Hist 335    EUROPE SINCE 1939


Spring 2026

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 Hunt Tooley
Sherman Hall # 108,
ph. 2292

Office hours:
MWF--Noon to 12:30
TTH--4:30 to 5:00

via Zoom only: MWF 2-2:45 
https://austincollege.zoom.us/j/84127148219
 

SCHEDULE


 Course Description and Objectives

    World War II and beyond:  a study of political, social, cultural, and military developments in the contemporary phase of European history.

    The course deals with the history of the twentieth century, from its shattered middle to its final, and somewhat surprising, slide into the twenty-first century.  Our focus will be Europe, but the course of Europe's recent history will also require us to venture to such familiar places as Washington, D.C., and New York City and to such exotic ones as Jakarta and Kinshasa.  We shall start with the second great war of the century and roll from it into the postwar period, seeking to examine society, politics, diplomacy, economics, and the arts, to see what these can tell us about the shape of what seems, from a relatively short distance, a turbulent period.  Hence, war, cold war, existentialism, technocracy, European Union, decolonization, fall of Communism, and other aspects of the period will give us objects for examination.
    We assume at the outset that we all have the majority of the analytical tools to deal with all this:  a knowledge of the map of Europe, both before 1939 and after 1945; awareness of the previous century or so in the development of at least the great European states; a working knowledge of the map of the "decolonized" Third World (and some knowledge of which European states dominated which non-European territories); and some familiarity with the larger movements in literature and the arts since the nineteenth century.
    One might point out a variety of objectives for a course on the recent history of Europe.  Primary to the undertaking is the achievement of some understanding of the violent twentieth century, of the nature of the primacy of the simplificateurs terribles, of the beginnings of post-Enlightenment culture and the age of the "common man," of the results of the two global wars, of the generation of technocratic society and the expansive and expanding welfare state.  On a more mundane level, one also aims at a working familiarity with the technical aspects of war and peace, of government and bureaucracy, of economic ebb and flow, of the movements and habits of society, that is to say, people.    


Readings are all online.  We will be discussing this modus operandi in class.

Course Elements and Grades  

    Part of the grade for class participation will depend on regular attendance.  If you are absent more than, say, three times, I will begin to call you on the carpet, look into the matter, etc.  Excessive absences will result in expulsion from the course.  Another part of the class grade will depend on participation in the discussions which will occur regularly in class and regular reading quizzes.  There will be two exams:  a midterm exam and the final.  Both will be essay exams.   
     You will be writing a term paper at about 15 pages in length (or at least 2700 words) on a topic which you will choose in consultation with me.  In preparation for the paper, you will be doing a some intermediate projects:  a short written topic proposal,  a progress report, and a first draft.  The values for the course elements shake down as follows.

            reading quiz ave.                      15        
            midterm exam                          15          
            final exam                                 25        
            res. paper proposal                  10
            annotated bibliography             15          
            research paper                          20
            revised research paper             value of improvements averaged with the original paper grade
          _____________________________
                      final grade            100 %

In this course, 97.5  to 100 is is an A+;93 to 96.9  is an A;90 to 92.9 is an A-; etc.

Make-up Exams and Late Assignments

    If you must miss a test because of sickness or other unforeseeable circumstances, you may make up the exam at a later date.  You should be warned, however, that the material is never as fresh afterward and that the make-up, which will probably fall days or even weeks after the original test date, will probably seem more difficult to you than the original.  Hence, you should take the test if it is at all possible.  If you must miss a test for some school-sponsored event, please notify me as soon as you become aware of the problem so that we can work out a make-up date.  I will assess a penalty when calculating a grade on late papers.

Academic Integrity
 
This course will be run on the basis of Austin College Academic Integrity Policies.  Academic honesty is absolutely essential.  This means:  no cheating.  We will follow strictly the guidelines printed in the student handbook.  Please read these carefully.  If you are ever in doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism, please feel free to come by and discuss the question with me, or any other faculty member for that matter.  The Writing Center at the UNC-Chapel Hill has an excellent page that discusses plagiarism fully:  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/plagiarism/  . We will also be talking about this when we get to the paper assignments.

PAPER-WRITING INSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALS