War, Fascism and Communism: Europe Divided 1914-1945

The Europe that emerged from the wreckage of 1945 was a very different one from that of 1914. These years saw the continent rocked by two World Wars and the rise and fall of the fascist and Nazi regimes in Italy and Germany. The interwar years were also marked by revolutions in Russia, and the transition from Leninism to Stalinism in that country, alongside a vicious civil war in Spain. Using eyewitness accounts, this course addresses a range of questions, from how some ordinary people managed to survive authoritarian rule, to why dictators embraced particular kinds of art. For those who would like to attend, there will be a special class trip to the Holocaust Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London towards the end of the course.