Course info

This course provides students with a broad survey of the political, economic, social, cultural and intellectual history of Europe from the end of the Second World War to the early years of the twenty-first century. How did Europe recover from the devastation of the Second World War? Why was the United States of America so involved in the affairs of postwar Europe? How did the Soviet Union achieve hegemony in Eastern Europe? What was the Cold War? Why was there a social and cultural revolution in the 1960s? What political and economic conditions brought about the establishment of the European Union? Why had Communism and the Soviet Union disappeared by the early 1990s? What problems has Europe faced since 2000? These and other searching questions are explored through a mix of primary and secondary readings.