World War II: History and Culture

Catalog description

What was the Second World War? How do people in different countries remember it today? In this class, we will explore the military, political, economic and cultural history of the Second World War?and the wars within wars?from the perspective of its diverse participants, including the national governments of the major belligerents, partisans, colonial soldiers, women snipers and soldiers, indentured laborers and combatants everywhere. Through an examination of secondary literature, novels, films and primary source, the class begins with the worldwide crisis of capitalism and imperialism in 1931 and concludes with the suppression of anti-colonial revolts across the so-called ?revolutionary crescent? in the 1940s, culminating in the partition of the Korean peninsula in 1953. (HIST-HTR)