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School of History · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
At the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945, Europe was reduced to rubble. This course examines the troubled history of attempts to re-establish prosperity and democracy in the postwar period. In Eastern Europe, Communist dictatorships claimed to provide a superior political and economic system. In Western Europe, the strengthening of democracy often took a back seat to the demands of the Cold War, the legacies of totalitarianism, the reluctance to decolonise and the prioritisation of economic growth. Protest and dissent - from students, feminists and terrorists – marked both East and West. This course examines the origins and contradictions of contemporary European politics and society in order better to understand the trials and tribulations of Europe in the early 21st century.
1,000 word document exercise
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
2,500 word research essay
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Final exam, 3 hours
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Lecture Responses (5 x 200 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4
Class participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorial and tutorial-like activities; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Key readings will be supplied through Wattle. Preliminary Reading Victoria De Grazia, “A Model Mrs. Consumer,” in Irresistible Empire (2005), 376-458. Emanuela Scarpellini, “Shopping American-Style: The Arrival of the Supermarket in Postwar Italy,” Enterprise & Society 5 (2004): 652-68. Kristen Ross, “Hygiene and Modernization,” in Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (1995), 71-122.