HIST-235 The West in Crisis, 1900-1945 (3)

Between 1900 and 1950, Europe was transformed from the center of a liberal-imperial system governing more than a quarter of the world’s population to a battleground in a Cold War struggle between American capitalism and Soviet communism. This course examines the major social, cultural, and political events that remade Europe, including the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, nationalism, and anti-colonial independence movements. Using the contemporary writings of George Orwell, as well as other primary source documents and films and scholarly literature, students analyze the forces that undermined the nineteenth-century liberal-imperial regime and gave rise to the Cold War, gaining a richer understanding of both the history of the early twentieth century and the broader socio-historical processes behind regime change. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry. Usually Offered: spring.