Evaluate this argument by exploring the concept of total war in the context of the two world wars. Did war become more total? If so, in what distinct ways and why? If not, why not? Draw illustrative examples and evidence from course materials. [Do NOT focus exclusively on technology, which has relatively little to do with total war!] How did the experience of WWII combat compare with that in WWI? What was similar, and what was different? Focus on comparing examples from the primary source documents we’ve read for each conflict, as well as drawing upon secondary material. What common elements do you note? Among ground combat soldiers? Among “noncombatants” who found themselves in the thick of things? How was combat similar for airmen, sailors, and ground troops? How did their experiences differ? Some scholars have argued that the two world wars essentially constitute a single “Thirty Years War,” in which the original issues of 1914 were only really resolved in 1945. Evaluate the cases for and against this proposition. Were Christopher Browning’s “ordinary men” really ordinary? How different were the German genocidaires of Reserve Police Battalion 101 from the combat soldiers, sailors, and airmen whose accounts we’ve read?
Origins of the “Great War”
Adolf Hitler, excerpt, 1927
Germany under the “A World At Arms
“:: WWII around the world nations and the road to war
the global WWIIinterwar JapanFrance, from crisis to crisis
Edouard Drumont, “The Jews Against France” (1898
Jean Jaurs, Democracy and Military Service, Chapter 1, “The New Army” (1907)
Web PageYou have viewed this topicJean Jaurs, Democracy and Military Service, ch. 10, “Militarism and Democracy” (1907)
Eric Rauchway, “The World in Debt” (excerpt from “The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction”)
Karl Liebknecht, “Militarism and Anti-Militarism,” excerpt, 1907
‘Vladimir Lenin, “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” excerpts (1916 and 1920)
The “Great War” from the top.
The Great War at the front, part 1
“40 Maps That Explain World War I,” vox.com
The Great War from the trenches
1914 “Christmas truce”–letters
Ernst Junger, “Storm of Steel,” excerpts
British understatement, Western Front edition
V.I. Lenin, “Appeal to the Soldiers of All the Belligerent Countries,” 21 April 1917
Leon Trotsky, “Internationalism” (December 1917/January 1918)
Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points,” 8 January 1918
WWI propaganda posters
Between the Wars
Weimar Germany
What is fascism?
OPTIONAL enrichment reading: Michael Geyer, “German Strategy in the Age of Machine Warfare”
Gallu
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