HIST 377A World War II in Europe
Drawing on military, political, social and cultural approaches, this course offers a wide-ranging description and analysis of the European theater of war, 1939-1945. One major goal is to describe the ways ideology affected the balance of power, then influenced strategy, operations, and tactics. Further, the course will examine the ways that large-scale war acts as a revolutionary social and cultural force, and the ways that the Second World War created what we think of as the modern world, not only in political terms (the roots of the Cold War; the collapse of European imperialism) but also in radically changing the relationship of the individual to the State. The course will assess and challenge many of the myths surrounding the war, such as resistance and collaboration, and illuminate the moral compromises necessary to survive in occupied societies of Europe. Finally, we will challenge some of the received ideas about the war, such as the relative importance of campaigns in East and West and Asia. The construction of historical memory will feature as a theme with implications to all study of modern history and how we receive our understanding of the past.