The European Catastrophe, 1914-1945

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to what began as a political, economic, socio-cultural, and security crisis in Europe and quickly spread across the globe. Through the lens of history, philosophy, sociology, literature, film, and memoir, we will explore a range of topics and themes: the perfection of mechanized warfare, the fall of the European imperial state system, the economic crises of the 1920s and the Great Depression, the birth of bolshevism and fascism, the rise of experimental artistic movements in the interwar period, the psychological understanding of authoritarianism, the Holocaust, and the origins of the postwar order. There will be a bi-weekly film viewing associated with the class.