email: dneill@yorku.ca

This course provides a global history of the final year of the Second World War and the immediate postwar period. We begin after D-Day in June 1944 and we end in the watershed year of 1949 with the beginning of the Cold War. In the first part of the course, we look at the military and social history of the war from June 1944 to August 1945, examining how the final year affected nations and individuals. We will also address the impact of aerial bombing on civilians, the discovery of the scale and extent of the Holocaust, the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and the question of collaborators and vigilante justice. We then turn to exploring the broader repercussions of the war: the geopolitical situation after the war, the question of “displaced persons” (DPs), the return and reintegration of soldiers, the war crimes trials, reconstruction of devastated communities, the partition of Germany, and the re-occupation of colonial territories. In the final weeks we will discuss the Chinese Civil War, the establishment of NATO, and the beginning of the Cold War. We seek a global perspective; we will therefore examine many regions of the world including East Asia, India, Europe, the U.S.S.R., the Arab world, Africa, and North America.

Tentative reading list:

to purchase:
Victor Sebestyen. 1946: The Making of the Modern World. New York: Vintage Books 2013.

Our other readings are all posted on e-class and are available free to you once you log in. These consist of excerpts from key primary and secondary sources as well as film and radio clips. I do this to give you a wider range of materials to read/watch, and to keep costs down.

Tentative assignment list:

Written question submissions (2 @ 5% each) 10%
Debate: (January 28 in class)5%
Active participation 10%
Memoir and Film Study20%
Final Project (multimedia or traditional essay) 30%
Final Exam (scheduled by registrar) 25%

This course consists of 2 weekly meetings, each 1.5 hours long. The class is lecture-style, but this is broken up with breaks for discussion, analysis of sources, and debates on the material. The idea is to include interactive elements where students can learn from each other as well as from the instructor. We also watch film clips, go on a trip to the archives, and we have at least one special guest speaker per term.

-Learn factual information, including dates, names, key events, geography
-Enhance our writing skills in short and longer assignments
-Learn how to work with memoirs and personal accounts of the war
-Develop historiographical skills including comparing/contrasting historical views
-Improve oral communication skills through in-class debates and discussions