Skip to main content
Department of History Department of History
  1. HOME
  2. People
  3. Faculty
  4. Patrick Hyder Patterson

Patrick Hyder Patterson

  • Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2001
  • J.D., University of Virginia, 1988
  • A.B., Religion, Princeton University, 1985

I joined the History Department in 2006. Before that I taught in the Making of the Modern World Program at UCSD's Eleanor Roosevelt College. My research centers on the history of 20th-century Eastern Europe and the Balkans, with major emphases on everyday life and consumer culture and on the interplay of Islam, Christianity, and secular society. Much of my early work focused on the lands and peoples of what used to be Yugoslavia, while my more recent projects have coupled an ongoing concern for Yugoslavia and the Balkans with a comparative consideration of Eastern Europe's "northern tier," drawing on sources from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic.

I teach on a wide variety of topics, with courses on everyday life under authoritarian rule, Islam and immigration in contemporary Europe, Americanization and anti-Americanism, law and religion, and the international law of war crimes and genocide. I serve as primary advisor to students in the Ph.D. program specializing in Balkan and East Central European history, and I work with a number of other graduate students in the department, especially those focusing on Germany and Central Europe.

I have a wide-ranging research agenda, with interests in a variety of topics in cultural, political, and religious history:

  • Consumer society and the broader implications of shopping, spending, advertising, marketing, and retailing
  • Everyday life, popular culture, material culture, and the mass media
  • Travel, tourism, and leisure
  • Islam in the Balkans
  • European responses to Islam, especially Christian political-cultural engagement in Eastern and Western Europe
  • Religion, irreligion, and multiculturalism in European history
  • Ethnicity, national consciousness, and nationalism
  • The symbolic geography of “Europe,” “Central Europe,” “Eastern Europe,” “the Balkans,” and "the West"

Book

Book projects in progress

  • Capitalist Tools: The Machinery of the Market in Communist Europe
  • On the Ruin of Christendom: Islam and the Secular Faiths of the New West

Articles

  • "Just Rewards: The Social Contract and Communism's Hard Bargain with the Citizen-Consumer," in The Socialist Good Life: Desire, Development, and Living Standards in Eastern Europe, eds. Cristopher Scarboro, Diana Mincyte, and Zsuzsa Gille (Bloomington:  Indiana University Press, 2020), 52-81.
  • "It's What's Inside That Counts:  Furnishing the Modern in the Apartments of Socialist Yugoslavia," in Everyday Life in the Balkans, ed. David W. Montgomery (Bloomington:  Indiana University Press, 2019), 31-43.
  • "The Supermarket As a Global Historical Development: Structures, Capital and Values," in The Routledge Companion to the History of Retailing, eds. Jon Stobart and Vicki Howard (London: Routledge, 2018), 154-179.
  • "The Shepherds' Calling, the Engineers' Project, and the Scientists' Problem: Scientific Knowledge and the Care of Souls in Communist Eastern Europe," in Science, Religion, and Communism in Cold War Europe, eds. Paul Betts and Stephen A. Smith (New York/Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 55-76.
  • "The Prague Spring and the Big Chill: The Marketing Moment in Communist Czechoslovakia," Journal of Historical Research in Marketing 8, no. 1 (2016):  120-140.
  • "The Bad Science and the Black Arts:  The Reception of Marketing in Socialist Europe," in The Rise of Marketing and Market Research, Hartmut Berghoff, Philip Scranton, and Uwe Spiekermann, editors (New York/Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 269-293.
  • "Risky Business:  What Was Really Being Sold in the Department Stores of Socialist Eastern Europe?" inCommunism Unwrapped:  Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe, Paulina Bren and Mary Neuburger, editors (New York/Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2012), 116-139.
  • "Yugoslavia As It Once Was: What Tourism and Leisure Meant for the History of the Socialist Federation," in Yugoslavia's Sunny Side: A History of Tourism in Socialism, 1950s-1980s, Hannes Grandits and Karin Taylor, editors (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2010), 367-402. 
  • "On the Ruin of Christendom:  Religious Politics and the Challenge of Islam in the New West," in Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe, Bruce Berglund and Brian Porter-Szűcs, editors, (Budapest/New York:  Central European University Press, 2010), 293-327.
  • "A Kinder, Gentler Europe?  Islam, Christianity, and the Divergent Multiculturalisms of the New West,"American Multiculturalism after 9/11:  Transatlantic Perspectives, eds. Derek Rubin and Jaap Verheul, vol. 1 of the series New Debates in American Studies (Amsterdam:  Amsterdam University Press, 2009), 147-164. 
  • "The Futile Crescent? Judging the Legacies of Ottoman Rule in Croatian History," Austrian History Yearbook, vol. 40 (2009): 125-140.
  • "Making Markets Marxist? The East European Grocery Store from Rationing to Rationality to Rationalizations," in Food Chains: From Farmyard to Shopping Cart, eds. Warren Belasco and Roger Horowitz, Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 196-216, with notes at 285-288.
  • "Dangerous Liaisons: Soviet-Bloc Tourists and the Yugoslav Good Life in the 1960s & 1970s," in The Business of Tourism: Place, Faith and History, eds. Philip Scranton and Janet F. Davidson, vol. 7 of the Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 186-212, with notes at 278-282.
  • "Sull'orlo della ragione: I confini del balcanismo nel discorso pubblico sloveno, austriaco e italiano,"Novecento: Per una storia del tempo presente, no. 10 (January-June 2004): 87-106. [translation of "On the Edge of Reason," below]
  • "Truth Half Told: Finding the Perfect Pitch for Advertising and Marketing in Socialist Yugoslavia, 1950-1991," Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History 4, no. 2 (June 2003): 179-225.
  • "On the Edge of Reason: The Boundaries of Balkanism in Slovenian, Austrian, and Italian Discourse," Slavic Review 62, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 110-141.
  • "The East Is Read: The End of Communism, Slovenian Exceptionalism, and the Independent Journalism of Mladina," East European Politics and Societies 14, no. 2 (Spring 2000): 411-459.

Articles in progress

  • "What Went Wrong and What Went Right: Islamic Backwardness, Christian Culture, and European Civilization in the Croat Nationalism of Stjepan Radić, 1897-1928," under review [journal article].

Book reviews

  • Review of Zwischen Anlehnung und Abgrenzung:  Die Jugoslawienpolitik der DDR 1946 bis 1968.  By Friederike Baer.   Köln:  Böhlau, 2009.  Slavic Review 71, no. 3 (Fall 2012): 681-683.
  • Review of Die erfundene Freundschaft: Propaganda für die Sowjetunion in Polen und in der DDR. By Jan C. Behrends. Cologne/Weimar/Vienna: Böhlau, 2006. Slavic Review 68, no. 2 (Summer 2009):  442-443.
  • Review of The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany. By Jonathan R. Zatlin. Washington, D.C., German Historical Institute/New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 39, no. 3 (Winter 2009): 431-432.
  • Review of Okkupation und Revolution in Slowenien (1941-1946): Eine völkerrechtliche Untersuchung. By Dieter Blumenwitz. Vol. 81, Studien zu Politik und Verwaltung, eds. Christian Brünner, Wolfgang Mantl, Manfried Welan. Wien/Köln/Weimar: Böhlau, 2005. Slavic Review 65, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 815-816.

In 2011, I received the university's highest honor for teaching, the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award for Senate Members.  I was also the recipient of the Class of 2007 Outstanding Faculty Award and the Class of 2005 Outstanding Faculty Award from UCSD's Eleanor Roosevelt College.

I teach the following courses:

Graduate level:

  • Historical Scholarship on European History since 1850 (HIGR 222)
  • The Muslim Experience in Contemporary Europe (HIEU 282)
  • Yugoslavia: Before, During, and After (HIEU 284)
  • Immigration, Ethnicity, and Identity in Contemporary Europe (HIEU 281)

Upper-Division Undergraduate Level:

  • The Muslim Experience in Contemporary Europe (HIEU 182)
  • Yugoslavia: Before, During, and After (HIEU 184)
  • International Law--War Crimes and Genocide (HITO 134)
  • Immigration, Ethnicity, and Identity in Contemporary Europe (HIEU 181)
  • Americanization in Europe (HIEU 118)
  • Greece and the Balkans during the Twentieth Century (HIEU 117B)
  • The Worst of Times: Everyday Life in Authoritarian and Dictatorial Societies (HIEU 152)
  • Religion and the Law in Modern European History (HIEU 157)
  • Directed Group Study in European history/Research Assistantships (HIEU 198)

About the HIEU 198 Research Assistantships/Directed Group Study course: Students interested in hands-on experience as part of a demanding, interdisciplinary research program in a small-group setting may work for course credit as research assistants in connection with my ongoing project on Islam and political Christianity. Interested students should consult with me regarding the nature of the work to be undertaken and the expectations involved, and on that basis, obtain my approval to sign up for HIEU 198.  A reading knowledge of European languages is highly desirable, but not essential.

Lower-Division Undergraduate Level

Freshman Seminars (HITO 87):

  • Problems in Religion and the Law: A Comparative Perspective
  • Are Human Rights Universal?
  • From Biblical Love to Criminal Love to HBO's Big Love:  Polygamy in the Media and the Courts
  • Mission Impossible? Mormonism in Contemporary Europe

The Making of the Modern World series -- the global-studies core curriculum of UCSD's Eleanor Roosevelt College:

  • MMW 13 -- New Ideas and the Clash of Cultures (1200-1750)
  • MMW 14 -- Revolution, Industry & Empire (1750-1900)
  • MMW 15 -- The Twentieth Century and Beyond

Selected Grants, Fellowships and Awards

  • Postdoctoral grant, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, National Research Competition
    for research leave and expenses, 2012
  • University of California President's Research Fellowship in the Humanities
    for research leave and field work, 2011-12
  • Faculty research grant, UC Berkeley European Union Center of Excellence
    for research expenses, 2011
  • Hellman Fellows grant, UC San Diego
    for research expenses, 2010
  • Dean of Arts and Humanities Fund for Innovation
    for research expenses, 2010
  • Hellman Fellows grant, UC San Diego
    for research expenses, 2009
  • Faculty Career Development Program grant, University of California, San Diego
    for research leave, Fall 2008 and Winter 2009
  • Postdoctoral grant, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, National Research Competition
    for research leave and field work, 2007-2008
  • Postdoctoral fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, academic year 2005-2006
    for research leave and field work in Southeast European Studies
  • Postdoctoral fellowship, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), academic year 2005-2006
    Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Program, for research leave and field work in Hungary and Serbia
  • American Historical Association Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant, 2004
    for research in European history in connection with the book project Communism Consumed
  • American Council of Learned Societies East European Language Training Grant, 2003
    for advanced studies in Hungarian language and translation at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
  • Society for Slovene Studies Graduate Student Prize, 2000
    awarded for the best paper in any discipline written by a graduate student, for "The East Is Read"
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2000
    for advanced studies in Hungarian language at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
  • J. William Fulbright Fellowship, 1999
    for dissertation research on Yugoslav consumer culture
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Indiana University, 1997
    for Hungarian language study
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, University of Virginia, 1987-1988
    for Serbocroatian language study