Introductory description

The years between the two world wars (1918-1939) in Europe saw the rise of radical political movements, both on the extreme right and extreme left. At times, those defending democracy were able to hold their opponents at bay, but more often than not did radical movements, mostly on the right, succeed in taking over the state, which allowed them to implement their political programs.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Winter Term

Week 1: Introduction. Organizational Matters & Writing Techniques
Week 2: Europe before and during World War One

Part 1: Post-War Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions
Week 3: The Russian Revolution
Week 4: Revolutions in Germany and Central Europe
Week 5: Counter-Revolutionary Movements and the Radical Right in Germany and Central Europe
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: The Rise of Fascism in Italy

Part 2: Transnational Political Movements
Week 8: European Fascism
Week 9: From Revolution to Reform: Socialism
Week 10: International Communism

Spring Term
Week 1: Anti-Colonial Movements

Part 3: Radical Movements and the Struggle for Democracy
Week 2: Implementing Democracy in Weimar Germany
Week 3: Communists and Nazis: Radical Politics at the End of Weimar
Week 4: The French Popular Front
Week 5: The Spanish Civil War
Week 6: Reading Week

Part 4: Implementing Radical Politics
Week 7: Stalinist Russia
Week 8: Fascist Italy
Week 9: Building a Racial State: Nazi Germany before the War
Week 10: Building a Racial Empire: Wars of Annihilation and Genocide

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of historical and theoretical interpretations of modern Europe.
• Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
• Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material for the study of modern Europe, including electronic resources.
• Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing scholarship.
• Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.

Indicative reading list

• Balfour, Sebastian. Deadly Embrace. Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Behan, Tom. The Italian Resistance: Fascists, Guerrillas and the Allies. London: Pluto Press, 2009.
• Berghahn, Volker. Europe in the Era of Two World Wars. From Militarism and Genocide to Civil Society, 1900-1950. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006.
• Brown, Timothy S. Weimar Radicals. Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance. New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.
• Casanova, Julián. The Spanish Republic and Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Ebner, Michael R. Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Ferris, Kate. Everyday Life in Fascist Venice, 1929-40. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. Stalinism. New directions. New York: Routledge, 2000.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. 3 ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Gerwarth, Robert, and John Horn, eds. War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe After the Great War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Gruber, Helmut. Red Vienna. Experiment in Working-Class Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Haffner, Sebastian. Failure of a Revolution. Germany, 1918-19. New York: Library Press, 1972.
• Hanebrink, Paul A. In Defense of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism, and Antisemitism, 1890-1944. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.
• Harsch, Donna. German Social Democracy and the Rise of Nazism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
• Jackson, Julian. The Popular Front in France. Defending Democracy, 1934-38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
• Lloyd, Christopher. Collaboration and Resistance in Occupied France: Representing Treason and Sacrifice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
• Lyttelton, Adrian. The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919-1929. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
• Mazower, Mark. Hitler's Empire. How the Nazis Ruled Europe. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008.
• Shepard, Ben, and Juiliette Pattinson, eds. War in a Twilight World. Partisan and Anti-Partisan Warfare in Eastern Europe, 1939-45. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
• Swett, Pamela E. Neighbors and Enemies: the Culture of Radicalism in Berlin, 1929-1933. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Wardhaugh, Jessica. In Pursuit of the People. Political Culture in France, 1934-1939. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
• Wildt, Michael. Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion: Violence against Jews in Provincial Germany, 1919-1939. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.