Overview of Course

Political, economic, social, and cultural history of major European nations since World War II. The course will examine the history of the continent over the last seventy years. While it is impossible to focus in detail on all the thirty-four countries, at the end of the course, you will understand the major and minor players and the role they play on the European stage. The course will endeavor to examine the ways in which ideas, culture, high and low, affected social change in Europe. We will also look at the love/hate relationship with the United States as well as at the foreign relations with other parts of the world. To help you understand the period 1945-2020 in Europe, we will look at what happened on each side of the Iron Curtain, we will examine the Revolutions of 1989, and Europe in the Age of Globalization. Finally, we will examine the support of the European Union project as well the forces of (neo)nationalism, focusing on Brexit and the policies towards migration.