The First World War Golding 115

History 137B Jankowski

The First World War Golding 115

Fall 2017

M,W, TH, 11:00 - 11:50 Office hours: M, Th. 2.00-3.30 or by appt.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR

This upper level undergraduate course examines the foundational conflict of the twentieth century: the society it shattered, the forces it released, the disasters it set in motion. About half of the material covered is purely military, the rest social, political, or cultural. The course consists of lectures with some in-class discussion, as well as five full-length discussions.

Learning Goals

By the end of the course the student should have acquired the intellectual habit of understanding not just this war but any war as a social and cultural as well as a military event; of grasping the psychological and cultural dimensions of combat; of identifying moments when powerful figures lose control over the course of events; and of seeing major wars as the cause as well as the consequence of seemingly unrelated developments.

Requirements

Requirements include attendance at all classes, five 2-3 page short papers due at the discussions as indicated below, an 8-10 page long (research) paper due on November 27, and a three-hour final exam. The 2-3 page short papers do not require any reading beyond that assigned in class but should cite the documents when possible. We encourage students to rewrite as many as two of these to take account of our suggestions for improvement. In the research paper I will ask you to conduct individual research on a topic of your choosing subject to our approval; we encourage you to discuss it with us beforehand. It should either rely on a primary source material, some examples of which, available in the library, are appended to this syllabus, or consist of a historical critique of a film or work of literature about the war, some examples of which are also appended. For the final exam I will ask you to prepare outlines for 8-10 essays several weeks before the final itself, which will consist of four of the same essay questions. We will discuss these requirements further in class.

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).

Grading: The short papers collectively will account for about one quarter of the course grade, the research paper for about another quarter, and the final about a half, but classroom participation, especially in discussion sections, is vital and may also be taken into account in determining the course grade.

Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity

Readings

I would suggest that you purchase the following books, even though they are also available on reserve:

David Stevenson, Cataclysm. The First World War as Political Tragedy (Basic Books, 2005, paper, ISBN 0465081851)

Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee and Frans Coetzee, eds., World War I. A History in Documents (2nd ed., Oxford, 2011 [2002], ISBN: 978-0-19-973152-7)

Ian F.W. Beckett, The Great War 1914-1918 (2nd ed., Pearson Longman, 2007, ISBN:978-1-4058-1252-8)

Peter Hart, The Great War. A Combat History of the Great War (Oxford, 2013, ISBN13: 9780199976270

Annika Mombauer, ed., The Origins of the First World War. Diplomatic and Military Documents (Manchester, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7190-7421-9)

Robert Gerwarth, The Vanquished. Why the First World War Failed to End (New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2016, ISBN 9780374282455

Other required readings are on latte as indicated below; the Coetzee documents on Latte are from a different collection, now out of print, from the one above.

SCHEDUE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS

1. Wednesday, August 30: Introduction

2. Thursday, August 31: Fragile Peace

Beckett, 4-17; Stevenson, 3-9; Mombauer, documents 4, 18-21, 44, 54, 57, 60

Monday September 4: Labor Day

3. Wednesday, September 6: Visions of war

Beckett, 55-70; Mombauer, documents 15, 16,

4. Thursday, September 7: July crisis (i)

Stevenson 9-21, Beckett 22-43; Mombauer, documents 36, 40, 65, 85, 126, 118, 119, 120, 123, 130, 148

5. Monday, September 11: July crisis (ii)

Stevenson 21-30; Mombauer, documents 198, 232, 279, 303, 206, 229, 259, 309, 317, 323

6. Wednesday, September 13: Mobilization

Stevenson 30-35, Coetzee 19-27, Mombauer, documents 394, 395

7. Thursday, September 14: Discussion

2-3 page response due: identify some of the principal assumptions of government and military leaders between 1910 and 1914

8. Monday, September 18: The Marne

Stevenson, 37-50; Beckett 70-74; Hart, 32-67

9. Wednesday, September 20: Tannenberg

Stevenson, 50-60; Beckett, 74-77, Hart 81-93; on Latte: Coetzee, 66-71

Thursday September 21: Rosh Hashanah

10. Monday, September 25: Stalemate

Stevenson, 60-78, Hart 130-144; on Latte: Coetzee, 53-56, 59-64

11. Wednesday, September 27: Adapting at home

Beckett 149-171, 344-392; Coetzee 77-83, 129-130; on Latte: Coetzee, 200-208

12.Thursday, September 28: Discussion

2-3 page response paper due: identify some of the biggest surprises of the war by 1915 at the front and at home

13.Monday, October 2: Widening War

Stevenson, 87-102; Beckett, 89-112; Coetzee, 27-33, 47-49, 68-72, Mombauer, document 392

14. Tuesday, October 3 (Brandeis Thursday): The War at Sea

Stevenson, 199-215; Hart 94-123; 250-267, Coetzee 75-76

15. Wednesday, October 4: Verdun and the Somme

Stevenson 123-139; Hart 209-241

16. Thursday, October 5: Military revolution

Beckett 214-261; Coetzee 58-59

17. Monday, October 9: Morale in the trenches

Coetzee, 55-57, 59-67; Stevenson, 170-177; on Latte: Hew Strachan, “Training, Morale, and Modern War,” Journal of Contemporary History, 41 (2006): 211-227

18. Wednesday, October 11 (Brandeis Thursday): Civilian victims

Coetzee 45-46, 49-51, 86-88, 97-104, 121-125;on Latte: Chickering and Förster, 153-189

Thursday Oct. 12: no class

19. Monday, October 16: The War and the Colonies

Hart, 268-294; Coetzee, 39-42, 72-75, 90-92, 127-129

20. Wednesday, October 18:War aims and official purposes

Beckett, 171-194, 392-408; Coetzee, 113-117; on Latte: Coetzee 320-329

21. Thursday, October 19: Discussion

2-3 page response paper due: distinguish between blunders and crimes in the conduct of the war between 1914 and 1916

22. Monday, October 23: Consent at home

Beckett, 503-511; Coetzee, 37-39; on Latte: Coetzee, 259-281

23. Wednesday, October 25: Cultural renditions

On latte: Coetzee 309-315, 329-339

24. Thursday, October 26: The Russian revolution

Hart 242-249, Beckett 511-528; Stevenson 247-254; Coetzee, 135-137; on Latte: Coetzee, 291-297

25. Monday, October 30: The Chemin des Dames, Passchendaele, Caporetto

Stevenson, 139-143, 271-279; Hart 326-377

26. Wednesday, November 1: Refusal in the trenches

Beckett, 302-321; Coetzee, 133-135; on Latte: Coetzee, 252-259

27. Thursday, November 2: Discussion

2-3 page response paper due: identify traditions the war strengthened and traditions it threatened in Europe or elsewhere

28. Monday, November 6: Impossible peace

Stevenson 103-123, 279-302

29. Wednesday, November 8: US entry

Beckett 112-130; Stevenson 254-261; Hart, 305-325; Coetzee, 105-106, 108-109

30. Thursday, November 9: Russian exit

Stevenson, 324-351, Hart 295-304, Stevenson 311-324

31. Monday, November 13: Operation Michael

Stevenson, 324-351; Hart 410-446

32. Wednesday, November 15: Armistice

Beckett 541-551; Stevenson 379-406; Hart 446-467; on Latte: Coetzee 281-289

33. Thursday, November 16: Discussion

2-3 page response paper due: in what ways had the great European powers already lost their world position by 1917?

34. Monday, November 20: Versailles

Beckett 551-567; Stevenson, 409-431, Coetzee, 147-155

Wednesday-Thursday, November 22-23 Thanksgiving

35. Monday, November 27: Aftermath: revolution

Gerwath, 69-152

Research paper due

36. Wednesday, November 29: Aftermath: nationalism

Gerwath, 171-219

37. Thursday, November 30: Memory

Stevenson 442-450; Beckett 597-616; Coetzee, 158-165

38. Monday, December 4: film clips

Beckett, 637-643

39. Wednesday, December 6: From World War I to War II

Gerwath, 248-267; Stevenson, 457-475

40. Thursday, December 7: Conclusion.World War I and the 20th century:

SOME MATERIALS FOR RESEARCH PAPER

A. PRIMARY SOURCES

A primary source records the words or impressions of a contemporary participant or eyewitness, or of someone whose information came from such sources. At such it can assume the form of government documents, newspaper accounts, diaries, notebooks, letters, minutes, interviews, photographs, contemporary films, or any works by authors claiming firsthand knowledge of the event or episode in question.

Possible primary sources for a research paper could thus consist of posters, military dispatches, memoirs, newspapers or any sort of evidence that brings you as close to your topic of inquiry as it is possible to get. A soldier’s memoir, for example, can be used, with appropriate caution about the author’s objectivity, as a primary source for combat conditions. Postwar fiction and film cannot, unless used as a primary source for a paper about the war’s cultural impact.

If you wish to analyze and critique a film or work of fiction, see section B below.

We will be discussing this further in class. Below are some examples of memoirs, novels and films:

Examples of Memoirs or collections of speeches and articles::

Robert Graves, Good-bye To All That;

Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer;

Ernst Jünger, The Storm of Steel

Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War

Erich von Falkenhayn, The German General Staff and its Decisions, 1914-1916

Paul von Hindenburg, Out of my Life

Erich Ludendorff, Ludendorff’s own Story

John Pershing, My Experiences in the World War

Georges Clemenceau, France facing Germany: Speeches and Articles

David Lloyd George, War memoirs

David Lloyd George, Memoirs of the Peace Conference

Edward Grey,Twenty Five Years , 1892-1916

Joseph Roth, The Hotel Years. Wanderings in Europe between the Wars

Below are some of the library’s holdings that might otherwise have escaped your attention:

-Popular Newspapers during World War I (Microforms DA577 .P66 1996). We

have all 3 parts and a guide with the same call number.

-The First World War, A Documentary Record. Series one, European War,

1914-1919 (Microforms D505 .F5 1991). We have parts 2-7 (part 1 is merely a

card catalogue and ms. listing for the War Reserve Collection) and guides

with the same call number. This collection includes the trench journals and

medical corps documents. See the complete record in our catalog for a list

of all the parts.

- French diplomatic archives. The "Inventory of French

Diplomatic Archives on Microform in the Brandeis University Libraries"

(MicroRef D441 .K379 1995) is the microforms reference section, and it outlines all the appropriate reels dealing with World War I, along with call numbers.

-British Documents on Foreign Affairs--Reports and Papers from the Foreign

Office Confidential Print. Part II, From the First to the Second World War.

Series H, The First World War, 1914-1918 (Main Stacks +JZ632 .B76 1989).

This resource is in print, so it is in the stacks, and it contains 12

volumes.

-British Documents on Foreign Affairs--Reports and Papers from the Foreign

Office Confidential Print. Part II, From the First to the Second World War.

Series F, Europe, 1919-1939 (Main Stacks +JZ632 .B756 1990). This resource

Would be useful for a paper dealing with the aftermath of the war or with the effects of the Treaty of Versailles.

-Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, 1904-1950: The Papers of Sir Ronald

Storrs (1881-1956) (Judaica Microform DS62.4 .S75 A3 1999). This collection may contain useful material for a paper on the war in the Middle East.

-Records of the Department of State Relating to World War I and its

Termination, 1914-1929 (Microforms D610 .U5). We have reels 371-427, out of

the 518 reels in the collection. A partial guide for the contents of these reels exists at the NARA website:

c_m365.html

-At one point, the library acquired a collection of books on World War I from Battery Press. A search in the catalog for the publisher limited by the subject, "WorldWar, 1914-1918", will result in 30 titles. A lot of official histories arefrom this press, which can be had by doing a title search for "History ofthe Great War based on official documents".

Some years ago the library accepted a donation of some miscellaneousnewspapers relating to World War I and World War II from Dartmouth. Theyare not complete, but contain interesting examples of contemporary newspapers. They are housed in Special Collections and include American Daily Mail (Special Collections ++D501 .A45); Coming Back (Special Collections ++D501 .C66); Trench and Camp (Special Collections ++D501.T73); and The Stars and Stripes (Special Collections - Cage

In addition, of course, the library has several runs of major daily newspapers, including the New York Times and the London Times, some of which have full indexes. Each of these could provide the primary source for a paper on press coverage of a particular aspect or episode or event of the Great War.

B. NOVELS AND FILMS

A paper about a film or work of literature should provide a historical background and a historical critique. It should explain the context in which the film was made, analyze the film and its message, and assess the historical accuracy or plausibility of the film or work; it could, if appropriate, also deal with the critical reception.

Examples of novels:

Richard Aldington, Death of a Hero

Ford Madox Ford, Parade’s End

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Henri Barbusse, Under Fire

Erich-Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night

T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland (poem)

John dos Passos, Three Soldiers

Frederic Manning,Her Privates We

C.E. Montague,Disenchantment

Examples of Films:

The Grand Illusion

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paths of Glory

Les Croix de Bois

Gallipoli

A Very Long Engagement

Joyeux Noël