The most interesting work, of course, has been on Eastern Europe. You
couldn't possibly use all of these, but some suggestions to choose from.
J. Robert Wegs, Europe since 1945, (St. Martins)
Cyril Black, et al., Rebirth: History of Europe since WWII, (Westview)
Eubank, World War II: Roots and Causes
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Elie Wiesel, Night
Film: Night and Fog
Tony Smith, ed., The End of the European Empire
John Darwin, The End of the British Empire
Alastair Horne, A Savage War of Peace
Film: Battle of Algiers
Anton De Porte, Europe between the Superpowers
Alfred Grosser, The Western Alliance
Jane Kramer, Unsettling Europe
Heinrich Boll, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Simon Frith, Sound Effects
Film: A Hard Day's Night
Simon de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Beatrix Campbell, Wigan Pier Revisited
Films: My Beautiful Laundrette; The Crying Game
Heda Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star
Rothschild, Return to Diversity
Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind
Vaclav Havel, "The Power of the Powerless" (essay in many of his books)
Adam Michnik, Letters From Prison
Timothy Garton Ash, The Uses of Adversity
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern
Recent issues of Daedalus (several have been dedicated to recent European
history in the last few years)
Students like the Wegs book. It has good chapters on the economy and
social structure, otherwise absent above. The Black text is a country by
country survey. De Porte and Grossner were once standards, but may now be
out of date with the end of the cold war. Primo Levi, Jane Kramer, and
Timothy Garton Ash (Magic Lantern) should fit into any course. Heda
Kovaly is also a great read. Havel, "Power," is difficult but worth the
effort.
I haven't listed other films, but there are plenty to chose from on the
Holocaust, Cold War (Dr. Strangelove), Communism/Stalinism (Animal Farm,
Ivan the Terrible), neorealism, French new wave, etc. A great film to use
on history and memory in post-war Germany is "The Nasty Girl." Another
film on British society could be Apted's "35 Up," or "28 Up."
Sorry this is rather miscellaneous and idiosyncratic. But it is a great
period to teach. The challenge is to get students to think about things
besides Nazis and the Cold War to the many other interesting things going
on.
Peter Hansen
phansen@wpi.edu
Worcester Polytechnic Institute