'Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends.' In the Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fusell reminds readers that a political assassination sparked a war where eight million people died. Twenty years later, a war to ensure the independance of Poland resulted in the country's total humiliation and bondage. Air bombardment, intended to shorten the war, actually prolonged it by hardening the resolve of governments and civilians. (Fussell, 7-8).
In terms of the loss of human life, the resulting devastation to property and the environment, and the dislocations of entire societies, war exacts a heavy toll.
War is also a powerful catalyst and historians often consider military conflict as a source of social, cultural and economic change. This course focuses on the history of Britain during roughly the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Through assigned readings, in-class discussions, film screenings and written assignments, this course will reflect on the impact of the two world wars on British society, culture, social policies and gender relations. This is not a military history course in the traditional sense and we will not be studying battlefield tactics, technology and diplomacy. The focus of this course is the home front and the domestic response to the First World War, interwar reconstruction and the peace movement, the Second World War and Britain in the immediate post-war era. We will consider debates about the impact of the world wars on class relations and constructions of gender; the ‘lost generation’ and commemorating the war; and the political implications of the wars in terms of social policy and the evolution of the welfare state and multi-racial Britain Course readings have been selected to address a particular theme for each week.