HIST 397 - Spring-Term Topics in History

FDR: HU, GE4b
Credits: 4
When Offered: Spring

A seminar in a selected topic or problem in history. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different.

Topic for Spring 2010:

HIST 397: Winning World War II: U.S. and Allied Grand Strategies, 1940-1945 (4). Prerequisite: 15 credits in history and/or politics or permission of the instructor or the History Department head. Counts toward the American history area of the history major. The United States fought World War II as part of a coalition, one of the most successful wartime coalitions in history. This seminar explores how and why it did so, and why the Allied effort was so successful. Emphasis is placed on U.S. strategic planning, its relationship to U.S. foreign policies, and the ensuing conflicts between U.S. strategies and policies and those desired by its British and Soviet allies, and the ways in which these conflicts were resolved by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. As such, it also focuses on civil-military relations and Allied diplomacy during the war, as well as how and why the alliance collapsed after victory had been achieved. Readings include key primary and secondary sources. (HU, GE4b) Stoler.