UHC
Western European History II
The Age of Extremes
December 3: This class will deal specifically with the Holocaust and how it fits into the processes begun in the 19th Century and became accelerated and warped by the Great War. In essence, we will deal with Jay Winter's and the Accidental Historians contentions that:
“Hitler couldn't have done what he did without the First World War. It isn't the Second World War that created images of piles of bodies being shoveled into trenches; it's the First World War. What was thinkable, what was imaginable about human brutality changed between 1914 and 1918, and without that shifting of perspective, in my view, the worst events of the Second World War would not have been possible.” Jay Winter
"What really should be remembered and taught about the Western Front is that, for the first time, societies were reorganized to feed a killing machine. It would not be the last. My ghosts from the Great War tell me to get the word out: what happened to them can happen again. On June 10, 1991, I stood on lower Broadway in New York's financial district and saw joyful crowds hang people in effigy, as a way of greeting victorious troops back from Iraq. Celebration was in the air, but so too was the sulfur of hate, thick and unadulterated. Something as degrading as the Western Front no longer seemed so implausible. Lest We Forget -not just the dilemmas of our grandfathers, but the continual siren song of violence in uniform. The Serbs in Bosnia, the Hutus in Rwanda, even the Canadians in Somalia. The next century's short list for enforced amnesia is already lengthening." - The Accidental Historian
Read for Thursday:
December 5: In this class we will deal with World War II and how it completes the processes begun with the Great War, in effect completing "The Age of Extremes/Catastrophe." We will then pull everything together for the year and attempt to answer the questions we posed for ourselves in this section of the class. In particular, we will pull the readings for today and Berghahn's "Conclusion" and his overall thesis on the origins of the "Mass Violence" of the 20th Century."
I will give you the short answer questions for the "take home" final exam that will be due by 8 a.m. Saturday the 13th by email.