Preliminary readings
Johnson, Lonnie R. Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends. The “Introduction” along with
Chapters 4 – 8.
Ash, Timothy G. The Uses of Adversity. The Chapter “Does Central Europe Exist?”.
Ash, Timothy G. History of the Present. The Chapter “Where is Central Europe Now?”.
Week One – Module 1: Introduction
Session 1: Understanding Central Europe – The Historical Background to 1848
Magosci, Paul Robert. “Eastern, East-Central, or Central Europe: Where is it and What is it?” CalendarAlmanac National Slovak Society of the USA, Vol. 113, pp. 128 – 140.
Session 2: 1848 – 1918
Margaret McMillan’s Paris 1919 – Six Months That Changed the World. Read Chapters 17-20.
Lonnie Johnson, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends – Chapter 9
Session 3: Interwar and Postwar Central Europe
Mazower, Mark. Dark Continent, pp 138-326, 361-416.
Judt, Tony. Postwar – A History of Europe since 1945, Chapter 1 – pp 13 - 40.
Students are encouraged to read other relevant sections of this excellent, recently published book.
NOTE: Students are advised to begin readings for Module 1 before leaving for Brno.
Week Two – Module 2: Vienna
Session 1: The Birth of an Imperial Capital
Jelavich, B. Modern Austria – Empire and Republic, Introduction and Chapter 1 – pp 3-77.
Session 2: The Great half-century of Habsburg Vienna
Spiel, H. Vienna's Golden Autumn 1866-1938, pp 7-82, 193-236.
Session 3: Glimpses of Central Europe's Imperial Capital
Hodgson, G. A New Grand Tour – How Europe’s Great Cities Made our World, Chapter 5 (Vienna) –
pp 151-184.
Morton, F. Thunder at Twilight, pp 1-40, 132-151.
Tung, Anthony. Preserving the World’s Great Cities, pp 190 – 211.
Week Three – Module 3: Wroclaw/Breslau
Session 1: Prussia and the Foundations of Modern Breslau
Davies, Norman. Microcosm: Portrait of a European City, pp 200-218, 224-266.
Session 2: Breslau in Imperial & Interwar Germany. The Second World War and the Emergence of
Polish Wroclaw
Davies, Norman. Microcosm: Portrait of a European City, pp 267-281, 326-379.
Siebel-Achenbach, Sebastian. Lower Silesia from Nazi German to Communist Poland, 1942-1949,
pp 56-82, 117-196.
Week Four – Module 4: Prague
Session 1: Prague's Development from the Early Modern Era
Wechsberg, J. Prague: The Mystical City, pp 92-160, 203-211.
Demetz, P. Prague in Black and Gold, pp 241-254.
Session 2: Prague in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Demetz, P. Prague in Black and Gold, pp 272-300, 314-364.
Students are encouraged to read other chapters of this book.
Hodgson, G. A New Grand Tour – How Europe’s Great Cities Made our World, pp 198-218 (Hašek
and Kafka)
Session 3: Jewish Prague
Valley, Eli. The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe, pp 1-55.
Week Five – Module 5: Budapest
Session 1: Buda, Pest and Obuda - From Provincial to Imperial: Budapest's 18th and 19th Century
Evolution
Gero, A. and J. Poor, eds. Budapest - A History from its Beginnings to 1998, pp. 40-61, 103-34.
Nemes, Robert A. The Once and Future Budapest, pp 14-32.
Session 2: Fin-de-Siecle Budapest
Lukacs, John. Budapest 1900. Chapter 1, pp 3-28.
Students are encouraged to read other chapters of Lukacs’s book.
Enyedy, G and Victoria Szirmai. Budapest, a Central European Capital, pp 25 – 51.
Session 3: Budapest and the Second World War
Ungvary. K. Battle for Budapest, Chapter VI - “The Siege and the Population”, pp 216-310.