HST 2700 B (CRN: 15612)

History: Europe and World War One (B)

3 credit hours

About HST 2700 B

Topics examining European history. Representative topics: Capetian France; World War I in Europe; Twentieth-century Europe. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: Three hours of History.

Notes

Prereq: three hours History; PACE students by permission and override System waitlisting enabled for this section.

Section Description

This course will survey the history of the First World War: its origins, its prosecution, its legacy--in the trenches and on the home fronts. We will do this by mixing lecture, reading, discussion, and film viewing. We will begin with an investigation into how the war begins and how it evolves into something completely unprecedented in the long history of warfare. We will talk about diplomacy, about the nature of the war zone—the weapons, both offensive and defensive—and what it meant to go “over the top.” We will look at the experience of the war for those who were not in the trenches. How did women and children feel the war differently than the fighting men. Finally, we will finish with a close examination of how the war finally ended and ask about its legacy and that of the peace treaty that survived it.

It goes without saying that this is a story of a terrible (and unnecessary) tragedy, with millions of lives lost and tens of millions of lives ruined. The violence of the war was unprecedented; the suffering, both in the trenches and on the home front, was unrelenting. A course focusing on such a human catastrophe cannot avoid disturbing descriptions and images. Alas, it happened, and we think it is crucial to know why and how and with what consequences. Let this serve as a trigger warning for anyone who needs it.

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