History 436
Culture and Politics in Twentieth-Century Europe

Course Description:

This course will investigate the historiography of the relationship between culture and politics in twentieth-century Europe.  The focus of our common reading will be literature on the culture of National Socialism, which has been a primary topic of scholarship associating art, ideology, and policy in modern European history.  An important current of historical writing on National Socialism and the Third Reich has highlighted the aesthetic appeal of Hitler’s movement, along with Nazi manipulation of the arts as propaganda.  While concentrating on Germany, this scholarship will provide an excellent basis for assessing methods of relating literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theater, and film to modern European politics in general.  For term projects, students may compare the historiography of Nazi culture with literature on politics and the arts in other national contexts, including Italy, France, Spain, Russia, and Great Britain.

Very Tentative Bibliography:

Background

Mosse, George L. The Crisis of German ideology; Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich. New York: The Universal Library, 1964.

Mosse, George L. The Nationalization of the Masses; Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich. New York: H. Fertig, 1975.

Stern, Fritz Richard. The Politics of Cultural Despair; A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961.

Policy and Institutions

Cuomo, Glenn R., ed. National Socialist Cultural Policy: New York N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, 1995.

Steinweis, Alan. Art, Ideology & Economics in Nazi Germany : the Reich Chambers of Music, Theater, and the Visual Arts: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

Literature

Hermand, Jost. Old Dreams of a New Reich: Volkish Utopias and National Socialism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Mosse, George L. Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural, and Social Life in the Third Reich. [1st ] ed. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1966.

The Visual Arts

Adam, Peter. Art of the Third Reich: New York : H.N. Abrams, 1992.

Petropoulos, Jonathan. Art as Politics in the Third Reich: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Wistrich, Robert S. Weekend in Munich : Art, Propaganda and Terror in the Third Reich: London : Pavilion, 1995.

Music

Dennis, David B. Beethoven in German Politics, 1870-1989. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

Kater, Michael H. Different Drummers : Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany: New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Kater, Michael H. The Twisted Muse : Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich: New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.

Levi, Erik. Music in the Third Reich: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1994.

Meyer, Michael. The Politics of Music in the Third Reich: New York : P. Lang, 1991.

Potter, Pamela Maxine. Most German of the Arts : Musicology and Society from the Weimar Republic to the End of Hitler's Reich: New Haven : Yale University Press, 1998.

Theater

Gadberry, Glen W., ed. Theatre in the Third Reich : The Prewar Years : Essays on Theatre in Nazi Germany: Westport Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1995.

Film

Hoffmann, Hilmar. The Triumph of Propaganda : Film and National Socialism, 1933-1945. Translated by John A. Broadwin and V. R. Berghahn: Providence : Berghahn Books, 1996.