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HISTORY 24:
WORLD WAR II
IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Professor Catherine Epstein
[email protected]
Chapin 22
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:45
Professor Trent Maxey
[email protected]
Chapin 21
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-5:00
Professor Kevin Sweeney
[email protected]
Morgan Hall 103
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-4:00
This course will explore World War II in global perspective. Historians of Europe,
Japan, and the United States will join together to teach the history of the world’s most
destructive war. Topics include the rise of militant regimes in Germany and Japan; German and
Japanese aggression in the 1930s; the attack on Pearl Harbor; famous battles of the war; the
Holocaust; German and Japanese occupation practices; civilian life in the Allied and Axis
countries; and the later memory of the war. The course will also address moral controversies
raised by the war, including the Anglo-American firebombing of Germany and the decision to
drop the atomic bomb.
The following books are available at Amherst Books:
W. Murray and A. Millett, A War to Be Won
C. Browning, Ordinary Men
Cook & Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History
A. De Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (2nd edition preferred, either fine)
W. Lotnik, Nine Lives
J. Madison, World War II: A History in Documents
D. Reynolds, From Munich to Pearl Harbor
E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed At Peleiliu and Okinawa
All of these books are on reserve at the Frost Library. Multiple copies are also found throughout
the Five-College Library system. In addition, there is also a Course Reader. Part I is now
available in the History Department office, Chapin 11.
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SYLLABUS:
Monday, January 24: Introduction
Wednesday, January 26: Germany: The Weimar Republic
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 1-17.
Course Reader:
The Treaty of Versailles.
Friday, January 28: Germany and Italy: Fascism
A. De Grand, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
MONDAY, JANUARY 31: ONE-PAGE RESPONSE PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Prompt: Konoe Fumimaro issued his statement just prior to the Paris Peace Conference
and expresses a view of the world and Japan’s place in it shared by many Japanese elites.
Explain how Konoe interprets recent history, the world order it bequeathed to Japan, and
how Japan might respond to it.
Monday, January 31: Nation, Empire, and War in Japan’s East Asia
Course Reader:
Konoe Fumimaro, “Against Pacifism Centered on England and America,” 983-986.
Wednesday, February 2: Interwar Military Developments – The Revisionist Powers
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 18-35, 583-591, 597-599.
Course Reader:
A. Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 63, 136-137, 211-213 (Tables 2 and 3).
Friday, February 4: Textual indoctrination of Japanese Fascism
Course Reader:
“Kokutai no hongi (1937),” 968-975.
Tansman, “The Rhetoric of Unspoken Fascism,” 150-168.
By Monday, February 7: Be sure to have seen Triumph of the Will.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7: ONE-PAGE RESPONSE PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Prompt: Keeping in mind the difference between a film about a staged rally and an
ideological essay written by a bureaucratic committee, explain how the ideological visions
expressed in Triumph of the Will and Kokutai no hongi compare? Do they reflect any
meaningful convergence or divergence between the Nazi and Japanese regimes? What
motivations do they attempt to instill in their audiences?
Monday, February 7: Germany: Nazi Aesthetics
Discussion of Triumph of the Will.
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Wednesday, February 9: Japan’s Continental Entanglements, 1931-1939
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 143-168.
Course Reader:
Ishiwara Kanji, “A Plan to Occupy Manchuria,” 986-92, 1006-1007.
Friday, February 11: The League of Nations and Manchuria: A Case Study
Course Reader:
“Memoranda Presented to the Lytton Commission (1932),” 1-54.
“Japan’s Case As Presented Before The Special Assembly of the League of Nations
(1933),” 3-19.
Monday, February 14: Germany: Breaking the Versailles Treaty
Madison, World War II, 9-15, 16-20.
Course Reader:
The Hossbach Memorandum.
Wednesday, February 16: The West Responds
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 35-43, 592-597, 602-605.
Course Reader:
A. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 203-207, 251, 315-317 (Table 7).
J. House, Combined Arms: Warfare in the Twentieth Century, 83-96.
By Friday, February 18, be sure to have seen Nanking.
Friday, February 18: Civilian Atrocities: Guernica and Nanking
View Picasso painting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting).
Read Wikipedia article on the Spanish Civil War.
Discussion of Nanking (2007, 90 min.)
Course Reader:
Brook, ed., Documents on the Rape of Nanking, 1-4, 9-11, 27-37.
“Mass Murder in Guernica.”
Monday, February 21: The Nazi Occupation of Poland and France
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 44-109.
Course Reader:
The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty.
Wednesday, February 23: Barbarossa
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 110-142.
Madison, World War II, 33-34.
Course Reader:
Hitler Explains the German attack on Russia, Goebbels Diary, June 16, 1941, 413-15.
Directives for the Treatment of Political Commissars (“Commissar Order”) (June 6,
1941).
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Friday, February 25: The United States from Neutrality to War
Reynolds, From Munich to Pearl Harbor.
Course Reader:
The Atlantic Charter.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28: 4-PAGE PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Monday, February 28: Pearl Harbor—Choice or Necessity?
Madison, World War II, 20-24.
Course Reader:
Documents from D. Lu, Japan: A Documentary History, 425-435.
Wednesday, March 2: “Victory Disease” and Japanese Strategy
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 169-188.
Cook and Cook, Japan at War, 77-89, 95-99.
Friday, March 4: Ethnic Tensions and Collaboration
W. Lotnik, Nine Lives, 1-114.
Monday, March 7: War in the Mediterranean, 1940-1943
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 91-109, 262-273, 298-303, 375-387.
Course Reader:
Casablanca Conference.
Wednesday, March 9: Japanese Occupation Policies
Cook & Cook, Japan at War, 105-120.
By Friday, March 11, be sure to have seen Know Your Enemy: Japan.
Friday, March 11: Propaganda
Discussion of Know Your Enemy: Japan.
Madison, World War II, 83-89.
J. Dower, Japan in War and Peace, 33-54, 257-285.
SPRING BREAK
Monday, March 21: The Holocaust I
Night and Fog (film screening in class).
Wednesday, March 23: The Holocaust II: The Holocaust Unfolds
Course Reader:
Statistical Report on the “Final Solution,” known as the Korherr Report (March 23,
1943).
Friday, March 25: The Holocaust III: The Perpetrators
C. Browning, Ordinary Men, 1-189.
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MONDAY, MARCH 28: 4-5 PAGE PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Monday, March 28: Economies at War: The Mobilization of Resources
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 527-553.
Madison, World War II, 31-32, 47-57.
Course Reader:
A. Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, 402-407, 587-589, 641 (Tables 11 and 17).
By Wednesday, March 30: Be sure to have seen Come and See.
Wednesday, March 30: Partisan Movements
Discussion of Come and See.
Friday, April 1: Strategic Bombing: The Debate
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 304-335, 599-602.
Madison, World War II, 69-74.
Course Reader:
U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (European War).
R. Schaffer, “American Military Ethics in World War II,” 318-334.
C. Crane, Bombs, Cities, and Civilians, 1-11, 158-162.
M. Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power, 251-255.
J. Friedrich, The Fire, 357-382.
Monday: April 4: Stalingrad and the Turning of the Tide on the Eastern Front
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 273-298, 387-395.
Madison, World War II, 92-95.
Wednesday, April 6: The Battle of the Atlantic
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 234-261.
Course Reader:
P. Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra, 23-31.
Friday, April 8: Germany, Japan and the US at War: The Homefront
Madison, World War II, 59-68, 74-81.
Cook & Cook, Japan at War, 171-202, 221-240.
Course Reader:
R. Evans, The Third Reich at War, 420-432.
Monday, April 11: Normandy and Southern France
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 395-445.
Madison, World War II, 95-99.
Course Reader:
M. Hastings, Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 186-195.
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Wednesday, April 13: War in the Pacific
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 196-233, 336-373.
Madison, World War II, 26-27, 34-36, 43.
Friday, April 15: Combat Experiences
Cook & Cook, Japan at War, 267-304, 367-382.
E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed At Peleiliu and Okinawa, 205-344 (Chapters 9-15).
MONDAY, APRIL 18: 4-5 PAGE PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Monday, April 18: The Battle of Okinawa
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 484-526.
Madison, World War II, 105-106.
Cook & Cook, Japan at War, 305-319, 354-372.
Wednesday, April 20: The War Ends in Europe: Rape, Dislocation, and Peace
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 446-483.
Madison, World War II, 100-104.
Course Reader:
A Woman in Berlin, 44-61.
Friday, April 22: Dropping the Bomb: Was it right?
Cook & Cook, Japan at War, 382-399.
Madison, World War II, 106-111.
J. Dower, Japan in War and Peace, 242-254.
Course Reader:
U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War).
G. Alperovitz, “Historians Reassess: Did We Need to Drop the Bomb?” 5-19.
M. Sayle, “Did the Bomb End the War?” 22-50.
Maddox, “Gar Alperowitz: Godfather of Hiroshima Revisionism,” 7-23.
Asada, “The Shock of the Atomic Bomb and Japan’s Decision to Surrender–A
Reconsideration,” 24-58.
Monday, April 25: The War Ends in Asia
Dower, “Occupied Japan and the Cold War in Asia,” 155-93.
Wednesday, April 27: The Domestic Legacy of the War in the US
Course Reader:
D. M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 746-782.
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Friday, April 29: Memory and the War: Germany, Japan, and the United States
Course Reader:
I. Buruma, Wages of Guilt, 3-12, 239-291.
S. Conrad, The Quest for the Lost Nation, 4-6, 78-84, 102-122.
J. Bodnar, The “Good War” in American Memory, 200-234.
Monday, May 2: The New World Order
Course Reader:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Wednesday, May 4: A “Useful War”?
Murray and Millett, A War to Be Won, 554-576.
Madison, World War II, 125-141.
J. Dower, Japan in War and Peace, 9-28.
Course Reader:
M. Adams, The Best War Ever, 1-19.
D. M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 852-858.
Friday, May 6: Concluding Discussion
WEEK OF MAY 9-13: SCHEDULED 3-HOUR FINAL EXAMINATION
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1) ATTENDANCE AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION in all class sessions are required. If
you must miss a class, please e-mail your instructor in advance. Each missed class will result in
a 3% deduction of your class participation grade.
2) 2 ONE-PAGE RESPONSE PAPERS. These response papers are due at the beginning of
class on January 31 and February 7. No late papers will be accepted. Your paper should be
single-spaced and must fit on one page. There will be no rewrites of the one-page response
papers.
3) 3 FOUR-FIVE PAGE PAPERS. These double-spaced papers will be due on February 28,
March 28, and April 18. Late papers will be marked down a half grade per day that they are late
(i.e., an A paper will become an A- and so on). Any or all of these papers may be revised after
they have been returned to you. The final grade on a paper will be the higher of the two grades.
When you hand in a revised paper, you must include the original paper graded by your
instructor. Rewrites are due one week after the original paper has been returned to you.
4) 3-HOUR SCHEDULED FINAL EXAM.
INTELLECTUAL HONESTY
In this class, as in all of your classes, intellectual honesty is required. Briefly put, that means that
all work that you turn in to your instructor is your own, and that whenever you quote primary or
secondary sources you footnote accordingly. If necessary, we will discuss intellectual honesty
more fully over the course of the semester.
FINAL GRADES will be calculated according to the following formula:
Class participation: 20%
2 Response Papers: 10%
Three Four-Five Page Papers: 45%
Final Exam: 25%
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