World War I at 100

description

A century ago, the First World War plunged the world into military conflict, political strife, population displacement, mass disease, economic ruin, and cultural, intellectual, and religious malaise. Though few question its resounding impact, the war’s legacy continues to provoke a surprising level of controversy both among scholars and the general public. This course provides a brief survey of the history of World War I. It then moves through the subsequent century, covering the way the war was remembered, understood, and used in various historical contexts. Some specific themes will be the interplay between history and memory, war commemoration and its purposes and meanings, the impact of war on art, literature, and religion, and the ways World War I has influenced strategic thinking and gaming. Students work with military history, geography, literature, and games on a variety of assignments. The goal of the course is to deliver an understanding of the basic narrative of World War I, but more importantly, to show how and why it has remained important to people at various points in the century since. The broader objective, then, is to show how and why wars shape history.