European Studies 130 - World War I Beyond the Trenches

(Offered as HIST 130 and EUST 130) The image of the First World War is so iconic that it can be evoked through a handful of tropes: trenches, machine guns, mud, “going over the top,” crossing “no man’s land.” Yet in many ways this is a partial vision, one that focuses myopically on the experiences of European soldiers who occupied a few hundred miles of trenches in northern France. Why is it that a conflict as unprecedented in its size and complexity as “the Great War” has been reduced in our minds to this very limited scale? How was the war also fought “at home” reshaping gender norms, challenging racial dynamics, transforming state power, and contesting the boundaries between freedom and unfreedom? This course both explores the role of World War I in our cultural imagination and aims to create a broader, messier, and more complicated portrait of this history. It will examine the conflict on multiple fronts, studying the perspectives of European, American, and colonial soldiers and civilians. Equally, it will analyze the war’s role in shaping the twentieth century, exploring the lasting legacies of this conflict for our world today. Meets twice weekly.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Boucher.

How to handle overenrollment: Priority to History and European Studies majors, then first-years, second-years, third so on.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Close analysis of historical evidence, which may include written documents, images, music, films, or statistics from the historical period under study. Exploration of scholarly, methodological, and theoretical debates about historical topics. Extensive reading, varying forms of written work, and intensive in-class discussions.