Aspects of World
History since 1945
HIST 438
Spring 2014
Department of History
University of Ghana
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.
Meeting Time: Thursday
7:30am -9:30am JQB 24
Course Description:
This course is a survey course of world history since the end
of World War II in 1945. It examines the
history of the world from 1945 to 1991 in the context of the Cold War between
the US and the USSR. The course will focus on the foreign policies of the US
and USSR and their effect on other regions of the world. Among other events the
course will cover the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, the
Arab-Israeli wars, the Vietnam War, and the emergence of newly independent
states in Africa. Within the Soviet – US conflict the course will pay special
attention to the socialist emphasis on the collectivization of agriculture
versus traditional forms of agriculture. The course will look at the extension
of collectivized agriculture based on the Soviet model to
the Baltic States and Western Ukraine, Vietnam, and parts of Africa. The course
will also deal extensively with the displacement of large numbers of people due
to war and ethnic cleansing and the long term ramifications of such forced
migration. In particular the course will look at forced migration in Europe and
the Middle East. Other themes we will touch on are economic development, the
emergence of international organizations, and the collapse of European
colonialism in Asia and Africa.
Requirements:
The goal of this class is to give students a general frame
work of the history of the conflict between the US and USSR and other major
international events from 1945 to 1991. Students need to attend class regularly
and do the assigned readings. Material from both the readings and the lectures
will appear on the final exam. No mobile phones are to be visible during class.
They are to be out of sight and turned off. Finally, I have a significant
hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements
from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This
syllabus is tentative and subject to change.
Readings:
The readings are taken mainly from three books. These books
are Geoffry Hosking, The First Socialist
Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within, Second Enlarged Edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1993), Martin Walker, The Cold War: A
History (NY: Henry Holt and company, 1993), and Robert McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford
UK: Oxford University Press, 2003). There are also a number of shorter
readings, mostly journal articles. The instructor has copies of all the
assigned readings and will make them available to the students. The shorter
readings are listed below.
Clapham, Christopher, “Revolutionary Socialist Development
in Ethiopia,” African Affairs, vol.
86, no. 343, (April 1987), pp. 151-165.
Esber, Rosemarie, “Rewriting the History of 1948: The Birth
of the Palestinian Refugee Question Revisited,” Holy Land Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (2005), pp. 55-72).
Hayden, Robert M., “Schindler’s Fate: Genocide, Ethnic
Cleansing, and Population Transfers,” Slavic
Review, vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 727-748.
Khalidi, Rashid, “Observations on the Right of Return,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 21,
No. 2 (Winter 1992), pp. 29-40.
Luke, Timothy, “Angola and Mozambique: Institutionalizing
Social Revolution in Africa,” The Review
of Politics, Vol. 44, No. 3 (July 1982), pp. 413-436.
Raymond, Chad, “The Insoluble Internal Conflicts of
Agricultural Collectivization in Vietnam,” Crossroads:
An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 15, no. 2
(2001), pp. 41-70.
Scott, James C., Seeing
Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
(New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1998).
Statiev, Alexander, “Motivations and Goals of Soviet
Deportations in the Western Borderlands,” The
Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 28, No. 6 (December 2005), pp. 977-1003.
Ther, Philip, “The Integration of Expellees in Germany and
Poland after World War II: A Historical Reassessment,” Slavic Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 779-805.
Grading: The
grade for the class will be based upon a mid-term exam, attending tutorials, and
a comprehensive final essay exam at the end of the semester. The mid-term will
be worth 25%, attending tutorials 5% and the final exam will constitute the
remaining 70% of the grade. Students must attend at least seven of the ten
tutorials to get the 5%. Otherwise they will get 0% for this component of the
grade. Students who miss the mid-term will only be allowed to make it up if
they have a valid medical excuse from an appropriate health care professional.
This excuse must be documented and provided to the instructor within less than
one week after the originally scheduled date of the mid-term. Students who do
not provide such documentation or provide it after the one week deadline will
receive an automatic zero for the mid-term. If there is a UTAG strike it will
not alter the timing of the mid-term. I
will deliver the mid-term as scheduled regardless of any industrial action,
particularly since such actions usually only require a withdrawal of teaching
service and do not effect testing.
Plagiarism Policy: I
have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student
plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second
time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying
from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an
indented single spaced block quotation. This includes putting down large chunks
of memorized verbatim text on in class exams. While the standard is more
lenient here than for take home exams, putting down whole paragraphs that are
word for word the same as other people’s writings without attribution is still
unacceptable. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show
up in the same order as a Google search and you do not have the words in
quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a
footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the
quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming
to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text
from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so it does not show
up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google
searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You
must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words
and citing it in the proper format or quote the actual text verbatim complete
with proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but
neglecting to cite the source of information is also plagiarism. All
information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no
university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate
source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university
presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources.
Other sources may or may not be legitimate. Using Wikipedia or other
illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each
citation.
Class Schedule:
Week one: Introduction
and Review of Syllabus
Week two: The US
and USSR after World War II and the Start of the Cold War
Read: Hosking, pp. 296-325; Statiev, pp. 977-1003; Walker,
pp. 1-28; McMahon, pp. 1-15.
Week three: Europe
in the wake of World War II
Read: Hayden, pp. 727-748; Ther 779-805; Walker, pp. 28-58;
McMahon, pp. 16-34.
Week four: Asia
and the Middle East in the wake of World War II
Read: Raymond, pp.
41-70; Esber, pp. 55-72; Khalidi, pp. 29-40; Walker, pp. 59-82; McMahon, pp.
35-55.
Week five: The
1950s: Khrushchev vs. Eisenhower
Read: Hosking, pp. 326-362; Walker, pp. 83-135; McMahon, pp.
56-77.
Week six: Mid-term
examination. The exam is worth 25% of the total grade.
Week seven: The
1960s: Cuba, Vietnam and other Conflict Zones
Read: Walker, pp. 136-206; McMahon, pp. 77-104.
Week eight: The
USSR during the Era of Stagnation and the US at Home
Read: Hosking, pp. 364-445; McMahon, pp. 105-121.
Week nine: The
Twilight of the Cold War
Read: Walker, pp. 207-277; McMahon, pp. 122-142.
Week ten: “Socialism”
and Development in Africa
Read: Scott, pp. 223-261, Luke, pp. 413-436, and Clapham,
pp. 151-165.
Week eleven: The
End of the Cold War
Read: Walker, pp. 278-357; McMahon, pp. 143-168.
Week twelve: The
End of the USSR
Read: Hosking, pp. 446-501.
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