WWII from the British Empire Perspective

Catalog description

This lecture and discussion course gives students the opportunity to learn about the Second World War from the perspective of the British and their soldiery from around the globe. Many might come to the course with images of the American "Bands of Brothers" fighting across France in 1944. But that was the end of the war. In the beginning, it fell to the British leadership (famously embodied by Winston Churchill), British people, and to an extraordinary extent the Indian Army to withstand a pummeling at the hands of the Axis powers long enough for America to join the conflict. The course will examine those in Britain who might have preferred a move towards Fascism in the late 1930s. It will investigate why imperial subjects who lacked democracy in their own lands fought for the British in the name of democracy against totalitarianism. And it will scrutinize those in the Empire who instead sided with the Axis. In sum, students will have an opportunity to learn what led to those many moments of choice and chance that led to Allied victory and the defeat of Fascism. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.