Dr Timothy Snyder delivers Memphis Sesquicentennial Lecture for 2011-2012, speaking on “Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin”

[26 January 2012] During the years 1933 to 1945, there were 14,000,000 persons killed in the lands that lay between Germany and the Soviet Union. Dr Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, delivered the Memphis Sesquicentennial Lecture this evening on the killings, based on his prize-winning book on the subject. The lecture was also sponsored by the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities.

The 14,000,000 represented the greatest scale of killings in modern Europe and do not include soldiers (if soldiers were included, the number would reach 28,000,000). Included in the 14,000,000 were 5,500,000 of the 6,000,000 Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Why, Dr Snyder asked, isn’t this common knowledge? He thinks the reason is chiefly that we tend to partition history into subjects like the Soviet Terror and the Holocaust, seeing them as separate rather than related events. Another reason is that history is usually written about nations and told from the point of view of their governments. He maintains that affairs are not determined by national issues, that national histories can only ask questions, not answer them. He rejects dialectics, maintaining that Germany and the Soviet Union were not opposites, despite their great differences, and did not cancel each other out. In many ways they strongly resembled each other.

Most of the writing about deaths during the period centers around the Germany concentration camps and the Soviet gulags. In fact, Dr Snyder said, most Holocaust victims never saw a camp — they were shot very close to where they lived, and many of the deaths in the gulags occurred because the German invasion cut off Soviet logistics to the gulags. But the camps and the gulags left many records, while most of those killed in the bloodlands left few or no records.

Dr Snyder does not find it helpful to invoke ideologies as the root of the killings. Ideologies change over time. Marxism was not originally concerned with killings but became so in the Soviet system. He believes that economics played a very important role. Both systems looked to the middle lands as a way of strengthening themselves, the Soviet Union seeking to modernize its economy and Germany seeking to find agricultural lands to support its population. Both wanted to get rid of Poland as simply being in the way, but they could not agree on what should happen to Ukraine.

The book Bloodlands divides into three segments: 1933-1938, when most of the killing was by the Soviet Union; 1939-1941, when the two nations were allied and killings were about equal between the two powers; and 1941-1945, when Germany took the lead. The early Soviet killings were directed mostly against Ukrainians, whom Stalin blamed for the failure of his policy of collectivization. The middle period was crucial, Dr Snyder believes. The primary damage was that entire states were destroyed, and he believes that states were very important for the protection of minority rights. With states destroyed and the rule of law at an end, minorities were perilously at risk at the hands of collaborators. Dr Snyder cited figures that indicated that minorities had a 1 in 2 chance of surviving in states that were allied with Germany. While not good, this was in startling contrast to the 1 in 20 chance where states had been destroyed. Germany turned against its former ally and went to war with the Soviet Union in 1941. The expectation was that there would be an easy victory and that the Jews could be driven eastward. But the Soviet Union did not fall, and Germany blamed the Jews for the failure of the invasion, leading to the third phase of the killings in which most were done by Germany.

Overall, Dr Snyder emphasized, his book is not about comparisons between German and Soviet killings. Comparisons involve separation, and his book is more about interaction between the two systems.

Recognizing that it is impossible to do so completely, Dr Snyder urged his readers to think in human terms, not of 14,000,000 killings but rather of one killing done 14,000,000 times. At the beginning of his lecture Dr Snyder had told how three persons in the bloodlands anticipated and prepared for what seemed inevitable death in different ways. He ended his lecture by identifying each of them by name.

Dr Snyder was recently named the Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale. Bloodlands has been widely acclaimed. It was named a Best Book of 2010 by The Economist, The New Republic, Guardian, Reason, and The Forward, and has been translated into 20 languages.

ADDENDUM, 17 February 2012: The February 2012 issue of the departmental newsletter has an additional article about the lecture.

Jody Callahan writes feature article about Dr Abraham Kriegel for the Commercial Appeal

[26 January 2012] Based largely on information supplied in an interview with Dr Walter R. Brown, Jody Callahan wrote a feature article on Dr Abraham Kriegel that was published in today’s issue of the Commercial Appeal. A photograph used in the article is online at the newspaper’s site but the article itself has not yet appeared online.

Dr Suzanne Onstine interviewed by Daily Helmsman about the Egyptian revolution

[25 January 2012] Dr Suzanne Onstine, assistant professor, and Ahmed Elnahas, an Egyptian doctoral student in finance, were interviewed by Elizabeth Cooper in an article that appeared in today’s issue of the Daily Helmsman about the revolution that occurred in Egypt in early 2011. The article is available online. Dr Onstine contributed one of the photographs used in the printed article, but it was omitted (along with another photograph) in the online version.

Dr Onstine was working in Egypt when the revolution began to unfold in Cairo, in distant Luxor excavating a Theban tomb. After a brief period of indecision, she and the research party determined it safe to continue the work until the season ended.

Mr Elnahas pictured the youth of Egypt as being distracted by technology and fashion, yet knowing nothing about life, but Dr Onstine noted that it was precisely that same generation that brought down a government just by having a voice collectively. She added that she has noticed a rise in the awareness of the strength of activism in her clases following the events of the Arab Spring. Assessing the current state of affairs in Egypt, she said that the chief concern for the majority of Egyptians is that the sacrifices they made are not going to bring about a real democracy: “They feel like they have traded one bad master for another.”

Funeral service held for Dr Abraham Kriegel

[22 January 2012] A funeral service was held this afternoon at the Levy-Cooper Chapel of Temple Israel for Dr Abraham Kriegel, who died suddenly on 18 January.

Dr Kriegel joined the department in 1964. He retired in December 2008 but continued to teach in post-retirement.

A memorial event to celebrate his life and career will be held by the Department of History soon.

ADDENDUM, 26 January: The memorial reception will be held on 2 February 2012 from 2 to 4 pm in the lobby of Mitchell Hall.

Two doctoral candidates present prospectuses for dissertations in Egyptology

[20 January 2012] Two doctoral candidates, both with a concentration in Egyptology, made their presentations of the prospectuses for their dissertations at a session held this afternoon, the first of a series of such presentations for the Spring Semester 2012.

Katarzyna Scherr (shown at right) presented “Agriculture as Ideology: Elite Identity and Agricultural Representation in Ancient Egypt,” and Catherine Norvell (shown at left) presented “The Goddess of the Garden: A Study of the Tree Goddess in Ancient Egypt.”

Another session of presentations is scheduled for 4 March.

Dr Arwin Smallwood participates in TV documentary on the beginnings of North Carolina, will speak at conference on early North Carolina

[19 January 2012] Dr Arwin Smallwood participated in the making of a television documentary titled “The Birth of a Colony: North Carolina,” produced by UNC-TV and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in association with Horizons Productions. The material will be available on a companion web site that will feature interactive supplemental material, searchable chapters, and an educators’ guide to assist teachers and home schoolers in the development of instructional material for North Carolina history. The film covers the period from 1524 to 1713.

On 3 February he will participate in a conference at East Carolina University to discuss new approaches to North Carolina history. The conference is the first in a series titled New Voyages to Carolina (an allusion to the 1709 book about the colony by John Lawson) and is concerned with the beginnings of the colony. Dr Smallwood will speak on “The Great Tuscarora Diaspora.” The complete conference program is available online as a PDF document.

Graduate History Association presence on Facebook converted to new format

[12 January 2012] The Graduate History Association has converted its presence on Facebook to a closed group, with the expectation that the new format will make it easier to add members to the group and easier for all History graduate students to stay connected. Visit it at http://www.facebook.com/groups/271889449538640/.

Dr Daniel Unowsky to serve as Graduate Coordinator during Spring 2012 semester

[10 January 2012] While Dr James Blythe is on leave during the Spring 2012 semester, Dr Daniel Unowsky will serve as Graduate Coordinator. Please refer any matters relating to the graduate program to Dr Unowsky or to Ms Karen Jackett, the Graduate Secretary. Dr Unowsky’s e-mail address is dunowsky@memphis.edu; his telephone number is 901.678.2720; and his office is located in 131 Mitchell Hall; he will hold office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:15 to 12:30 and by appointment. Ms Jackett’s e-mail address is mkmiller@memphis.edu; her telephone number is 901.678.1366; and her office is located in 219B3 Michell Hall.