Spring Semester 2007 Professor Geoffrey J. Giles

Tuesdays 7^th-9^th periods (1.55-4.55 p.m.) Keene-Flint 111

Office hours in Keene-Flint 208: Monday/Wednesday 3.00-4.30 p.m.

Phone: 392-0271 Ext. 245 Email: ggiles@history.ufl.edu

Webpage: www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles

EUH 4930 Section 3614

Senior Research Seminar:

Germany and World War One

The First World War is one of the most important, defining events of the twentieth century. Much of its history is written from a nationalistic perspective. On the Allied side, one’s own country seems to be the only one that counted. This new course seeks to examine the involvement in the war by one of the losers: Germany. Oxford history professor Hew Strachan’s new survey of the war will provide a basic overview, after which the class will focus more closely on German policy, German strategy, and how the fighting was experienced not only first hand by the soldiers at the front, but by the civilian population as well. This will be possible through the use of a wide range of materials in translation, not only documents but literature and other media. There will be presentations in class by the students every week, which will therefore entail extensive hands-on experience with primary and secondary sources.

Required purchase

Hew Strachan, The First World War Penguin, 2005 ISBN: 0143035185

Phillipp Witkop (Ed.), German Students’ War Letters .University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. ISBN 0812218167

Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel. Penguin Classics, 2004. ISBN 0142437905

Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing History. 5th edition (Bedford, 2006) ISBN: 0-312-44673-X

Please note that these are not the only readings for the course, but there will be considerably more from sources in the UF library.

Assignments

The main task of the semester is to have each student produce a significant and polished 6,000-word research paper (approx. 20 pages). You are encouraged to seek mentoring of this from me throughout the semester. There will be other, short writing assignments almost every week. All students are also expected to play an active and informed role in each week’s discussions. Teams of students will make class presentations on assigned topics. In the second half of the semester, each student will make an individual presentation of his/her research, which will be subject to peer evaluation.

The various components of the final grade will count as follows:

Research paper 40%

Mid-term essay examination 30%

Two 3-page book reports 10%

Active participation/presentation of research  20%

There is no final examination.

• More detailed advice on the presentation of these assignments will be provided in class, and at my website at www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles
• Please note that attendance at every class and discussion session is mandatory. Non-attendance will lower your final grade. If you are unable to attend on medical grounds, you must provide documentation.
• A make-up examination is only ever granted by prior agreement with me before the exam takes place.
• Cell-phone policy: If I hear a cell phone ringing during class, I will immediately suspend the class and give a pop quiz on the readings for that week to the entire class, the grade for which will be figured into everyone’s final grade! Last semester I had to give at least three of these, at which many students did very badly. You can imagine how unpopular this will make you with the other students. So please learn to respect your peers, in order to avoid this drastic solution. Make sure that your cell phone is turned off before entering the classroom!
• In 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/judicial/procedures/academicguide.php
• Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/).  The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.

Course outline

January Readings

9 Introduction, assignments, library research

The war that everyone expected?

16 Local war to world war Strachan 1-4
            Postcards and propaganda

23 The problems for Germany Strachan 5-7

The poster war

30 Decline and defeat Strachan 8-10

Verdun

February

6 The outbreak of the war—German documents Geiss 1-4

The Battle of the Somme

13 Globalization of the war—German documents Geiss 5-8

Rumors of German atrocities

20 British documents—a different story? Library

Chemical warfare through poison gas

27 University students and the war Winter (entire book)

The air war

March

6 MID-TERM EXAMINATION

Pacifism and the anti-war movement—  Erich Maria Remarque

13 SPRING BREAK

20 The glorification of trench warfare—Ernst     Jünger Jünger (entire book)

The U-Boot war and the  Lusitania

27 Women and the war

Research reports

April

3 The turnip winter and the home front

Research reports

10 Dealing with defeat

Research reports

17 Veterans and Weimar politics RESEARCH PAPER DUE

24 Concluding discussion