Master of American History and Government

Ashland University

AHG 660:

Topics in American History and Government – World War II

Sunday, July 6 to Friday, July 11, 2008

Instructors: John Moser and David Krugler

Course Content:

World War II was the most destructive conflict in the history of the world, affecting nearly everyone who was alive at the time, as well as the generations that followed. This seminar will examine the causes, course, and consequences of the war, both in the European and Asian/Pacific theaters as well as on the American homefront. While it will emphasize the role that the United States played in the conflict, it will not ignore those aspects of the war in which Americans were not directly involved, such as the early war years (1939-41), and the genocidal conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will learn the reasons why World War II began, in both Europe and East Asia.
• Students will understand the reasons behind the Germans' spectacular military victories in the early years of the war.
• Students will learn why so many Americans did not want to enter World War II, even as they professed support for the Allied side, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Students will understand why the "Grand Alliance" (Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States) was often strained and riddled with mistrust.
• Students will learn why the fighting on certain fronts-i.e., the eastern front and the South Pacific-tended to be so much more brutal than on others.
• Students will understand how military technology and tactics evolved over the course of the war.
• Students will learn how the United States mobilized its vast and diverse population to fight and support the war against the Axis powers.
• Students will understand why the Nazis simultaneously waged war and carried out genocide on the eastern front.
• Students will learn about the vital part the Soviet Union had in ensuring an Allied victory.
• Students will understand why the United States used atomic weapons against Japan, and the role that those weapons played in Japan's decision to surrender.
• Students will learn how and why the Second World War changed the world.

Course Requirements:

• Completion of all assigned readings
• Participation in all course sessions
• Final examination
• Completion of a lesson plan on some topic related to World War II

Students auditing the course as a part of a Teaching American History Grant program must complete the readings and fully participate in the seminars during the week.

• John Keegan, The Second World War. New York: Penguin, 1990. ISBN: 0143035738
• Course Packet (or "CP") of additional reading materials. These materials are required texts for your course.

Sunday, July 6

4:30 - 6:00pm:
Introduction & Session 1 – American Neutrality in the 1930s (Professor Moser)

Focus:

Why did Americans in the 1930s hope to avoid involvement in foreign wars? What means did Congress employ to ensure that such involvement would not occur? Were these measures realistic? How did the U.S. approach toward East Asia differ from U.S. foreign policy toward Europe? What did American attitudes toward this subject suggest about their overall views of the world and foreign affairs?

Readings:

• Tom Connally's Criticism of the Neutrality Act of 1935 (CP)
• Bennett Champ Clark's Defense of the First Neutrality Act (CP)
• "Pro-Fascist Neutrality," The Nation, January 9, 1937 (CP)
• Neutrality Act of 1937 (CP)
• Joseph C. Grew's Observations on American Foreign Policy, October 1937 (CP)
• Address Delivered by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, March 12, 1938 (CP)
• Charles A. Beard, "Giddy Minds and Foreign Quarrels," 1939 (CP)
• Gerald P. Nye, "Is Neutrality Possible for America?" 1939 (CP)

7:30 - 9:00pm:
Session 2 – Ashbrook Lecture (Attendance Required)

Monday, July 7

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 3 – The Origins of War in Europe (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

What steps did Nazi Germany take after the Munich agreement (September 1938) to prepare for war? Why did the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with the Nazis in late August 1939? What were Hitler's motives, both short- and long-term, and how well did the Soviet Union, France, and England understand them on the eve of war? How did the leaders of France and England respond to the German invasion of Poland? What was the United States' part in the lead-up to war?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 10-51
• French Ambassador in Berlin to French Foreign Minister, 2/7/39 (CP)
• Reich Foreign Minister to the German Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Schulenburg), 8/20/39 (CP)
• German Ambassador in the USSR to the German Foreign Office, 8/21/39 (CP)
• French Ambassador in Berlin to French Foreign Minister, 8/21/39 (CP)
• Memorandum of a Conversation, Reich Foreign Minister, Stalin, and Molotov, 8/23-24/39 (CP)
• Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, 8/23/39, and secret additional protocol (CP)
• Correspondence between the U.K. and Germany, 8/39 (items 1 and 2 only) (CP)
• French Ambassador in Warsaw to French Foreign Minister, 9/1/39 (CP)
• Address by Hitler to the Reichstag, 9/1/39 (CP)
• Franklin Roosevelt's appeal, 9/1/39 (CP)
• French Foreign Minister to the German Foreign Minister, 9/1/39 (CP)
• Radio address by Neville Chamberlain, 9/3/39 (CP)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 4 – The Nazi Way of War (Professor Moser)

Focus:

What was blitzkrieg? Why did Hitler find it an appealing strategy? What were its strengths and weaknesses, as demonstrated in the quick German victory over France?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 54-87
• Excerpts from Heinz Guderian, Achtung-Panzer! (CP)

4:30 - 6:00pm:
Session 5 – Britain Stands Alone (Professor Moser)

Focus:

Why did Winston Churchill insist on continuing what seemed to many to be a hopeless war in the summer of 1940? What advantages and disadvantages did Germany and Great Britain possess in late 1940 and early 1941? Why did Hitler's aerial offensive against Britain fail? Why did Hitler decide on an invasion of the Balkans, and why did this invasion succeed? Why did the Germans invade Crete, and what did this operation suggest about the future of airborne operations?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 88-102, 142-172
• Selected Speeches by Winston Churchill (CP)
• Hitler's Order of the Day Authorizing an Invasion of the Balkans (CP)

Tuesday, July 8

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 6 – The battle of the Atlantic (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

Was the United States in an undeclared state of war with Germany in the North Atlantic by the fall of 1941, and if so, how did Roosevelt justify American aggression? Did the Allies almost lose the war on the Atlantic in 1942? How were the Nazis able to sink so many Allied merchant ships, and how did the Allies staunch their heavy losses by 1943? What was it like to a U.S. submarine hunter?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 103-123
• Roosevelt's Fireside Chat on Maintaining Freedom of the Seas, 9/11/41 (CP)
• USS Greer, from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (CP)
• First Report to the Secretary of the Navy, 4/23/44, pp. 4-10, 77-82 (CP)
• Oral history-Battle of the Atlantic, recollections of Lt. H. Bradshaw (CP)
• "Winter/Spring U-Boat Offensive and the U-Boat's Defeat, 1943," from Battle of the Atlantic, Vol. I: Allied Communications Intelligence December 1942-May 1945 (CP)
• Naval Armed Guard Service: General Introduction (1946) (CP)
• Naval Armed Guard Service: Convoys to Northern Russia (1946) (CP)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 7 – The War in the East from Barbarossa to Stalingrad (Professor Moser)

Focus:

Why did Hitler decide on an invasion of the Soviet Union, despite the fact that Great Britain remained undefeated? What advantages and disadvantages did each side possess on the eve of the invasion? What was the German strategy, and how did it evolve as the invasion progressed? What was the nature of the disagreement between Hitler and his generals regarding the conduct of the campaign? Why was the fighting on this front so much more brutal than that conducted in other fronts of the European war? Finally, why was the Wehrmacht stopped at Stalingrad?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 127-141, 173-208, 220-237
• Selected Documents on Operation Barbarossa (CP)
• Stalin's Order #227, July 28, 1942 (CP)

4:30 - 6:00pm: Session 8 – Japan's Advance in the Pacific (Professor Moser)

Focus:

Why did the Japanese government decide to attack Pearl Harbor? Did the United States leave Tokyo with any reasonable alternative? How successful was the attack? What accounts for the stunning success of Japanese arms in the first months of the Pacific War?

Required Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 240-267
• Selected Documents on Japan's Decision for War (CP)
• Address by Tojo Hideki on the Opening of the Imperial Diet, 1942 (CP)

Wednesday, July 9

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 9 – The Battle for the Second Front: North Africa and Italy (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

Why did the United States and Great Britain choose North Africa for the opening of a second front in the European theater? What did Stalin think of this choice? What strategies and tactics were used, first in North Africa, then in Sicily and Italy? How successful were these campaigns, militarily and politically?

Readings:

• Keegan, 310-368
• Roosevelt's Statement on North African Policy, 11/17/42 (CP)
• U.S. War Department, A Pocket Guide to North Africa (CP)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 10 – War in the Pacific, 1942-1944 (Professor Moser)

Focus:

How did U.S. forces manage to turn the tide in the war against Japan? What accounts for the particularly savage nature of the fighting in this theater—was it, as John Dower believes, a "race war"? Why did the United States opt for a two-pronged offensive against Japan, in violation of one of the cardinal principles of strategy?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 268-278, 290-307
• Excerpt from John Dower, War Without Mercy (CP)
• Excerpt from Eric Bergerud, Touched With Fire (CP)
• Strategic Plan for the Defeat of Japan, 19 May 1943 (CP)

4:30 - 6:00pm:
Session 11 – From Normandy to the Rhine (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

What was the decision-making process behind the Normandy invasion? What was it like to face the German defenses on Omaha beach on D-Day? How did D-Day serve the Allies' strategic aims in Western Europe? How did the Nazis try to halt the Allied advance toward the Rhine?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 369-447
• U.S. Army photographs of the Normandy landing (CP) (from the National Archives: ARC #s 778813, 195567, 195515, 531187)
• In-class use of audio oral histories, combat footage, and interactive maps

Thursday, July 10

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 12 – The War in the East from Stalingrad to Berlin (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

How did the Soviets capitalize on their victories at Stalingrad and Kursk and drive the Nazis back into Germany? How did postwar goals affect Stalin's strategic thinking and decisions late in the War in the East? Why did the Nazis make genocide a key part of their eastern strategy, and what were the consequences for Europe's Jews and other groups despised by the Nazis?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 284-289, 450-482, 503-533
• The Jager Report, 12/1/41 (CP)
• Testimonies of Auschwitz SS-men (CP)
• In-class viewing of Holocaust personal histories, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 13 – The Defeat of Japan (Professor Moser)

Focus:

Why did Roosevelt promise so much to Stalin at Yalta? What role did the Chinese and Burmese fronts play in the Pacific War? How did the final battles in the Pacific-the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa-shape the course of the conflict? Why did Truman decide to use atomic weapons against the Japanese? How much of a role did they play in Tokyo's decision to surrender?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 536-585
• Koiso Kuniaki's New Year's Address, 1945 (CP)
• Selected Documents on Truman's Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (CP)
• Selected Documents on Japan's Decision to Surrender (CP)

4:30 - 6:00pm:
Session 14 – The American Home Front (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

How did the U.S. Government mobilize its diverse and vast population to support the war? How did it balance voluntary and coercive homefront measures, and how did it use propaganda for both? How did racial tensions and entrenched segregation and racism affect war mobilization?

Readings:

• Harvard Sitkoff, "Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War," Journal of American History 58, no. 3 (December 1971): 661-81 (CP)
• Office of Facts and Figures, Report to the Nation: The American Preparation for War (1942), pp. 36-62. (CP) (pdf; will provide)
• Fair Employment Practice Committee, Minorities in Defense (1942). (CP)
• Labor Department, Choosing Women for War-Industry Jobs (1943). (CP)
• Agriculture Department, 99 Ways to Share the Meat (1943). (CP)
• Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from WWII (National Archives): in-class viewing

Friday, July 11

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 15 – Why the Allies Won (Professor Krugler)

Focus:

Why did the Allies win World War II? Was their victory inevitable, or can we identify specific reasons for the defeat of the Axis powers? Were the Axis powers ever close to winning the war? To what extent was World War II an ideological conflict?

Readings:

• Keegan, pp. 209-219, 588-595
• Excerpts from Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won, pp. 1-24, 314-326 (CP)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, Victory Order of the Day, 5/8/45 (CP)
• The Atlantic Charter, 8/14/41 (CP)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 16 – Review and Questions (Professors Moser and Krugler)

1:30 - 3:00pm:
Session 17 – Final Comprehensive Examination