Hi All,
My name is Mark Thomas-Patterson, and I am a senior in the GWU Honors Program majoring in History. I am currently working on my history senior thesis as part of the Enosinian Scholars Program. This thesis will examine how American conservative publications discussed German politics between 1969 and 1980. These years saw massive changes within West German society and government. In 1968, a wave of student protests occurred in West Germany, which took aim at, among other things, the country’s Nazi past and the Vietnam War. In 1969, the first Social Democratic Party government came into power headed by Willy Brandt, ending the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) long-held dominance of federal politics. Brandt’s chancellorship meant a paradigm shift in German foreign policy, abandoning the Hallstein Doctrine, a policy of non-recognition of East Germany, and adopting Ostpolitik. Under Ostpolitik, the Brandt government established relations with East Germany and pursued closer cooperation with the Eastern Bloc.
My main research focus will be looking at four publications representing different strands of conservative thought: National Review, Commentary, Human Events, and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial section. I plan on looking at what these publications said about Germany between the years of 1969, the election of Willy Brandt, and 1980, which saw the victory of Ronald Reagan and the defeat of German conservatives in the polls. By analyzing conservative American publications’ views of the Federal Republic, the thesis will study how people who deeply opposed communism understood a country that benefitted from closer ties to the East. I will also examine how conservatives understood the Social Democratic government that led Europe’s foremost economic power through the doldrums of stagflation while other European countries faltered.
I am going to be taking part in a panel organized by Gelman Library on Undergraduate Research Opportunities at GWU on Tuesday, November 2nd from 3:00-4:30 PM. There, I will be talking and answering questions about my experience conducting research as an undergraduate, including my participation in the Enosinian Scholars Program. The panel will be held in person in Gelman Room 219 as well as online (all of which is explained in the link).
