Covering the 20th century

The lectures over the next few weeks won’t match up with the textbook quite as closely as usual. The 20th century can be looked at in a lot of different ways: though I like what Fernandez-Armesto is trying to do with the last four chapters, I think that a more chronologically focused presentation might be helpful. So here’s what’s going to happen over the next few weeks:

Topics readings
11/14 (F) Science and uncertainty. Chapter 27: The Twentieth-Century Mind: Western Science And The World(from ch. 28) Soldier’s Accounts of Battle and François Carlotti, from “World War I: A Frenchman’s Recollections” and British Soldiers on the Battle of the Somme
11/17 (M) Politics of crisis and war: totalitarianisms and nationalisms Chapter 28: World Order And Disorder: Global Politics In The Twentieth CenturyBenito Mussolini, from “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism”
11/19 (W) Technology of war: WWI and WWII
Catch-up/Review
Technologies of WWI and WWII
11/21 (F) Test 7 (Instructor Absent)
11/24 (M) Long Essay Part One: Timeline
11/26 (W) Thanksgiving Break
11/28 (F) Thanksgiving Break
12/1 (M) Cold War and internationalism Chapter 29: The Pursuit Of Utopia: Civil Society In The Twentieth CenturyCold War Chronology

UN “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” 1948

12/3 (W) Technology and ecology Chapter 30: The Embattled Biosphere: The Twentieth-Century Environment
12/5 (F) Long Essay Part Two: Thesis, Outline
12/8 (M) Social and cultural change
Catch-up/Review
Sayyid Qutb, from Milestones, 1964
12/10 (W) Test 8
12/12 (F) Long Essay Due
Catch-up/ReviewLast day of instruction