The 1940s

The 1940s saw enormous and often violent change: a global, destructive war; ongoing privation after the formal end of hostilities; the intensification of national liberation movements; the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of a new global economic order; the beginnings of the Cold War; new artistic expressions; and the reconfiguration of sexual and cultural mores. In this course we will begin with an overview of the global scale of the second world war and, using a comparative approach, focus on examples of individual suffering. We will then study the war’s effects in select countries around the world. 3 hrs. sem.