War and Society in the Twentieth Century
History 610
Fall 2014
Class:
Room:
Tuesday, 2:30-5:20
SJU 3015
Instructor: P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D.
Office:
SJU 3008
Telephone: 884-8111 ext. 28233
E-mail:
pwlacken@uwaterloo.ca
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1:30-2:20 or by appointment
Course website:
http://www.lackenbauer.ca/Hist610/
Course description:
These courses will explore the impact of twentieth century wars on the English-speaking world,
particularly Canada, with a focus on the ways in which historians have studied the First and Second
World Wars. Seminar discussions and research papers will sample the ‘old military history’ of strategy,
operations, and tactics, as well as issues like morality and war, war crimes, and soldiers’ experiences of
war.
Please note that this is a graduate seminar. It involves considerable reading and self-study as well as
active class discussion. Students who feel unable to engage in seminar discussions should carefully
review their grade expectations in this course. If you have questions, please ask.
Course Texts:
- Online readings and books on reserve in the St. Jerome’s library
- Yves Tremblay, ed., Canadian Military History Since the 17th Century (2000) (available online).
- C.P. Stacey, Introduction to Canadian Military History (1964) (available online)
- Tim Cook, Clio’s Warriors: Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars
(Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006)
- Carl von Clausewitz, On War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976)
- Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2004)
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G. Hayes et al, Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment (Waterloo: WLU Press, 2007)
Swinton, The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (available online)
P.W. Lackenbauer and C.M.V. Madsen, eds., Kurt Meyer on Trial (2007) (available online)
Assignments:
Seminar Participation
Paper proposal and preliminary bibliography (due 21 Oct.)
Historiography Paper (20-30 pages) (due 10 Dec.)
50%
10%
40%
Seminar Outline
9 September
Introduction
- Michael Howard et al, “What is Military History?” History Today 34/12, online at
http://www.historytoday.com/michael-howard/what-military-history
- Desmond Morton, “Providing and Consuming Security in Canada’s Century,” Canadian
Historical Review 81/1 (March 2000), 2-28. (Available online through Primo.)
- Sydney F. Wise, “Canada and War 1600-2000,” 21-29, in Yves Tremblay, ed., Canadian
Military History Since the 17th Century. Available online at: http://www.cmpcpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/docs/cmhc_2000.pdf
Students with little or no background in Canadian military history should read a general overview
text such as:
- C.P. Stacey, Introduction to the Study of Military History for Canadian Students, 6th ed., 4th
rev. (1964). Available online at: http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhhdhp/his/docs/Intro_MilHist_e.pdf
- Desmond Morton, A Military History of Canada (any edition)
16 September
Historiography
- Tim Cook, Clio’s Warriors (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006). Remember not to read this book like
you would a textbook upon which you would be tested in an undergrad course – it is for seminar
discussion purposes!
- John A. Lynn, “The Embattled Future of Military History,” Journal of Military History 61/4
(1997), 777-789. (Available online through Primo.)
- Victor Davis Hanson, “The Dilemmas of the Contemporary Military History,” in Reconstructing
History: The Emergence of a New Historical Society eds. E. Fox-Genovese and E. Lasch-Quinn
(Taylor & Francis, 1998), 189-201.
- Mark Moyar, “The Current State of Military History,” The Historical Journal 50/1 (2007), 225240. (Available online through Primo.) Skim to get a sense of the main points.
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Wayne E. Lee, “Mind and Matter – Cultural Analysis in American Military History: A Look at
the State of the Field,” The Journal of American History 93/4 (2007): 1116-1142. (Available
online through Primo.)
John Shy, “The Cultural Approach to the History of War,” Journal of Military History 57
(October 1993): 13-26. (Available online through Primo.)
23 September
Theoretical Perspectives
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War. http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html. For those who prefer a paper
copy, there are lots of versions out there.
- Michael I. Handel, Who is Afraid of Carl von Clausewitz: A Guide to the Perplexed (1997),
available online at http://web.stanford.edu/class/polisci211z/1.1/Handel%201999.pdf. Definitely
start with this before you dive into Clausewitz’s text!
- Carl von Clausewitz, On War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976). 75-112; 133-47;
156-74; 204; 357-59; 524-25; 577-637.
30 September [to re-schedule]
Tactical and Operational Analysis: Land Warfare
- E.D. Swinton, The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (available online)
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24842/24842-h/24842-h.htm.
- Stephen Biddle, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2004), 1-51 (skim 1-27); Op Michel (78-107); Op Goodwood (10831); and 190-96.
7 October
Vimy Ridge: A Case Study
- Those with little background knowledge on Canada and the First World War should begin with
Terry Copp, “Canada: The Military Effort in the Great War” from Canada and the First World
War ed. David Mackenzie (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 35-61 and/or C.P.
Stacey, Introduction to the Study of Military History for Canadian Students (Ottawa: Queen’s
Printer, 1956), “The Early Twentieth Century, 1902-1918,” 22-30. [Both are available online.]
- G.D. Sheffield, “How Even was the Learning Curve? Reflections on the British and Dominion
Armies on the Western Front, 1916-1918,” in Canadian Military History Since the 17th Century
ed. Tremblay, 125-34. [Available online.]
- Bill Rawling, Surviving Trench Warfare: Technology and the Canadian Corps, 1914-1918
(Toronto: UTP, 1992), 87-142 (skim for main points).
- Pierre Berton, Vimy (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986), 157-79, 290-308.
- G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1962),
chapters VII (pp. 190-200 in pdf format) and VIII (pp. 211-244), available online through a link
on the course website.
- Geoff Hayes et al, eds., Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment. In pairs or small groups, analyze
a division’s experience using the theory posited by Stephen Biddle and other discussions we
have had in class.
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14 October
Intelligence, Planning, and Operational Failure: Hong Kong and Dieppe [invited guest facilitator:
Mike Bechthold]
- NFB, The Valour and the Horror – Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941. 104 min. Available
online at https://www.nfb.ca/film/savage_christmas_hong_kong_1941. OR Carl Vincent, No
Reason Why: The Canadian Hong Kong Tragedy (Stittsville: Canada's Wings, 1981). Excerpts.
- “The Controversy over Maltby’s Hong Kong Dispatch,” Canadian Military History 2/2 (1993):
111-16.
- John Ferris, “Savage Christmas: The Canadians at Hong Kong,” in The Valour and the Horror
Revisited ed. D.J. Bercuson and S.F. Wise (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1994), 109-27.
- C.M. Bell, “‘Our Most Exposed Outpost’: Hong Kong and British Far Eastern Strategy, 19211941,” Journal of Military History 60/1 (Jan. 1996), 61-88. (Available online through Trellis.)
- Terry Copp, “The Defence of Hong Kong: December 1941,” Canadian Military History 10/4
(2001): 5-20.
- Brian Villa, “Mountbatten, the British Chiefs of Staff, and Approval of the Dieppe Raid,”
Journal of Military History 54/2 (Apr. 1990), 201-226. (Available online through Primo.)
- B. Greenhous, Dieppe, Dieppe (Montreal : Art Global, 1992) (excerpts).
- John P. Campbell, “Dieppe and D-Day” in Dieppe Revisited: A Documentary Investigation
(London: Frank Cass, 1993), 196-233.
- Alex Ballingall, “The Real Story of Canada’s Worst Military Disaster,” Maclean’s, 20 August
2012, 16-20.
21 October
The Normandy Campaign: The Falaise Gap Debate
- Those with little background knowledge on the Normandy compaign should begin with Russell
Weigley, “From the Normandy Beaches to the Falaise-Argentan Pocket: A Critique of Allied
Operational Planning in 1944,” Military Review 70:9 (1990), 45-64.
- C.P. Stacey, “Normandy: The Balance Sheet,” The Victory Campaign (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer,
1960), 270-78.
- Carlo D’Este, Decision in Normandy (New York: Harper Perennial, 1983), 437-460.
- John A. English, The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign: A Study of Failure in the
High Command (New York: Praeger, 1991), intro and conclusion.
- Stephen Hart, "Montgomery, Morale, Casualty Conservation and ‘Colossal Cracks’: 21st Army
Group’s Operational Technique in North-West Europe, 1944-45," Journal of Strategic Studies
19/4 (1996), 132-53.
- Martin Blumenson, “General Bradley’s Decision at Argentan (13 August 1944),” in Command
Decisions ed. K.R. Greenfield (Washington: Centre of Military History, Department of the
Army, 2000), 401-18, http://www.history.army.mil/books/70-7_17.htm
- Terry Copp, Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2003), (excerpts – Falaise Gap), 5-31, 155-267.
- Terry Copp, “21st Army Group in Normandy: Towards a New Balance Sheet,” Canadian
Military History 16.1 (Winter 2007), 65-74.
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28 October
Air Power: Strategic Bombing and Morality
- Editorial, “At War with the War Museum,” Legion Magazine (Nov./Dec. 2006).
- Tami Davis Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 1-10, 176-288.
- Tami Davis Biddle, “Dresden 1945: Reality, History, and Memory,” Journal of Military History
72 (2008), 413-449.
- NFB, The Valour and the Horror – Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command. 104 min. Available
online at https://www.nfb.ca/film/death_by_moonlight_bomber_command.
- Scot Robertson, “In the Shadow of Death by Moonlight,” in The Valour and the Horror
Revisited ed. D.J. Bercuson and S.F. Wise (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1994), 153-79.
- David Bercuson and Syd Wise, “The Valour and the Horror Controversy and the Official History
of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Volume 3,” Canadian Military History, Volume 3, Number 2
(Autumn 1994), 107-110.
- Brereton Greenhous et al, The Crucible of War, 1939-1945: The Official History of the Royal
Canadian Air Force vol. III (Toronto: UTP, 1994), chapters 19 (689-728) and 23 (829-867).
- David Bashow, “Defending Bomber Command,” The Legion (May 2007),
http://legionmagazine.com/en/2007/05/defending-bomber-command/.
- Bothwell, R., R. Hansen, and M. Macmillan. “Controversy, Commemoration, and Capitulation:
The Canadian War Museum and Bomber Command.” Queens Quarterly 115 (2008): 367-387.
- David Bercuson, “The Canadian Warm Museum and Bomber Command: My Perspective,”
Canadian Military History 20/3 (2012): 55-62, http://www.canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/6-Bercuson-CWM-and-Bomber-Command.pdf.
- Michael Waltzer, “Supreme Emergency,” in Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Arugment with
Historical Illustrations (New York: Basic Books, 1977), 251-268.
4 November
No Seminar – Reading Week for Historiography Papers
11 November
Naval History: The Battle of the Atlantic [guest facilitator: Richard Goette]
- Marc Milner, “The Battle of the Atlantic” in Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War ed.
John Gooch London: Frank Cass Publishing, 1990, 45-66.
- W.A. B. Douglas, Roger Sarty, Michael Whitby et al, No Higher Purpose: The Official
Operational History of the Royal Canadian Navy… vol. II, part 1 (St Catharines: Vanwell,
2002), chapters 1,3,4 and 5 (pp. 27-90, 151-320).
18 November
Social History of the Front Lines
- John Keegan, The Face of Battle (London: Penguin, 1976) (short excerpt provided by the
professor).
- Denis Winter, Death’s Men: Soldiers of the Great War (Markam, ON: Penguin Books, 1985)
(short excerpts provided by the professor).
- Denis Winter, The First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War (Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1982) (chapter provided by the professor)
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Hew Strachan, “The Soldiers’ Experience in Two World Wars: Some Historiographical
Comparisons,” in Time to Kill: The Soldier’s Experience of War in the West, 1939-1945, eds. P.
Addison and Angus Calder (London: Pimlico, 1997), 369-78.
Desmond Morton, “A Canadian Soldier in the Great War: The Experiences of Frank Maheux,”
Canadian Military History 1/1-2 (1992), 79-89.
Desmond Morton, When Your Number’s Up: The Canadian Soldier in the First World War
(Toronto: Random House, 1993), 181-206, 227-52.
Tim Cook, “‘More a Medicine than a Beverage’: ‘Demon Rum’ and the Canadian Trench
Soldier of the First World War," Canadian Military History 9/1 (Winter 2000): 6-22.
Tim Cook, “Anti-heroes of the Canadian Expeditionary Force,” Journal of the Canadian
Historical Association 19/1 (2008): 171-193,
http://www.erudit.org/revue/jcha/2008/v19/n1/037431ar.html.
Tim Cook, “Fighting Words: Canadian Soldiers’ Slang and Swearing in the Great War,” War in
History 20/3 (July 2013): 323-344.
Tim Cook, “Grave Beliefs: Stories of the Supernatural and the Uncanny among Canada’s Great
War Trench Soldiers,” Journal of Military History 77/2 (April 2013), 521-542.
Tim Cook, “The Politics of Surrender: Canadian Soldiers and the Killing of Prisoners in the
Great War,” Journal of Military History 70/3 (July 2006), 637-665. (Available through Project
Muse)
25 November
Final discussion
- J.L. Granatstein, Who Killed Canadian History, rev ed. Toronto: Harper Perrennial, 2007.
Chapter on military history.
- John A. Lynn II, “Breaching the Walls of Academe: The Purposes, Problems, and Prospects of
Military History,” National Association of Scholars Article, 2008.
http://www.nas.org/articles/Breaching_the_Walls_of_Academe_The_Purposes_Problems_and_P
rospects_of_Milit
- Ian McKay and Jamie Swift. Warrior Nation : Rebranding Canada In An Age Of Anxiety.
Toronto: Between the Lines, 2012. (excerpts)
COURSE EXPECTATIONS
Seminar Participation (50%)
Students are expected to actively participate in the weekly seminars. Regular reading requirements will be
approximately 200-250 pages/week. As in all seminars, there will be little to no lecturing. Attendance is a
prerequisite to successful completion of the course, but students must also come prepared to discuss the required
readings each week. Students are forewarned that oral participation is a critical component of the course
evaluation.
Quality of critical thinking counts for more than quantity, and all students will be encouraged to share their
thoughts and to constructively challenge those of their peers in a collegial and congenial manner.
Paper proposal and preliminary bibliography (10%)
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On 21 October 2014, students will submit a short proposal (3-4 pages) to the instructor including a 3-4
paragraph overview of the historiographical topic and the main questions that s/he is asking (which can be
in question form) and a preliminary bibliography.
Students are encouraged to pursue their individual research interests in this course, as long as the subject
relates to military history and/or war and society from an historical perspective. Although we will focus
on Canada and the world wars in the seminars, students may write papers on any temporal, geographical,
or thematic topic they wish. Please feel free to talk to the professor if you wish to discuss the suitability
and/or feasibility of the topic you are interested in exploring.
This proposal will encourage you to get started on your research early, and will allow the professor to
suggest other sources and themes that may strengthen your final paper. Final papers will not be graded by
the instructor without the prior submission of a proposal.
Historiography Paper (40%)
For their main written assignment (due 10 December2014), each student will write a double-spaced,
twenty to thirty (20-30) page historiographical paper on a subject or theme in war in society/military
history of their choice. Each student will choose her or his topic in consultation with the instructor. The
expectations for this paper will be explained in more detail during the term.
In evaluating your essay, I will look for the following:
1. The extent of the analysis (rather than description) of historical writings.
2. A thesis statement or interpretation that you argue throughout.
3. The ability to set the historians’ ideas, approach and interpretation into the broader context of
Canadian historiography.
5. A good writing style, with proper sentences, punctuation, and logic.
6. Proper footnoting/endnoting and bibliographic citations.
Make sure that you carefully proofread your work or, better yet, have a friend or colleague proofread it
for you. Be sure to number your pages and to staple them together.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS/ESSAYS
Late assignments and make up tests are not normally acceptable. Students must present a case in writing and any
agreement will follow the rules of fairness and equity for all students in the course.
OTHER INFORMATION
Correspondence: Students using email to contact me must include their first and last names and course in which
they are enrolled (HIST 610) in the email subject line. I will respond to email within 2-3 business days.
Late Assignments/Essays: A penalty of five percent (5%) per day will be deducted for assignments handed in
late that are not accompanied by a medical note. In practice, this means that if an assignment is due on Tuesday
and you hand it in on Thursday, your grade will be reduced by 10%. So if you earned a grade of 75%, you will
receive a final grade of 65% on the assignment.
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No extensions will be granted to students the week before the essay is due (except in extreme circumstances), so
be careful to budget your time accordingly.
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo
and its Federated University and Affiliated Colleges are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and
responsibility.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic
offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an
offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for
group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Associate
Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under St.
Jerome’s University Academic Discipline Policy and UW Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on
categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline.
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair
or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. For students who decide to file a grievance, students
should refer to Policy 70 – Student Petitions and Grievances. In such a case, contact Dr. Scott Kline
(scott.kline@uwaterloo.ca), Associate Dean of St. Jerome’s University.
Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 71 – Student
Discipline or Policy 70 – Student Petitions and Grievances if a ground for an appeal can be established. In such a
case, contact Dr. John Rempel (jrempel@uwaterloo.ca), Appeals Officer of St. Jerome’s University.
Academic Integrity website (Arts): http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts/grad/academic_responsibility.html
Academic Integrity Office (UW): http://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/
Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services (AS) Office, located in Needles Hall, Room
1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with
disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic
accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS Office at the beginning of
each academic term.
UW POLICY REGARDING ILLNESS AND MISSED TESTS
The University of Waterloo Examination Regulations state that:
 A medical certificate presented in support of an official petition for relief from normal academic
requirements must provide all of the information requested on the “University of Waterloo Verification of
Illness” form or it will not be accepted. This form can be obtained from Health Services or on the link
provided above.
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