MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY: 1945-PRESENT

Catalog description

This course examines Europe as it emerged from the wreckage of the Second World War and into a world changing in ways hitherto unimaginable. European countries both east and west were now confronted with the challenges of rapid reindustrialization then deindustrialization, decolonization (the collapse of empires) and the emergence of the Global South, cultural upheaval and political transformation and a globe-encompassing Cold War. In addition, this new situation posed important existential questions: What exactly is Europe and what role should it and its constituent societies play in the postwar world? Through a combination of primary and secondary sources - including written documents, images and historically significant films - this course introduces students to the social, political, cultural, economic and geopolitical processes by which Europe became what it is today, and which will continue to influence its path into the future.