Jiri Musil 

Drago Roksandic 

SYLLABUS 

The course is intended to introduce doctoral candidates to varieties of the comparative approach. It is organised into three parts. The first deals with general theoretical and methodological issues in comparative history, anthropology, sociology, and political science. In addition there are some case studies drawn from large scale (macro) comparative studies in history. The second part deals with the specific problem of comparative urban history, historical demography, boundaries and frontiers from geographical and cultural perspectives. 

The readings have been selected to stimulate discussion and further reading and by no means can be considered comprehensive. students are responsible for careful and critical reading of all the assignments and for writing three essays during the term. Each essay will deal with one of the three parts into which the course is divided: general theoretical-methodological approaches, comparative urbanisation and comparative frontiers. The essays should be based on additional reading of your own choice in any language. However , they must be comparative. In the case of the specific topics, parts two and three the essays should compare at least two of the designated regions, that is central, south-eastern and eastern Europe. In the theoretical or methodological essay there is no such restriction. The papers will be due on October 29, November 26 and December 17. The papers may serve as the basis for discussion as time permits. 

The papers should be about ten pages (2500-2800 words); they should take a critical position rather than being simply summaries of the literature. You may wish to discuss the topics and literature for your readings with the instructors and/or with your primary PhD. advisor so that the assignments can fit into your general intellectual approach to the first year of doctoral study. 
 

DATE TOPIC AND READINGS 

28/IX Introduction to the comparative approach 

 5/X Perspectives from Sociology and Political Science 

Reading: Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, THE LOGIC F COMPARATIVE SOCIAL INQUIRY, pp. 3-13. 

Charles C. Ragin, THE COMPARATIVE METHOD, pp. 1-18, 34-52. 

  
12/X Perspectives from Anthropology 

Claude Levi-Strauss, “Race and History,” from STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, II, 323-362 

Stephen Kern, THE CULTURE OF TIME AND SPACE, 1880-1918, pp. 10-35. 

19/X Pioneers in Comparative History 

Reading: Marc Bloch, “A Contribution Towards a Comparative History of European societies,” in Marc Bloch, LAND AND WORK IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE, pp. 44-81. 

AHR FORUM, “Marc Bloch and comparative History,” pp. 828-853. 

26/X Large Scale Case Studies in Comparative History 

Reading: Theda Skocpol, “The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry,” in SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD, PP. 72-95 

Theodor Shanin, “Defining Peasants: Conceptualizations and Deconceptualizations,” In DEFINING PEASANTS, pp. 53-73 

  
2/XI Small Scale Studies in Comparative History 

Reading: Aristide Zolberg, “How Many Exceptionalisms?” 

in WORKING CLASS FORMATION: NINETEENTH CENTURY PATTERNS IN WESTERN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES, pp. 397-455 

John Brewer, “This, that and the other: Public, social and Private in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in SHIFTING THE BOUNDARIES, 1-21. 

9/XI Comparative Urban History: The Classic Position 

Reading: Max Weber, THE CITY, pp. 65-89; 197-230 

Lewis Mumford, “The Rise and Fall of Megalopolis,” in THE CULTURE OF CITIES, pp. 223-99. 

Carl Schorske, “The Idea of the City in European Thought: Voltaire to Spengler,” in Oscar Handlin, THE HISTORIAN AND THE CITY, pp. 95-114. 

16/XI The City in Central and Southeastern Europe 

Reading: Nikolai Todorov, THE BALKAN CITY, pp. 13-43; 454-63. 

Norman J.G. Pounds, “The Urbanization of East-Central and Southeast Europe; An Historical Perspective,” in George Hoffman, EASTERN EUROPE: ESSAYS IN GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS, pp. 45-78. 

György Enyedi, “Urbanization Under Socialism,” in G. Andrusz et al, CITIES AFTER SOCIALISM, 100-118. 

  
23/XI The City in Europe: New Approaches 

Reading: E. H. Phelps Brown and Sheila Hopkins, “Wage-Rades and Prices: Evidence for Population Pressure in the Sixteenth Century,” in H. Moller, Population Movements in Modern European History, pp. 8-19 

“Ireland and Japan: Two Islands, two Histories” & “Toward Order and Efficiency: The Recent Demography of Europe and the Developed World,” in Massimo Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, pp. 66-73 & 112-135 

30/XI Theories of Comparative Frontiers(I) 

Reading: Leonard Thompson and Howard Lamar, THE 

FRONTIER IN HISTORY, pp. 3-13. 

Mack Faragher. “The Frontier Trail: Rethinking Turner and Reimagining the American West,” AHR, (Feb. 1993) 

106-117 

Bernard Lewis, CULTURES IN CONFLICT, CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND JEWS IN THE AGE 

OF DISCOVERY 

  
7/XII Theories of Comparative Frontiers(II) 

Reading: Lucien Febvre HUMAN GEOGRAPHY 323-342. 

Neal Ascherson, BLACK SEA, 49-88 

Peter Sahlins, BOUNDARIES, THE MAKING OF FRANCE AND SPAIN IN THE PYRENESS, 1-24, 267-76. 

7/XII Frontiers in Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe 

Reading: Larry Wolf, INVENTING EASTERN EUROPE: 

THE MAP OF CIVILISATION ON THE MIND OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT, 144-94 

Maria Todorova, IMAGINING THE BALKANS, TBA 

Istvan Bibo, “The Distress of the East European Small States,” in DEMOCRACY, REVOLUTION, SELF-DETERMINATION, SELECTED WRITINGS, 18-86.