Critical Social Inquiry 0310 - The Laboratory Atop the Graveyard: Research Seminar on 20th Century Europe

The democratic welfare states that we take for granted were the far from inevitable outgrowths of chaos and upheaval: revolutions, economic crisis, and wars of unprecedented destruction. In the interwar years, parliamentary democracy seemed as doomed as the monarchies that the Great War had toppled, while fascism and communism laid claim to the future. In the second half of the century, as its old empires crumbled, Europe lived in the shadow of the US-Soviet rivalry, until it emerged into a new but uncertain independence and unity as the Cold War ended. Although the age witnessed great violence and despair, it also brought forth great hopes and achievements in social thought, the arts, and technology, many of whose effects we are still pondering. The course introduces Div III and II students to key historical phenomena and scholarship, guiding them in the crafting of research proposals and papers on this crucial era. Keywords: history, humanities, modern European studies

Time and Narrative This course is fully remote. Students should generally expect to spend 6-8 hours on work a week outside of class.