East European History

Table of Contents

Courses

History 0200

Historical Timelines

History 1270

Useful Links

Maps

Related Sites

News Sources

Library Resources

  

 

  TOPIC ONE -- INTRODUCTION

READINGS:

Slavenka Drakulic:

Stokes

  • Havel, "New Years Day Speech", pp. 249-253
  • "The Collapse of Yugoslavia", pp. 273-288

Longworth

  • Introduction
  • PP. 20-34
 Map of the Ottoman Empire at its peak.

OUTLINE:

I. Definitions and Framework

  • Eastern Europe? East Central Europe? The Balkans?
  • Maps
  • Ethnolinguistic Groups
  • Religions

II. Eastern Europe at Present

  • Positive changes since 1989
  • Negative changes since 1989
  • The Yugoslav Catastrophe

Topic One - Lecture One - Detailed Outline

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What do you know about the region?

2. What do the N.Y Times, Christian Science Monitor, RFE/RL, PPG, etc. report about this part of the world?

3. Is post-communist Eastern Europe a terrible disaster, or are we looking at a dynamic and hopeful situation? (Be specific)

4. What has happened in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Kosovo and what can we expect there from now on?

5. What does Slavenka Drakulic make of lots of restaurants appearing in E.E. bearing names like "Cafe Europa"?

6. What is "Europe" and what is it not, according to Drakulic?

7. Who was Zoe Ceausescu and what is so special about her bathroom?

8. What is the connection between poorly kept public bathrooms and democracy in Eastern Europe?

9. Is monarchy "the answer" for Eastern Europe, at least for the Balkans?

Peasant woven wall covering from the collection of the Romanian Museum of the National Peasant, c. 19th century.

 View of the Hungarian Parliament Building from across the Danube in Budapest.  

FILMS AND ASSIGNMENTS:

Films:

The Life of Monuments

Nationalism: Blood and Belonging, The Road to Nowhere

Bosnia: We Are All Neighbors

Assignments:

Maps:

 

 

Please e-mail web maintenance if you experience any problems.