SOC
336: Social Change
Professor Ian Roxborough
Spring 2000
This document is in two parts: firstly the syllabus; secondly my lecture notes. Please note: I shall update the lecture notes from time to time during the semester
Spring 2000
MW 3:20 – 4:40
Harriman 112
Professor Ian Roxborough SBS S-445 632-7718
Office hours: Mon 5:00 – 6:00, Wed12:00 -12:50, or by appointment
Iroxborough@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
My lectures notes will be posted on my website at www.sunysb.edu/sociology/faculty/roxborough
If you have a physical, psychiatric/emotional, medical or learning disability that may affect your ability to carry out the assigned course work, I urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), Room 133 Humanities, 632-6748/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine with you what accommodations may be necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.
Reading
William Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution
Robert Graves, Good-Bye to All That
John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men
There are also TWO packets of xeroxed articles available from Budget Print (opposite Stony Brook railway station).
Aims of the Course
In this course we take a historical approach to social change, focusing on the great transformation that shifted first European, then global, society from agrarian, rural, elitist, etc. to modern society, characterized by urbanization, industrialization, the formation of modern social classes, democratic institutions, the rise of the science-technology-rationality complex, individualism, etc. These changes began gradually and took many centuries to come to fruition. By the end of the nineteenth century European societies had largely completed the transition and had become “mature.” There remained, however, important tensions within them, which led to a series of interrelated crises in the first half of the twentieth century. This course will examine (1) the great transformation, including processes of state formation, class formation, economic transformation, and popular contestation, and (2) will then focus on the period of crisis in the first half of the twentieth century, looking in detail at the First World War, the rise of the Nazi party, and the Russian revolution. In examining these historical events we will sociological concepts, methods and theories to historical events and processes. In other words, how do sociologists look at history? Can we use history to test sociological theories? The aim is to (1) show you how sociologists examine events in the past and (2) to show you how historical processes of social change have influenced the contemporary world. We will attempt to see what these massive dislocations meant for ordinary people.
I will be looking for (1) an understanding of the relevant sociological concepts and theories as they are introduced in the course, (2) an understanding of how these concepts and theories are used to explain the various events we will be studying, and (3) a critical evaluation of the strengths and limitations of these concepts and theories.
Evaluation
A. There are THREE parts to the course. Each part will have an in-class exam.
B. The in-class exams will test both the material covered in class and the reading. There will be questions on the reading even if it has not been explicitly discussed in class.
C. There will be no make-up exams.
D. If you are unable to make an exam, you may write an optional paper instead.
E. You may write the optional paper instead of or as well as taking the in-class exam. If you do both, I will take the higher grade of the two, and this will be your grade for this part of the course.
F. Optional papers are due on the dates indicated in the course outline, unless you have a medical (or other compelling) reason for requiring extra time. It must be on the question indicated in this syllabus: you may not write on a subject of your own choosing. It should be your own work. You should acknowledge the relevant sources. There is no fixed page limit for the paper; between 5 and 7 double-spaced pages is a reasonable length. The optional paper does not require any reading other than that assigned in this course. It is simply an alternative method of assessment.
G. The optional paper must be your own work. Plagiarism – the use of someone else’s work without proper attribution – will not be tolerated.
H. If you fail to get three grades, and if you have not made explicit arrangements with me for an incomplete, I will consider this as a failure for the course.
I. Writing requirement: the writing requirement will be met if you do two take-home papers.
Section 1: The Great Transition and the First World War
Mon Jan 24 Capitalism and the Rise of the West
READING: R. Collins, “Weber’s Theory of Capitalism” (xerox)
Wed Jan 26 Statemaking
READING: C. Tilly, “How War Made States and Vice Versa” (chapter 3 of his Coercion, Capital and European States) (xerox)
M. Mann, “War and Social Theory: into Battle with Classes, Nations and States” in M. Mann, States, War and Capitalism (xerox)
Mon Jan 31 Popular Contention and Contestation
READING: C. Tilly, “States and their Citizens” (chapter 4 of his Coercion, Capital and European States) (xerox)
Wed Feb 2 Europe on the eve of the First World War
READING: Daniel Chirot, "Social Structures in the Early Twentieth Century" (chapter 5 of his Social Change in the Modern Era) (Xerox)
Mon Feb 7 Europe on the eve of the First World War
READING: Michael Howard, "Europe on the Eve of the First World War" in M. Howard, Lessons of History (Xerox)
Wed Feb 9 Origins of World War I
READING: John Keegan, “A European Tragedy” pp. 3-9 of The First World War (xerox)
Michael Howard, "Men Against Fire: The Doctrine of the Offensive in 1914" in M. Howard, Lessons of History (Xerox)
Marc Ferro, The Great War, 1914-1918, pp. 3-38 (Xerox)
Arno Mayer, “The Primacy of Domestic Politics” (Xerox)
F. Fischer, “1914: Germany Opts for War: ‘Now or Never’” (Xerox)
Mon Feb 14 Origins of World War I
Wed Feb 16 movie: “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Mon Feb 21 Experience of World War I
READING: Graves, Goodbye To All That [You are expected to read at least the pages indicated below. But you may, if you wish, read the entire book!] pp. 1-21, 36-60, 82-140
John Keegan, “The Somme: 1 July, 1916”, chapter 4 of his The Face of Battle (Xerox)
Wed Feb 23 Experience of World War I
READING: Graves, Goodbye To All That, pp. 141-165, 192-198, 209-225, 264-296, 312-323
Daniel Chirot, "The European Catastrophe", (chapter 6 of his Social Change in the Modern Era) (Xerox)
Marwick, War and Social Change in the Twentieth Century, 1974, chapter 2, "The First World War: Germany and Russia" (Xerox)
Mon Feb 28 review
Wed March 1 exam
Take-home paper: Due not later than Wed March 8. Answer the following question: "Why was the First World such a major watershed in Europe? What impact did it have on the people and societies affected by it?"
Section 2: the
Russian Revolution of 1917
Mon March 6 Theories of Revolution
READING: T. Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World, chapter 6, "France, Russia, China: a structural analysis of social revolutions" [Skim the passages on France and China] (Xerox)
Wed March 8 Causes of the Russian Revolution
READING: Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution chapter 1
Mon March 13 Causes of the Russian Revolution
READING: Tim McDaniel, Autocracy, Capitalism and Revolution in Russia, 1988, chapters 1-3 (Xerox)
Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution chap 2
Wed March 15 Seizure of power
READING: John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World, pp. 29-116
Mon March 20 Mid-semester break
Wed March 22 Mid-semester break
Mon March 27 movie
READING: John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World pp. 117-254
Wed March 29 Stalinism
READING: Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution chapters 3+4
Mon April 3 Stalinism
READING: Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, chapters 5+6
Wed April 5 review
Mon April 10 exam
Take-home paper: Due not later than Mon April 17. Answer this question: "What were the causes of the Russian revolution of 1917? Critically evaluate the relative importance of (1) war and (2) backwardness in producing the revolution. Did the revolution happen, or was it made? Who were the key actors in the revolution? Why did it result in the Stalinist dictatorship? Was any other outcome possible?"
Section 3: the Rise of the Nazis
Wed April 12 Documentary movie
Mon April 17 rise of Nazis
READING: Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, preface + chapters 1-4
Wed April 19 rise of Nazis
READING: Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, chapters 5-11
Mon April 24 rise of Nazis
READING: Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power, chapters 12-20
Wed April 26 holocaust
READING: Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men, pp. 1-143
Mon May 1 holocaust
READING: Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men, pp. 143-189
Wed May 3 review
Final Exam: Tues May 16 3:30 – 6:30
Take-home paper: Due not later than two days after the final exam: i.e. on Thurs 18 May at 3:30. Answer this question: "How would William Allen explain the holocaust? What were the connections, if any, between middle class fears of socialism and the destruction of the Jews? Why were so many Germans unwilling to oppose the destruction of the Jews?"
Course Notes
Please note: I shall update these notes from time to time during the semester
Section
I: The Great Transition and its Tensions; World War I
Emergence of “modern” society
Change
begins NW Europe
c. 1000 beginnings of dynamic change in feudal Europe
backward, uncivilized
c. 1500 printing, early modern period
1750-1830 first industrial revolution
1880 industrial maturity in core
turning
point about 1750-1800
Modernity is recent
long process of development
tensions and contestation
Change: upheaval, strain,
conflict
Modernity
is still on-going or yet to be achieved in much of the world
The Great Transition is
multidimensional:
Agricultural
- Industrial
Rural
- Urban
demography
modern
bureaucratic state
citizenship
and democracy
new
social classes
capitalism
and wage labor
science/technology/rationality
complex
literacy
Democracy (England)
1832:
vote to all householders paying L10 annual rental
–
adds
500,000
1867:
lowers property qualification
–
adds
1,000,000
1884:
all males (except domestic servants, unmarried living with parents, no fixed
abode)
–
adds
2,000,000
1911:
limitations on House of Lords
1928:
women get the vote
Urbanization (Europe)
cities of 100,000+
Total
Population Urban % urban
1500 56 1 1.4
1600 85 2.5 2.8
1700 120 2.8 2.4
1800 190 5.4 2.7
1850 266 12.7 4.8
1900 497 50.1 10.1
1950 548 139.5 24.2
Population Growth
England France
World
1050 2m year 0
300m
1600 4.5m 18m 1750 800m
1700 6m 20m 2000
6,000m
1800 16m 27m
1900 42m
39m
Literacy
Illiterates among Army recruits in France
1832 53%
1852 38%
1862 31%
1872 21%
1882 15%
1892 9%
1900 6%
1913 4%
Master dynamics of Great
Transition
State-building
capitalism
nationhood
and citizenship
science-technology-rationality
complex
Great Transition and
contestation
Change
produces conflict and resistance
war
- state-building - taxation - resistance - state-building cycle
representation
- state expansion
state
and capital: parasitic or nurturing?
Resistance,
reaction and revolt
threatened
classes, rising classes
Repertoires
of action
Period of Institutional
Challenge and Contention
1880
onwards - working out of modernization
–
social
and political institutions to fit new society
focus
on Europe, 1910-1940
–
World
War I (1914-1918)
–
Russian
Revolution (1917)
–
Rise
of the Nazis (1933)
By
1948 institutional change complete -- in Western Europe, Japan, USA
Modernization
in “Third World”and Communist areas still incomplete
1910-1940
1910:
optimism, liberal world view
–
tensions
-- Internal colonies (Ireland), Women, Workers, Empire
–
European
periphery -- little democracy,
industrialization
Recent
nationalism
international
competition
–
empire,
markets, military
By
1940: War, revolution, Fascism and Naziism, War
Crisis.
Of what?
–
Backwardness
and urge to modernization
–
incomplete
nationalism?
–
Incomplete
democracy
Emergence
of Capitalism
Long
process
states
and economic calculability
legal
system
rational
state
universal
citizenship
not
inevitable, not unilinear
Europe
before 1500
Agrarian
relations of production
nobles
and peasants
tied
labor; payment in kind
Nobles,
honor, knighthood
limited
allegiance to monarch
limitations
on warfare
service
financial
Efforts
by Monarch to break free of feudal restrictions
Few
cities
Precarious
merchants, artisans
Merchants,
cities, churches as sources of revenue
discourage
accumulation
Regional,
not national economies
low
rate of economic growth and innovation
Malthusian
population dynamic
Great
Transition: Weber’s Theory
What
is specific about modern capitalism?
Entrepreneurial
organization of capital
rationalized
technology
free
labor force
unrestricted
markets
Innovation,
growth, change built-in
capitalism
produces innovation
Historically
unique
Causes
of Great Transformation
Literate
administration
“rational”
religion
produce:
bureaucratic
state
citizenship
methodical
economic ethic
law
and calculability
Why
the West?
What
is specific about the West?
Interesting,
complicated, debated
ignore
Weber:
Protestant ethic
post-Weber:
feudalism -- competing states
Once
it has happened somewhere, copied elsewhere
Weber
augments Marx
Marx:
separation of worker from means of production
Marx:
rationalization and alienation of economy
Weber:
separation of warrior/soldier from means of violence
Weber:
rationalization and alienation of political domination
Industrial
revolution
England
c.1780-1830
textiles
-- factories
steam
power
agricultural
base
rapid
transition
rapid
spread
creation
of urban proletariat
creation
of industrial bourgeoisie
Challenge
to dominant class
Importance
of urbanization
power
in numbers and organization
growth
of middle classes
Response
of aristocracy?
Intermarriage
and joint economic activity with bourgeoisie and professionals (transformation)
Fear
of “people”/proletariat (resistance)
conflict
middle
classes are “swing” factor
democracy
late
War
and Statemaking in Europe
War
requires money
How
to extract resources?
From
feudal levies to national armies
via
Absolutist state
Taxation
- revolt - representation cycle
parliament,
constitutional limitations, suffrage
Taxation
-resistance - statebuilding cycle
bureaucracy,
centralization
Citizenship
as obligation and rights
military
service and nationalism
Domestic
and international dimensions of statemaking
Industrial
War Railways and telegraph "solve" logistical problem of
concentration of armies
expansion
in size limited only by industrial capacity
industrial
war requires harnessing of industry and civil population: total war
new
weapons make combat more lethal
defense
defeats attack
what
would this mean for war?
War
too costly to be possible
War
so costly it must be short
War
so costly and indeterminate that it will wreck societies
Internal
Pacification
Powerful
nobles
destruction
of castles
centralization
of military force
domestication
via Court society
Local
magistrates, local constabularies
Centralization,
rationalization of criminal justice
More
ordered society
Nineteenth
century: separation police/military
Taxation
and Enumeration
Need
to locate people
censuses,
tax registers
voting
lists, military conscription
Provision
of services
education,
welfare, public health, policing, pensions
health,
industrial regulation
Regulation
of national economy
Expansion
of state bureaucracy: scope, size
State
and Dominant Class
From
noble power to bureaucratic power
Monarch:
enlists aristocracy and attempts to tame aristocracy
creates
non-aristocratic institutions
Bifurcated
state
monarchical
bureaucratic-parliamentary
Contestation
in Early Modern Europe
Countryside:
peasant revolt
Towns:
bread
riots, etc
craft
guilds
demands
for self-governance, rule of law
Religion
as a form of contestation
heresy
Protestantism
Capitalism,
Class Formation and Contestation
Proletarianization
unions
and industrial conflict
unions
and politics
need
to change law on industrial relations
push
for suffrage
verbal
Marxism
counter-culture
difficulty
of absorption; getting over the “hump”
Contestation
over state expansion
Resistance
state
vs local interests
local
dominant groups + state vs people
Demands
for greater state intervention
who
pays, who benefits?
Controlling
and empowering new actors
workers,
women
Defining
political communities
Minorities
and nationalism: nation-states as “containers” of contestation.
Colonialism
Changing
Repertoires
From
peasant revolt to urban and industrial conflict
From
urban riot to industrial strike and demonstration
increased
organization
New
actors, new repertoires seen as threatening
resistance,
exclusion
Institutionalization,incorporation,
bargaining
Class
and Geo-politics
Mann:
2 schools of sociology
liberal/Marxian
militarist
classes
“contained” in states (“national” classes)
nation-state-citizen
economies
were “nationalized”
states:
domestic and geopolitical
mass
accountability vs state elite
post
1950: globalization, movement to separate out class and nation
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
What sort of economy and society was
required to fight a modern industrial war like the First World War?
I.
The History of Warfare
A. Why was war
increasingly expensive?
(1)
military technology
(2)
size of armies
=>
need for greater mobilization of resources
B. Military
technology
(a)
Feudalism (Agincourt) : knights + archers + castles
(b) gunpowder revolution (Waterloo):
cannon + muskets
(c) industrial war (Somme): railways
+ telegraph + machined parts + rifling + breach-loading = machine-guns, rifles
and artillery
C.
Railways and telegraph "solve" logistic problem of concentration of
armies, leading to an expansion in size
D.
Linkages between:
war
and state-building
war
and economicgrowth
war
and citizenship
Industrial War
Railways
and telegraph "solve" logistical problem of concentration of armies
expansion
in size limited only by industrial capacity
industrial
war requires harnessing
of industry and civil population: total war
new
weapons make combat more lethal
defense
defeats attack
what
would this mean for war?
War
too costly to be possible
War
so costly it must be short
War
so costly and indeterminate that it will wreck societies
Europe on the Eve of the First World War:
What kind of a society was it?
The World System
Dynamic of modernization uneven
Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery
Imperialism
The dangerous middle
Japan, Russia, Austria-Hungary
also Germany
Or the incompletely democratized?
Revisionist and defensive states
Arms race and the security dilemma
Progress and exclusion
Nationalism
Patriotism
schools and army
ongoing, incompletely resolved
tensions
new tensions (women, labor)
A. Modern: industrial,
urban
but still with sizeable rural populations
Britain
8% in agric
France
41% in agric
Germany
36% in agric
Russia
70% in agric
B. Rigid class
boundaries
Aristocracy
Professional
middle class
lower
middle class
working
class
peasants/rural
workers
C. Recent democracy,
if at all
-- power of monarchs,
aristocracies
--
weakness of parliaments
D. Largely literate
E. Political and
economic discontent and conflict
Rise
of the labor movement
economic
and industrial issues
political
representation
The
women's movement
Nationalism
– dominant and subordinate
“Nation-states”
have not always gelled
F. General sense of progress
The World System
Dynamic of modernization uneven
Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery
Imperialism
The dangerous middle
Japan, Russia, Austria-Hungary
also Germany
Or the incompletely democratized?
Revisionist and defensive states
Arms race and the security dilemma
Progress and exclusion
Nationalism
Patriotism
schools and army
ongoing, incompletely resolved
tensions
new tensions (women, labor)
Europe on the eve of the Great War
Progress and exclusion
Nationalism
Patriotism
schools and army
ongoing, incompletely resolved
tensions
new tensions (women, labor)
Anticipation of War
Long period of (relative) peace
Colonial wars
Arms race, series of diplomatic
crises
Germany challenges the status quo
drive for world power
War anticipated
popular literature
military planning
Popular Support for War?
Would working classes support war
or would they act internationally to oppose war?
State elites apprehensive
protracted, costly war would
strain social fabric
Populations prepared
popular consciousness diverse
stoicism, fact of life
Social Darwinism
Nationalist education, military
service
Romantic masculinity
military preparation
Semi-peripheral Societies and
Challengers
Rising semi-peripheral societies
(Japan)
Germany as excluded core
challenger
dual nature of state
alliance of iron and rye
Militarily challenged
semi-peripheral societies (Russia and Austro-Hungary)
–
backward, nationalities
Russian efforts at military
modernization
First World War:
Miscalculation?
June 28 1914 Archduke Franz
Ferdinand assassinated
August 4: war begins
latest in series of crises
arms race
alliance systems
mobilization plans
railways and race to strike first
blow
Germany’s strategic dilemma
Schlieffen plan
First World War: Miscalculation or
structural disposition?
Short war illusion
War by miscalculation?
What sort of society was willing
to risk war?
Mood
Social Darwinism
new citizenship, new nationalism
States still largely dualistic
German challenge
German anxieties
preventive war
Triggers vs structural disposition
The Role of Domestic Factors
Pre-revolutionary climate?
Relieved by war?
Bifurcated state
military not entirely under
civilian control
political leadership not entire
responsible
special interest log-rolling
parliamentary liberalism besieged
Misunderstanding of modern war by
military
e.g. cult of the offensive
Recipe for Disaster
Industrial society =>
mobilization for industrial war.
Vastly more destructive
Nationalism
mass commitment
Bifurcated state and incomplete
democracy
willingness to risk war
Military misunderstanding of
military trends
willingness to risk war
Revisionist state
First World War: Experiences
The Short War illusion
Railway and spade; machine-gun and
artillery
Stalemate
Trench experience
Attrition and economic resources
war economies
First World War: Aftermaths
Trauma
deaths, injuries, psychological
effects
Pointless horror (tragedy)
lions led by donkeys
Silence and commemoration
Germany vs France, England
Impact on non-combatants
Expansion of state
II. The Great War and its Impact on Soldiers
A. Robert Graves
What was Robert Graves' class background?
How typical was Graves of his class?
What did Graves believe?
What was Graves' attitude to the outbreak
of war? What did he think the war was going to be like?
What role did Graves' education play in
fitting him to be an officer?
How did Graves' war experience alter his
attitude to authority? to politics? to British society?
What did he feel for his
comrades-in-arms?
How did Graves see the war?
What was Graves trying to do after the
war?
What was Graves saying
"goodbye" to in "Goodbye To All That"?
B. "All Quiet on
the Western Front"
Made in 1930 (based on
the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque); banned by the Nazis for its anti-war
message.
What sort of families did Paul Baumer and
his comrades come from?
Compare the early scene with the
schoolmaster and his patriotism with the later scene when Paul returns to the
school. Contrast Paul's loss of idealism with the unchanging patriotism of the
schoolmaster and the pupils.
The film portrays a sense of separation
between the world of the war and civilian life: watch for examples.
The film portrays the war as a totally
self-absorbing world: watch for examples.
How does Paul adapt to the war?
In what ways does the film portray the
war as senseless?
How does the film deal with both the horror of the war and the
sense of comradeship in the trenches?
How are we to interpret the final scene
where Paul is killed? What does it symbolize?
Does the film treat Paul's disenchantment
with civilian society and his absorption in the war (and its comradeship) as a
metaphor for the crisis of industrial society?
III. Impact of the war on society
Everywhere
a sense of shock
Everywhere
an increase in industrial and political conflict
A. Losers: Russia and
revolution
B. Losers: Germany: economic
dislocation and resentment
what role did Germany's
defeat play in the rise of the Nazis?
C. Winners: Britain,
United States
what
was the impact of the war on Britain and America?
QUESTIONS:
What do Goodbye to All That or
"All Quiet on the Western Front" tell you about the impact of the
First World War on middle class European men? How did they react to the war?
In what ways was the First World War a modern
war?
What was the impact of the First World
War on Europe?
In what ways is it helpful to describe
the First World War as a turning point in the history of modern Europe?
What did Robert Graves say "goodbye" to?
Section II: The Russian Revolution
THEORIES
OF REVOLUTION
I. The concept of revolution often refers to:
(a)
a big change
(b)
mass violence aimed at taking over the state
However, these two things don't
always go together.
II.
Definition
Mass
mobilization resulting in the seizure of the state by a new elite which
publicly proclaims its intent to initiate major social change.
Compare this definition with that of
Skocpol. What is Skocpol's definition? What does she mean by
"structural"?
III.
Skocpol's theory
What
position is Skocpol arguing against?
A.
The purposive image of revolution vs "revolutions are not made: they
happen". Intentions and outcomes are often different. Because people may
not intend to make a revolution, it does not follow that they do not intend to
do something. Are revolutions made
or do they happen? What is Skocpol's view? Is Skocpol right on pp. 16-17?
B.
War and fiscal crisis: The cost of war (particularly losing in a war), together
with the inability to increase the productivity of agriculture, leads to a
fiscal crisis. This leads to (a) greater exactions on peasants and (b)
decreased ability of the state to repress revolt
IV.
Some general points about revolution:
C. A theory of the
causes of revolution must explain:
1. mobilization
2. coalition formation
3. collapse of the state
It is often useful to begin by
asking (as Skocpol does), why are some states more vulnerable to revolution
than others?
D. Mobilization requires:
G
grievance
O
organization
O
opportunity
E. The reasons for
(causes of) mobilization vary from one group or class to another. We need to
look at each group/class and see why it mobilized. We need to look at GOO for each
group/class separately.
F.
For some groups, revolution is best understood as (often conservative) protest; not everyone intends to
make a revolution (though some people do).
G.
Revolutions nearly always require a coalition
of mobilized groups. Revolutions usually involve workers and peasants and
middle classes (and sometimes the bourgeoisie) and usually disaffected elites.
After the fall of the old regime,
these groups contend with each other to dominate the revolutionary coalition;
that's why revolutions typically "devour their own children"
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917
I.
Main questions:
A. What were the causes
of the revolution?
B.
Why did the revolution produce stalinism? What were its results?
II. Key
events:
1905 War with Japan; Russia
defeated; revolution
1914 Outbreak of First World War
1917 February
23 revolution: constitutional government under Kerensky
Aug 28 General Kornilov
attempts counterrevolution and fails
October 25 revolution
III.
Russia in 1914
A. Backward (70-80%
rural)
1. weak bourgeoisie (role of the state and of
foreign investment in Russian industrialization).
2. However, rapid
development of professions
3. inefficient agriculture. Emancipation of
serfs in 1861; Stolypin reform 1905 produces comunal reaction
4. absolutist state threatened by war
B. Autocracy
Tsar,
service nobility
arbitrary
policies
few
civil liberties, arrest and exile
Duma
reluctantly accepted by Tsar
C. Rapid
industrialization
late industrializer =
rapid, concentrated industrial growth (industrial growth was 5.7% p.a. between
1895 and 1913; 68% of Petrograd's workers were in factories employing more than
1,000 workers)
1860:
860,000 industrial workers;
1913:
3 million industrial workers
A
recent working class with rural ties
foreign
capital
large,
modern factories
concentrated
unions illegal, wages
low, hours long, treatment of workers by foremen arbitrary
By
1918 70-80% of men were literate
D. Stolypin reforms
(1906), capitalism and the mir
emancipation
1860s; strengthening of mir
Stolypin:
weaken mir, create class of small independent peasants
betting
on the strong
migrant
workers
Landowners
vs peasants
Internal
stratification and power within the peasantry
E. International
challenges
War
with Japan (1904-5); Tsushima
Coming
war with Germany, Austro-Hungary
IV. Forces for change; opponents of the regime
A. Intellectual
currents:
1. populists and the
peasant question
1860s-1880s
Mir,
intellectuals, "to the people"
terrorism.
assassination Alexander II (1881) => reaction
later,
SRs
2. liberals,
constitutionalism and capitalism
constitutional
govt + free enterprise
middle
class
reform
vs revolution
3. Marxists
attractions
of Marxism in nineteenth century Europe
progressive,
evolutionary
simultaneously
ideology of revolution and of economic development
Exile
and schism
working
class ready to accept Marxism
excluded
(no labor organizations; no vote)
exploited
Problem of peasant
support
Three
versions of Marxism:
a. evolutionary theory
(Menshevism)
b. Russia already
capitalist (Bolshevism) (Lenin)
c. permanent
revolution (Trotsky)
(uneven and combined development)
=
1. Bourgeois -> socialist
2. European
socialism
in one country?
B. Political parties:
1. Constitutional
Democrats (Cadets) (liberals)
2. Socialist
Revolutionaries (SRs)
3. Mensheviks } Marxist
Social Democrats
4. Bolsheviks } " " "
Russian
Revolution: Causes
Long-term
structural causes
War
Triggers
V. Causes of the revolution
A. the contradictions
of autocracy
reluctance
to reform
arbitrary
political
opposition => revolutionary stance
B. the contradictions
of late development
Concentrated
working class; large factories
weak/non-existent
labor organizations
1912-14
strike waves
C. the impact of the
War
shortages
and inflation
change
in labor force
loss
of life
McDaniel
Russia:
both capitalist and autocratic
combine
to produce worst situation
Capitalism generates conflict
Autocracy prevents
institutionalization and legitimation of conflict
Differences with Skocpol
–
autocracy, not “old regime”
–
stress on legitimacy
Autocratic Capitalism (McDaniel)
No distinction between economic
and political demands
creates both traditional and
modern opposition to capitalism
diminishes fragmentation and
moderation within labor movement
–
class solidarity
Clearer differentiation of mass
workers, conscious workers and revolutionary intelligensia
–
“pure” types of each
–
interconnected in crises
Skocpol vs McDaniel
Skocpol:
resource extraction model
McDaniel:
Autocracy/legitimacy model
complementary?
Are
revolutions made, or do they happen?
Structure
and intentionality
Intentions
and unanticipated outcomes
contestation, constraints
VI. Who made the revolution?
A. Workers
workers
or peasants?
concentrated,
young,
women,
bread, links with community
Red
Guards
B. Peasants
involved
later
make
revolution irreversible
C. Soldiers
70%
peasants
war-weary
desertions
unwilling to fire on
demonstrators, collapse of authority
D. Intelligensia
revolutionary
Five revolutions in one (McDaniel)
Proletarian against capitalism
peasant against landed elite
soldiers against officers
national revolutions against Russian dominance
bourgeois revolution against
autocracy, for (limited) democracy
February Revolution
February: Tsar abdicates
–
constitutional (provisional)
government
–
Lvov, Kerensky
Dual power
–
Provisional government
–
Soviet of Workers and
Peasants
Continue the war
–
democracy achieved
–
social demands
ignored/postponed
–
authority fragmented
From the February to the October
Revolution
Socialist unity vs Bolshevik
intransigence
attempt to discipline Army
–
June-July Brusilov offensive
Peasant unrest
July days
August Kornilov coup attempt
Soldiers revolt
Oct 24-5 Bolshevik coup d’etat
Why the Bolsheviks?
Was
there a reformist party that could have taken power?
Bolshevik
victory: accident or inevitable?
Theory of
vanguard party
extreme
situation, extremist party
war
and defeatism
Did
Bolshevism imply Stalinism?
VII. Why did the Bolsheviks come to power?
massive
expansion during 1917 (350,000)
leadership
in exile
opposed
to revolution
follow masses (July days
spontaneous); firmly working class in orientation
Lenin
ready to seize power
Theory vs practice of the
vanguard party. (300,000 members; 43,000 Red Guards. Strength in industrial
workers, esp. in Petrograd, weak in countryside.)
Why did the Bolsheviks win working
class support?
Only party demanding unconditional
end to war.
Army swings to the Bolsheviks. Why?
RISE
OF STALINIST DICTATORSHIP
Challenges facing new regime
War and Civil War
loss of territory
Armed resistance
(counterrevolution)
Allied intervention
Establish authority
taxation
low literacy, poor communications,
unreliable civil servants
Re-organize economy
agriculture
industry
Impact of Civil War (1917-20)
Disorganization of working class
Fighting brotherhood of cadres
–
identify with new regime
–
militarized style of politics
War Communism (1917-21)
–
creation of structure of power
Collapse of economy
–
conflict with peasantry
–
famine and epidemic
Destruction of all other sources
of power
Death of Lenin and Leadership
Issues
1924 death of Lenin
Established group of top leaders
–
Trotsky
–
Bukharin
–
Stalin
–
Kamenev, Zinoviev, etc
Failure of revolution in West
Economic policy dilemmas
Nature of Soviet power?
Economic Choices
State ownership vs private
ownership
Market vs Planning
Workers’ Control vs Managerial
Authority
War Communism
NEP
Industrialization and Collectivization
VIII.
Paradox for Marx: revolution in less
industrialized country, not in most industrialized.
Risk for Bolsheviks: need for
international revolution.
IX.
Military intervention by the West and civil war.
A. Armed opposition
B. Failure of
revolution in the West
=>
C. need to
reconstruct strong state
X. How to modernize a backward and disrupted economy?
A.
Continuing military threats.
B.
The peasant question: extraction of resources vs market incentives.
C.
Consolidating state power: suppression of rival parties and of opposition
within Bolsheviks.
D.
Decimation of working class and party leadership in civil war and purges.
Dilution of party.
E.
Forced industrialization.
Stalinism: a 4th
revolution?
1927-8 internal power struggles
over economic policy
1929 final defeat of internal
opposition
–
Trotsky, Bukharin expelled
1929 Five Year Plan
–
forced industrialization
–
1929-37 collectivization
Stabilization of system
–
1936 new constitution
–
1936-8 Great Purges
–
cultural conservatism
June 22, 1941 German invasion
1. What alternatives did they have? At what
cost?
"We have lagged 50
or 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must close this gap in ten
years. Either we shall do it, or they will crush us." Stalin
"The worst thing that can befall a
leader of an extreme party is to be compelled to take over a government in an
epoch when the movement is not yet ripe for the domination of the class which
he respresents and for the realization of the measures which that domination
would imply. What he can do depends not upon his will but ... upon the
degree of development of the material means of existence... What he ought
to do, what his party dmeands of him, again depends not upon him, or upon the
degree of development of the class struggle and its conditions... Thus he
necessarily finds himself in a dilemma. What he can do is in contrast to
all his actions as hitherto practised, to all his principles and to the present
interests of his party; what he ought to do cannot be achieved. In a
word, he is compelled to represent, not his party or his class, but the class for
whom conditions are ripe for domination. In the interests of the movement
itself, he is compelled to defend the interests of an alien class, and to feed
his own class with phrases and promises, with the assertion that the interests
of that alien class are their own interests. Whoever puts himself in this
awkward position is irrevocably lost." Engels, 1850
The Stalinist System
Worked: rapid industrialization,
victory in World War II
but
with inefficiencies and terror
–
problems of central planning
–
forced labor
–
all stick and no carrot
–
everyday life and political
quiescence
Human cost
Who benefited?
–
The new Party members
–
former workers
The Party
–
incentives to join
–
purges
–
massive turnover
–
compliance
–
paranoia
Why Stalinism would eventually
collapse
–
military competition with USA
–
command system unsuited to
developed economy
QUESTIONS
1. What were the causes of the Russian
revolutions of 1917?
3. To what extent was the Russian
revolution made (as opposed to simply happening)?
4. Why did the Bolshevik party emerge as
the victor in the Russian revolution?
5. Describe the roles played in the
Russian revolutions of 1917 by workers, peasants, soldiers, and intellectuals.
6. In what ways was the Russian
revolution a result of modernization?
8. Who made the Russian
revolution?
9. Critically evaluate Skocpol's theory
of revolution.
10. Do you agree with Skocpol when she
says that revolutions are not made, but "happen"?
11. What role does war play in the
causation of revolution?
12. Was the Russian revolution caused by
a combination of defeat in war and inefficient agriculture?
13. Would you say that Stalinism was a
revolution?
14. Who benefited and who lost in the
Russian revolution?
15. The entire history of the causes of
the Russian revolution of 1917 and the rise of Stalinism can be explained by
the need to prepare for war. Do you agree?
Section III: The Rise of the Nazi regime
and the Holocaust
I. The big questions:
A. How did the Nazi
regime come to power?
B. What sort of a
regime was it?
C. What kind of social
change was involved?
Germany on eve of First World War
German unification
Rapid industrialization
Challenge of SPD
Restricted democracy
role of Emperor
Alliance of Iron and Rye
Modern economy and society;
archaic political system
Northeim: What kind of town?
10,000; rural hinterland
Lutherans; 120 Jews
railway largest employer
seasonal employment
businessmen, self-employed,
professionals 4%
civil servants, businessmen, craft
27%
skilled and white collar workers
32%
semi-skilled and unskilled workers
37%
Residential class segregation
social clubs
II.
Politics in Northeim and in Germany
D. the left: SPD and
Communists
E. the center
F. the right
G. The Weimar republic
1. Why did the Weimar
republic collapse?
2. Why did the Nazis win
out?
III. Key events
1918
Defeat in War
1918
Republican revolution
1919
Spartacist revolt
1919
Treaty of Versailles
1920
Kapp putsch
1920
Spartacist revolt
1922-
hyperinflation
1923
occupation of Ruhr
1923
Munich putsch
1933
Hitler chancellor
1933
Reichstag fire
1934
Blood Purge
1938
invasion of Austria
1939
invasion of Poland; Second World War begins
1941
invasion of Russia
1945
Allied victory
IV. Nazi ideology: beliefs of the leaders
A. Combination of:
anti-semitic } "international jewish
anti-communist } conspiracy
of finance
anti-capitalist
(partly) } capital and bolsheviks"
B. opposed to class
division -- populist
C. Racial belief in
the Volk
nationalist
family
values
D. anti-democratic:
ideology of leadership
violence
as affirmation
expansionist
E. statist
regulation
of personal life
economic
expansion
V. Who did the Nazis seek to enlist?
Those
affected by economic dislocation
Those
disenchanted by Weimar democracy
--
and who were these?
VI.
Who did they wish not to antagonize?
VII.
Who were their enemies?
VIII.
Why did the Nazis appeal to (many, not all) Northeimers?
radical
solution to economic problems (p. 86)
disenchantment
with Weimar democracy
militarism
} Versailles betrayal
patriotism
} " "
volkisch
sentiment
anti-Marxism
(but
who were the Marxists?)
NB: not direct economic effects, but
anxiety (pp.24-6)
IX.
Differences between Nazis and conservatives/nationalists
X.
Who were the Nazis in Northeim?
Rise of the Nazis
Defeat in First World War
armed clashes
resentment and hostility to
Versailles Treaty
1918,19 uprisings
Weimar Republic
Attempts at putches
Freikorps and Communists
hyperinflation
recovery
Depression
rearmament and recovery
Nazi Technique
How did the Nazis impress people?
Uniforms
Violence
Material and emotional benefits of
Nazi party membership
Self-correcting message
finances
Why Did People Vote for Hitler?
Role of antisemitism
widespread in Europe
crucial for Nazi core
not reason for mass support of
Hitler
downplayed in Nazi propaganda
Perceived economic interests
Anti-communism and anxiety
Volkisch and nationalist sentiment
How did Hitler come to power?
Army
Business
Middle classes
small towns and rural areas
Protestants
Collapse of center parties
Rise of political violence
The Nazi state
SA project; night of the long
knives
Army and Nazi party
SS, SD, Waffen-SS
Foreign policy goals
Greater Germany
Lebensraum
War
The
Holocaust
The central question asked by Browning in
his book Ordinary Men is, as the title implies, how was it possible for
quite ordinary men to carry out such an awful policy as the mass extermination
of the Jews?
Antisemitism as state policy
Racial politics
Lebensraum
war on Russia and Poland
agrarian colonies
Deliberate
decision to exterminate Jews
Did
ordinary Germans know about the holocaust?
One Massacre
The
“Final Solution”: deliberate
extermination of Jews
Extermination
camps
Clearing
of ghettos and executions
Jozefow,
Poland July 13 1942: 15,000 shot
Assembled
in square, trucks
to forest, lie down, shot in head
Ordinary Men
Not
an aberration
Face-to-face
Who
were the executioners?
Reserve Police
middle and working class
“ordinary men”
Why Did They Do It?
Could
they have refused?
Yes: some did
Were
they unfeeling?
No: distaste and humiliation
Conformity
Milgram
Implications: anyone could do
this
Did Ordinary Germans Know?
Allen:
willful ignorance (self-deception)
Official
silence and euphemisms
scale
was huge
Browning:
letters home to wives
What
difference would knowing have made?
QUESTIONS
1. What were the underlying causes of the
discontent in Germany after the First World War which gave rise to Naziism?
2. In what ways did the NSDAP in Northeim
tailor its message to the local audience?
3. Who were the Nazi supporters in
Northeim and elsewhere?
4. Why did the middle classes in Northeim
support the Nazis? What did they want from the Nazis?
5. What was the impact of gleichschaltung
on Northeim?
6. How did the nazis come to power in the
early 1930s?
7. How did the Nazis consolidate their
dictatorship? What problems did they face?
8. Why was there a holocaust? Was there
anything in the history of the rise of the Nazis in Northheim that would have
led you to expect a holocaust?
9. Why did “ordinary men” (and women)
participate in, or collude with, the holocaust?
--------------------------------------
Voting
patterns in Northeim and Germany as a whole
%
vote for:
NSDAP SPD
KPD
Northeim Germany Northeim Germany Northeim Germany
1928 2.3
2.6 41.1 29.8 0.5 10.6
1930 28.2 18.3 36.4 24.5 1.8 13.1
1932 62.3 37.3 24.4 21.6 4.2 14.3
(July)
1932 59.3 33.1 24.6 20.4 5.1 16.9
(Nov)
Germany
as a whole
%
vote
(1) (2) (1+2)
(3) (4) (3+4)
KPD SPD Left Center + Right NSDAP Center, Right
(KPD+SPD) +
NSDAP
1928 10.6 29.8 40.4 57 2.6 59.6
1930 13.1 24.5 37.6 44.1 18.3 62.4
1932 (July) 14.3 21.6 35.9 26.8 37.3 64.1
1932 (Nov) 16.9 20.4 37.3 29.6 33.1 62.7