History and American Studies

This fall semester, the Department of History and American Studies is hosting a 5-part lecture series on the urban histories of Moscow and Washington, and their role in shaping Russian-American relations. Please see the description and schedule for the series below.

1892 Bird’s Eye View Map of Washington, DC

Moscow–Washington: Capitals of the Cold War Past and Present?

Hardly a day goes by when the bizarre spectacle of Russian-American relations does not dominate the news. Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election, the wars in Ukraine and Syria, and tensions between Russia and NATO are just a few of the major flash points that drive the two nuclear powers further apart and closer to direct conflict. Meanwhile, in defiance of his own intelligence services and raising questions about his loyalties and motivations, US president Donald Trump pushes for better relations with Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, effectively upending decades of American foreign policy toward the United States’ erstwhile adversary. Have the two countries entered a new Cold War, as many commentators contend, or will their current leaders find a meaningful resolution to their outstanding problems that also addresses the long-simmering animosities of various domestic constituencies and government institutions?

New Moscow (1937) by Yuri Pimenov

This fall semester, the lecture series “Moscow-Washington: Capitals of the Cold War Past and Present?” explores the history of Russian and American relations through the lens of each country’s capital city, how their histories have become entangled, and how they have followed different paths. With their origins in very different national and local histories before the 20^th century, Moscow and Washington suddenly intersected during the Cold War as the metropoles of two global, entangled empires that displaced those of Western Europe after World War II. [Read more…]