2019-2020 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2019-2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 2110 - Warfare and Society in Modern Europe


Modern European history cannot be understood without also studying the history of war. Nor can military developments in Europe be viewed in isolation, without considering the broader social, political, cultural, economic, and technological context within which Europeans fought their wars. This course explores the military history of Europe and those portions of the world in which European military institutions and practices dominated from the French Revolution through the present. We will situate the European imagination and practice of war within the larger fabric of European “state-making” and society and relate military strategy and operations to the pursuit of global power and empire. Examining European practices of machine warfare, military exterminism, and genocidal war, we will pay special attention to languages, conceptions, and experiences of war and the use of military force across the civil-military divide. This is not a course devoted to tactics and military operations. Although we will not ignore the development of strategies within which to apply organized, socially sanctioned armed violence, our goal is to to integrate the study of warfare in Europe with social, political, economic, and gender history in order to better understand the all-encompassing activity that war has become.

Course Designation/Attribute: HP (summer only)

Anticipated Terms Offered: varies