Eastern European Trip Summer 2006
HISTORY 243 States in Transition: East Central Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary), 1939-2004 Instructor: Dr. John Ashbrook Phone: 381-6174 email: jashbrook@sbc.edu
In the summer of 2006, my wife, Magdalena Markovinović, and I took a group of three Sweet Briar students to Central Europe to explore the history and politics of the region from 1939 to the present.  A significant part of this educational journey was an exploration of the Jewish history of the region and its destruction during and after the Second World War.  Our travels took us first to Prague.  While in Prague we visited Charles University, the Castle complex, the Jewish Quarter, and took a day trip to one of the most notorious of Nazi concentration camps, Thereseinstadt.  We had a number of guest lecturers on the history and politics of the Czech Republic and Prague.  These lecturers included Dr. Miloš Pojar (Czech ambassador to Israel from 1990-1994 and the former Director of the Education and Culture Center of the Jewish Museum in Prague), Dr. Jonathan Bolton of Harvard University, Dr. Bruce Berglund of Calvin College, Dr. Petr Just of Charles University, and Sarah Peck, a United States Foreign Service Officer working in Prague.  Next, we traveled to Krakow, Poland (a great small city!).  We toured the city center and the Wawel Castle complex, took a horse drawn carriage ride, saw the famous and oddly beautiful Wieliczka salt mine, and took a day trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp an hour from the city.  We were lucky enough to have a number of guest lecturers on various topics such as Polish political culture from the 1980s to the present, the Jewish history of Poland, and Poland's road to the European Union.  These lecturers included Dr. Leszek Jesien of Tischner European University and Dr. Edyta Gawron of Jagiellonian University. Finally, we traveled to Budapest, Hungary.  Here we took two walking tours of different parts of the city, and a walking lecture of the history of the Jewish Quarter of Pest.  We explored the recent political history and Jewish history of the city with Dr. László Borhi of the Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Michael Miller of the Central European University. My wife and I would love to do such a trip again if we can get enough interest from Sweet Briar students, their friends and families, and students from other colleges and universities.  We are open to suggestions as to which cities the students would like to visit.  Some suggestions I have, besides those in the former program, include Stettin, Tallinn, Wilno, Gdansk, Szeged, Novi Sad, Plzen, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Bled, Trieste, Pula, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Budva, Podgorica, Plovdiv, Sofia, Lake Ohrid, Cluj, Mostar, or Zagreb.  Other recommendations would also be considered.
Photos
Wawel Castle, Krakow, Poland A typical square in former Habsburg Central Europe From left to right: Courtney Culbreth, Magdalena Markovinović, Dr. Ashbrook, Nikki Soulsby. In front of Wawel Castle. Not pictured and photographer: Jennifer Gottfried. Course Syllabus
Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, parts of East-Central Europe have been portrayed as areas of virulent ethnic conflict, political instability, and economic underdevelopment.  Because of such perceptions, the territory sandwiched between the German and Russian Empires and later NATO and the USSR made this borderland unique in Europe.  Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, all the USSR-supported socialist systems collapsed.  Many of the countries adopted more liberal, democratic governments, based in part on the "democracies of Western Europe."  The new "national" governments, in order to achieve legitimacy and show cultural connections to the West, began an active program to distance themselves from the Russian and Warsaw Pact legacies and the Eastern European stereotype as well as those persisting from the 19th century suggesting the "backwardness" of the region's people.  To a certain extent this process has worked since Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary have joined NATO and the European Union.  It seems that the entire region is well on its way to "re-joining Europe."  But is this an accurate depiction?  Have the countries of East-Central Europe been able to shed the Eastern European stereotype for a "Central European identity?"  This course examines these three states historically and politically from the beginning of the Second World War, through 45 years of communist rule, to their recent entries into the expanding EU.  We will examine and question the major influences on the people and politics of the area, the historic and shifting divisions in Europe, and the role of communism in the shaping of states, cultures, and societies in the region.  One topic that will be focused on is the destruction of the Jewish population by the Nazis and their regional allies, and the communist persecution that led to an exodus of the Holocaust survivors after the war. Requirements: In the four weeks before our travels to the region, I will assign readings from a number of monographs and a reading packet.  The student is expected to attend the five contact hours per week and read the assigned material.  Every Friday the students will turn in a critical 1500-word essay on a topic of the student's choice covered in the reading and discussion (with the instructor's approval).  There will be four of these assignments, which will be evaluated and returned to the student before our journey.  In this way the majority of the course reading and writing will have already been done before traveling, so that students will not have to carry heavy books to each of the three cities on our itinerary.  Once we are in Europe, I will lecture four times per week for two contact hours on more specialized topics relating to the city and country in which we are visiting.  I require that the students maintain academic journals, in which they address political, social, and economic questions; intellectually comment on in-country experiences; and answer a number of questions posed in a reader prepared by the instructor during our jaunt.  Quizzes may be given to keep the students focused. Grading: Participation in discussion and required day trips in Europe (quizzes included): 20% Four critical essays on instructor directed topics (the best three counted): 60% Academic journal:  20% Required Reading: Joseph Rothschild and Nancy Wingfield, Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War II Jonathon Kaufman, A Hole in the Heart of the World Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern Nations in Transit 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary selections) Reading assignments and weekly topics (pre-travel period): Week 1: Historical background and the Interwar period in Eastern Europe Readings:  Kaufman, 1-112                  Rothschild, 1-73 First paper due by email: May 19 by 4pm Week 2: World War II and its immediate aftermath Readings:  Kaufman, 113-190                  Rothschild, 75-146 Second paper due by email: May 26 by 4pm Week 3: The Cold War and the everyday experience of communism Readings:  Kaufman, 191-256                  Rothschild, 147-226 Third paper due by email: June 2 by 4pm Week 4: The fall of the regimes and nations in transition Readings:  Kaufman, 257-317                  Rothschild, 227-302 Fourth paper due by email: June 7 by 4pm   NOTE!: you only have five days for this paper!!! Reading assignments and weekly topics (travel period): Week 5: Czech Republic Discussions:  The Jewish community of Prague                      History of Prague                      Czechoslovakia's experience under communism                      The Velvet Revolution, Velvet Divorce, and transition Readings:  Nations in Transit 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia sections)                  Ash, 78-130                  Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic section in reader Week 6: Poland Discussions: The Jewish community in Krakow                     The Holocaust in Poland: Auschwitz and the death camps                     Poland's experience under communism and birth of Solidarity                     Poland in transition and EU entry Reading:  Nations in Transit 2004 (Poland section)                 Ash, 25-46                  Poland section in reader Week 7: Hungary Discussions:  The Jewish community in Budapest and the Holocaust                      Hungary as a Nazi ally, Nazi enemy, unwilling communist state                      Hungary's experience under communism and the legacy of 1956                      Hungary in transition Reading:  Nations in Transit 2004 (Hungary section)                 Ash, 47-60 and 131-56                 Hungary section in reader                                     This course satisfies both History and International Affairs major requirements, if taken for credit, but will simply be listed as a History course.  The Department of Government and International Affairs supports this, as stipulated in an email sent from Jeff Key to Dr. Kirkwood dated 12/9/05.

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