THE SECOND WORLD WAR

HISTORY 130

Introduction to major themes in world history. Such themes might include: empire and imperialism, environmental impacts, global trade and globalization, war, migration, gender, race, religion, nationalism, class, and the like.

HISTORY/INTLST 375

The Cold War was the first event to impact virtually all of humanity and left a lasting legacy that still shapes the current world order. Exploration of its conduct on five continents entails both a diversity of sources (film, fiction, documents, and memoir) and a range of topics (geopolitics, ideology, internationalism, empire, revolution, counterinsurgency, and covert operations). Its half-century history was marked by nuclear-armed stalemate and ideological competition in Europe, cultural politics of repression and generational revolt in America, interplay of anti-colonial nationalism and counterinsurgency in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and a succession of major wars worldwide in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, and Afghanistan. By adopting an international perspective that carries us beyond the narrow ambit of the Moscow-Washington rivalry, integrate diverse global forces and particular national histories for a fuller understanding of an ever-changing world system.

ASIAN/HISTORY 363

This course is intended to help students understand World War II from the perspective of Asia. The focus is not only on the American and Japanese roles in the war but also on lesser, often overlooked participants such as China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. The course will focus not only on the diplomatic, political, and military situation of wartime Asia, but also on perceptions and experiences of the war from those most heavily affected by it: those experiencing it on the ground. Understanding this war is critical for helping us understand contemporary Asia. The foundations of the Cold War and the post-Cold War world that we live in today were forged on battlefields in mainland China, Burma, small islands in the Pacific, and in the skies over the archipelago of Japan. In order to provide the background and understand the legacies, this course covers an extended time frame, beginning in the 19th century with the arrival of the West in Asia and continues into the 1950s.

HISTORY 359

Political, cultural, and social history of Europe from the Second World War to the present.

HISTORY 410

Political and social development of Central Europe from the establishment of the German Empire to the post-World War II period.