User:Mastersplinter/Making the History of 1989

= Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe =

Introduction
Few images from the second half of the twentieth century endure as vividly as the jubilant crowds atop the Berlin Wall in 1989, seemingly tearing down the Cold War with their hammers, hands, and hopes. Just as memorable was the sight of hundreds of thousands of people filling Wenceslaus Square in Prague, chanting “Truth Will Prevail” as the communist regime crumbled before their eyes. These joyful images compete in popular memory with equally powerful but horrific scenes: the Romanian President, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife executed on live television on Christmas morning, or emaciated Bosnians peering out from behind prison camp wire following the outbreak of civil war in Yugoslavia. As rapid as it was unexpected, the collapse of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the period of transition that followed brought the twentieth century and the Cold War to a close in way few expected. Those who lived through those days will never forget the sense of seeing “history in the making.”

Making the History of 1989 materials were developed because teachers and their students have little access to vivid historical documents in English that convey the epochal events of 1989. Project materials utilize recent advances in our understanding of how historical learning takes place, including complex interaction with sources, recursive reading, and skills used by historians.

Making the History of 1989 has three key features: a substantial collection of high quality primary sources; a set of multimedia interviews that make visible the processes by which historians transform events and sources into historical narratives; and lesson plans and document based questions provide historical context, tools, and strategies for teaching the history of 1989 with primary sources in ways that make “history making” visible and vivid.

The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create Making the History of 1989.

The project benefited from collaborative efforts with archival resource centers located throughout the United States.

The collaborative help came from the Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson Center - German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. - National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rapids, IA. - National Security Archive - University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Special Collections - and the Wende Museum, Culver City, CA.

Scholar Interviews
The interviews provided in this digital history project will allow the listener to hear five scholars discuss the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and how they teach these events. Bradley Abrams explores personal experiences as a theme, Maria Bucur looks at changing interpretations, Padraic Kenney explains many of the research challenges, Vladimir Tismaneanu discusses key moments in the history, and Gale Stokes looks at the prospects for teaching and learning. These five historians are all prominent scholars of East European studies and most were in the region just before or during the events of 1989. Additionally, these professional scholars have specializations in one or more East European countries: Bradley Abrams (Czechoslovakia), Maria Bucur (Romania), Padraic Kenney (Poland), Vladimir Tismaneanu (Romania and Poland), and Gale Stokes (Yugoslavia).

Teaching Modules/Case Studies
Each teaching module includes primary sources, teaching strategies, and lessons on the end of communism in Eastern Europe. Topics explored in detail are: Catholic Church in Poland, Nationalities in the USSR, Economies in Transition, Everyday Life in Eastern Europe, Solidarity comes to Power, and The Unique Experience of Romania.

The case studies similarly depict life under communist regimes and the experiences of various people and seminal events in history. Titles range from "Soviet Health Posters" to "Humor as Resistance" and "Simulating the Velvet Revolution". There are twelve case studies in total contributed to the digital history project from various institutions' academic scholars.

Project Team
T. Mills Kelly (Executive Producer and Principle Investigator), Kelly Schrum (Project Co-Director), Matthew P. Romaniello (Associate Director), Jon Berndt Olsen (Editor), Tom Rushford (Editor), Jeremy Boggs (Creative Lead), Maureen Connors (Graduate Research Assistant), Misha Mazzini Griffith (Graduate Research Assistant), Katherine Gustin (Project Manager), Kristopher Kelly (Web Developer), Kristin May (Research Assistant), Anastasia Mikheeva (Graduate Research Assistant), Liz Moore (Project Associate), Emily Perdue (Research Assistant), Laura Veprek (Web Designer), Misha Vinokur (Media Editor), Pin Wang (Programmer), and Gwen White (Project Manager).

Essay, Teaching Module & Case Study Authors
(Introductory Essay) Elizabeth Clark; (Teaching Modules) James Bjork, Tom Ewing, Cathleen Giustino, T. Mills Kelly, Irina Livezeanu, Brian Porter-Szucs; (Lessons) Jennifer Dikes, Laura Thompson, Tom Rushford, Cynthia Szwajkowski, Elizabeth Ten Dyke; (Case Studies) Hugh Agnew, Melissa Bokovoy, David Doellinger, Maura Hametz, Kevin Deegan-Kraus, Jill Massino, Basia Nowak, Jon Berndt Olsen, Matt Romaniello, Tricia Starks, Elizabeth Ten Dyke, and Jennifer Walton; (Editorial Assistance) Alan Gevinson, Joel Tannenbaum, and Deanna Wooley.

Suggested Readings
Garton Ash, Timothy. The Magic Lantern. New York: Vintage Press, 1990, 1999.

Kenney, Padraic. A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989. Princeton University Press, 2002.

Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Kumar, Krishnan. 1989: Revolutionary Ideas and Ideals. University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Maier, Charles S. Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany. Princeton University Press, 1997.

Prins, Gwyn, editor. Spring in Winter: The 1989 Revolutions. Manchester University Press, 1990.

Rothschild, Joseph and Nancy M. Wingfield. Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War II. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Stokes, Gale. The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Oxford University Press, 1993.

Stokes, Gale. From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe since 1945. Oxford University Press, 1991, 1996.

Tismaneanu, Vladimir, ed., Revolutions of 1989: Rewriting Histories. Routledge, 1999.