Prof. De Groot will share a chapter from his book manuscript, which explores how the collapse of the Soviet bloc was linked to the structural changes in global capitalism during the 1970s and 1980s. The chapter will highlight the Volcker shock as an inflection point which precipitated a sovereign debt crisis across Eastern Europe and compelled the Soviet Union to privilege domestic imperatives over international responsibilities. Drawing on this historical episode, his talk will also explore possible lessons for the US today. 

Michael De Groot is an assistant professor of international studies at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His current book project draws on archival research in eight countries and five languages, and seeks to illuminate the key role that the global economic shocks of the 1970s and 1980s played in bringing the Cold War to a close. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House and a Henry A. Kissinger Predoctoral Fellow at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in History from Stanford. 

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL DE GROOT

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This talk is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.