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Harold Marcuse

Current Courses

Fall 2009 (current)


Winter 2010 (tentative)


Department Fields

Announcements

Hist 133D, W'10
10/28/09: This course is now full, and the waitlist so long that no more students can reasonably expect to get in. You can put your name on the Hist 133D waitlist at waitlist.ucsb.edu if you like, however.

Hist 133DR, W'10
GOLD has an error, so that even students with the prerequisites canNOT enroll. Contact Prof. Marcuse via email about how to get in. Explain your relevant prior knowledge and include your perm.





Current Graduate Students

Modern German History, Public History


Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1992

Office: HSSB 4221 Fall 2009 Hours: Tue & Thu, 9:30-10:30
Phone: none (budget cut)   
Email: marcuse@history.ucsb.edu
Download CV

In addition to the World History survey (2c: 1700-present), I teach upper division courses covering German history from 1800 to the present, including topical courses about the Holocaust and its legacies. My research focuses on how, since 1945, various groups have looked back on the Nazi period. (more...)

Research and Teaching Interests

  • German History since 1945
    In particular how Germans, since World War II, have viewed their history.
    This is the primary area in which I train graduate students.
    (See my grad info page for more information.)
  • Public History (see also our Department Public History Program page)
    Especially monuments and museums dedicated to events during the Nazi era (1933-1945), such as Auschwitz, Dresden or Stalingrad.
    Several of my graduate students are also in this program.
  • Reception History (see my Reception History page for more information)
    I define it as "the history of the meanings that have been imputed to historical events. This approach traces the ways in which participants, observers, historians, and other retrospective interpreters have attempted to make sense of past events ..."
  • Oral History (see, for example, my Holocaust Oral History Project website)
    For nearly a decade I have been working with students on various oral history projects.

Current Projects

  • "Hitler, the Dagger-Stab, and 'What if They Came for You': Icons of German History in the Twentieth Century."
    A collection of reception history case studies, each showing how an event was portrayed while it transpired and how that portrayal has evolved since then.
  • Das Erbe von Dachau (see my Dachau Page for more information)
    A shorter, updated German-language version of my 2001 monograph Legacies of Dachau, which will include the redesign of the memorial site since 2003, as well as new research.
  • The role of the Internet in the dissemination of historical knowledge
    See my 2004 thesis paper "The Internet as a Venue for Scholarly Interaction with the Public."

Selected Publications

  • Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933-2001
    600 page book about the history and afterlife of the former concentration camp until its most recent redesign. (my Legacies of Dachau page)
  • Stones of Contention: National Socialism and Second World War in Monuments and Memorials, 1945-1985
    32-page, richly illustrated booklet accompanying an exhibition that toured Germany from 1985 to 1992. (full book on-line)
  • "The Revival of Holocaust Awareness in West Germany, Israel, and the United States," in: 1968: The World Transformed (Cambridge 1998), 421-
    This essay examines how the Holocaust became a talked-about event in three countries in the 1960s. (full text)
  • "Dachau: The Political Aesthetics of Holocaust Memorials," in: Lessons and Legacies III: Memory, Memorialization, and Denial (1999)
    An examination of the various ways that different nations' conceptions of the Holocaust have been realized in memorial art. (text without notes)
  • "Experiencing the Holocaust in Los Angeles: The Museum of Tolerance,", in:
    on-line journal Other Voices, 2:1(2000)
  • "Generational Cohorts and the Shaping of Popular Attitudes Towards the Holocaust," in: Remembering for the Future (2001), 652-663.
    This essay summarizes the generation/cohort theory I develop at the beginning of chapter 12 of Legacies of Dachau. (text)
  • "Reshaping Dachau for Visitors, 1933-2000," in: Horror and Human Tragedy Revisited: The Management of Sites of Atrocity for Tourism
    (New York, 2005), 118-148. (presentation text)
  • "History, War and Memory," in: Gordon Martel (ed.), A Companion to Europe, 1900-1945 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 487-503.
    This essay offers an overview of its topic for the period from 1945 to the present in 11 countries.
  • For a complete list of my publications, with links to most texts, see
    My Publications Page and My Book Reviews Page
  • For a complete list of my reviews, with full texts, see My Book Reviews Page
    Most are illustrated and have links and additional information not contained in the published versions.

Undergraduate and Graduate Courses

  • 2c: World History, 1700-present
    My extensive Hist 2c course website contains information on how I teach this course, with recent syllabi, illustrated lecture outlines, samples of student work, and other resources.
  • 33d: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Holocaust (Hist 33d course Website)
    Designed for freshman and sophomore non-majors, this lecture course surveys the history of the Nazi Holocaust, and explores how scholars in different fields attempt to explain it.
  • 133a: Nineteenth Century Germany (Hist 133a course website)
    A lecture course covering the Napoleonic invasions, revolutions of 1848, unification under Bismarck, and developments prior to World War I.
  • 133b: 20th Century Germany, I: 1900-1945 (Hist 133b course website)
    Beginning with culture under Kaiser Wilhelm II, we examine in depth World War I, the Weimar Years, Hitler's dictatorship and World War II.
  • 133c: 20th Century Germany II: 1945-present (Hist 133c course website)
    Lecture course surveying the legacies of World War II, including denazification, division, the currency reform, 1953 uprising, protest movements, and the fall of East Germany in 1989.
  • 133d: The Holocaust in German History (Hist 133d course website)
    This lecture course examines in-depth topics of the Nazi Holocaust, in the longer term context of German history.
  • 133p: Proseminar in German History (Hist 133p course website)
    A proseminar in which students write and present a 15-25 page paper based on original research with primary sources about German history.
  • 133q: Readings in Holocaust History (Hist 133q course website)
    This intensive reading seminar requires concurrent enrollment in Hist 133d or previous enrollment in one of my other courses, or strong background in the history of the Holocaust.
  • 201E: History in the Public Realm ("Collective Memory") (course website)
    This graduate reading seminar's course website contains an extensive week-by-week bibliography of the readings we discussed, with additional texts.
  • INT 94il: Representing Hitler and Nazism, 1925-2007 (INT 94il course website)
    A one-unit freshman seminar in which we look at primary sources to examine how differently Hitler has been viewed over the years.

Honors and Professional Activities

Graduate Study in German History

  • Graduate Study in German History at UCSB and elsewhere.
    This web page has advice, information and resources for students interested in graduate study in German history--in general, but especially in studying with me. Please read this page first if you are thinking of applying to work with me!

My Research Websites

Additional Web Pages about Prof. Marcuse