Captive University

Captive University

Author: John Connelly

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2014-12-01

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 1469623854

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This comparative history of the higher education systems in Poland, East Germany, and the Czech lands reveals an unexpected diversity within East European stalinism. With information gleaned from archives in each of these places, John Connelly offers a valuable case study showing how totalitarian states adapt their policies to the contours of the societies they rule. The Communist dictum that universities be purged of "bourgeois elements" was accomplished most fully in East Germany, where more and more students came from worker and peasant backgrounds. But the Polish Party kept potentially disloyal professors on the job in the futile hope that they would train a new intelligentsia, and Czech stalinists failed to make worker and peasant students a majority at Czech universities. Connelly accounts for these differences by exploring the prestalinist heritage of these countries, and particularly their experiences in World War II. The failure of Polish and Czech leaders to transform their universities became particularly evident during the crises of 1968 and 1989, when university students spearheaded reform movements. In East Germany, by contrast, universities remained true to the state to the end, and students were notably absent from the revolution of 1989.


The Sovietization of Eastern Europe

The Sovietization of Eastern Europe

Author: Balzs Apor

Publisher: New Acdemia+ORM

Published: 2008-04-21

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 1955835314

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This essay anthology offers enlightening perspectives on how East-Central Europe was transformed into the “other” Europe during the Cold War era. When the Second World War ended, a new conflict arose between world powers jockeying for supremacy. The Soviet Union pursued a policy of exporting its system of government in a process known as sovietization. But there were also governments that sought to adopt a Soviet way of life on their own accord. Dictated by ideological imperatives, both styles of sovietization employed socialist strategies of state and nation building. This volume not only examines the imposition of new forms of government, but also the socialist response to modernity as reflected in approaches to new technology and management, consumption and leisure patterns, religious and educational policy, political rituals and attitudes to the past. The essays explore the diversity and the tensions within the sovietization process in the countries of the region. “This collection is a bold and timely attempt at shedding light on a rather insufficiently researched topic . . . the diverse approaches-ranging from socio-cultural and economic history to psycho-history.” —Dr. Dragos Petrescu, University of Bucharest.


Teaching a Dark Chapter

Teaching a Dark Chapter

Author: Daniela R. P. Weiner

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2024-07-15

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1501775448

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Teaching a Dark Chapter explores how textbook narratives about the Fascist/Nazi past in Italy, East Germany, and West Germany followed relatively calm, undisturbed paths of little change until isolated "flashpoints" catalyzed the educational infrastructure into periods of rapid transformation. Though these flashpoints varied among Italy and the Germanys, they all roughly conformed to a chronological scheme and permanently changed how each "dark past" was represented. Historians have often neglected textbooks as sources in their engagement with the reconstruction of postfascist states and the development of postwar memory culture. But as Teaching a Dark Chapter demonstrates, textbooks yield new insights and suggest a new chronology of the changes in postwar memory culture that other sources overlook. Employing a methodological and temporal rethinking of the narratives surrounding the development of European Holocaust memory, Daniela R. P. Weiner reveals how, long before 1968, textbooks in these three countries served as important tools to influence public memory about Nazi/Fascist atrocities. As Fascism had been spread through education, then education must play a key role in undoing the damage. Thus, to repair and shape postwar societies, textbooks became an avenue to inculcate youths with desirable democratic and socialist values. Teaching a Dark Chapter weds the historical study of public memory with the educational study of textbooks to ask how and why the textbooks were created, what they said, and how they affected the society around them.


A History of Germany 1918 - 2014

A History of Germany 1918 - 2014

Author: Mary Fulbrook

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-10-13

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1118776135

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The fourth edition of A History of Germany, 1918-2014: A Divided Nation introduces students to the key themes of 20th century German history, tracing the dramatic social, cultural, and political tensions in Germany since 1918. Now thoroughly updated, the text includes new coverage of the Euro crisis and a review of Angela Merkel’s Chancellorship. New edition of a well-known, classic survey by a leading scholar in the field, thoroughly updated for a new generation of readers Provides an overview of the turbulent history of Germany from the end of the First World War through the Third Reich and beyond, examining the character and consequences of war and genocide Treats German history from 1918 to 2014 from the perspectives of instability, division and reunification, covering East and West German history in equal depth Offers important reflections on Angela Merkel’s Chancellorship as it extends into a new term Concise, substantive coverage of this period make it an ideal resource for undergraduate students


A History of Germany 1918 - 2008

A History of Germany 1918 - 2008

Author: Mary Fulbrook

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-08-10

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 144435972X

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The third edition of A History of Germany traces the dramatic social, cultural, and political tensions in Germany since 1918. Offers a persuasive interpretation of the dynamics of twentieth-century German history Treats German history from 1918-2008 from the perspective of division and reunification, covering East and West German history in equal depth Covers the self-destructive Weimar Republic, the extremes of genocide and military aggression in the Nazi era, the division of the nation in the Cold War, and the collapse of communist East Germany and unification in 1990 New edition includes updates throughout, especially covering the Nazi period and the Holocaust; a new chapter on Germany since the 1990s; and a substantially revised and updated bibliography


Denazification in Soviet-occupied Germany

Denazification in Soviet-occupied Germany

Author: Timothy R. Vogt

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780674003408

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Instead, in a detailed study, denazification is pictured as a failure, which fell short of its goals and was eventually abandoned by the frustrated Soviet and German leadership.".