Welcome, or welcome back WSUTC 388 and 386 students! Thanks for visiting the class blog. Your reward is getting acquainted with my two lovely, special dogs--Annie and Charlie. They're very smart, too smart for their own good, and would come to class if only they were allowed on campus!

425 Second Option for Tier III assignment...

This is a Tier III course, which brings with it a substantial, as in 5-7 page, writing assignment. For option #2, what you will do is this: first, assume you are a professional researcher. You have been asked to do a profile of a city that’s not New York or Budapest and will be of interest to businesspeople preparing to live and do business overseas. You will proceed this way: Choose a city that interests you. If you’ve always been interested in London, for example, this is your chance to get to know it better, a lot better, for CREDIT. Second, start reading about your city. If there is a “biography,” a contemporary portrait of a city like Alastair Horne’s Seven Ages of Paris, read it. Then begin a search for related articles and books. You will be doing the bulk of your reading from newspapers and magazines, most likely, such as the Guardian UK or Le Figaro for a city like Paris, or the International Herald Tribune, or Time or National Geographic. Travel books and magazines(the Lonely Planet guides are excellent) can be of help too. Lots of cities have websites, and you should consult those. You’ll be expected to read 2-3 articles per week(or book chapters, if you’re working on a book) about your city or events in it, writing and filing away a summary of each article as you go along(for a total of about l6-20 summaries). In mid-April, you will stop reading and prepare to write the profile based on your findings. Everyone needs to keep track of his/her reading, documenting it all along, establishing a “paper trail,” so to speak. Once you are prepared to write the profile, you should do three things: one, give your businessperson an idea of how history and/or geography has shaped this city. New York is New York in part because of its geography; what major factor(s) made London/Paris/Brussels/Rio/Cape Town/Chennai what it is today? Secondly, what is a/the major preoccupation of this city at this point in time? One obvious example is London, shaken as it has been by terrorist incidents and plots. Finally, what should a foreigner know about this city’s business climate? What kinds of initiatives and proposals would have the best chance of succeeding? How is the cost of living? Finally, hand in the paper, your summaries and articles(your paper trail, in other words)sometime just before Dead Week.

425 Tier III option one(ta da!)

425 assignment option one: Review essay. In this option, you will read 3-5 books about a city of your choice, then write what we call a review essay. In a review essay, you discuss the approach each author took to the city in question, describe how he/she wrote about it, and then identify the strengths and weaknesses of the book(this is subjective and your call as reviewer). You can see a sample in the New York Review of Books(nybooks.com)…the writers there review several books at a time on a common theme and kind of pioneered the genre. The caveat on this one is that you need to choose a city on which lots of people have written books, for example London, Paris, Jerusalem, Prague. I don’t want anyone doing New York, because we will have covered it well, but you can do Paris, because there are so many good recent books on it. You might want to run by me the city you choose, since I can tell you whether it’s doable or not in terms of how much good, interesting English-language material you will find.

Books for History courses

I am still trying to figure out how to get the syllabus to everybody, since this blog site turns all formatted text into ground meat, but here are the readings for the course, available in e-form or hard copy from Amazon, Powells or probably Barnes and Noble: Europe between the Wars, Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth, Mary Lovell, Sisters, and Erik Larsen, In the Garden of Beasts. City in History: E.B. White, Here is New York, David von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, and Frederick Brown, For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus. The early birds can get these books through WSU libraries, too. Now to figure out syllabus distribution...

Europe between the wars “The time not to become a father is 18 years before a world war.” American essayist E.B. White. I would add, “especially after a first world war.” A whole generation was born during and after the Great War, just in time to fight and die in the second. Talk about bad timing! Introduction: Welcome to the “entre-deux-guerres,” or “between the wars,” the period in European history between the war that was supposed to end all wars, the “World War,” and everyone’s worst nightmare, the outbreak of a second that would eventually be nearly ten times deadlier and bring an iron curtain of division in Europe and Asia. This is a tricky era, because there is a tendency to think, with benefit of hindsight, that the Great War led directly to the Second World War. I don’t personally believe that anything is inevitable, but you can certainly draw some lines of continuity between the two conflicts. We will attempt to do that as we go along. In addition, we’ll have the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between political/economic change and the arts, a rich vein in particular since many describe this time as a “broken world.” Another thought that tends to come up over and over is the viability of democracy vs. the temptations of dictatorship. Almost every nation in Europe had a strongman in place even before Hitler became established. Why is it so difficult to establish and maintain a democracy, as we have had here for 200+ years? And then there is the matter of Hitler and Stalin: what was it about this period that brought forth these monsters and propelled them into positions of power? Here in the US, we got Franklin D. Roosevelt during the great crisis; the Germans and the Russians weren’t so lucky. Course Objectives: I hope that by course’s end, you will be able to identify some of the issues and problems in the postwar that helped bring about the beginning of a second, that you will be able to identify and discuss a couple works of art/music/literature associated with the “interwar” years, that you will appreciate to a greater degree the difficulties of democracy and the temptations of dictatorship in modern societies, and then account(insofar as you can; no one really has a definitive answer)for the rise of the two men most responsible for the wrecking of the l9l9 peace, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. And, for those of you bound for the Foreign Service, and I hope some of you will try for this, how about some reflection on the Versailles peace and how it might have been done differently? Granted, the peacemakers had extraordinarily tough circumstances, but they are not exempt from our criticism. Evaluation: We will write one or two midterms, depending on time(this is a new course, so it’s hard to tell how fast or slow we’ll go), but your main grade will come from your performance in the annual Undergraduate Liberal Arts Symposium. For this course, your assignment is to create an exhibit in a new Museum of the History of 20th-century Europe, to be housed somewhere on the WSU campus. The possibilities are wide-ranging: you could profile an individual and his/her contributions to the interwar period(Hitler and Stalin excepted; as my grad advisor often said, “that’s been done to death.”). Some suggestions: Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Joseph P. Kennedy(US ambassador to Great Britain in the late l930s), John F. Kennedy, Dmitrii Shostakovich, Sergei Prokoviev, Maurice Ravel, George Grosz, Marc Chagall, to name just a few. Or you could focus on a particular event that would help interested laypeople understand this period, for example the Spanish Civil War, the Munich crisis, Kristallnacht(Night of the Broken Glass, Germany, l938). Or you could focus on some aspect of the period that is close to what you are studying, e.g. the effect of the world financial crisis on Hitler’s coming to power, or more generally the rise of dictatorship. Whatever you choose, you will research the topic for most of the term and then present your findings, mount your exhibit, for the Liberal Arts symposium in late April or May. And you will be able to claim on your resume that you were invited to present your research at a prestigious campus-wide event, a plus for your resume. Introduction: The shadow of the Great War The war that took Europe by surprise: the “summer storm.” Industrial-strength slaughter The death of empires A peace to end all peace?! Film: “J’accuse,” Abel Gance The first post-war years “Winners” old and new “Losers” and their bitter pill A new old “loser:” the case of Hungary You say you want a revolution: Soviet Russia Film: “Potemkin,” Sergei Eisenstein The turning of the tide: the rise of dictatorship and the ascendency of “appeasement.” Nazism and Stalinism: the early years The pacifist impulse: “we will carry war…no more.” “The George Washington of Germany” and the European order Films: Triumph of the Will, Olympia)Leni Reifenshtal War dead ahead: from Munich crisis to the breakout of war, l938-39 The Czechoslovak “problem” and “peace in our time” Frenemies: The Soviet-German rapprochement The end of the Versailles treaty and the Hitler-Stalin “new order” “Rain Stops Play,” September 1, l939. Film: The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin

Important announcement!

Folks, I can't be in class tomorrow because I have to be in the hospital with my dad, who is undergoing minor surgery in Portland. He had brain surgery a week ago, and is making progress, but needs one more minor procedure before he can come back here to the eastside and continue his recovery in a rehab facility. You can send me questions by email(brigitf2001@yahoo.com), because it'll be a long day of just sitting, and then you will have your exam on Wednesday. My dad and I both apologize for the disruption...he taught history himself for 35 years.

Here we go again with question #2 for next week's exam: Directions part II: Mystery question. You will answer a general question on Peter Englund’s book The Beauty and the Sorrow, based on the years l9l4 and l9l5. HINT: think about how the individuals profiled in the book help you understand the nature of this conflict. You will not be asked to describe in detail what happened on page 102 or anything like that…

October 17 exam question #2(50%)

October 17 exam question 1(50%)

Another term for the Great War is the “World War,” so called before l939 partly because no one could envision a second, partly because of its reach. Although it started in Sarajevo, Bosnia, southeast Europe, it went global virtually from its first moments. Write an essay in which you explain how this was a world war even in its first two years. You can either narrate how it became global, in other words go chronological, or go thematically and give evidence of its global nature—you could write a book on either.

Second try at 455 syl

History 455—The Great War Fall 2012 WSUTC B. Farley Office 207J West Building, Faculty Row/372-7357/email brigitf2001@yahoo.com, bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu Non-virtual office hours are basically just before or after class, and then 3:15-4 pm, Mondays and Wednesdays. Virtual office hours anytime, 24/7. You can email me any time and I will get back to you as soon as possible, ideally at least by the next day if I am in the country. I don’t like the phone because it disturbs the two octogenarians I live with. “They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them” Lawrence Binyon, “For The Fallen,” l9l4. This poem is still recited every evening at 8 pm at the Menin Gate memorial to the missing in Ypres(Ieper), Belgium

The image above is of a tombstone in the Ypres Ramparts cemetery, Belgium. The compelling part is the epitaph, which reads, "Someday we will understand." Maybe, but I'm not so sure. Course Introduction: Welcome to the first official offering of World War I, the history of arguably the most significant conflict in the last two centuries. Actually, it is hard to qualify that statement with "arguably," since the so-called Great War produced fighting of unparalleled savagery and the first instance of organized ethnic murder, incited entire populations to hatred of one another, produced the first WMDs(poison gas, flamethrowers, zeppelins), pushed a nation over the edge into mutiny and the embrace of Communism, killed off four empires and nine million—that is, 9,000,000-- individuals, erased the entire map of Europe and the Middle East, created a host of new states and left the United States as the lone functioning great power. Oh, and did I mention the fact that World War I convinced a corporal Hitler to go into politics on the theory that "degenerates" on the home front cost the German people victory in the war? Or, consequently, that World War I is widely believed to be the cause of World War II, an even longer, bloodier and MORE global conflict than the first?? Or that it was the brilliant peacemakers of WWI that created the modern middle East, especially IRAQ and SYRIA?! Congratulations, what a splendid job you all did! I think you get the picture: this thing was kind of important. Readings: At least a part of each week's readings will be taken from an online World War I document archive based at Brigham Young University and the University of Kansas. One of the longer ones, the diary of Ambassador Morgenthau, you will read in its entirety. Besides the online material, you will have Martin Gilbert's history of World War I, a terrific basic source with a lot of great anecdotes and telling detail. In addition, we have the Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. You know this was an awful ordeal if it is a poetry war. Poetry tries to say what cannot be said. Finally, Peter Englund’s magnificent The Beauty and the Sorrow, a unique work on this war or any other. We will try a little experiment this semester: you will make your own arrangements for getting these books. You have several options: library, Powells, Amazon if you want bricks-and-mortar books. And except for Gilbert, you can get them for Kindle or Ipad/Iphone(download the Kindle App from the app store) or your tablet of choice. This ought to cut down on the cost at least a little bit. Moreover, there are tons of fantastic websites out there, mostly British, maintained by people you can only describe as Great Warophiles. I have listed many of them on the syllabus for you. Please let me know of any new ones you find. Evaluation: History 455 is a tier III course. This means in part that you have to undertake a significant project covering one or more topics related to the course content and ideally reflecting a diversity of disciplines. This should reflect your interests and strengths, because it will require a lot of effort. You have two options: a bricks-and-mortar term paper, using a variety of sources, or a work using other forms, other media. This might be a website spotlighting an important aspect of the war, an oral presentation on someone you feel deserves more attention, a concert of relevant music if you are a musician, an illustrated talk on innovations in warfare. I particularly remember two presenters: the student who did a remarkable powerpoint covering the development of air warfare and airplanes in the war, and a talented musicianwho researched and presented a concert of Great War popular songs in which she played piano and her granddaughter sang. We even brought in seniors from the local assisted living facility for that! Whatever you do, I want everyone in class to present this work, or a part of it, to the Student Liberal Arts symposium in December, because people do not know this war. You have three weeks to think about it, after which you must submit to me a description of what you want to do and a preliminary list of sources. A listing of possible subjects might include the following: the changing nature of warfare in the Great War, WMD in WWI, theory and practice of trench warfare, role of women in the war, propaganda, film and the Great War(then and now), commemoration, colonial or Dominion soldiers and the Great War, America’s impact on the war, the war on the American homefront, the making of new nations(Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iraq), impact of the Russian revolution, accounting for and memorializing the missing, shell shock, “shot at dawn” cases, battlefield medicine and plastic surgery, the origins and history of the “unknown” soldier, poetry and poets in the Great War, Balfour declaration and the making of the postwar Middle East, the Armenian genocide(for example, how was this covered in America?) Aside from this, we will have one midterm, in early October and another just before dead week. You will always know all the possible questions and items at least two weeks in advance; what you do not know is which ones will appear on the exam paper, so you should prepare everything. Objectives: I will be happy, and you will get credit, if you can discuss some of the issues that caused this war and which remained unsettled even after the peace was concluded in l9l9. Aside from that, you should be able to explain the connections between the Great War and the Russian revolution, trace the origins and course of the Armenian genocide, make clear the factors that made this conflict a truly global war and discuss in a general way how the maps of Europe, the Middle East and Asia were redrawn after the war. If you can do all of that, you will have a good idea of why this conflict was so key to the unfolding of the 20th century--and why people in high school and junior high seldom, if ever touch it. You are not going to get it by answering questions at the end of the chapters or coloring maps or copying out of the encyclopedia. A Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator. Translation: People here want you to succeed, so please let them help you. Schedule Note that we will go by topic, rather than date. It is difficult to say how much time we will be spending on any given topic. The numbered topics represent my best guestimate. 1. Europe before the apocalypse, l870-l9l4 Readings: Gilbert, Introduction + chapters 1-2; Thomas Hardy, "Channel Firing," Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. Recommended readings: Vladimir Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo. If you want to understand the mentality of the teenaged assassins of Franz Ferdinand, this is an essential read. They were the Al-Quaeda of their day, though necessarily more localized since they didn’t have modern communications, suitcase nukes or airplanes to hijack in their day. Recommended film: Mayerling(l969), starring Catherine de Neuve. If not for Crown Prince Rudolf's suicide at the Mayerling hunting lodge in the early l880s, Franz Ferdinand would never have become heir to the Habsburg throne and Austria-Hungary's tragic last years might have turned out very differently. 2. Not your six-week wonder: the coming of global war, June -December l9l4. Readings: Gilbert, chapters 3-6(l9l4); Penguin book, Anna Akhmatova, "July l9l4," Englund, 1-76, l9l4. Recommended readings: Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August. This is an impressive chronicle of how the powers basically stumbled into this conflict. President John F. Kennedy read it just prior to the Cuban Missle Crisis and was guided by some of its conclusions as he attempted to reach a resolution with Khrushchev in October l962. Recommended website: The British Army in the Great War, www.1914-l9l8.net. A great and comprehensive site covering the British and dominion armies in World War I. Remember, Great Britain was an empire and drew troops from all corners of the globe. India was particularly well represented. See an overview of their activity at www.king-emperor.com. There are also Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland and Canadian sites aplenty. They are too numerous to list, but you can find them with a simple google search. 3. The brutal year l9l5: Turkish double tragedy, some consequential losses at sea, the war on the western front Readings: Ambassador Morgenthau's diary, WWI document archive, www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi(category); Gilbert, chapters 7-12(1915); Penguin book, John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields," Englund, 7-204, l9l5. Film: Gallipoli(l981), starring a young Mel Gibson. There are few more moving films in the history of cinema. Recommended websites: www.ww1-propaganda-cards.com. This is an excellent online postcard library dedicated to the theory and practice of propaganda, which both sides used extensively. World War I was the first war that saw the systematic use of propaganda. You should also surf over to the Imperial War Museum, www.iwpm.org.uk They have some wonderful WWI resources. Finally, the sad story of the “pals,” groups of friends who joined, or were drafted into, the British army. Go to www.pals.org.uk and read the story of the friends from Accrington, UK. 4. Butchery and horror: the Somme, Verdun, Passchendaele, plus the birth of the Irish republic. Readings: Gilbert, chapters 12-16(1916); Penguin book, Wilfrid Owen, "Dulce et Decorum est, " "Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Englund, 203-314, l9l6. Recommended reading: Alastair Horne, The Price of Glory: Verdun l9l6. A modern classic of military/social history. Recommended websites: www.unfortunate-region.org. This is a place where you can access excellent photographs of the battlefields mentioned in this section of class. 5. The year of mutinies: nations, armies, individuals Readings: Gilbert, chapters 16-19(1917); Penguin Book, Alan Seeger, "Rendezvous,” Englund, 317-419, l9l7. Also, www.shotatdawn.org.uk. This is a site dedicated to clearing the names of men shot for “cowardice” or “desertion,” but who may have been suffering from shell shock and/or trauma after the terrible ordeal of the trenches l9l4-l9l6. All these years later, their families work to obtain for them an honorable discharge and/or posthumous rehabilitation. Recommended website: http://www.kobariski-muzej.si/?lng=ang. This is the official side of the Kobarid museum of the Great War in Slovenia, one of the best resources for this war. 6. The outlines of a new world, l9l7-l9l8. Readings: Gilbert, chaptera 20-22; Penguin book, Siegfried Sassoon, "Does it matter?,” Englund, 424-508. Recommended readings: Go to the Truman Library, www.trumanlibrary.org, and read some of then-Captain Harry S. Truman's memoirs of being a member of the US contingent sent to France to save the Allies. Also, Robert Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. All about the crime of the century, the cold-blooded murder of the Russian tsar, his wife and children. Recommended website: Trenches on the web, an American-centered site covering all aspects of the war. www.worldwar1.com. 7. "All quiet on the western front:" the road to the llth hour of the llth day of the llth month, l9l8. Readings: "NY Times report on end of the war," WWI document archive, www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi(year l9l8); Gilbert, chapters 23-26. Recommended readings/film: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Film by the same name, issued l930. DO NOT WATCH THE MODERN VERSIONS. They are a WASTE O’ TIME! 8. Peace breaks out: the Versailles settlements and the making of a new world map, l9l9-l922. Readings: Finish Gilbert; Penguin Book, TBA. Recommended readings: Louis Auchincloss, Woodrow Wilson. This is the newest biography of President Wilson, one of the architects of the post-war peace settlements. Margaret MacMillan, Paris l9l9. Everything you always wanted to know about the peace settlements. 9. “We will remember them:” the landscape of commemoration on the western front and beyond Recommended reading: Marc Dugain, The Officers’ Ward. What happens to soldiers whose faces were grotesquely and permanently mutilated in the war. Also, Juliet Nicholson, The Great Silence, a moving Great Britain in the years just following World War I. Recommended websites: Learn about and hear “Last Post,” played nightly beneath the Menin Gate in Ypres, a tribute to 54,000 British and Dominion soldiers with no known graves. www.lastpost.be. Also, Commonwealth War Graves Association website, www.cwgc.org. They designed and built the hundreds of cemeteries on the western front, and by now everywhere around the world. For information on American casualties and memorials, www.ambc.org, the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Destresser Dogs

In case the situation with the syllabus is driving you slightly crazy, here's a couple pictures to calm you: my two dogs Annie, who is yawning, and Charlie. They will be appearing every now and then...

First two sections 455

Again from Computer Hell Central, here are the first two assignments--good for the first two or three weeks--for 455. i PROMISE to get this situation fixed as soon as I get the new machine. I hope the demons in this one don't transfer to the newbie! 1. Europe before the apocalypse, l870-l9l4 Readings: Gilbert, Introduction + chapters 1-2; Thomas Hardy, "Channel Firing," Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. Recommended readings: Vladimir Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo. If you want to understand the mentality of the teenaged assassins of Franz Ferdinand, this is an essential read. They were the Al-Quaeda of their day, though necessarily more localized since they didn’t have modern communications, suitcase nukes or airplanes to hijack in their day. Recommended film: Mayerling(l969), starring Catherine de Neuve. If not for Crown Prince Rudolf's suicide at the Mayerling hunting lodge in the early l880s, Franz Ferdinand would never have become heir to the Habsburg throne and Austria-Hungary's tragic last years might have turned out very differently. 2. Not your six-week wonder: the coming of global war, June -December l9l4. Readings: Gilbert, chapters 3-6(l9l4); Penguin book, Anna Akhmatova, "July l9l4," Englund, 1-76, l9l4. Recommended readings: Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August. This is an impressive chronicle of how the powers basically stumbled into this conflict. President John F. Kennedy read it just prior to the Cuban Missle Crisis and was guided by some of its conclusions as he attempted to reach a resolution with Khrushchev in October l962. Recommended website: The British Army in the Great War, www.1914-l9l8.net. A great and comprehensive site covering the British and dominion armies in World War I. Remember, Great Britain was an empire and drew troops from all corners of the globe. India was particularly well represented. See an overview of their activity at www.king-emperor.com. There are also Irish, Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland and Canadian sites aplenty. They are too numerous to list, but you can find them with a simple google search.

Tier III plus required books

Folks, computer hell is continuing here, I am deep in about the 7th circle, and so will surrender and get a new machine today. Meantime, here's the required books: Martin Gilbert, The First World War(text) The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry Peter Englund, the Beauty and the Sorrow. You can get Gilbert from Amazon or Powells or interlibrary loan in hard copy; the other two you have the option of getting for Kindle/Ipad/your tablet of choice. Here's the garbled info for the tier III assignment: Evaluation: History 455 is a tier III course. This means in part that you have to undertake a significant project covering one or more topics related to the course content and ideally reflecting a diversity of disciplines. This should reflect your interests and strengths, because it will require a lot of effort. You have two options: a bricks-and-mortar term paper, using a variety of sources, or a work using other forms, other media. This might be a website spotlighting an important aspect of the war, an oral presentation on someone you feel deserves more attention, a concert of relevant music if you are a musician, an illustrated talk on innovations in warfare. I particularly remember two presenters: the student who did a remarkable powerpoint covering the development of air warfare and airplanes in the war, and a talented musicianwho researched and presented a concert of Great War popular songs in which she played piano and her granddaughter sang. We even brought in seniors from the local assisted living facility for that! Whatever you do, I want everyone in class to present this work, or a part of it, to the Student Liberal Arts symposium in December, because people do not know this war. You have three weeks to think about it, after which you must submit to me a description of what you want to do and a preliminary list of sources. A listing of possible subjects might include the following: the changing nature of warfare in the Great War, WMD in WWI, theory and practice of trench warfare, role of women in the war, propaganda, film and the Great War(then and now), commemoration, colonial or Dominion soldiers and the Great War, America’s impact on the war, the war on the American homefront, the making of new nations(Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iraq), impact of the Russian revolution, accounting for and memorializing the missing, shell shock, “shot at dawn” cases, battlefield medicine and plastic surgery, the origins and history of the “unknown” soldier, poetry and poets in the Great War, Balfour declaration and the making of the postwar Middle East, the Armenian genocide(for example, how was this covered in America?) Aside from this, we will have one midterm, in early October and another just before dead week. You will always know all the possible questions and items at least two weeks in advance; what you do not know is which ones will appear on the exam paper, so you should prepare everything.

History 569 assignment 1

September 10: Origins Required reading: Michael Neiberg, Dance of the Furies; Norman Angell, “The Great Illusion” online http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Norman_Angell%27s_The_Great_Illusion Reading from me: Joachim Remak, Sarajevo: Story of a Political Murder.

569 syllabus--class info

History 569: Great War B. Farley/541-276-6962/baf007@gmail.com. I’m not at campus that often, because I live with health-challenged 86 and 90 year olds, but I have a massive communications empire at home and you should feel free to email any time. Welcome to this term’s field course on the Great War. Whatever your area of specialization, you won’t be wasting your time getting to know this conflict “up close and personal” because it produced so many of the most consequential issues and problems associated with the 20th century and beyond. A partial list would include Communism in Russia, the modern middle East(fake states like Iraq and Syria, the Israel-Palestine conflict), the first genocide, industrial-strength slaughter and the cheapening of life, air power/tank warfare, the first shots in the Cold War(arguably)and(also arguably)the “worst peace treaty in modern history,” the Versailles settlements. That’’s just for starters. Class M.O…This is my first grad course, so it will necessarily be a work in progress, but I am sure that our joint efforts will make it a success. Here’s what I am thinking about organization : I will lead off each session with some brief remarks about the subject in question and/or show some relevant video—there’s too much good stuff out there not to. Then, one of you will present the week’s book and we’ll discuss the issues in question. On occasion, I will pitch in and present a book that’s hard to find or outrageously expensive. In addition, I will present from time to time video clips or and/ commentary to stress a point that might not be obvious from the reading. The Great War is SUCH a rich vein… I will come to Pullman at some point in the semester and have class with you there, preferably over some nice food. This will definitely be before the snow flies. In terms of written assignments, you will choose two required books, any two, on which to write a 2-3 page review identifying the major issue(s)they treat and evaluating how the authors succeeded or failed. And each person will identify an area of interest to explore in depth—as in, read 5-10 books—and write a New York Review of Books-style essay reviewing the topic(s) in question and the ways in which the authors approach it. Some possible areas of inquiry include: the changing nature of warfare, WMD in WWI, gender/role of women, propaganda and film(then and now), commemoration, impact of colonial or Dominion soldiers, during and after the war, the war on the American homefront, the making of new nations(Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iraq), impact of the Russian revolution, accounting for and memorializing the missing, shell shock, “shot at dawn” cases, battlefield medicine and plastic surgery, the origins and history of the “unknown” soldier, poetry and poets in the Great War, Balfour declaration and the making of the postwar Middle East, the Armenian genocide(for example, how was this covered in America?) When you undertake this assignment, bear in mind that the centennial of this war is nearly upon us—August 2014 is less than two years away, so there will be a market for books, articles and briefer op-eds in the local newspapers. Why shouldn’t you get in on the action? My goals for this term are, in random order: a) to explore with you some of the major issues and controversies of the Great War; b) to introduce the newest materials and media on this conflict, so that you can teach this phenomenon competently and well, if you dare; c) to inspire you to do some great work on this period, whether it’s a book, article or just personal enlightenment; d) to convince you of the virtues of visiting the battlefields of the Great War, so as to personalize and deepen your connection with this most fundamental event in modern history.

History 455 syllabus part I, basic info...

The Lochnagar crater on the Somme battlefield near Albert, France. A bomb the British exploded beneath the German lines was responsible for this monster. History 455—The Great War Fall 2012 WSUTC B. Farley Office 207J West Building, Faculty Row/372-7357/email brigitf2001@yahoo.com, bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu Contact info: Non-virtual office hours are basically just before or after class, and then 3:15-4 pm, Mondays and Wednesdays. Virtual office hours anytime, 24/7. You can email me any time and I try to get back to you as soon as possible, ideally at least by the next day. I don’t like the phone because it disturbs the two octogenarians I live with. Readings: At least a part of the term's readings will be taken from an online World War I document archive based at Brigham Young University and the University of Kansas. One of the longer ones, the diary of Ambassador Morgenthau, you will read in its entirety. Besides the online material, you will have Martin Gilbert's history of World War I, a terrific basic source with a lot of great anecdotes and telling detail. In addition, we have the Penguin Book of First World War Poetry. You know this was an awful ordeal if it is a poetry war. Poetry tries to say what cannot be said. Finally, Peter Englund’s magnificent The Beauty and the Sorrow, a unique work on this war or any other. We will try a little experiment this semester: you will make your own arrangements for getting these books. You have several options: library, Powells, Amazon if you want bricks-and-mortar books. And except for Gilbert, you can get them for Kindle or Ipad/Iphone(download the Kindle App from the app store) or your tablet of choice. This ought to cut down on the cost at least a little bit. For THIS FIRST WEEK: Martin Gilbert text, chapters 1-3, beginnings. Also, Peter Englund, 1914, pp. 5-72, 1914.

Holocaust final...

Representations of the Holocaust/HUM 450/final paper, due in hard copy MONDAY, APRIL 30, between 5 and 6 pm, in my office…

Directions Part I: EVERYONE will do this one(60%)

Yaffa Eliach’s Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust is an unusual representation of the Holocaust in that they are based on real-life experiences, but infused with elements that place them somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. Choose four or five of your favorite tales and write an essay in which you explain how they affected your understanding of the war on the Jews. Conclude with or include in the body of your answer your best guess as to why these tales were composed, beyond their value as evidence of the Holocaust.


Directions Part II(40%): YOUR CHOICE. Answer ONE of the following, taking care to use specific examples from the films, videos, documentaries, readings, etc.:


Of the representations of the Holocaust we have evaluated this term—art, architecture, film, fiction, memoir, graphic novel, music, poetry and plain old documentary evidence—choose one or two and explain why it was effective in conveying some aspect of the Holocaust to you. Do NOT use Architecture of Doom or Maus, since you have already written about those.


A t-shirt on sale at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum proclaims, “What You Do Matters.” What lessons have you learned from studying the Holocaust that you can use in keeping The World, or your world, or both, safe from a similar outrage in the future?

Vietnam FINAL(!!!!!)

Without further ado, the second and final assignment for History 388...

History 388/Final exam/spring 2012, due in hard copy MONDAY, April 30, between 4:15 and 5pm in my office…

Directions: Answer BOTH questions in brilliantly conceived, cogently argued essays. Be sure to back up your points with specifics from the videos, readings, songs, and any personal reflection you have done…


1. The Vietnam conflict damaged the reputation of John F. Kennedy, drove Lyndon Johnson from office in despair and fatally distorted Richard Nixon’s judgment, destroying his Presidency in the Watergate scandal. In addition, it killed 58,000 young Americans, well over a million Vietnamese and inflicted deep wounds on the body politic of both nations. Why couldn’t(or wouldn’t) President Nixon or Johnson bring the war to a “successful” end, in spite of unparalleled tonnage of bombs, ground troops, billions of dollars and the latest in high-tech weaponry?

2. Few Americans felt the effects of the Vietnam war more keenly than the members of West Point’s class of l966. Review Rick Atkinson’s book The Long Gray Line, in particular the lives of John P. “Jack” Wheeler, George Crocker and Arthur Bonifas and write an essay in which you discuss how the Vietnam war affected their lives and careers after graduation from the Academy.

HUM 455, Second Response paper(!!)...

455/Representations of the Holocaust/Response Paper #2, due APRIL 18, 2012


I actually stole this assignment from Professor Doris Bergen—full credit to her!!--because I can’t think of a better way for us to interact with MAUS, the world’s lone graphic novel/comic book Holocaust memoir…


Imagine that you are an intern at a small Holocaust museum in the state of Washington. The director has arranged to host an exhibit of drawings from Art Spiegelman’s MAUS along with a public lecture by the artist. The staff and volunteers are excited about the event, but some donors and members of the local community are not happy. Your supervisor has passed on three of their letters to you and asked you to draft an answer to one of them, the rest to be assigned to other interns. One letter is from a Polish American furious at the way Spiegelman depicts Poles. How dare the museum promote such negative stereotypes, she wants to know. She threatens to organize a protest outside the museum. Another letter is from a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He is angry at how Spiegelman portrays Jews during the war as mice and Holocaust survivors as neurotic basket cases. This is no way to remember and honor those who suffered so much under the Nazis, he asserts. The third letter is from a disappointed middle school teacher. She is teaching a unit on comparative genocide and she wanted to bring her students to the Holocaust museum. Now she is worried that if the students see the Holocaust turned into a comic strip, they’ll never take it seriously. She also doesn’t like the exclusive focus on Jewish suffering. Her school has very few Jewish students, so how are her students supposed to relate to MAUS?

Choose ONE of these letters and draft a reply. If you find yourself unable to defend the exhibit, write a memo to your supervisor instead, in which you explain your reasons.

HUM 455, don't panic!

For all the Holocaust folks, don't panic, the essay on "Architecture of Doom" can't be due today because we haven't even finished watching it...we will reschedule the due date. TBA at present.