John Connelly

Professor

Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professorship of European History 


Education

PhD, 1994, Harvard University, History
MA, 1988, Harvard University, History
BSFS, 1982, Georgetown University, International Relations, magna cum laude


Research Interests

  • Modern East and Central European Political and Social History
  • Comparative Education
  • History of Nationalism and Racism
  • History of Catholicism

Academic Honors & Awards

Humanities Research Fellowship, University of California, Spring 2007
Membership, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2002-03
George L. Beer Prize of the American Historical Association, 2001 (for Captive University)
Spencer Fellow, 1996-98
German Marshall Fund Fellow, 1996-97
82nd Airborne Division Association Scholarship, Georgetown University, 1978-82


Professional Service

Co-director, UC Berkeley History Social Science Project (an outreach program for high schools), 2002-06
North American Editor, Contemporary European History, 2002-2010
Editorial Board, Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung, Marburg, 2001-present
Editorial Board, Slavic Review, 2007-present


Books

From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews (Harvard University Press, 2012)

Universities Under Dictatorship (State College: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), co-edited with Michael Grüttner

German Translation: Universitäten in den Diktaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts: Zwischen Autonomie und Anpassung [Universities in the Dictatorships of the Twentieth Century: Between Autonomy and Accomodation] (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2003).

Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945-1956 (University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

Czech translation: Zotročená univerzita: Sovětizace vysokého školství ve východním Německu, v českých zemích a v Polsku v letech 1945-1956(Prague: Carolinum, 2008)

Ukrainian translation: Ponevolenni universitet: Sovetizatsia vishoi osviti u Schidnii Nimechchini, Chechii ta Pol'shi, 1945-1956 (Kharkov: Ribalka D.L., 2011)


Referreed Publications (Selections)

"The Paradox of East German Communism: From Non-Stalinism to Neo-Stalinism," in Vladimir Tismaneunu, ed., Stalinism Revisited. The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press, 2009), 161-94

"Catholic Racism and Its Opponents," Journal of Modern History 79:4 (December 2007), 813-847

"Why the Poles Collaborated So Little—And Why That Is No Reason for Nationalist Hubris," Slavic Review 64:4 (2005)

"Mity i kontrmity, przyczynek do dyskusji o polskiej tożsamości historycznej" (Myths and Countermyths: a Contribution to Discussions on Polish Historical Identity), Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, nr. 8 (December 2005)

"Reflections of Social Change: Polish Rural Sociology, 1930-1965," Trondheim Studies on East European Cultures and Societies 14 (2004)

"The Sovietization of Higher Education in the Czech Lands, East Germany, and Poland During the Stalinist period (1948-54)," in György Péteri and Michael David-Fox, eds., Academia in Upheaval (Greenwood, 2000).

"Nazis and Slavs: From Racial Theory to Racist Practice," Central European History, 32:1 (1999), 1-33.

"The Foundations of Diversity: Communist Higher Education Policies in Eastern Europe, 1945-1955," in Kristie Macrakis and Dieter Hoffmann, eds., Science under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 125-139. [Reprinted in German in Hoffmann and Macrakis, eds., Naturwissenschaft und Technik in der DDR (Berlin, 1997)]

"Stalinismus und Hochschulpolitik in Ostmitteleuropa nach 1945," ["Stalinism and Higher Education Policies in East Central Europe after 1945"] Geschichte und Gesellschaft 24:1(1998), 5-23.


Other Publications (Selections)

"Nazi Racism and the Church: How Converts Showed the Way to Resist," Commonweal, 24 February 2012, 12-16

"Gypsies, Homosexuals and Slavs" in John Roth and Peter Hayes, eds., The Holocaust Handbook (Oxford, 2010), 274-292.

"Karl Thiemes theologischer Umkehr," Freiburger Rundbrief 17:4 (2010), 256-271.

"Hat denn Gott sein Volk verstossen? Das Zweite Vatikanum und der Streit um die christliche Missionierung der Juden," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10 April 2010

"The Price of Freedom: What Came Down with the Berlin Wall," Commonweal, 20 November 2009, 10-15.

"Benedict, German Catholics and the Holocaust, " Commonweal, 20 June 2008, 11.

"Reformer and Racialist," Commonweal, 18 January 2008, 10-13.

"Universities that are Catholic in Every Sense of the Word: A Response to Father Halik,"in C. Garbowski, P. Gutkowski, and A. Kijewska, eds.,Catholic Universities in the New Europe (Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2005), 45-56 (also printed as an ErasmusInstitute Occasional Paper, 2005-1, University of Notre Dame).

"Cultural Revolution: Studentocracy in Czech Higher Education, 1948-54," in M. Svatos, L.Velek, and A. Velkova, eds, Magister noster. In memoriam Prof. PhDr. JanHavranek, CSc. (Prague, Karolinum 2005), 167-174.

"Reflections of Social Change: Polish Rural Sociology, 1930-1965," Trondheim Studies on East European Cultures and Societies, No. 14 (Norwegian University of Technology, 2004).

"Historikerstreit [Historians' controversy] in Post-Socialist Poland and Czech Republic," in Michael Minkenberg and Timm Beichelt, eds., Cultural Legacies in Post-Socialist Europe. The Role of Various Pasts in the Current Transformation Process (Frankfurt an der Oder, 2003), 49-56.


Review Essays (Selections)

"In Sheep's Clothing," Review of Hubert Wolf, Pope and Devil: The Vatican's Archives and the Third Reich (Harvard, 2010) in The Book: an Online Review of the New Republic, 8 February 2011.

"Totalitarianism: Defunct Theory, Useful Word," Review of Sheila Fitzpatrick and Michael Geyer, eds., Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared (Cambridge, 2008) in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 11:4 (Fall 2010), 819-835.

"It Never Occurred to Them," Review of Götz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries: How the Nazis Bought the German People (Verso, 2007), London Review of Books (27 August 2009), 33-34.

"Memorial Day's A Reason to Buy a Beach Bag": Reflections from the USA on István Rév's Retroactive JusticeEast Central Europe, Vol. 36 (2009)

"The First Cold Warrior?": Review of Pius XII, the Holocaust and the Cold War by Michael Phayer (Indiana University Press, 2007), Commonweal, 26 September 2008, 20-24

"No Excuse": Review of In Defense of Christian Hungary: Religion, Nationalism, and Anti-Semitism, 1890–1944 by Paul A. Hanebrink (Cornell University Press, 2006) Commonweal, 18 May 2007.

Peter F. Dembowski, Christians in the Warsaw Ghetto: An Epitaph for the Unremembered, in Zaglada Zydow: Pismo Centrum Badan nad Zaglada Zydow IFiS PAN (Wasaw) 3: 2007, 421-25

"Ordinary Poles": Review of Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz by Jan T. Gross (Random House, 2005), Commonweal 23 February 2007, 28-30

"Rampaging": Review of Catherine Merridale, Ivan's War: The Red Army 1939-46 (Faber, 2005); Anthony Beevor, ed., A Writer at War: Vassily Grossman with the Red Army (Harvill, 2005), London Review of Books (22 June 2006).

Richard Overy, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia (Norton, 2004), Kritika :Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 7.4 (2006) 919-929

"Rule by Inspiration": Review of Christopher Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy 1939-42 (Arrow, 2005), London Review of Books (7 July 2005), 27-28.

"Those Streets over There": Review of Norman Davies, Rising '44: 'The Battle for Warsaw' (Pan, 2004), London Review of Books (24 June 2004), 19-20

"Poles and Jews in the Second World War: the Revisions of Jan T. Gross," Contemporary European History, 11, 4 (2002), 641-58.

Portrait of Professor John Connelly

Contact

2218 Dwinelle Hall

jfconnel@berkeley.edu

Office Hours

Curriculum Vitae