Discovering and assessing means to prevent or control war. Hence we focus on manipulable or controllable war-causes. Covered topics include the dilemmas, misperceptions, crimes, and blunders that caused wars of the past; the origins of these and other war-causes; the possible causes of wars of the future; and possible means to prevent such wars, including short-term policy steps and more utopian schemes.
Covered historical cases include World War I, World War II, Korea, Indochina, and the Peloponnesian, Crimean and Seven Years wars.
Grades will be based on two short (4-6 double-spaced pages) analytical papers, one very short (1-2 double-spaced pages) response paper that reacts to the reading and lectures, two short (15 minute) quizzes, a final exam, and contribution to section discussion. Quizzes will occur in class during class #10 and class #22. The response paper will be due class #9. The two 4-6 page papers will be due class #14 and class #26. I will hand out study questions for the final later in the term.
Your 1-2 page response paper should advance an argument relevant to the course. Specifically, your argument can dispute argument(s) advanced in the reading or lectures; can concur with argument(s) advanced in the reading or lectures; can assess or explain policies or historical events described in the reading and lectures; or can address current events that are relevant to course materials or issues. In other words, your choice of topic is quite open. Evaluation of policies or ideas covered in the reading or lecture is encouraged. Somewhere in your paper--preferably at the beginning--please offer a 1-2 sentence summary of your argument. This paper will not be graded but is mandatory and must be completed to receive full credit for class participation.
Before writing your papers, please familiarize yourself with the rules of citing sources, and make sure you follow them. Failure to cite sources properly is plagiarism.
Course grades will be determined as follows:
- Final = 35%
- Papers = 35% (17.5% each)
- Quizzes = 15% (7.5% each)
- Section attendance / contribution = 15%.
Student-led debates on responsibility for World War I and World War II will be organized in section when those wars are covered (between class #15 to class #27).
Assigned readings total about 1650 pages, for a 14-week average of 118 pages per week, but they vary markedly in amount, so try to budget your time to be able to cover heavy weeks (e.g. the two World Wars, which together cover 770 pages in 4 weeks--i.e., nearly 200 pages per week.) Students are expected to do the readings before section meeting. This is important! (You may be called on in section from time to time.)
This is an undergraduate course, but is open to graduate students.
Students should buy these books:
Haffner, Sebastian. The Meaning of Hitler. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983.
Ienaga, Saburo. The Pacific War, 1931-1945. Translated by Frank Baldwin. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.
Iklé, Fred. Every War Must End. Rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by Rex Warner. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972.
Miller, Steven E. et al., eds. Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Stoessinger, John. Nations at Dawn. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
Lynn-Jones, Sean M., ed. The Cold War and After: Prospects for Peace. Expanded ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993.