Lecture
Schedule and Reading Assignments
Week 1 (Jan 7-9):
Baltic Prehistory; the Viking Age
Mon: Introduction: The Baltic region
Discussion: Why study Baltic history?
Reading Due Today:
- Palmer, pages
vii-xvi and Chapter 1
- Rampolla,
Chapter 1
Wed: Baltic Prehistory; Introduction to source
criticism
Discussion:
What does Tacitus tell us about the Baltic in AD 98?
Reading Due
Today:
Week 2 (Jan 14-16):
Vikings, Crusaders and Baltic Trade; Critique of source critiques
Mon: The Viking Age (and Map Quiz!)
Discussion:
What do runes and sagas reveal about the Viking Age in the territory
of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania?
- Palmer 3-4
- Rampolla, Chapter 3
- Primary Sources and interpretations:
- Viking runes in R.I. Page, Chronicles of
the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths, 80, 83, 87, 88 (#2)
- Viking Sagas, quoted in Joshua Leggett,
"Baltija and the Vikings"
- Saxo Grammaticus, in Tomas Baranauskas,
"Saxo Grammaticus
and the Balts"
Wed: The Baltic Crusade, Livonian Confederation,
Hanse
Discussion:
Can conflicting sources be reconciled?
Week 3 (Jan 21-23) The
Rise of Lithuania
Mon: Martin Luther King Holiday
Wed: Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Discussion: Were the
Lithuanian dukes heroes, villains, or irrelevant in European
History?
- Cheryl Renshaw,
The
Grand Duchy of Lithuania"
- S.C. Rowell, Lithuania Ascending, 289-311 (CP)
- Primary Sources:
- Hypatian Codex (#7)
- Letters of Gediminas (read #2, #4
and #14): (Link)
- Secondary source/analysis of
primary sources:
- S.C. Rowell, "Lithuania and the West"
Journal of Baltic Studies
XX/4 (Link
from UW campus); if this link doesn't work, access the Journal
through the UW
Libraries website.
Week 4 (Jan 28-30): Religion,
War and Politics
Mon: The Livonian Wars; Reformation
Discussion: What
is the role of religion in wartime?
- Palmer, 8-9
- Rachelle Harrison,
"Protestant Reformation in the
Baltic"
- Primary sources:
- "Sehr grewliche..." (print, 1561);
(#8)
- excerpt from Mancelius sermon (#8)
- Mažvydas, "The Little
Book" (#9)
Wed: The Rise of Sweden
Discussion: What is the legacy of
Swedish rule in the Baltic?
Friday, Feb 1: Historiographic essay draft due.
Week 5 (Feb 4-6):
Rise of Russia
Mon: Great Northern War
Discussion: Do peasants matter
in the study of history?
Wed: The Rise of Russia
Discussion: Where
do serfs fit in the grand scheme of history?
Week 6 (Feb 11-13):
Enlightenment and Revolutions in the Baltic
Mon: Enlightenment and Revolutions
Discussion: Can
"liberty, equality and fraternity" be reconciled with the right to
own and inherit property?
Wed: Emergence of National Identity
Discussion: What
does poetry do for political movements?
-
Palmer, 15-19
-
Primary Source:
Songs of
Baltic national movements, 1869-1991 (especially "My Fatherland is My Love"
by Lydia Koidula) (#14)
-
Primary/secondary source:
Madli Puhvel, Symbol of
Dawn, 9-16, 76-93. (#15)
Friday, Feb 15: Research Proposal (research
question and research plan) due. Peer review of a classmate's
proposal due by Friday, Feb 22.
Week 7 (Feb 18-20): Socialist Revolutions
Mon: Presidents Day Holiday
Wed: Revolutions and War, 1905-1920
Discussion: What
do we do if the sources we need don't exist?
-
Palmer 20-22
-
Rampolla 6-7
-
Secondary/Primary Source analysis: Andrejs
Plakans, "Two 1905 Congresses in Latvia" Journal of Baltic
Studies 38,4 (2007): 401-417 (Link
from UW campus); if this link doesn't work, access the Journal through the
UW Libraries website.
Week 8 (Feb 25-27): Two
Decades of Independence, 1920-1940
Mon: Social Democracies in the Baltic Region
Discussion: What
is the ideal political system?
-
Palmer 23-24
-
Secondary/Primary Source:
- Vita Matiss, "Truth and
Power" (#16)
Online discussion:
- Andrew G. Bonnell, "America's Man in Kaunas, 1926-28: Notes from a Diary,"
Journal of Baltic Studies 28,3 (1997): 255-270 (Link
from UW campus); if this link
doesn't work, access the Journal through the
UW Libraries website.
- Kazys Pakštas,
Baltoscandian Confederation, 4-26. (#17)
Wed: Minorities and International Politics
Guest Lecture,
Joerg Hackmann (University of Greifswald)
Friday, Feb 29: Research essay draft due.
Peer review of a classmate's essay due by Friday, March 7.
Week 9 (Mar 3-5): War
and Holocaust in the Baltic
Mon: Soviets, Nazis and Civilians
Discussion: How
should historians study political terror and trauma?
-
Palmer 25
-
Primary/secondary sources:
- Anne Applebaum, Gulag, A History, 420-444; 564-586 (#18)
- Vieda Skultans, Testimony of Lives,
102-123 (#19)
Wed:
Total War
Discussion: Where
do civilians belong in the history of war?
-
Palmer 26
-
Primary/secondary source: Modris Eksteins, Walking
since Daybreak, 184-207 (#20)
Suggested additional readings,
WWII and the Baltic Holocaust:
Andrew Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia,
203-231 (#21)
Week 10 (Mar 10-12): Independent Again
Mon: The End of the Soviet Union
Discussion: Where does Lithuania
and the Baltic offer to the study of late 20th-century European
history?
- Palmer 27
- Primary Sources:
- Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuania
Independent Again, 1-16 (#22)
- Carl Bildt, "The Baltic
Litmus Test" Foreign Affairs
(September-October 1994): 73-85. (Link
from UW campus)
Wed: North Europe since 1991
Discussion: Can historians explain
the present and predict the future?
- Palmer 28
- Primary Documents: Speeches by Toomas
Ilves, President of Estonia:
- Democracy and Security (7 June 2007) (Link).
- New Year Address 2008 (31 Dec 2007)
(Link).
Friday, March 14, Research Due: Submit
your final essay online.
Final Examination (Monday, March 17, 2008, 2:30-4:20 pm)
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