Download The Era of World War I (Hist 510:318:H1)

The Era of World War I (Hist 510:318:H1)
***This is a Draft Syllabus for students interested in learning about some of the
topics, assignments, and expectations for this course. The final syllabus will be
available in June***
Instructor: Kate Imy
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: TBD
Course Information
M/T/W/Th
12:20-2:10pm Classroom: SC 221
July 6th-August 12th
Course Description
This course focuses on the global impact of the First World War. By
thinking about the international and imperial dimensions of the conflict, as
well as its lasting impact across Europe, "The Era of World War One" situates
"European" history firmly within the wider world. It approaches the history of
warfare from diverse perspectives using sources such as film footage, poetry,
literature, advertising, wartime propaganda and memoirs. It asks students to
think about how these representations of war have shaped contemporary
understandings of the conflict while assessing the long-term effects of making
and memorializing warfare in a variety of diverse contexts. “The Era of World
War I” encourages students to think about the broad social, cultural, economic
and political causes and legacies of warfare in the modern world.
Course Objectives
1. Strengthen critical thinking skills
2. Learn to interpret and comment thoughtfully upon a variety of
materials (text, film, images) by putting them “in conversation” with
one another
3. Improve writing by formulating clear and concise arguments
supported by primary source evidence
4. Analyze and interrogate “official” stories and narratives of events as
well as personal interpretations by considering how they intersect and
depart from one another
Required Work and Grade Distribution
Participation (Attendance and Discussion) (10%)
Four single-page response papers (20% Total)
One paper on “Representing the War” (20% Total)
One Midterm Exam (20%)
One Final Exam (30%)
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Required Texts
Hew Strachan, The First World War
Vera Brittain, A Testament of Youth
Other Required Purchases
Watching the film “Wings” (1927) is required for the class session on August
10th and is available for purchase or rent on youtube.
Other Readings
Other readings listed on the syllabus will be available on the websites provided
or posted on sakai.
Assignments
Response Papers: Each of the four, one-page single-space response papers will
ask you to give a thoughtful response to a selected reading by focusing on a
single theme central to the cultural transformations of the era. You will explore
the following themes through their respective readings:
1. Idealism. A response to Chapters 4 and 6 of Vera Brittains “A
Testament of Youth,” due 9 July.
2. Isolation. A Response to selections from T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars
of Wisdom, and a selection of Indian soldiers’ letters, due 13 July.
3. Fear. A response to the 1922 German film Nosferatu, due 5 August.
4. Masculinity. A response to a short 1917 film on “War Neuroses” and
the 1927 film “Wings.”
“Representing the War” Paper: This 2200-2500 word paper asks you to
combine the primary source materials used in the course with a minimum of
three visual materials (films and images) available online at the public history
websites for the Imperial War Museum, National Archives, and British Library.
This paper offers you a chance to gain experience in using and citing digital
materials in a responsible way. It asks that you use primary source materials
to form a clear and coherent argument about how the early stages of the war
shaped, and were shaped by, one of the following themes:
1. Food
2. Radicalism
3. Gender
4. Intimacy
5. Death
6. Belief
If you wish to explore another theme it must be cleared personally by me at
least one week prior to the deadline.
Midterm and Final Exam: Both exams will be in-class and require that you
describe and discuss several “identifications” (themes and terms of interest to
the course) as well write an essay given in a prompt on the day of the exam.
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Course Schedule
Date
Day of
the
Week Subject
Lecture Readings
6-Jul Mon
Empires in Crisis, Labour and
Migration
7-Jul Tue
Selections from
Modris Eksteins,
Rites of Spring: Anarchy, Suffrage and "The Rites of
Arts of Irrationality
Spring" (sakai)
8-Jul Wed
Lines in the Sand: The Boer War, the
Balkans, and the Sick Man of Europe
9-Jul Thu
13-Jul Mon
The Early War: Volunteers and
Martyrs
Strachan, Chapter
2
Colonial Soldiers on the Western
Front
Strachan, Chapter
3 and 4
15-Jul Wed
Mutiny, Desertion and Desperation
16-Jul Thu
Stalemate in the Trenches
Strachan, Chapter
5 and 6
Trench Life
Selections from
"Death's Men" by
Denis Winter
(sakai)
The Home Front
22-Jul Wed
Wartime Mobilities: Blockade,
Disease, Trade and Pilgrimages
23-Jul Thu
Cowards or Heros? Pacifism in the
War
1. Vera Brittain, selections from
chapter 4 and 6 ("Learning Versus Response Paper: Youth and
Life" and "When the Vision Dies") Idealism in Vera Brittain's A
from A Testament of Youth 2.
Testament of Youth
Excerpts from David Omissi, Indian
Voices of the Great War (Sakai)
War at the Intersections of Empires
21-Jul Tue
Assignments Due
Strachan, Chapter
1
14-Jul Tue
20-Jul Mon
Discussion Materials
Selections from T.E. Lawrence,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (sakai)
Film: The Battle of the Somme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? "Representing the War"
v=krT1lX_Dvm0
Paper Due
Excerpts from Chapter 9 "This
Loneliest Hour" in Vera Brittain, A
Testament of Youth
Strachan, Chapter
7
3
Response Paper: Wartime
Isolation in Indian Letters
and T.E. Lawrence's Seven
Pillars of Wisdom
27-Jul Mon
MIDTERM
28-Jul Tue
Intimacy, Assault and Murder: The
Many meanings of Touch
MIDTERM
30-Jul Thu
Selected Documents by Vladimir
Lenin,
Revolutionary Dreams: Ghadr, Ireland
http://www.firstworldwar.com/so
and Russia
Chapter 8 Strachan urce/apriltheses.htm
Introduction:
Paramilitarism in 1. Selected Documents of
Europe after the
Woodrow Wilson
Imperial Aftermath and New World
Great War (sakai), http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/
Leaders: The Rise or Demise of
EREZ MANELA,
1917_Documents; 2. Full Text: Ho
European Empires and The United
Woodrow Wilson Chi Minh to Woodrow Wilson
States
in Asia (sakai)
(sakai)
3-Aug Mon
A Muddled War and Hurried Peace
29-Jul Wed
Chapter 9-10,
Strachan
4-Aug Tue
Redrawing Maps of the World
5-Aug Wed
Profiteers and Red Scares: Success,
Suffering and Finger Pointing After
the War
6-Aug Thu
Rebuilding: Homes Fit for Heros and
International "Aid" Projects
1. The Proclamation of Baghdad
(http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php
/The_Proclamation_of_Baghdad)
2. The Balfour Declaration
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/
The_Balfour_Declaration 3. AngloFrench Joint Statement of Aims in
Syria and Mesoptamia
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/
AngloFrench_Joint_Statement_of_Aims_in
_Syria_and_Mesopotamia
1. The U.S. Sedition Act
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/
The_U.S._Sedition_Act 2. Nosferatu
(1922).
https://www.youtube.com/watch? Response Paper: Fear and
v=rcyzubFvBsA
Nosferatu
Selections from Chapter X
"Survivors Not Wanted" in A
Testament of Youth
10-Aug Mon
New Men: "Heros," Trauma, and
Disability
1. Video of "War Neuroses"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IWHbF5jGJY0&spfreload=10 2.
Wings (1927)
https://www.youtube.com/watch? Response Paper: Post-war
v=P6h-QPvZjGg
Masculinity
11-Aug Tue
The War to End all War?
12-Aug Wed
FINAL EXAM
FINAL EXAM
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