s and if so, why?
Friday, Nov. 29: Thanksgiving – No Class!
Week 15: Current Day Challenges to Democracy and International
Interference in Europe and Elsewhere
Dec. 2: lecture: Dictators, Ethnic Cleansing and Democracy Today
Dec. 4: lecture: Kony 2012 and Ongoing Human Rights Abuses…
Dec. 6: discussion:
Read:
Samantha Power, “Preface,” “A Problem from Hell.” America and the Age of Genocide. New
York: Basic Books, 2002/New York: Perennial, 2003. (Blackboard).
1. Who is responsible for intervening in cases of human rights abuses?
2. What are the reasons that such interventions often occur late or not at all?
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3. How can the Holocaust or any genocide by used as a political tool by historians, in the
media or by political instances?
Week 16: Review
Monday, Dec. 9: Review and Summary
FINAL EXAM DUE IN MY OFFICE ON DEC. 12 at 4:30PM
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