2017 - 2018

0621-1690-03
  Introduction to the Twentieth Century                                                                
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Sagi SchaeferGilman-humanities305Tue1000-1200 Sem  2
Gilman-humanities305Wed1000-1200 Sem  2
 
 
University credit hours:  4.0

Course description

"The long twentieth century" begins as early as 1870 and continues to this day. Changes came extra fast during this period and not all of them can be included in a single course. Teachers therefore choose different focuses for their courses and sometimes concentrate on a more limited geographic region (Russia and Eastern Europe, Central, or Western Europe), others opt to cover only parts of this period or deal exclusively with political/social-economic/cultural/intellectual history.

Dr. michal Sapira

This course surveys different issues in the cultural, social, economic, military, gender and intellectual history of modern Europe. The 20th century saw swift and unprecedented changes that radically influenced the lives of European (and non-European) men, women and children. Among the issues we will discuss are: modernism and modernity; imperialism and migration; cinema and modern visual culture; ; the development of the human sciences and of psychoanalysis; World War One; feminism and socialism; pacifism, fascism, communism and Nazism and the development of democracy; World War Two; the Cold War; the development of the welfare state; decolonization, the sexual revolution and the 1960s, and the fall of the Berlin Wall and the European Union

 Dr. Sagi schaefer

"The long twentieth century" begins as early as 1870 and continues to this day. Changes came extra fast during this period and not all of them can be included in a single course. Teachers therefore choose different focuses for their courses and sometimes concentrate on a more limited geographic region (Russia and Eastern Europe, Central, or Western Europe), others opt to cover only parts of this period or deal exclusively with political/social-economic/cultural/intellectual history

Prof. Iris Rachamimov  

Many historians argue that the twentieth century was "the most brutal century".  Two world wars took place during the first half of the century, tens of millions of people were murdered in Europe and outside it, accompanied by murderous purges on ideological and ethnic grounds. During the twentieth century mass surveillance systems were established on an unprecedented scale. Nevertheless, during the same time, the population of the world grew at an explosive rate and more people live on earth for a longer period of time and in better material conditions than ever before. Europe exemplifies this contrast most vividly. European countries with a history of belligerence and colonialism place the promotion of basic human rights at the heart of their political activity. This course will deal with the complex history of the twentieth century: it will focus especially on the period of 1890-1945 and will analyze main historical events against the backdrop of long-term social, cultural and economic trends.

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