The Cold War defined much of world politics during the second half of the twentieth century. It was a strange kind of war. Given the advent of nuclear weapons, the two principal antagonists during the Cold War – the United States and the Soviet Union – never went to war against each other.

Yet they contested one another in “substitute wars” in the Third World/Global South (Vietnam, Afghanistan). The Cold War was defined by the nuclear arms race and its MAD strategy. It was also defined by relentless ideological competition. Both sides built formidable military alliance system, whose armies faced each other across the Cold War divide. Both sides competed through the export of their popular culture and assaulted each other constantly with propaganda directed at the other side. After 45 years of competition the Soviet Union and its Empire collapsed and the Cold War came to a peaceful conclusion.

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The Habsburgs defended their capital Vienna twice against Ottoman onslaughts in 1529 and 1683 (“clash of civilizations”). The Habsburgs led the counterreformation in their territories and produced a flowering Baroque culture. They battled Napoleon and hosted the Congress of Vienna, reordering Europe in 1815. In the age of growing 19th century nationalism, the Habsburgs fought valiantly to maintain a multi-ethnic and multi-national monarchy against all odds.

“Fin-de-siecle” Vienna saw an unprecedented cultural and intellectual flowering (Freud, Klimt, Schiele, Wagner, Mahler, Schnitzler, Wittgenstein), producing the birth of modernism. It was in the late Habsburg Monarchy where the fateful shots were fired that unleashed World War I, led to the collapse of European empires (including the Hasburg Dual Monarchy) and rang in the twentieth Century.

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Günter Bischof & Stephen E. Ambrose
ED 104: Tu Thu 6:00 – 8:45 pm
Dr. Bischof’s office hours in LA 196 (CenterAustria):
Office hours: Tu Thu 5:00 – 6:00 (on class days during the day also)
Office Phone: 280-3223         
E-mail: gjbisch@uno.edu

The Vietnam War is the master narrative of an American intervention in the Cold War gone awry. It has produced one of the great traumas in American History. We will study these aspects and many more. Professor Ambrose’s lectures give you the “master narrative” – the basic outline of domestic and international events. Professor Bischof’s lectures review the materials assigned and add critical interpretative frameworks and questions such as comparing the French and the American Indochina wars, the American and North Vietnamese soldiers’ experiences, Vietnamese perspectives of the war, the essence of 1960’s America, and American memories of the war.

This is a distance learning course. You will be responsible for listening to Professor Ambrose’s lectures accessible on the UNO media site mentioned below and for attending Professor Bischof’s scheduled evening sessions without fail. Readings will have to be done by the dates indicated on the syllabus so you will be prepared for discussing them in class.

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Office Hours: Th 5:00 – 7:00 pm or by appointment

Interest in World War II has seen a tremendous revival recently around the world. 50-year anniversaries and the opening of the Holocaust Museum have kept the fascination with this brutal war alive in the U.S. In New Orleans it surely is due to the opening of the National D-Day Museum. In Switzerland, Germany and Austria international and American demands for restitution to victims of Swiss banking practices and survivors of the holocaust and forced laborers have kept the war alive in the press. Japanese refusal to confront its World War II crimes have upset formerly occupied nations throughout East Asia.

This course wants to cover some exciting recent writings on World War II. We want to read some major World War II biographies but also the lives of some local soldiers. Major crimes against humanity are another important subject matter as are ending the war and early postwar occupations as well as memories of the war.

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This graduate proseminar offers an in-depth introduction to some of the debates that have defined Cold War scholarship, particularly in the past decade. Historical discourse constantly re-invents itself. In few fields has this been so self-evident as in Cold War scholarship after the end of the East-West conflict in 1989. New sources from formerly Communist controlled archives have forced us to rethink many of our assumptions about the Cold War, even if overall conclusions have not entirely changed.

Cold War scholarship has become more sophisticated and complex. On the one hand new methodological approaches have redefined the entire field of diplomatic history (culture and gender); on the other hand, the Cold War is no longer seen as a simple U.S. vs. Soviet Union affair – the weak also had leverage in the Cold War. We need to understand the imperial structures of both superpowers in the Cold War and how allies and “satellites” constantly challenged the imperial centers of power. This proseminar aims at confronting students with these debates, but also to make them place the Cold War era into the larger context of twentieth century (“the American Century”) history. In order to control he huge amount of scholarship available and make for a coherent discussion, the foci will be on the Cold War in Europe and the Third World and on American domestic politics.
]]>http://centeraustria.org/course-syllabi/rss-comments-entry-4871470.xmlAdministratorTue, 11 Aug 2009 12:59:14 +0000http://centeraustria.org/course-syllabi/2009/8/11/the-cold-war-era-fall-2009.html76952:661078:4871302HIST 4575, Fall 2009 Dr. Günter Bischof
T Th 3:30 – 4:45
Room:
Office Hours: T Th 2 – 3 pm

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Historians act within or react to these traditions. At times they even become servants of the state. Some historians achieve “greatness” with their interpretations and found schools or unleash major controversy. The historian as gadfly—arguing against received traditions—are crucial elements in historical discourse. This Proseminar takes a more biographical approach to end of the Cold War diplomacy, but structural factors will not be ignored (paradigm shifts in the international system and the respective roles of state actors; the influence of regional conflicts on superpower relations; the role of diplomatic traditions and shifts in diplomatic practice; major issues such as arms races and arms control; the roles of public opinion and intelligence).
]]>http://centeraustria.org/course-syllabi/rss-comments-entry-4356489.xmlAdministratorFri, 13 Feb 2009 16:29:48 +0000http://centeraustria.org/course-syllabi/2009/2/13/american-diplomatic-history-in-the-twentieth-century.html76952:661078:3021701HIST 4581 & HIST 4581G | Dr. Gűnter Bischof
Spring 2009
Office hours: T Th 1 – 2 pm
ED 206, T Th 11 am – 12:15 pm
Office: LA 101 or CenterAustria (LA 192)
Tel: 280-6882, e-mail: gjbhi@mobiletel.com or gjbischo@uno.edu

American Diplomatic History in the Twentieth Century

Basic Themes and Objectives

This course will discuss the major trajectory and outline the crucial turning points of American foreign policy in the 20th century. It will also try to study the art of American diplomacy and compare it with European practices. The course will start with 1898 and the U.S.’s entering of the world arena and its rise as an imperial power. It will investigate the question whether, why and from what point in time onward the 20th century can be called the “American Century” and whether the projection of American power abroad took the form of empire building in the traditional European way. Major historiographical debates will be addressed as well in the course of the semester.

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This is a distance learning course. You will be responsible for listening to Professor Ambrose’s lectures handed out on DVD and for attending Professor Bischof’s scheduled evening sessions without fail. Readings will have to be done by the dates indicated on the syllabus so you will be prepared for discussing them in class.

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