MAIN PAGE COURSE REQUIREMENTS ASSIGNMENTS WORLD WAR I IN FILM

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

SPRING 2020

Week I Jan 22-24 Introduction
Week II Jan 27-31 The Breakdown
Week III Feb 3-7 A New Kind of War
Week IV Feb 10-14 Men and Machines
Week V Feb 17-21 Mind and Body
Week VI Feb 24-28 Conscience and Duty
Week VII Mar 2-6 The Home Front and the Women's War
Week VIII Mar 9-13 Economies of Scale
Week IX Mar 16-20 Revolution, Reaction, and Realignment
Week X Mar 30-Apr 3 Nations, States, and Empires
Week XI Apr 6-10 The Peace to End All Peace
Week XII Apr 13-17 Memory and Meaning
Week XIII Apr 20-24 Presentations
Week XIV Apr 27-29 Conclusion



Week I: Introduction

Jan 22: Introduction to the course and participants


Jan 24: La Belle Époque; the world before 1914

Reading:
-- Adam Gopnik, "The Big One: Historians rethink the war to end all wars," The New Yorker (23 Aug 2004)
-- "Introduction" in Strachan
-- Russell, "Publisher's Preface" and "Author's Preface" in Justice in War-Time



Week II: The Breakdown

Jan 27: The Concert of Europe and the Age of Empires

Reading:
-- Thomas Hobbes, "Relations among Sovereigns" in Leviathan (1651)
-- J.A. Hobson, "The Economic Taproot of Imperialism" in Imperialism: A Study (1902)
-- John Maynard Keynes, "Europe before the War" in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920)

Jan 29: The July Crisis

Reading:
-- Samuel Williamson, "The Origins of the War" (Strachan, Ch. 1)
-- Carl von Clausewitz, "War as an Instrument of Policy" in On War [Vom Kriege] (1832)
-- Sir Edward Grey, "Speech before the House of Commons" (1914)
-- Viscount Morley of Blackburn, "Memorandum on Resignation" (1914)

Jan 31: The August Madness, or the triumph of emotion over reason

Reading:
-- Russell, "Why Nations Love War" in Justice in War-Time
-- Roland Stromberg, "Greeting the War" in Redemption by War: The Intellectuals and 1914
-- Modris Eksteins, "Berlin" in Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age



Week III: A New Kind of War

Feb 3: Mobilization

Reading:
Hew Strachan, "Economic Mobilization: Money, Munitions and Machines" (Strachan, Ch. 10)
Daniel J. Hughes, "Schlichting, Schlieffen, and the Prussian Theory of War in 1914," Journal of Military History, 59:2 (1995) [JSTOR]

Feb 5: Hell on Earth, or life along the front

Reading:
-- Ernst Jünger, "Trench warfare day by day" and "Overture to the Somme Offensive" in Storm of Steel [Stahlgewittern] (1924)
-- Donald Fraser, "My Daily Journal, Sept. 1915" from The Journal of Pvt. Donald Fraser, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-18
-- Fred Wilson and J.H. Pearson, eds., "The Wipers Times" (1916-18)
-- Nottingham Evening Post, "The Wipers Times" (22 Mar 1916)
Suggested film:
-- The Battle of the Somme (J.B. McDowell and G.H. Malins, 1916)

Feb 7: Propaganda

Reading:
-- J.M. Winter, "Propaganda and the Mobilization of Consent" (Strachan, Ch. 16)
-- Rudyard Kipling, "For All We Have and Are" (1914), p.13
-- Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier" (1915), p.108
-- Siegfried Sassoon, "France" (1917)
Audio:
-- James G. Watson (former US ambassador to Germany), "The German Peril" (1917)
Images:
-- Library of Congress, World War I propaganda posters
-- Hoover Institution, Stanford University, British images of the First World War



Week IV: Men and Machines

Feb 10: Factories of death

Reading:
-- John Ellis, "The Trauma, 1914-18" in The Social History of the Machine Gun
-- Sigmund Freud, "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death" (1915)
-- Siegfried Sassoon, “The Kiss” (1917), p.31
Documents:
-- Death notice telegrams from Canada (1916), Australia (1917), the United Kingdom (1918), and the United States (1918)

Feb 12: The knights of the air

Reading:
-- John H. Morrow, "The War in the Air" (Strachan, Ch. 20)
-- Ariela Freedman, "Zeppelin Fictions and the British Home Front" Journal of Modern Literature, 27:3 (2004) [JSTOR]
-- W.B. Yeats, "An Irish Airman foresees his Death" (1919)
Film:
-- Funeral of Capt. Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron" (1918), Australia War Memorial
-- Paths of Glory (Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1957), 7-10pm, Miller 102

Feb 14: Courage, cowardice, and human expendability in a mechanized war

Reading:
-- Alexander Watson, "Mutinies and Military Morale" (Strachan, Ch. 14)
-- Records of First World War Courts Martial in the National Archives of Britain
-- Rudyard Kipling, "Mary Postgate" (1915) and "Epitaphs: The Coward" (1919), p.162
-- Gilbert Frankau, "The Deserter" (1918), p.163



Week V: Mind and Body

Feb 17: The chemists’ war

Reading:
-- L.F. Haber, "The Chlorine Cloud" in The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War
-- Government of the United Kingdom, Medical Manual of Chemical Warfare (1941)
-- Rudyard Kipling, "Gethsemane" (1919), p.130
-- Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum est" (1917), p.141
-- Richard Aldington, "Bombardment" (1919), p.124
Website:
-- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), "The Halifax Explosion, 1917"

RESPONSE PAPER #1 DUE FEB 17

Feb 19: Fit for battle?

Reading:
-- J.M. Winter, "Military Fitness and Civilian Health in Britain during the First World War," Journal of Contemporary History, 15:2 (1980) [JSTOR]
-- Maj. G.R.N. Collins, "Evacuation of the Sick and Wounded" in Military Organisation and Administration (1918)
-- Eva Dobell, "In a Soldiers' Hospital" (1919), pp.207-208

Feb 21: Shattered selves

Reading:
-- Ben Shephard, "Psychiatry at the Front, 1917-18" in A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century
-- Fiona Reid, "Shell Shock and Weak Nerves" in Broken Men: Shell Shock Treatment and Recovery in Britain, 1914-30 [library online]
-- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), US Dept. of Health, "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder"
-- Siegfried Sassoon, "Survivors" (1917)



Week VI: Conscience and Duty

Feb 24: Religion, philosophy and the morality of war

Reading:
-- St. Thomas Aquinas, "Part II, Question 40: War" in Summa Theologica (1274)
-- Russell, "The Ethics of War" in Justice in War-Time
-- Wilfred Owen, "The Parable of the Old Man and the Young" (1917), "Anthem for Doomed Youth" (1917), p.131
-- Siegfried Sassoon, "The Redeemer" (1917), p.62

Feb 26: The duty to obey

Reading:
-- John Turner, "The Challenge to Liberalism" (Strachan, Ch. 12)
-- United States Government, The Sedition Act (1918)
-- Siegfried Sassoon, "Counter-Attack" (1918), p.135
-- Robert Graves, "Fairies and Fusiliers" (1918)
Film:
-- Regeneration (Director: Gillies MacKinnon, 1998), 7-10pm, Miller 102

SPECIAL EVENT: 57th Annual Throckmorton Lecture
Prof. Jane Hunter, Lewis & Clark College
"Missionary Daughter to Daughter of the Revolution:
Isabel Crook's Journey to the Great Hall of the People"
Thursday, February 27, 5:30 pm – Miller 105


Feb 28: The duty to disobey

Reading:
-- Bertrand Russell, "Some Psychological Difficulties of Pacifism in Wartime" in Julian Bell, ed., We Did Not Fight: 1914-18; Experiences of War Resisters (1935)
-- Russell, "An Appeal to the Intellectuals of Europe" and "War and Non-resistance" in Justice in War-Time
-- Siegfried Sassoon, "Finished with the War" An open letter to The Times (1917) and note to Harold Cox, editor of The Edinburgh Review [image]
-- D.H. Lawrence, "Rondeau of a Conscientious Objector" (1919), p.28



Week VII: The Home Front and the Women's War

Mar 2: Women’s work

Reading:
-- H.G. Wells, "What the War is doing for Women" in What is Coming? A Forecast of Things After the War (1916)
-- Susan Grayzel, "The Role of Women in the War" (Strachan, Ch. 11)
-- Claire A. Culleton, Working-class Culture, Women, and Britain, 1914-1921 (Ch.1)
-- Jessie Pope, “War Girls” (1916), p.169

Mar 4: Love and grief

Reading:
-- Vera Brittain, "When the Vision dies…" in Testament of Youth (1933)
-- Vera Brittain, "Hospital Sanctuary" (1934), p.209
-- Ivor Gurney, "To His Love" (1919), p.97
Music:
-- "Quand Madelon" (1914), "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1915)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE MAR 4

Mar 6: Gender and race

Reading:
-- Philippa Levine, "Battle Colors: Race, Sex, and Colonial Soldiery in World War I," Journal of Women’s History, 9:4 (1998) [Project Muse]



Week VIII: Economies of Scale

Mar 9: Mid-semester review session

Suggested reading:
-- Turabian, A Manual for Writers, pp. 3-50

Mar 11: MIDTERM EXAMINATION


Mar 13: Economic critiques of the war

Reading:
-- B.J.C. McKercher, "Economic Warfare" (Strachan, Ch. 9)
-- Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917)



Week IX: Revolution, Reaction, and Realignment

Mar 16: The creation of the Modern Middle East

Reading:
-- Ulrich Trumpener, "Turkey’s War" (Strachan, Ch. 6)
-- Theodore Herzl, "On the Jewish State"(1896)
-- Sir Henry McMahon, Letter to Sherif Hussein ibn Ali (1915) [image]
-- Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
-- Balfour Declaration (1917) [image]
-- Palestine Mandate (1922)
-- T.E. Lawrence, Introduction and Chs. 1-2 in Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922)
-- Atatürk, Speech at the National Convention of the People's Party of the Republic (1927)
Images:
-- Sir Mark Sykes and Georges Picot, Map proposing the postwar reconstruction of the Middle East (1916)
-- T.E. Lawrence, Map proposing the postwar reconstruction of the Middle East (1918) [description]
-- Map of the Mandate System in the Middle East (c.1930)

Mar 18: War, socialism and revolution

Reading:
-- John Horne, "Socialism, Peace, and Revolution, 1917-1918" (Strachan, Ch. 17)
-- Rosa Luxemburg, "The War and the Workers" in The Junius Pamphlet (1916)
-- Leon Trotsky, "Introduction" and "The Revolutionary Epoch" in The Bolsheviks and World Peace (1918)

Mar 20: The eleventh hour: armistice and peace

Reading:
-- David Stevenson, "War Aims and Peace Negotiations" (Strachan, Ch. 15)
-- Conditions of the Armistice with Germany (1918)
-- Ernst Jünger, "My Last Storm" in Storm of Steel [Stahlgewittern] (1924)
-- Vera Brittain, "This Loneliest Hour" in Testament of Youth (1933)

RESPONSE PAPER #2 DUE MAR 20




Week X: Nations, States, and Empires

Mar 30: A birth of nations and the new internationalism

Reading:
-- Zara Steiner, "The Peace Settlement" (Strachan, Ch. 22)
-- Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World, xxv-xxxi
-- Thomas Hardy, "In time of 'The Breaking of Nations'" (1915)
-- Russell, "The Danger to Civilization" in Justice in War-Time

Apr 1: The beginning of the end: The war and the fate of empires

Reading:
-- David Killingray, "The War in Africa" (Strachan, Ch. 7)
-- "In Foreign Fields" in The Economist (Aug 2014)
-- Christian Koller, "Representing Otherness: African, Indian and European soldiers' letters and memoirs" in Santanu Das, ed., Race, Empire and First World War Writing
-- Proclamation of the Irish Republic (1916) [image]
Video:
-- BBC News, Ireland commemorates Easter Rising Centenary (27 March 2016)
Images:
-- BBC Archive, Indian Soldiers during World War I
Film:
-- Gallipoli (Director: Peter Weir, 1981), 7-10pm, Miller 102

Apr 3: The newcomer: The global emergence of the United States

Reading:
-- David Trask, "The Entry of the USA into the War and its Effects" (Strachan, Ch. 18)
-- Woodrow Wilson, "Speech on the Fourteen Points" in Congressional Record, 65th Congress, 2nd Session (1918)
-- US State Department, "Milestones: The Dawes Plan and Inter-Allied War Debts"
Music:
-- George M. Cohen, "Over There" (1917)



Week XI: The Peace to End All Peace

Apr 6: Counting the cost: The demographic effects of the war

Reading:
-- Virginia Nicholson, "Where have all the Young Men gone?" and "A World that doesn't want me" in Singled Out: How Two Million Women survived without Men After the First World War [library online]
-- Vera Brittain, "The Superfluous Woman" (1934), p.255, "The Lament of the Demobilised" (1934)
-- Ezra Pound, "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" [IV-V] (1920)

Apr 8: The uncertainty of the victors and the bitterness of the defeated

Reading:
-- Russell, "Is a Permanent Peace Possible?" in Justice in War-Time
-- Adolf Hitler, "The World War," "War Propaganda," and "The Revolution" in Mein Kampf (1925)

Apr 10: A return to normal?

Reading:
-- J.A. Hobson, "How to Break the Vicious Circle" in Democracy after the War (1917)
-- John Maynard Keynes, "Europe after the Treaty" in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920)
-- Warren G. Harding, "Back to Normal": a speech to the Home Market Club of Boston (1920)
Music:
-- Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (after They've seen Paris)?" (1919)



Week XII: Memory and Meaning

Apr 13: The war in music and literature

Reading:
-- Rudyard Kipling, "The Children" (1917), "Epitaphs of the War" (1919)
Music:
-- Cecil Spring-Rice, "I Vow to Thee, My Country" (1921)
-- Benjamin Britten, War Requiem (1962) [performance]
-- Eric Bogle, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (1971), "No Man's Land" (1976)
-- John McCutcheon, "Christmas in the Trenches" (1984)
-- The Wolfe Tones, "A Soldier's Return" (1993)
Suggested reading:
-- Turabian, A Manual for Writers, pp. 51-85
Film:
-- Oh! What a Lovely War (Director: Richard Attenborough, 1969), 7-10pm, Miller 102

Apr 15: Sites of mourning and remembrance

Reading:
-- Modris Eksteins, "Memory and the Great War" (Strachan, Ch. 24)
-- Laurence Binyon, "For the Fallen" (1914), p.235
-- Christopher Hitchens, "Because our Fathers Lied" in Slate.com (2011)
Memorial websites:
-- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
-- Australian War Memorial
-- Canadian National Vimy Memorial
-- ANZAC Centenary (Government of Australia)
-- Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museums)
-- US National World War I Museum and Memorial

Apr 17: Visual arts and entertainment

Reading:
-- Ana Carden-Coyne, "Wounded Visionaries" in The Guardian (Nov 2008)
Images:
-- Franz Marc, Das Arme Land Tirol [The Unfortunate Land of Tyrol] (1913)
-- C.R.W. Nevison, La Mitrailleuse [The Machinegun] (1915)
-- ———, Paths of Glory (1917)
-- Gino Severini, Armored Train in Action (1915)
-- Mark Gertler, Merry-Go-Round (1916)
-- Felix Vallotton, Verdun (1917)
-- John Nash, Over the Top (1917)
-- ———, A French Highway (1918)
-- Paul Nash, Spring in the Trenches, Ridge Wood (1917)
-- ———, We are Making a New World (1918)
-- ———, A Howitzer Firing (1918)
-- ———, The Menin Road (1919)
-- Unknown African artist, German Surrender at Mbala, Northern Rhodesia (1918)
-- Max Beckmann, Die Nacht [The Night] (1919)
-- Wyndham Lewis, A Battery Shelled (1919)
-- John Singer Sargent, Gassed (1919)
-- Stanley Spencer, Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station (1919)
-- Edward Wadsworth, Dazzleships in Drydock at Liverpool (1919)
-- Max Ernst Murdering Airplane (1920)
-- Otto Dix, Die Skatspieler [Skat Players] (1920)
-- ———, Der Krieg [War] (1924) [description]
-- ———, Totentanz anno 17 [Dance of Death 1917] (1924)
-- ———, Großstadt [Metropolis] (1928)
-- ———, Flanders (1936)
-- Georg Grosz, Painter of the Hole (1948)
-- Gas Mask Angel (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai, Belgium)
Online Collections:
-- War Images from the German Expressionism Collection, MoMA, New York
-- British Art of the First World War, Imperial War Museum, London
Video:
-- Monty Python, "Fighting Each Other" (1983)
-- Black Adder Goes Forth (BBC TV), "General Melchett" and Final episode (1989)




Week XIII: Presentations

Apr 20: Presentations


Apr 22: Presentations


Apr 24: Presentations

Suggested reading:
-- Turabian, A Manual for Writers, pp. 102-123



Week XIV: Conclusion

Apr 27: Presentations


Apr 29: Conclusion: Legacies and lessons of "the war to end all wars"

Reading:
-- John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields" (1915), p.155
-- Osbert Sitwell, "The Next War" (1919), p.272
-- Stephen Moss, "Living Memorials" in The Guardian (May 2011)
-- "Versailles Revisited" in The Economist (Jul 2019)
Video:
-- ITV News, Interview with Harry Patch, age 103 (2001)
-- BBC News, The Funeral of Harry Patch (6 Aug 2009)
-- Al Jazeera, The Funeral of Harry Patch (6 Aug 2009)
-- BBC News, The Funeral of Claude Choules (20 May 2011)
-- BBC News, The Last World War I Veteran (7 Feb 2012)

RESEARCH ESSAY DUE THURSDAY MAY 7, 5:00 pm

FINAL MEETING: MONDAY 4 MAY, 1:00-4:00 pm

Created by campion@lclark.edu | Updated November 2023