UF in Cambridge
HIS 4956 “Europe in the First and Second World Wars”
29th June-2nd August 2011
at St. Edmund’s College,
Cambridge University, England
Program Director: Professor Geoffrey J Giles
Updated 16 March 2011
This program seeks to examine the First and Second World Wars, not from the rather
Americocentric viewpoint of most textbooks in the US, but rather from the European
standpoint. Each country writes its own history of wars, emphasizing its own contribution,
and we are going to seek a more balanced view. The course will also have the enormous
advantage of being able to visit some of the important, relevant museums and sites related
to the wars. In addition, the Holocaust is inextricably entwined with World War II, and
that connection will be explored in detail as well.
The course will comprise PowerPoint lectures, audio-visual materials such as original film
footage from the 1916 Battle of the Somme, seminar discussions, and student presentations
of their research projects, not to mention frequent field trips. Students will be required to
write two 2,000-word papers, and create an oral (preferably PowerPoint) presentation on a
research project, chosen in collaboration with the course director.
Classes will generally take place in the mornings from 9.45 a.m. – 12.45 p.m., usually
broken into three segments, with a coffee break. There will be group activities on some
afternoons, but they will mostly be free for individual study, research, writing and leisure.
Students will also be encouraged to explore, with the help of Professor Giles, the rich
history of the University of Cambridge, its colleges and museums and architecture.
Required texts
The following books should be purchased, if possible read in advance of the program with
copious notes taken (in order to leave more time to enjoy Cambridge itself), and brought
with you to St. Ed’s:
Frans Coetzee & Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee, World War I: A History in Documents (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2010) 2nd edition ISBN: 0199731519
Hew Strachan, The First World War (New York: Penguin, 2005) ISBN: 0143035185
Poems of the Great War, 1914-1918 (London: Penguin, 1998) ISBN: 9780141181035
[This pocket-size book appears to be currently available only in Britain, for less than ₤5.
Wait till you arrive to buy it]
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James Madison, World War II: A History in Documents (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2010) ISBN 9780195338126
Doris L. Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust 2nd edition
(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) ISBN 0742557154
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing History. 6th edition (Bedford, 2006)
ISBN: 0312535031 [Essential if you are not used to research and writing in history]
Assignments
Students should take care to read the books in their entirety, as individual students will be
asked each day at random to explain to the class the most important arguments of the
chapters assigned for that day.
In addition, there will be two 2,000 papers required on an assigned topic. These will receive
individual mentoring in the time-honored Cambridge University tradition of ‘supervisions’,
in which students meet individually with the professor to receive a critique of the paper and
advice on improving their writing.
Grading
The distribution of grades for this 6-credit course will be as follows:
First paper—30%
Second paper—30%
Research project and presentation—20%
Active participation in class and the course in general—20%
Students are strongly advised to bring a laptop (and flash drive) with them, as access to
computer facilities at St. Ed’s will be quite limited. We will always have to give way to the
needs of the regular graduate students of the college, who are conducting research there
throughout the summer. This also means that a last-minute start on writing a paper will
generally end in disaster! Please plan well ahead.
As always in history courses, you need to pay particular attention to the question of
plagiarism when writing papers. Be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words,
phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else’s work. Failure to
give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please
review the University’s honesty policy at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcode.php.
Here is the tentative course schedule, with the readings for each day given (with the initial
of the author of the textbook) in square brackets.
June
W 29 Arrival (any time from early morning) and assignment of rooms
p.m. College walk-through (library, fitness room, recreational and laundry
facilities)
Th 30 Introduction, outline, rules & regulations
2 p.m. Collect bikes
UF in Cambridge 2011
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6.30 p.m. Welcome banquet
July
F 1 The Third Balkan War and the Ideas of 1914 [St 1-2]
2 p.m. Tour of the town with King’s College Chapel
Evening film “My Boy Jack” (Rudyard Kipling)
Sat 2 p.m. Field trip to Rupert Brooke Museum, Grantchester
Su 3 Free [probably last chance to attend choral service at King’s College Chapel]
M4
Origins of First World War, enlistment [C 1-2]
1916 original film footage “The Battle of the Somme”
p. m. Registration/distribution of photo ID card for Cambridge University
Library
Evening documentary on Bovington Tank Museum’s restoration project,
“Saving the Tiger”
T5
Field trip to Dorset: Bovington Tank Museum, Clouds Hill (Lawrence
of Arabia’s cottage), & (time permitting) the 1,000-year-old Corfe
Castle
W6
The Fischer controversy over the outbreak of WW1
Battle conditions, atrocities [C 3-4]
Assemble for formal group photograph
Th 7 War propaganda, the domestic front, end of WWI [C 5-7]
The propaganda war through posters
F8
Field trip to the Imperial War Museum, London
Sa 9 Free weekend with option to stay in London for further museums & sights
Su 10
M 11 Global War and Jihad [St 3-4]
The war by mail
T 12 Field trip to Imperial War Museum Air Branch, Duxford
W 13 The Western & Eastern fronts, Verdun, the Somme [St 5-6]
Th 14 First paper due at 9.45 a.m.
Blockade, U-Boats, Revolution [St 7-8]
2.30 p.m. Field trip to American Military Cemetery, Madingley
F 15 First World War Poets [Penguin book]
UF in Cambridge 2011
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The First World War remembered [eyewitness testimony]
Sa 16 Free weekend
Su 17
M 18 Germany’s 1918 offensive, and defeat [St 9-10]
The “Stab in the Back”
p.m. Supervisions
T 19 Appeasement, war and war crimes [M 1-2]
p.m. Supervisions
W 20 Total war, the Home Fronts, propaganda [M 3-5]
Churchill’s speeches
Evening film: It Happened Here: The German Occupation of Britain
Th 21 Allied initiatives, peace and memory [M 6-8]
The Home Guard [British propaganda films]
F 22 Field trip to Cabinet War Rooms, and H.M.S. Belfast, London
Sa 23 Free weekend with option to stay in London for further museums & sights
Su 24
M 25 Anti-Semitism, the early Nazi Party, the Third Reich [B 1-3]
Evening documentary: The Bletchley Park Story
T 26 Field trip to Bletchley Park (WWII Code-breaking Center)
W 27 Preparation for War, Poland, euthanasia, terror [B 4-6]
WWII Rationing in Britain
Social outsiders in Nazi Germany
Second paper due at 5 p.m.
Th 28 Research project presentations
Original BBC radio reports on D-Day from June 1944 (CD)
“Songs that Won the War”
p.m. Field trip to Churchill Archives
F 29 Research project presentations
Holocaust, collapse of Germany [B 7-conc.]
Memories of war [M 8]
p.m. Supervisions
UF in Cambridge 2011
Sa 30 Free weekend
Su 31
August
M 1 Research project presentations
Fill out evaluation forms
p.m. Supervisions
3 p.m. Return bikes
T2
Depart—latest check-out time from rooms 10.30 a.m.
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