1. The Search for Cultural Bearings
   Arts and letters sought answers for recent disasters under the polarization of cold war divisions.
   1. Absurdity and Commitment in Existentialism
      Beckett, Camus, and Sartre all struggled to understand humanity's place in an absurd, irrational world.
   2. Marxists and Traditionalists
      United in opposition to totalitarianism and fascism, Western Marxists and traditionalists demanded their place in postwar culture.
   3. The Intellectual Migration and Americanism
      Thanks in part to many notable European migrants, American innovators fueled a distinctive shift in Western culture after World War II.
2. Prosperity and Democracy in Western Europe
   The United States fostered political, economic, and social rebuilding in the Western European democracies.
   1. Economic Reconstruction and the Atlantic Orientation
      Economic interests and cold war concerns strengthened Europe's ties to the United States, embodied in the NATO military alliance.
   2. Social Welfare and the Issue of Gender
      Women's lives were greatly affected by postwar government in social welfare, domestic legislation, and family life.
   3. Restoration of Democracy
      West Germany, France, and Italy established strong democracies with stable political parties after the war, and working democracy spread in the 1970s, most notably to Spain.
   4. New Discontents and New Directions
      Beginning in the late 1960s, political disaffection challenged the consensus in the established democracies.
3. The Communist Bloc: From Consolidation to Stagnation
   Stalin's legacy of central planning and rigid control haunted the Soviet East after his death.
   1. Dilemmas of the Soviet System in Postwar Europe, 1949-1955
      COMECON's economic links and the Warsaw Pact's military assurances failed to silence Stalin's fears of resistance in the satellite states.
   2. DeStalinization Under Khrushchev, 1955-1964
      Khrushchev's rise raised hopes for liberalization, but unrest in Hungary and defections in East Germany demanded crackdowns.
   3. From Liberalization to Stagnation
      Eastern bloc regimes struggled to balance communist allegiance with domestic demands, sometimes unsuccessfully, as in the "Prague Spring" of 1968.
4. Europe, the West, and the World
   The rival superpowers dominated diplomacy and international relations, as European colonial networks collapsed and Europe moved towards unity.
   1. The Cold War Framework
      Cold war tensions peaked with the Cuban Missile Crisis, as Communist China made it clear that communism was not a monolithic force.
   2. The Varieties of Decolonization
      Europe's colonial empires shrank, sometimes violently, but people in the new nations labored to establish independent direction after generations of Western control.
   3. Economic Integration and the Origins of the European Union
      Despite fervent nationalism, the creation of the Common Market paved the way for greater political integration of Western Europe.
   4. The Energy Crisis and the Changing Economic Framework
      A brief embargo on oil exports to the West emphasized resource dependency and contributed to an era of economic troubles.
5. The Collapse of the Soviet System, 1975-1991
   A new era of liberalization after Brezhnev's death resulted in reforms that ultimately led to the end of communism and the Soviet system.
   1. Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Bloc
      The Soviet Union failed to boost productivity through technological innovation, making the arms race even more of an economic strain and increasing the frustration of Soviet citizens, especially women.
   2. The Crisis of Communism in the Satellite States
      At first underground, but later in the open, dissidents such as Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa challenged communist repression with surprising success.
   3. The Quest for Reform in the Soviet Union
      After the death of Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform the Soviet system with glasnost, or openness, and perestroika, or economic restructuring.
   4. The Anti-Communist Revolution in East-Central Europe
      Poland's example of democratization led to a domino effect in the Soviet satellites and the reunification of Germany.
   5. The End of the Soviet Union
      Increasing frustration with "restructuring" led to the end of the Soviet Union as the member republics voted for independence and democracy.