Course description
This course will address World history by focussing on the empires, wars and revolutions that transformed the world in the 20th century. We will use historical sources and popular film to consider the rise and fall of empires in both the Pacific and Atlantic worlds. The course will explore how the cataclysmic First World War accelerated the process of decolonisation across the globe. We will address the decline of European empires in the Pacific, a decline that provided opportunities for the United States and imperial Japan.
The class will be organised to include be a combination of short lectures or reviews, films and student-led class discussions. The assigned readings should be done according to the schedule below. All readings will be made available digitally as PDFs or placed on reserve in the library. Many films will be made available either on-line or in class. Students will work in teams or with partners to lead at least one class discussion during the semester. Student teams will make class presentations by using resources and a bibliography that we will engage with as the semester progresses.

Requirements
Eight short essays = 80%
Final project/participation in discussions = 20%

Class Schedule

Week 1
Introduction/orientation to the class and its format.
Review: World War I and its impact on Europe, Africa and Asia
Film: Black and White in Colour ( 92 min. orig. titled: La Victoire en chantant, France/Ivory Coast, 1976)
For next week read Empires at War, The French Empire and ‘The use of Native Troops’ in Empires, Soldiers and Citizens.

Week 2
Discussion: Empires at War, The French Empire and ‘The use of Native Troops’ in Empires, Soldiers and Citizens and Black and White in Colour.
Review: The Russian Revolution and its global impact.
Film: Battleship Potemkin (72 min. Sergei Eisenstein, USSR, 1925).
For next week read ‘Revolution in Russia’ in Empires, Soldiers and Citizens and Empires at War: 1911-1923 chapter 5 ‘The Russian Empire,’ Joshua Sanborn
(DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198702511.003.0006)

Week 3
Discussion and short essay 1 due: ‘Revolution in Russia’ in Empires, Soldiers and Citizens and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin.
Review: Europe and Asia in the interwar years.
For next week read Empires at War, ‘The Japanese Empire’ Frederick R. Dickinson, (DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198702511.003.0011)

Week 4
Discussion and short essay 2 due: Empires at War, The Japanese Empire
Review: The World at War: Asia and the West.
Film: Grave of Fireflies (89 min. Japanese with English subtitles, Isao Takahata, Japan, 1988).
For next week read the article ‘75 Years Later the Battle of Iwo Jim Still Haunts this Veteran’, Bill Newcott, National Geographic, February 20, 2020.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/75-years-later-battle-iwo-jima-haunts-veteran

Week 5
Discussion and short essay 3 due: Empires in World History and the article ‘75 Years Later the Battle of Iwo Jim Still Haunts this Veteran’, Bill Newcott, National Geographic, February 20, 2020
Review: America and the Pacific War.
Film: The Flags of our Fathers (132 min. Clint Eastwood, USA, 2006)
For next week read assigned pages of Empires in World History

Week 6
Discussion and short essay 4 due: The Flags of Our Fathers and Empires at War.
Review: Japan and the Pacific War
Film: Letters from Iwo Jima (140 min. Japanese with English subtitles, Clint Eastwood, 2006)
For next week read: ‘Letters from Iwo Jima Japanese Perspectives’, Ikui Eikoh, The Asia Pacific Journal, (translated from Japanese) May 2, 2007:
https://apjjf.org/-Ikui-Eikoh/2417/article.html
and Jason Miks, ‘Japan Reads Into Letters from Iwo Jima’, Christian Science Monitor, December 22, 2006: https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1222/p11s02-almo.html

Week 7
Discussion and short essay 5 due Letters from Iwo Jima, articles by Ikui Eikoh and Jason Miks.
Review: The Cold War in the Pacific: China, the West and the Korean ‘police action’
For next week read: ‘The Korean War, a ‘Forgotten Conflict that Shaped the Modern World’ Liam Stack, New York Times, January 1, 2018.
Film in class Korea. (87 min. Cathal Black)

Week 8
Discussion: ‘The Korean War, a ‘Forgotten Conflict that Shaped the Modern World’ Liam Stack.
Review: The Cold War: Cuba and Latin America.
Film: The Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis.
For next week read: Digital archive from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library:
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/cuban-missile-crisis

Week 9
Discussion and short essay 6 due: Primary sources from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
For next week read: The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors; ‘How the North Vietnamese Remember the Conflict 40 Years After the fall of Saigon’, Elisabeth Rowan, The Atlantic, April 16, 2005.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/the-vietnam-war-as-seen-by-the-north-vietnamese/390627/

Week 10
France, Indochina and the origins of America’s War in Vietnam
Film: Apocalypse Now (147 min. Francis Ford Coppola’s
Discussion and short essay 7 due Perspectives on the American War in Vietnam.
For next week read: Readings: ‘Terrorism on the Screen: Lessons from the Battle of Algiers, Perspectives on History, Ron Briley, 1 Oct 2010.
www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2010/terrorism-on-screen-lessons-from-the-battle-of-algiers

Week 11
France, Algeria and the end of empire.
Film The Battle of Algiers (120 min. Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy, 1960).
Discussion and short essay 8 due: The Battle of Algiers and Ron Briley article.
For next week read: New York Times review: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/movies/26hurt.html
Tara McKelvey, The American Prospect, ‘The Hurt Locker is Propaganda’:
https://prospect.org/article/i-the-hurt-locker-i-propaganda/

Week 12
Review: The End of Empire? The Iraq War and American narratives in popular culture.
Film, The Hurt Locker, (131 min. Kathryn Bigelow, USA, 2008).
Discussion, Iraq and America’s ‘War on Terror’

Note: In fairness to all, work submitted late will be penalized appropriately. The recording of class lectures and discussions is strictly prohibited.

Films:
Grand Illusion (Jean Monet, France, 1937).
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy, 1960).
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, USSR, 1925).
Korea (Cathal Black, Ireland, 1996).
The Hurt Locker, (Kathryn Bigelow, USA, 2008).
Grave of Fireflies (Isao Takahata, Japan, 1988).
Black and White in Colour (orig. titled: La Victoire en chantant, France/Ivory Coast, 1976)
The Flags of our Fathers (Clint Eastwood, USA, 2006).
Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese with English subtitles, USA, Clint Eastwood, 2006).
All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, Germany, 2022)

Readings for the course
Select chapters/readings, (made available to students as PDFs):
Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference, by Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, (2011).
The Historical Film, History and Memory in Media, Marcia Landy ed. (2001)
Empires at War: 1911-1923, Robert Gerwarth and Erez Manela (eds.), (2014).
Empires, Soldiers, and Citizens: A World War I Sourcebook, Marilyn Shevin Coetzee and Frans Coetzee eds. (2013).
History on Film/Film on History, Robert Rosenstone, (2017).

Last updated: July 15, 2024