Twentieth-Century Europe

We often associate the Cold War with propaganda, espionage, nuclear explosions, and the ideological clash between U.S.-style capitalism and Soviet-style communism. But to what extent did these global tensions actually impact the everyday lives of ordinary people on both sides of the Iron Curtain? Alongside ideologies, geopolitics, and economics, we will consider how the omnipresent hostility of the Cold War underlay Europeans experiences with other vast transformations in the realms of society and culture. Topics include but are not limited to: post-war reconstruction, the consolidation of the European Union, decolonization and neo-imperialism, social movements and activism, gender and sexuality, and immigration and racism.