MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE

 

History 3071/5071                                                 Summer, 2003

World War II                                                        Mr. Bowling

 

Books:

Mark A. Stoler & Melanie S. Gustafson, Major Problems in the History of World War II (New York, 2003).

David M. Glantz & Jonathan House, When Titans Clashed; How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (Lawrence, 1998).

Geoffrey P. Megargee, Inside Hitler’s High Command (Lawrence, 2000).

Tim Clayton & Phil Craig, Finest Hour; the Battle of Britain (New York, 1999).

Walter J. Boyne, Clash of Wings; World War II in the Air (New York, 1994).

 

Requirements:

1.  Attendance.

2.  Participation.

3.  Readings.

4.  Oral reports, based on selections from the textbook.

5.        Successful completion of three examinations.

 

General Statement of Purpose and Plan of Study:

 

To many, especially of the older generation, the Second World War is referred to simply as "the war," or sometimes, "the Big One." Truly it was a war worthy of the name "global," and nothing--thank God--like it has been seen since. At the center of the conflict are its principal perpetrators: Germany under Hitler and the Japanese Empire; and, the principal Allies: the United States under President Franklin Roosevelt, the British Empire under Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Soviet Union under FIrst Secretary Josef Stalin. The war had such an impact that the next half-century became known as the "postwar era." Only now, with the end of the Cold War, have we really begun to emerge from its shadow.

 

Topically, we shall follow proceed as follows: background, beginning with the settlement of the Great War and the problems thereby created; the accession to power of the expansionist dictators of Germany and Japan; the outbreak of actual conflict in the Far East and Europe; the course of the war itself, with greatest attention to the military events, the challenges of coalition warfare, and the outcome.