HIST 319 - Seminar on The Great War in History and Literature

Credits: 3 Prerequisite: HIST 102, 213, 218, or 223 or equivalent. An advanced seminar in which students analyze different kinds of written accounts of the First World War (memoirs, autobiographical novels, poems, and diaries) by different kinds of participants, including common soldiers, government leaders, and women who worked on the “home front.” In class discussions and two short papers, students evaluate the reliability of these witnesses and what the historian can learn from them about the psychological, cultural, and political consequences of the First World War in Great Britain, France, and Germany. Students choose one question raised in our common meetings for more detailed investigation in a substantial research paper integrating primary and secondary sources.

Winter 2021, HIST 319-01: Seminar on The Great War in History and Literature: The War to End All Wars (3). Prerequisite: HIST 102 or instructor consent (which will be granted to any student who has taken a relevant 200-level course in European history). In this seminar designed for history majors, we will analyze together a few of the most famous personal accounts of the Great War; you will then conduct independent research on a topic of special interest to you for a substantial term paper of about twenty pages.  Your goal will be to analyze an illuminating body of personal testimony regarding the psychological impact of combat, the experience of women who supported the war effort as nurses or munitions workers, or the long-term impact of the Great War on European society and culture.  Our joint class meetings will be virtual, but students taking this course should live in Lexington so that they can undertake library research. (HU) Patch. FDR: HU Patch.