Europe - Society, Culture, Politics 2122-M-W3ESCP
The course is devoted to social history of Europe and to the role of culture in the process of European integration.
Course’s curriculum covers the following problems: definition of Europe in geographical and cultural terms; the problem of Ancient Greece and Rome’s heritage; the fall of the Roman Empire and the birth of Europe; cultural community of Europe in the Middle Ages; the problem of relations between revived ancient tradition and newly-born early modern nationality in Europe of Renaissance and Reformation; the role of the Enlightenment in shaping modern ideas of polity and nationality in Europe; the influence of 19th-20th-century revolutions on models of nationality and statehood in Europe; the role of economic growth in Europe’s 18th-20th-century expansion and its subsequent decline after 1945; the role of Europe as a battlefield of democratic vs. undemocratic regimes and of 20th-century, as well as of “heated” and “cold” wars; the phenomenon of Europe as a leading centre of inter- and supranational integration.
The aim of the course is to assist the participants in mastering analytical skills in the field of social history of Europe and their knowledge of relevant English-language vocabulary.
Estimated time required to meet the course purposes:
• Classes: 30 h.
• Homework: 15 h.
• Preparation of an academic essay: 15 h.
• Total: 60 h.
Type of course
elective monographs
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
Knowledge (60%):
• Student commands English-language terminology of social science and European studies, and understands its roots and modes of use in description of social phenomena and processes.
• Student has thorough knowledge of changes in social institutions and structures in Europe and contemporary determinants of their development.
• Student knows and understands basic ethical ideas, rules and norms characteristic of the European culture.
Skills (20%):
• Student is skilled to take part in substance-based disputes, and to support his/her position with arguments proposed by other persons, socio-political institutions or European states.
• Student is skilled to improve on his/her own the specialist knowledge and interdisciplinary knowledge he/she has already possessed.
Social Competences (20%):
• Student understands and respects cultural differences among different people.
Assessment criteria
Elements of the final assessment:
• Academic essay: up to 80 pt.
• Active participation in classes, based on pre-reading of texts: up to 20 pt.
Total: 100 pt.
Grading scale (pt.):
90-100 – very good
80-89 – good plus
70-79 – good
61-69 – passed plus
50-60 – passed
0-49 – failed
Practical placement
N/A
Bibliography
Textbook:
Davies N., Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 1997.
Further Readings:
Arthur M. (Ed.), Lost Post: The Final Words from Our First World war Soldiers, Orion Audiobooks, Orion Publishing Group – Hachette UK, 2007
Beevor A., The Fall of Berlin 1945, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex 2003.
Bernhard M., Institutions and the Fate of Democracy: Germany and Poland in the Twentieth Century, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh PA 2005.
Caenegem R. C., An Historical Introduction to Private Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992.
Caenegem R. C., An Historical Introduction to Western Constitutional Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000.
Davies N., Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory, Macmillan, Basingstoke 2006.
Davies N., Vanished Kingdoms: The Lives and Afterlives of Europe’s Lost Realms, Allen Lane – Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex 2011.
Jędruch J., Constitutions, Elections and Legislatures of Poland, 1493-1993: A Guide to Their History, Revised Edition, EJJ Books-Hippocrene Books Inc., New York 1998.
Lest We Forget: Forgotten Voices from 1914-1945, M. Arthur (Ed.) in association with the Imperial War Museum, Ebury Press – Random House, London 2007.
McClelland J.S., A History of Western Political Thought, Routledge, London-New York 1996
Medushevsky A.N., Russian Constitutionalism: Historical and Contemporary Development, Routledge, London-New York 2006.
Sanford G., Democratic Government in Poland: Constitutional Politics Since 1989, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke-New York 2002.
Snyder T., Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Basic Books – The Perseus Book Group, New York 2010.
Staniszkis J., The Dynamics of Breakthrough in Eastern Europe: The Polish Experience, University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-Oxford, 1991.
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, S. Courtois, N. Werth, J.P. Panné, A. Paczkowski, K. Bartosek, J.L. Margolin, Edited by Mark KramerHarvard University Press, Harvard 1999.