A GLOBAL HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II: THE ZENITH AND END OF EMPIRE

Professor Stephen G. Gross

stephengross@nyu.edu

Course Time: TBA

Office Hours: 612 KJCC, TBA

World War Two changed the world more than any other conflict in the 19th or 20th centuries. The
bid by Nazi Germany and authoritarian Japan to create radically racist imperial spheres brought
the old empires of Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to their knees. In its genocide and
brutal occupation policies the Nazi regime imposed a colonial-style rule in Europe itself, the
trauma of which Europe is still dealing with today. Through its military expansion Japan created
the space for national movements to flourish in India and Southeast Asia, and eventually turn
decolonization into a reality. The war firmly entrenched communist economic regimes in Eastern
Europe, and it moved Western Europe far to the left socially and economically. The war
catapulted the United States and the Soviet Union into positions of world power. And finally, the
war forced Europeans, Americans, and Asians to rethink the meaning of democracy, individual
rights, and the place of the nation-state in a modern world.
This class will trace the origins, course, and legacy of the Second World War, viewing it as a
contest among empires and countries aspiring to create empires. Although military topics will be
covered, this is primarily a political, economic, and international history of the Second World
War. We will pay particular attention to several thematic questions. Why did Germany and Japan
seek to create empires, and how did their imperial projects differ from those of Western
European powers in ideology and practice? How did the war change the way people thought
about questions of economics, society, and class? How did the war shape American and
European plans for a new, postwar international order? And finally, to what extent did the war
bring an end to imperialism as a form of political governance?

REQUIRED TEXTS:
- Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (Lanham 2009).
- Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen (New York 1976).
- Frans Coetzee and Marilyn Shevin-Coetzee, The World in Flames: A World War II Sourcebook
(New York 2011).
- Evan Mawdsley, World War II: A New History (New York 2009).
- Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the
United Nations (Princeton 2009).
- Gerhard Weinberg, Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders (New York
2005).
GRADING:
Map Quiz
Participation and Citizenship
Midterm
Paper
Final Exam

5 percent
15 percent
25 percent
25 percent
30 percent

Weekly Schedule of Readings

Week 1
1.
Introduction: World War I and the Paris Peace Talks
- *Erez Manela, The Emergence of the Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination for
Whom? in The Wilsonian Moment
2.

The Interwar International System: Minority Rights and The League of Nations
- Mawdsley, CH 1.
- Mazower, CHs 1-2
- *C.A. Macartney The Character and the Purpose of the League Treaties: The General
Philosophy in National States and National Minorities (1931)

Week 2
3.
The Crisis of Capitalism and Democracy
- *Jeffry Frieden, The Established Order Collapses, in Global Capitalism
- *C.H. McIlwain, The Reconstruction of Liberalism, in Foreign Affairs (1937)
4.

The Ideologies and Economics of Western European Imperialism

- *Charles Maier, What is an Empire? in Among Empires
- *Ronald Hyam, The Essence of the Empire in Britains Declining Empire
- *F. D. Lugard, The Value of British Rule in the Tropics to the British Democracy and
to the Native Races, in The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (1921).
http://archive.org/details/cu31924028741175

Week 3
5.
The Ideology and Economics of German Imperialism
- Bergen, CH 12
- *Hitler, Four Year Plan Memorandum (1936)
6.

The Ideology and Economics of Japanese Imperialism

- *Louise Young, The Jewel in the Crown: the International Context of Manchukuo in
Japans Total Empire

Week 4
7.
*************MAP QUIZ IN CLASS*************
Imperialism: View from the Periphery
- *George Orwell, Shooting and Elephant (1936)
- *Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Journeys through the Empire in Forgotten
Armies
8.

War Comes to Asia 1937: Japan, Manchuria, China

- Mawdsley, CH 2
- Coetzee, Japans Outlook; Statement at Lushan; Rape of Nanking

Week 5
9.
War Comes to Europe 193839: Building Greater Germany
- Mawdsley, CH 3
- Bergen, CH 34
- Coetzee, Hossbach Memorandum, Appeasement
10.

The Axis Turns West: The Fall of France

- Mawdsley, CH 4
- Coetzee, France Goes to War, Rotterdam in Flames, Frances Collapse, Strange
Defeat, De Gaulles Appeal to France

Week 6
11.
Creating a New Economic Order in Europe
- Weinberg, CH 1
- *Walther Funk Economic Face of the New Europe in Nazi Plans for European Union
- Coetzee, The Nazi New Order,
12.

The European War Escalates: Operation Barbarossa

- Mawdsley, CH 5
- Coetzee, Germany Strikes East, The Criminal Orders, Saving Moscow, Combat
on the Russian Front

Week 7
13.
********************** Midterm *********************
14.

The Pacific War Escalates: Japan turns Southeast and America Enters the War
- Mawdsley, CH. 7
- Weinberg, CH 3
- Coetzee, Japans Decision for War, Avenging Western Imperialism, Yamamotos
Strategy, The British Army in Burma, Japanese Operations in Burma

Week 8
15.
The Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere and the View from the Periphery
- Weinberg, CH 4
- *Ba Maw, Breakthrough in Burma, Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939-1946 (excerpts)
- Coetzee, A War for Freedom?, The Indian Situation, Japan and Greater East
Asia, Gandhi and Nonviolence
16.

The Nazi Racial Empire in Eastern Europe

Bergen, CHs 56
- Borowski, This Way for the Gas (Begin)

Week 9
17.
The Holocaust
- Bergen, CH 7
- Borowski, This Way for the Gas (Finish)
18

Allied War Aims and the Rethinking of Democracy

- *E.H. Carr, The Crisis of Democracy in Conditions of Peace
- *Geoffrey Crowther, Freedom and Control
- Coetzee, The Four Freedoms, The Atlantic Charter

Week 10
19
Resistance and Collaboration
- Coetzee, French Collaboration, Von Moltkes Thoughts on Resistance, The Polish
Resistance, Yugoslavias Partisans, Marxism and Burmese Resistance
- Film Screening: Sorrow and the Pity (Excerpts)
20

The Soviet Union Mobilizes

- Weinberg, CH 5
- Coetzee, Factories on Rails, Producing for Victory

Week 11
21
Naval War, Air War, Economic War
- Mawdsley, CH 9
- Coetzee, Arsenal for Democracy, Germanys Delayed Mobilization, German
Forced Labor
Film Screening: Wartime Documentary on the Memphis Belle
22

The Axis gets Rolled Back

- Mawdsley CHs 6 and 8
- Bergen, CH 8
- Coetzee, Stalingrad: the Rats War, Battle of Kursk, Admiral Ugaki Reflects on
Midway, Why Japan Lost Guadacanal

Week 12
***************** Paper Due in Class on 23rd Lecture ******************
23
The Axis Collapses
- Mawdsley CHs 1113
- Coetzee, The Decision to Use the Bomb, Preparing to Invade Japan, Nazis to the
Bitter End?, Liberating the Death Camps
24

Postwar Planning: Domestic Visions

- Weinberg CH 8
- *Hansen and Kindleberger The Economic Tasks of the Postwar World in Foreign
Affairs (1942)
- Coetzee, The Welfare State

Week 13
25
Postwar Planning: International Visions
- Mazower, CH 3
- Weinberg CH 6 or 7
- Coetzee, The German Problem, Americas Plans for Postwar Germany, American
Policy for Postwar Japan, The American Century
26

Postwar Reality: Cold War Divisions

- Mawdsley, Conclusion
- Weinberg, CH 9
- Coetzee, The Long Telegram and Containment, The Iron Curtain

Week 14
27
Postwar Reality: The End of Empire?
- Mazower, CH 4
- *Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, End of Empire? in Empires in World History
- Coetzee, The Tokyo War Trials, American Policy for Postwar Japan, Revolution
and Liberation in Indochina, Ho Chi Minh Appeals to Truman, Africa Speaks
28

Memories of the War

- *Tony Judt, From the House of the Dead: An Essay on Modern European Memory, in
Postwar.
- *John Dower An Aptitude for Being Unloved: War and Memory in Japan, in Ways of
Forgetting, Ways of Remembering
- Coetzee, The Nuremburg Trials, Germany Commemorates the Fortieth Anniversary
of Defeat, Hiroshima, Culture Wars, and the Enola Gay