Course: GENERAL MODERN HISTORY

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Course title GENERAL MODERN HISTORY
Course code KHI/KBH78
Organizational form of instruction Lecture + Seminary
Level of course Bachelor
Year of study 2
Semester Summer
Number of ECTS credits 6
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Veselý Martin, doc. Mgr. Ph.D.
  • Šerberová Anna, PhDr. CSc.
Course content
Subject circles of the individual lectures: 1. The arrival of Bolshevism. Russia in the 1917 revolutionary year and the civic war. The idea of the wartime Communism and the reality, NEP; the New Europe. The Versailles Peace system, Germany between 1918 and 1925, the defeat, the crisis and the slow upswing of the Weimar Republic 2. The arrival of Fascism. Italy between 1915 and 1928, the post-war crisis, the rise of Mussolini, the enforcement and stabilisation of the Fascist state, Fascism as ideology; Withdrawal to seclusion. The United States between 1918 and 1928, the failure of Wilson?s concept of the United Nations in the USA, the local foreign policy, immigration restrictions, economic growth and domestic policy 3. "Left Leg Forward". The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics between 1924 and 1934, who replaces vozhds?, Stalin?s way to absolute power, industrialization and collectivization; Ruling with a firm hand. Authoritanian states in Europe I, The causes of the inclinations towards authoritanian states, the developments in the individual states 4. The collapse. The Great Economic Crisis, the ways of its solution, the United States between 1929 and 1941, the New Ordeal, foreign policy; The end of hopes. Germany between 1925 and 1939, the Weimar Republic from its rise to its crisis, the rise of Nazism, the establishment of the new regime, the repressive system, economic policy 5. The archipelago. The repressive system in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, penal labour camps, the Great Purge, political trials as theatre performances, foreign policy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to 1941 6. Bound by the Appeasement? Great Britain and France during the mid-war period; Far East. Japan and China between 1918 and 1941, domestic developments, causes of the Japanese aggression, the Chinese-Japanese war, the way to Pearl Harbor 7. Prologue to the Second World War. Italy in the 1930s, the annexation in Abyssinia, Spanish civil war - its causes, its development, the engagement of other states; the Second World War 8. From the occupation zones to the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. The post-war development of Western Europe, the Marshall Plan, The Berlin crisis I, the relations between the USA and USSR; the Sovietization. The causes, the progress and the consequences of the Sovietization and the formation of the Eastern Bloc, the Yugoslav "heresy" 9. Somehow cold war. The formation of a bi-polar system, NATO, the Warsaw Pact, changed global position of the United States during the post-war period 10. "I am going to Korea!" The Korean War between 1950 and 1953, US domestic policy during the 1950s, the people?s China; Turbulences in the proletarian heaven. Fights for Stalin?s succession, the 1953 upheaval in the German Democratic Republic, the 20th Convention of the Communist Party of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the Polish issue, the Hungarian revolution 11. The Near East. The establishment of the State Israel, Arab-Israeli wars, the Suez crisis; All alone! Global de-colonization, its causes and development, The African year; The Strangelove factor. Khrushchev?s domestic and foreign policy, The Berlin crisis II, the Caribbean crisis 12. The great society. The United States during the 1960s, the race issue and seeking ways of its solution, the Vietnam conflict, the year 1968, the arrival of Richard Nixon; Together? The development of the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy between the 1950s and 1970s, integration processes in Western Europe 13. The Brezhnev era, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Eastern Bloc during the 1960s and 1970s, mutual relations, the invasion to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Comecon states? economic policy, the war in Afghanistan; Star Wars. The United States during the 1970s and 1980s, the Watergate scandal, the oil crisis, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the arrival of Ronald Reagan, the Star Wars program

Learning activities and teaching methods
unspecified, unspecified
Learning outcomes
The aim of the given historical course is to make students familiar with the essential aspects of global developments from the close of the First World War to the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc and the subsequent events. The course is divided into two parts, while the first one follows the disintegration of traditional European powers and the establishment of new states (which often began with national problems), the upswing of totalitarian ideologies and, in connection with that and in different horizons of time and depending on domestic and foreign-policy circumstances, the origination of either totalitarian or autocratic states. Other discussed issues are the weakening influence of democratic states - whether in result of domestic problems or as a cause of the post-war crisis and mainly the Big Crisis; in the case of the United States, in result of the declared policy of isolationism. Emphasis is laid on the question of what facilitated the arrival and expansion of Fascism, Nazism and Communism, what is the substance of these ideologies and how they have influenced the global development. Understanding the line of these events is necessary for understanding the 20th-century history as a whole. The education at the same time focuses on the related social-political, social and cultural development. The second part introduces to the post-Second World War developments in the context of the post-war division of the world, to the changes in the position of the United States which had totally abandoned its isolationist policy, to the origination of the Eastern Bloc headed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to the clashes between the two sides, not only resulting in crises which directly endangered global peace (especially the Caribbean and the two Berlin crises) but also in military conflicts. The latter ensued in indirect clashes influenced by third parties; these conflicts were, however, rather serious (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan). The lectures at the same time follow both the transformations of the so-called Third World and the centre of the permanent international tension in Near East, resulting from the establishment of the State Israel. The Arab-Israeli conflict then played significant political and military role and economic role (esp. the so-called oil shock). Attention is moreover paid to the US domestic and foreign policy, especially that of the 1960s which experienced significant change in the position of the Afro-American population, but also to the development of the Eastern Bloc, including the crisis events in East Germany, Poland and Hungary, up to its gradual disintegration and the outline of the subsequent developments.
The graduates demonstrate knowledge of facts and crucial phenomena concerning general history concerning the period between 1918 and 1995. They are well familiar with the causes and consequences of the essential events which had influenced the historical developments - among them, mainly the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, the origination of the Versailles system, the post-war economic crisis, the failure of the world revolution, the rise of Fascism in Italy, the New York stock exchange collapse, the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, the causes and results of the Second World War, the origination of the bi-polar system during the post-war period and the related crises and military conflicts, the Sovietization and the origination of the Eastern Bloc, the disintegration of the colonial system, the phenomenon of the Near East, the integration of Western Europe, the nuclear arms race and the efforts at its restriction, the processes occurring in the framework of the Eastern Bloc, its disintegration and the subsequent events, etc. They are also familiar with the essential professional literature on the followed period, which allows them to demonstrate their capability of critical interpreting the described phenomena. They have knowledge of causal relations and understand them in wider historical context. They can satisfactorily explain and interpret crucial concepts, such as Fascism, National Socialism, Komintern, NEP, industrialization, GULAG, cult of personality, collectivization, authoritanian state, New Deal, Appeasement, Nuremberg Laws, Lebensraum, Shoa, Cold War, Sovietization, Marshall Plan, Berlin Crisis, NATO, Warsaw Pact, Comecon, EEC, de-colonization, nuclear arms race, Brezhnev doctrine, OPEC, oil shock, Perestroika, Glasnost, etc. They are aware of the ethic dimension of the problematic phenomena of the given period and their consequences for the present time. They can also present the acquired knowledge via texts, papers and/or presentations and discuss them on a rather wide basis.
Prerequisites
None

Assessment methods and criteria
unspecified
Students are required to participate in seminars (the minimum of 80 % attendance), for which they prepare via recommended and provided materials and literature serving to further develop on and deepen the subjects of the lectures. They discuss the particular issues and set them into wider contexts. The precondition of being admitted to oral exams is the successful passing of two written tests and submitting a list of the minimum of ten titles of studied professional literature. Essay - 18 000 characters.
Recommended literature
  • Alan Bullock. Hitler a Stalin, Paralelní životopisy. Plzeň, 2002.
  • Ernst Nolte. Fašismus ve své epoše. Praha, 1999.
  • Ferdinand Seibt. Ta stará ošklivá melodie. Několik ohlédnutí za německou historií 1900-1945. Praha, 2002.
  • Henry Kissinger. Roky v Bílém domě. Praha, 2006.
  • Ian Kershaw. Hitler. 1889-1936: Hybris. Praha, 1994.
  • Ian Kershaw. Hitler. 1936-1945: Nemesis. Praha, 1994.
  • J. Vykoukal-B. Litera-M. Tejchman. Východ. Vznik, vývoj a rozpad sovětského bloku 1944-1989. Praha, 2004.
  • Jacques Rossi. Encyklopedie Gulagu. Praha, 1999.
  • Jan Křen. Dvě století střední Evropy. Praha, 2005.
  • Marjan Britovšek. Stalinův termidor. Praha, 1991.
  • Martin Broszat. Uchopení moci. Vzestup NSDAP a zničení Výmarské republiky.
  • Martin Gilbert. Dějiny dvacátého století I (1900-1933). Praha, 2005.
  • Martin Gilbert. Dějiny dvacátého století II. (1934-1951). Praha, 2000.
  • Niall Ferguson. Britské impérium: cesta k modernímu světu. Praha, 2007.
  • Orlando Figes. Lidská tragédie. Ruská revoluce 1891-1924. Praha, 2000.
  • Patrik Ouředník. Europeana. Stručné dějiny dvacátého věku. Praha, 2001.
  • Paul Johnson. Dějiny 20. století. Praha, 2005.
  • Peter Reichel. Svůdný klam Třetí říše. Fascinující a násilná tvář fašismu. Praha, 2004.
  • Robert C. Tucker. Stalin jako revolucionář. 1879-1929. Studie dějin a osobnosti. Praha, 2003.
  • Robert C. Tucker. Stalin. Na vrcholu moci 1928-1941. Praha, 2003.
  • Václav Veber. Komunistický experiment v Rusku 1917-1991 aneb Malé dějiny SSSR. Praha, 2001.
  • Vladimír Bystrov. Průvodce říší zla. Praha, 2006.
  • Vladimír Nálevka. Horké krize studené války. Praha, 2010.
  • Vladimír Nálevka. Světová politika ve 20. století I. II.. Praha, 2000.
  • Winston Churchill. Druhá světová válka I.-VI.. Praha, 1995.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester