HIST3719: The Making of Contemporary Europe

History 3719 has two explicit goals. The first is to explain how the institutions of the European Union are a direct response to the multiple catastrophes of the first half of the 20th century. It focuses on the ways that statesmen and intellectuals framed practical dilemmas in an ethical manner, and examines the ways that building institutions has been seen as the most just response towards the end of building peace on the continent. This has led to a sprawling, at times contradictory, but also surprisingly nimble and new kind of government. The second goal is to examine the ways the EU understands and is responding to the three major dilemmas facing it in the first decades of the 21st century: the sometimes fragile state of democracy in the member states, the migration/identity crisis, and the state of Ukraine and European security. Students will examine the institutions in play concerning each of these dilemmas, will dissect policy debates that are influencing decision-making, and will come to their own conclusions and formulate their own policies as if they were leaders of institutions.

View on University Catalog