Grs Hi 843 Problems in Twentieth Century History

Professor Brooke Blower Professor Jonathan Zatlin [email protected] [email protected] 226 Bay State Road, Rm. 307 91 and 226 Bay State Road Office hours: Tues. 11:15-12:15 Mon. 2-4, 91 BSR, Suite 115 Thurs. 12-2 Tues. 1:30-2:30, 226 BSR, 405

GRS HI 843 PROBLEMS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY

Following the collapse of communism, and the earlier defeat of fascism, many Americans take for granted the triumph of liberal democracy. Since 1991, alternatives to free markets and representative democracy increasingly appear oddly misguided or inevitably doomed. Because Americans “know” that democracy and capitalism work best, once urgent ideological questions now appear “settled.” The bitter debates and divides of the twentieth century seem almost quaint, especially to young people. As World War II becomes more myth than memory, as the Cold War begins to seem a curious artifact, and as the styles and technologies of previous decades command interest chiefly as subjects of nostalgia, persuading students and the public that the recent past possesses more than antiquarian interest presents a growing challenge.

The time is ripe for taking stock of the period we tend to call “the twentieth century” and renewing its relevance to contemporary political culture. The central task of this course is to explore various narrative and historiographical approaches to the twentieth century and to think about new chronologies that engage with our current hopes and struggles, while fostering links between disparate subfields whose connection to a larger whole has become increasingly tenuous. Leading historians are calling for precisely this kind of reflection and synthetic work.

Our goal is not to fashion a single synthetic narrative and establish its hegemony over others – the sort of master narrative has been discredited for its problematic marginalization of many groups and perspectives. Rather the purpose of this undertaking is to discover how exploring broad themes and rethinking how we narrate the recent past can yield useful and compelling insights. Students are encouraged in their own work for the course to take a multi-disciplinary approach, if they wish to draw on knowledge and tools from art and literature, sociology, anthropology, or other fields that can make contributions to history’s renewal.

COURSE ORGANIZATION This course blends the directed study format with attendance at the five Mellon Sawyer lectures scheduled for the spring semester, and three other class gatherings. Students are encouraged to set agendas and tailor their readings in ways that will serve their own training needs in consultation with the instructors.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:

Five 2-page précis on each of the Sawyer lectures. Précis should not only cogently summarize the arguments of the lectures, but also provide tightly argued explorations of specific points made during the course of the lecture, such as empirical evidence used to advocate for a particular interpretation, a narrative trope, the speaker’s periodization, or the concepts used to demarcate the century. Students are asked to submit copies of their précis to both professors’ mailboxes by the Tuesday after the lecture.

Keynote lecture. For the final assignment students will prepare their own keynote lecture interpreting the twentieth century (approx. 20 pages). Students are free to choose any material, conceptual avenue, or narrative approach to the task, but they should pitch it for an educated but general audience as well as consider the following questions:

When did “the twentieth century” begin and when did it end? What chronologies and turning points best reveal the distinctiveness and significance of the recent age? Scholars often imagine a “short twentieth century” defined by its hot and cold wars and the rise and fall of communism. Yet recent research has demonstrated that those beginnings and endings were hardly discrete, and they do not speak to other important structural changes and defining experiences of the recent past. Are there alternative approaches to periodization that can open up new interpretative perspectives?

What is the Big Story of the twentieth century? What truths does it convey? Rather than a story centered on Berlin in 1945 – the events that led there and the events that unfolded afterward – are broader and fundamentally different narratives possible? The object of the exercise is not to disregard the importance of the war sequence – one world war giving rise to a second, with a Cold War as its legacy – but to see those events in new ways by placing them in wider contexts and crosscurrents.

So what? How can we reaffirm for twenty-first century scholars, students, and citizens the ongoing relevance and value of studying the twentieth century? Without resorting to teleological arguments or relying on a simplistic master narrative, can we demonstrate the feasibility of telling the story of the twentieth century in coherent, engaging, and broadly resonant ways?

GRADES Your final grade will be determined by the overall quality of your participation and written work.

CHEATING Cheating is a serious infraction of scholarly conduct, and will earn an automatic F for the course. Cheating includes plagiarism, which is defined as the use of intellectual material produced by another person without appropriate acknowledgment. Please read the Boston University Academic Conduct Code carefully, and the section on plagiarism in particular.

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS

Tuesday, January 20, 6-8 p.m., Room 304

READING: Lynn Hunt, Writing History in the Global Era (2014)

Tuesday, January 27, 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Photonics, 9th floor

Cynthia Enloe, “The Somme, the Suffragists, and the Gatling Gun: A Feminist Rethinking for Today of the 20th Century’s ‘Great War’”

READING: Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases (2014 edition) Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War

Tuesday, February 10, 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Photonics 9th floor

Rebecca Karl, “The World Historical and China’s 20th century: Perspectives on Globalization and Globality”

READING: Rebecca Karl, Staging the World (2002) Adeeb Khalid, Islam after Communism

Tuesday, February 17, 6-8 p.m., Castle Pub

Discussion of lectures and readings

Tuesday, March 3, 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Photonics 9th floor

John McNeill, “The Advent of the Anthropocene: Was That the Big Story of the Twentieth Century?”

READING: John McNeill, Something New Under the Sun (2001)

Kate Brown, Plutopia (2013)

Tuesday, March 24, 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Photonics 9th floor

Frederick Cooper, “Empire, Federation, Union, Globe: Power Beyond the Nation in the 20th Century”

READING: Frederick Cooper, Citizenship between Empire and Nation (2014)

Jordanna Bailkin, The Afterlife of Empire (2012)

Tuesday, April 7, 6-8 p.m., Castle Pub

Discussion of lectures and readings

Tuesday, April 28, 6:30- 8:30 p.m., Photonics 9th floor Caroline Elkins, title TBD

READING: Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning (2005)

Greg Grandin, Fordlandia

Monday, May 4, 5 p.m.: final assignment due

Tuesday, May 5, 6-9 p.m.: Closing dinner, TBD