HIST 2P53
TOTALITARIAN TEMPTATION:
Europe’s Twentieth Century
Brock University, Fall Term 2011
Lecture: Monday, 5-7pm (AS215)
Seminar 1: Thursday, 12-1pm (MC D400); Seminar 2: Friday, 11-12 (EA105); Seminar 3: Thursday, 3-4pm
(MCD404); Seminar 4: Thursday, 2-3pm (TH133): Seminar 5: Wednesday, 4-5pm (PL311)
Instructor:
Office:
Extension:
E-mail:
Office hours:
TAs:
Dr Elizabeth Vlossak
573 Glenridge Ave, rm 217
4020
[email protected]
Wednesday, 3-5pm or by appointment
Anna Jocsak ([email protected]), Melanie Gilligan ([email protected]),
Ken Scholtens ([email protected])
Course Overview
The 20th century has been described as an „Age of Extremes,‟ when Europe became a „Dark Continent‟ in
which the rival forces of liberal democracy, fascism and communism fought for domination. While fascism
was ultimately defeated in 1945, and European communism fell in 1989-91, the victory of democracy was not
inevitable: the „totalitarian temptation‟ was often present, and may still lurk in various parts of the world
today.
This course explores Europe‟s 20th century by focusing on the major events that spawned Italian Fascism,
German National Socialism, Bolshevism, and Stalinism, and the political, social, economic and cultural
consequences of these new ideologies. The course also addresses the concept of „totalitarianism,‟ and
questions whether it is a useful and accurate means of explaining and understanding the horrors inflicted by
authoritarian regimes in the 20th century, or whether it is an out-dated product of the Cold War.
Required textbooks:
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (2000)
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (1924)
Additional readings for seminars are available online or on Sakai. Please make copies of these and bring them
to the appropriate seminars.
Suggested additional reading:
Abbot Gleason, Totalitarianism: The Inner History of the Cold War (1995) – copies available at the Brock
Bookstore
David D. Roberts, The Totalitarian Experiment in Twentieth-Century Europe: Understanding the poverty of
great politics (2006)
Evaluation
Seminar participation
20%
Seminar leadership
10%
Annotated bibliography
10%
Essay
20%
In-class response paper
5%
Final examination
35%
** All of the elements that make up the final grade are obligatory. A grade of ‘incomplete’ will be given to
students who fail to complete all parts of the evaluation.**
Seminars (Participation: 20%; Leadership: 10%)
Students must prepare for and actively participate in the weekly student-led seminars. This is an essential part
of the course – not only is more than a third of the final mark based on seminar participation and leadership,
but questions on the final exam will also draw from seminar readings and discussions.
Each seminar will be led by two students, who will introduce the readings in a short (roughly 5 minutes)
opening statement. While it is important that the seminar leaders provide some brief historical background,
this introduction should not simply be a factual narrative or summary of the material. Rather, it should provide
the base for group discussion by highlighting problems, important issues and themes, and possible
controversies.
Seminar presenters must meet with their TA in advance (preferably the previous week) to go over their
presentation and main discussion questions – part of the leadership mark will be based on this meeting.
Two or more unexcused absences from seminars will seriously jeopardize your grade.
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Annotated bibliography (10%) and essay (20%)
Students will write a short essay on a topic chosen from the list provided at the end of the syllabus.
Before writing the paper, students must submit an annotated bibliography of the sources (at least five, not
including the textbook) they intend to use to support their argument. Students need to include a tentative thesis
statement with their bibliography. All students must get a passing grade on the annotated bibliography before
they can proceed to writing the essay. If a student receives a failing grade on the bibliography, he/she must
resubmit it until a passing grade is awarded. More information on how to write an annotated bibliography will
be provided in lecture.
Annotated bibliographies are due in lecture on Monday, 17 October.
The essay must be six (6) to eight (8) double-spaced pages in length (roughly 1,500-2,000 words). Please
include a bibliography with at least five (5) sources (not including the course textbooks).
Essays are due in lecture on Monday, 14 November.
Late assignments will be given a penalty of 5% per day. Assignments that are more than 1 week late will not
receive comments. Papers more than 2 weeks late will receive a mark of zero.
Please use the Chicago Style for your footnotes and bibliography. If you are unfamiliar with this referencing
format please see Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (2007).
In-class response paper (5%)
Students will read a passage from Anna Funder‟s book Stasiland and watch the film The Lives of Others. They
will then write a short response paper (45 min.) based on the reading and the film in class on Monday, 28
November. A public viewing of the film will be scheduled out of class time in the middle of term. Those
unable to make the viewing are responsible for watching the film on their own time. One copy of the film will
be made available on course reserve, but students are welcome to rent or download their own copy. More
information on this assignment will be provided by the instructor at a later date.
Some important information:
Style and Format
Make sure your assignments include a cover page, pagination (ie. page numbers), and a bibliography. Please
use the Chicago style of referencing for footnotes and the bibliography. If you have any questions about this
style, please refer to Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
A penalty of up to -5% will be given for assignments that do not meet these requirements. Points will also be
deducted for general sloppiness and typos/ spelling errors.
Turnitin.com
Students must submit their essay to Turnitin.com. While it is within a student‟s rights not to submit his/her
work to Turnitin.com, students who choose not to must submit their paper at least one week prior to the
deadline, and attach all their notes to the paper.
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If you decide you do not wish to submit your work to Turnitin.com, please inform your TA as soon as
possible.
Academic Dishonesty
Please ensure that all sources that you use in the essay are thoroughly documented (including material from
websites). If you do not do this, you are guilty of plagiarism. Brock University‟s Academic Misconduct
Regulations define plagiarism as „…presenting work done (in whole or in part) by someone else as if it were
one‟s own.‟
If you have any doubts about what practices are characterized as plagiarism, please refer to
http://www.brocku.ca/library/plagiarism.htm or consult the instructor. Penalties for academic dishonesty will
vary according to the particular case, but may be severe. In this course, a student found guilty of plagiarism
will get a zero on the assignment, which may result in a failure in the course.
A few final remarks regarding in-class behaviour
We all have the right to a respectful learning environment, and we are all responsible for creating and
maintaining such an environment.
While the instructor is lecturing, students must refrain from conversations or any other behaviour that may
distract others.
Laptops and tablets are allowed in class, but only in order to take notes. Playing games, watching videos,
reading e-mail, checking Facebook, etc. is strictly forbidden. Students caught engaging in these activities will
be asked to shut off and put away their laptop for the rest of the class. The instructor maintains the right to
impose supplementary discipline on students who choose to repeatedly ignore this rule.
Cellphones and smartphones must always be turned off during lectures and seminars, and be kept out of sight
for the duration of the class. Texting or tweeting in class is forbidden. The instructor and TAs maintain the
right to confiscate any phones visible to them. Phones will be returned to their owners at the end of class.
The instructor and TAs maintain the right to have a student leave the classroom if he/she is being disruptive.
Last, but not least: E-mail etiquette
E-mails to the instructor or TA must be written like formal letters. Please use the proper salutation, e.g., „Dear
Professor Vlossak‟, rather than „Hey‟, „Yo!‟, or other informal forms of address. Also make sure that you
include your full name at the end of all your messages – e-mails that are not properly signed will not get a
response. Please also note that instructors and TAs receive dozens of messages every day, so cannot reply to
messages immediately. Do not be concerned if it takes up to three days to get an answer.
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Course outline
Week 1 (12 Sept.) – Introduction
20th-century Europe – A Dark Continent?
What is „totalitarianism‟?
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 1
Seminar – Fascist origins?
Readings:
Hermann Ahlwardt, „The Semitic Versus the Teutonic Race‟ (1895)
Friedrich Nietzsche, excerpts from The Will to Power (1901) and The Antichrist (1888)
Sigmund Freud, excerpts from Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
Georges Sorel, excerpts from Reflections on Violence (1908)
F.T. Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto (1909)
Week 2 (19 Sept.) – War and Revolution
The First World War and the „Crisis of Bourgeois Society‟
Red Terror, Part I: European Responses to the Bolshevik Revolution
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 2
Seminar – The Great War and European consciousness
Readings:
Paul Valéry, excerpts from On European Civilization (1919) and The European Mind (1920)
Oswald Spengler, excerpt from The Decline of the West (1922)
Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel (1920), pp.224-56, and „The Great War: Father of a New Age‟
(1929)
Benito Mussolini, „Trenchocracy‟ (1917)
Week 3 (26 Sept.) – Mussolini’s Italy
The anatomy of fascism
Italian fascism: From opposition movement to „totalitarian‟ regime
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 3
Film:
Scenes from Fascism in Colour: Mussolini in Power (2006)
Seminar – Inside Mussolini’s Italy
Readings:
John F. Pollard, Fascist Experience in Italy (Routledge, 1998), pp. 57-58; 66-76
Victoria de Grazia, The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy
(1981), pp.151-2; 164-86
Week 4 (3 Oct.) – Hitler’s Third Reich
The weaknesses of Weimar democracy
Hitler and the Nazi dictatorship
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 4
Richard Taylor, Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany (1998), pp.162-73
Film:
Scenes from Triumph of the Will (1935)
Seminar – Life inside Hitler’s Germany
Readings:
Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham (eds.), Nazism 1919-1945, Volume 2: State, Economy
and Society, 1933-1939 (1984), pp.152-159; 226-229; 254-257; 321-325; 336-343
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Detlev J.K. Peukert, Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday
Life (1987), pp.21-25; 145-174
Week 5 (10 Oct.) – THANKSGIVING – NO LECTURE – NO SEMINARS
Week 6 (17 Oct.) – Stalin’s Soviet Union
Stalin‟s „Revolution from above‟
Life under Stalinism
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 5
„Anecdotes,‟ in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays and
Folklore, 1917-1953, ed. James von Geldern and Richard Stites (1995), pp. 212-13.
** ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES DUE IN LECTURE. **
Seminar – Growing up under Stalin
Readings:
„Happy Childhoods,‟ in Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents, ed. Lewis
Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov (New Haven and London, 2000), pp. TBA
Week 7 (24 Oct.) – The Cold War
Red Terror, Part II: The Cold War and the concept of „totalitarianism‟
Behind the Iron Curtain
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 6
Additional readings:
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, pp.3-10; 123-134; 158-161; 460-479
Karl-Dietrich Bracher, „Totalitarianism as Concept and Reality,‟ in Neil Gregor (ed.),
Nazism (2000) pp.134-137
Edward Hunter, Brain-washing in Red China: The Calculated Destruction of Men’s
Minds (1951), pp.3-57; Mark Sachleben and Kevan M. Yenerall, Seeing the Bigger
Picture: Understanding Politics Through Film and Television (2005), pp.58-65
Seminar – Life in the Soviet Bloc
Readings:
„Everyday Life in Eastern Europe‟ – Document available online at
http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/everyday-life/introduction
„Panelaks and housing estates‟ – Document available online at
http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/everyday-life/primary-sources/10
One consequence of the Five Year Plan: No toilet paper! Document available online at
http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/exhibits/everyday-life/primary-sources/13
„Manifesto of Charter 77‟ (Czechoslovakia, 1977). Available online at
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/czechoslovakia/cs_appnd.html
Dan Bilefsky, „Czechs‟ Velvet Revolution Paved by Plastic People‟ – article available online
at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/world/europe/16iht-czech.html
Week 8 (31 Oct.) – Totalitarianism in Popular Culture
Cold War Superheroes and Villains
Imagining Dystopias
Readings:
George Orwell, exerpt from 1984 (1950)
Film:
Scenes from Starship Troopers, Brazil, and Children of Men
Seminar – The total state in literary fiction
Readings:
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (1924)
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Week 9 (7 Nov.) – Comparing Totalitarianism, Part I
Governance
Socialization
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapters 7 and 8
Film:
Scenes from Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Seminar – Resistance
Readings:
Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone (first published in Berlin in 1947), pp. 132-6.
Nathan Stolzfus, „Rosenstrasse: Civil Courage of Ordinary Persons in Nazi Germany,‟ in
Confront! Resistance in Nazi Germany, ed. John J. Michalczyk (New York, 2004), pp.163-89.
Week 10 (14 Nov.) – Comparing Totalitarianism, Part II
The Use of Terror
War and Militarism
Readings:
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapters 9 and 10
Film review by Anna Funder available online at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview12
** ESSAYS DUE THIS WEEK IN LECTURE **
Seminar – Terror
Readings:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 (1973-76), pp.3-18; 220-37
Anna Akhmatova, Requiem
Week 11 (21 Nov.) – Totalitarian Temptation
Fascism: A European phenomenon?
Totalitarianism: A 20th-century phenomenon?
Readings:
„Do You Remember That Time?‟ in Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North
Korea and the Kim Dynasty, by Bradley K. Martin (New York, 2004), pp.426-34.
Seminar – Remembering Totalitarianism
Readings:
Alon Confino, „Traveling as a Culture of Remembrance: Traces of National Socialism in
West Germany, 1945-1960,‟ in Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits
of Writing History (2006), pp.235-54
Adam Hochschild, “„Why Are We Weeping,‟” in The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember
Stalin (1994), pp.43-59
Clare Murphy, „Germany battles over right to reminisce‟ – BBC News article available online
at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3077054.stm
Week 12 (28 Nov.) – Conclusion
** In-class response paper **
Concluding remarks and exam revision
Readings:
Naomi Wolf, „Fascist America, in 10 easy steps‟. Article available online at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment
Denis MacShane, „The New Fascism‟ (March 2004) – full article available online at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/mar/11/politicalcolumnists.terrorism
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Charlie Jane Anders, „Will Totalitarianism Make a Comeback? – Interview with Zbigniew
Brzezinski‟ (June 2010) – also available online at http://io9.com/5569906/could-we-see-therise-of-a-new-electronic-totalitarianism
Mazower, Dark Continent, chapter 11 and Epilogue
** No seminars this week **
Essay – Information and Topics
Students will write a short essay on a topic chosen from the list provided below.
The essay must be six (6) to eight (8) double-spaced pages in length (roughly 1,500-2,000 words). Please
include a bibliography with at least five (5) sources. Students are encouraged to use both primary and
secondary sources to support their argument. Students are welcome to use documents read in seminar, but
must also refer to outside sources.
Students are encouraged to consult with the instructor or their TA at any point during the research and writing
process. Feel free to meet with the instructor or TA in their office hours. You are also welcome to e-mail a
bibliograpy, brief outline of your paper, your thesis statement, or an introductory paragraph to the instructor or
TA to look over. But make sure you don‟t wait until the night before your paper is due. The instructor and
TAs are more than happy to provide feedback on your work-in-progress, but make sure you send it to them
well before the assignment deadline (ie. at least one week before).
Essays are due in lecture on Monday, 24 October.
Late assignments will be given a penalty of 5% per day. Assignments that are more than 1 week late will not
receive comments. Papers more than 2 weeks late will receive a mark of zero.
Please use the Chicago Style for your footnotes and bibliography. If you are unfamiliar with this referencing
format please see Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (2007).
Topics:
To what extent did Stalinism change Soviet society?
Assess the fate of culture in Nazi Germany.
What role did science play in totalitarian ideology? Answer with reference to one country.
What role did gender play in fascist ideology? Answer with reference to one country.
Was Franco‟s Spain a fascist regime? Why or why not?
Explain the failure of Oswald Mosley‟s British Union of Fascists.
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