HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: history

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Dan Diner

Coordinator Email: jonathan.matthews@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Monday 16:30- 17:00

Teaching Staff:
Prof Dan Diner

Course/Module description:
The course will discuss selected, but nevertheless fundamental questions in the history of WWII. The course will deal with both theoretical and methodological queries from different theaters of war

Course/Module aims:
The aim of the course to create a profound empirical knowledge and theoretical requirements of war. These are needed in order to synthesize different layers of the discussed constellations.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1- Define main events of WWII
2-Debate dilemmas and queries of epistemological and structural importance to the events of the war
3-Investigate key events as case studies using primary sources
4-Create a substantial empirical and global knowledge
5-Explain the relations between main and primary and secondary theaters of war.
6- Interpret the events of war and the policy of participant countries based on political and epistemic constellations
7-Combine ans synthesise theoretical knowledge, epistemology, primary sources and examination of events

Attendance requirements(%):
permanent attendance is mandatory

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Seminar - the student are required to prepare the reading material for discussion

Course/Module Content:
The course will be composed of 4 blocks:
Block 1: Alliances, Spaces, Logistics, and Epistemics.
Allies and Semi-Allies/ Two-Front-Wars/ German-Japanese-Soviet Constellations/ Second Fronts/ “Unconditional Surrender” and Separate Wars/ “Arsenal of Democracy” and Battles of Production/ Lanes of Support and Allied Interlock/ Allied Logistical Lifelines to Russia
Block 2: British Imperial Defense.
Naval Dilemmas / Ambiguity at Singapore/ Italian Challenges and the Fall of France/ Continental Events and Colonial Repercussions/ Mid-Eastern Upheavals / South-Asian Predicaments / Japan’s Anti-Colonialism/ Indian Dilemma/ The Empire’s Japanese and American Defiance
Block 3: Primary and Secondary Theaters
Mediterranean. Geopolitics/ Sea and Desert/ Guarding the Gates/ Spain, France, Italy and Britain/ Intermediacies: Balkans, Levant, Fertile Crescent/ Peripheral Approach or Frontal Approach/ Hitler’s Decision: “Barbarossa”/ Rhodos and the Continental and Imperial Divide
Block 4: A Year in Between – 1942.
“Biltmore” as a Case-Study. A Close Reading of Sources.

Required Reading:
Mandatory reading before seminar begins:
Ewan Mawdsley, World War II. A New History, Cambridge 2009
Block 1: Alliances, Spaces, Logistics, and Epistemics:
Literature (in alphabetical order):
Zhang Baijia, China’s Quest for Foreign Military Aid in: Mark Peattie/ Edward Drea/Hans van de Ven (eds.), The Battle for China. Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Stanford, Ca. 2011, 238-307.
Yehuda Bauer, The Mission of Joel Brand, in: The Nazi Holocaust. Vol. 9, The End of the Holocaust, ed. by Michael R. Marrus, Westport u.a. 1989, 65-126.
John D. Carter, The Air Transport Command. The Army Air Forces in World War II, in: Wesley Frank Craven/James Lea Cate (eds.), Services Around the World, Vol. 7, Washington, D.C. 1983.
Hosoya Chihiro, The Japanese-Soviet Neutrality Pact, in: James Morley (ed.), The Fateful Choice. Japan's Advance into Southeast Asia, 1939-1941, New York 1980, 13–114.
General de Monsabert, North Africa in Atlantic Strategy, in: Foreign Affairs, 3/31 (1953), 418-426.
Norman J. W. Goda, The Diplomacy of the Axis, 1940–1945, in: The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II: Politics and Ideology, ed. by Richard J. B. Bosworth/Joseph A. Maiolo, Cambridge 2015, 276-300.
Stuart D. Goldman, Nomonhan 1939. The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II. Ort 2012, 154–165. [Chapter 6: Nomonhan, The Nonaggression Pact, and the Outbreak of World War II]
Tohmatsu Haruo, The Strategic Correlation between the Sino-Japanese and the Pacific Wars, in: Mark Peattie/ Edward Drea/Hans van de Ven (eds.), The Battle for China. Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Stanford, Ca. 2011, 423–445.
Dorottya Sziszkoszné Halász, The United States and the Joel Brand Mission: Help or Hindrance?, in: Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, 2/6 (2000), 259-266.
Ashley Jackson, Supplying War: The High Commission Territories' Military-Logistical Contribution in the Second World War, in: The Journal of Military History, 3/66 (2002), 719-760.
H.W. Koch, The Spectre of a Separate Peace in the East. Russo-German “Peace Feelers”, 1942-44, in: Journal of Contemporary History, 3/10 (1975), 531-549.
John D. Langer, The Harriman-Beaverbrook Mission and the Debate over Unconditional Aid for the Soviet Union, 1941, in: Walter Laqueur (ed.), The Second World War, London 1982, 300-319.
Richard M. Leighton/Robert W. Coakley, The Global Logistics and Strategy, 1940-1943, Washington D.C. 1995, 551-597.
V. Mastny, Stalin and the Prospects of a Separate Peace in World War 2, in: The American Historical Review, 1/77 (1972), 1365-1388.
Michael Miller, Sea Transport, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume III: Total War. Economy, Society and Culture, ed. by Michael Geyer/Adam Tooze, Cambridge 2015, 147-195.
Marc Milner, The Atlantic War, 1939–1945, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 455-484.
Larry W. Moses, Soviet-Japanese Confrontation in Outer Mongolia. The Battle of Nomonhan-Khalkin Gol, in: Journal of Asian History, 1,1 (1967), 64-85.
T. H. Vail Motter, The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia, Washington 1952.
Roger Munting, Lend-Lease and the Soviet War Effort, in: Journal of Contemporary History, 3/19 (1984), 495-510.
Phillips Payson O’Brien, How the War Was Won. Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, Cambridge 2015, 1-16. (Introduction)
Phillips Payson O’Brien, How the War Was Won. Air-Sea Power and Allied Victory in World War II, Cambridge 2015,374-429. (The Air and the Sea War against Japan 1942–1944)
Phillips Payson O’Brien, Logistics by Land and Air, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 608-636.
Alessio Patalano, Feigning grand strategy. Japan, 1937–1945, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 159-188.
David Reynolds, The Diplomacy of the Grand Alliance, in: The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II: Politics and Ideology, ed. by Richard J. B. Bosworth/Joseph A. Maiolo, Cambridge 2015, 301-323.
Frank N. Schubert, The Persian Gulf Command. Lifeline to the Soviet Union, in: Builders and Fighters. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in World War II, ed. by Barry W. Fowle, Fort Belvoir 1992, 305-316.
Dennis Showalter, Armies, Navies, Air Forces. The Instrument of War, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 556-584.
Ronald Spector, The Sino-Japanese War in the Context of World History, in: Mark Peattie/ Edward Drea/Hans van de Ven (eds.), The Battle for China. Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Stanford, Ca. 2011,467-484.
William R. Stanley, Trans-South Atlantic Air Link in World War II, in: GeoJournal, 4/33 (1994), 459-463.
William H. Tunner, Over the Hump, Washington 1985, 43-135. (Chapter: The Hump)
Gerhard L. Weinberg, The Nazi-Soviet Pacts: A Half-Century Later, in: Foreign Affairs, 4/68 (1989), 175-189.
Stephen Wentwoth Roskill, Naval Policy Between the Wars, London 1968-1976.
Alan F. Wilt, The Significance of the Casablanca Decisions, January 1943, in: Journal of Military History, 4/55 (1991), 517–529.
Block 2: British Imperial Defense
Literature (in alphabetical order):
Noel Barber, Sinister Twilight. The Fall of Singapore, London 2002.
Christopher Buckley, Five Ventures. Iraq, Syria, Persia, Madagaskar, Dodecanes, London 1977.
Shachi Chakravarty, Quit India Movement. A Study, Dehli 2002.
Ong Chit Chung, The Singapore Strategy, in: Idem, Operation Matador. World War II, Britain’s Attempt to Foil the Japanese Invasion of Malaya and Singapore, Singapore 2011, 3-18.
Winston Churchil, The Second World War. Vol. 4, The Hinge of Fate, with a Foreword by Antony Beevor, London 2015.
John E. Dreifort, Japan's Advance into Indochina, 1940: The French Response, in: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2/13 (1982), 279-295.
Peter Ward Fay, The Forgotten Army. India’s Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945, New Delhi 2005, 113-136 and 153-170. (Chapter 6: “Quit India!” and Chapter 8: Subhas Chandra Bose)
David French, Britisch Military Strategy, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 28-50.
Francis G. Hutchins, India’s Revolution. Gandih and the Quit India Movement, Cambridge 1973.
Ashley Jackson, The British Empire, 1939–1945, in: The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II: Politics and Ideology, ed. by Richard J. B. Bosworth/Joseph A. Maiolo, Cambridge 2015, 558-580.
Yasmin Kahn, The Raj at War. A Peoples History of India’s Seccond World War, London 2015, 34-43. (Chapter 3: Into the Middle East and North Africa)
David Killingray, Imperial Defence, in: Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 5, Historiography, ed. by Robin W. Winks, Oxford 1999, 342-353.
Paul H. Kratoska/Ken’ichi Goto, Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia: in: The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II: Politics and Ideology, ed. by Richard J. B. Bosworth/Joseph A. Maiolo, Cambridge 2015, 533-558.
John T. Kuehn, The War in the Pacific, 1941–1945, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 420-454.
Cecil Lee, Sunset of the Raj. Fall of Singapore 1942, Durham 1994.
Craig Lockard, Southeast Asia in World History, Cary, NC 2009, 135–151. [Chapter 8: Fighting for the Cause of National Freedom, 1900–1950]
Wlm. Roger Louis, The British Strategy in the Far East, 1919-1939, Oxford 1979.
W. David McIntyre, The Strategic Significance of Singapore, 1917–1942. The Naval Base and the Commonwealth, in: Journal of Southeast Asian History, 1/10 (1969), 69 – 94.
Rana Mitter, Nationalism, Decolonization, Geopolitics and the Asian Post-War, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume III: Total War. Economy, Society and Culture, ed. by Michael Geyer/Adam Tooze, Cambridge 2015, 599-621.
Robin J. Moore, India in the 1940s, in: Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 5, Historiography, ed. by Robin W. Winks, Oxford 1999, 231-242.
Francis Robbinson, The British Empire and the Muslim World, in: Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 4, The Twentieth Century, ed. by Judith Brown/Wlm. Roger Louis, Oxford 1999, 398-420.
Suresh K. Sharma, Quit India Movement. A Challenge to the British Power in India, New Delhi 2009.
Andrew Shennan, Rethinking France. Plans for Renewal 1940-1946, Oxford 1989.
Hara Takeshi, The Ichigo Offensive, in: Mark Peattie/ Edward Drea/Hans van de Ven (eds.), The Battle for China. Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Stanford, Ca. 2011, 392-402.
Martin Thomas, France and it’s Colonial Civil Wars, 1940–1944, in: The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume II: Politics and Ideology, ed. by Richard J. B. Bosworth/Joseph A. Maiolo, Cambridge 2015, 581-604.
Martin Thomas, Imperial Backwater or Strategic Outpost? The British Takeover of Vichy Madagascar, 1942, in: Historical Journal, 39 (1996), 1049-1074.
Peter Thompson, The Battle for Singapore, London, 2005.
Johannes H. Voigt, India in the Second World War. A History with Problems, in: Jürgen Rohwer/Hildegard Mülle (Eds.), Neue Forschungen zum Zweiten Weltkrieg. Literaturberichte und Bibliographien aus 67 Ländern, Koblenz 1990, 187-201.
Ann Williams, Britain and France in the Middle East and North Africa, London/New York 1968.
Ronald W. Zweig, Britain and Palestine during the Second World War, London 1986.
Block 3: Primary and Secondary Theaters
Literature (in alphabetical order):
Simon Ball, Mediterranean and North Africa, 1940–1944, in: Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume I: Fighting the War, ed. by John Ferris/Evan Mawdsley, Cambridge 2015, 358-388.
Niall Barr, Pendulum of War. The Three Battles of El Alamein, Woodstock, N.Y. 2005.
Lucio Ceva, The North African Campaign 1940-43. A Reconsideration, in: Journal of Strategic Studies 13 (1990), 84-104.
Henry L. Feingold, Rescue and the Secular Perception. American Jewry and the Holocaust, in: Selwyn Ilan Troen/Benjamin Pinkus (eds.), Organizing Rescue. National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period, London 1992, 154-166.
Yoav Gleber, 'The Defense of Palestine in World War II`, in: Studies in Zionism, 1/8 (1987), 51-82. [Hebrew: Yoav Gelber, “Massada”. The Defense of Palestine during World War II, Ramat‐Gan: Bar‐Ilan University Press, 1990, 9-82.]
Lothar Gruchmann, Die "verpaßten strategischen Chancen" der Achsenmächte im Mittelmeerraum 1940 bis 1941, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 4/18 (1970), 456-475. (German)
Holger H. Herwig, The Failure of German Sea Power, 1914–1945, Mahan, Tirpitz, and Raeder Reconsidered, in: The International History Review, 1/10 (1988), 68-105.
Klaus-Michael Mallmann/Martin Cüppers, Nazi Palestine. The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine, New York 2010.
Klaus-Michael Mallmann/Martin Cüppers, “Elimination of the Jewish National Home in Palestine”. The Einsatzkommando of the Panzer Army Africa, 1942, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 1/35 (2007), 111-141.
Joseph S. Roucek, The Geopolitics of the Mediterranean, in: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1/13 (1953), 71-86.
Nathan Shachar, The Lost World of Rhodes. Greeks, Italians, Jews, and Turks between Tradition and Modernity, Brighton/Portland/Toronto 2013, 205-240. (Chapter 12: Holocaust)
Jacob Stoil, Martial Race and Indigenous Forces in the Levant and Horn of Africa, in: Robert Johnson (Ed.), The British Indian Army. Virtue and Necessity, Newcastle upon Tyne 2014, 167-176.
Block 4: A Year in Between – 1942
Sources:
Extraordinary Zionist Congress, New York 1942, Stenographic protocol (Chairman Stephen S. Wise, pp. 1–13; Dr. Chaim Weizmann, pp. 20–40; Dr. D. Ben Gurion pp. 50–82; Dr. N. Goldmann pp. 231–257)
Allon Gal, Biltmore, The Road to 1948, in: Idem, David Ben Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish State, Bloomington, Ind./Jerusalem 1991, 186-208.
Monty Noam Penkower, Biltmore and Rommel, in: Idem, Decision on Palestine Deferred. America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939–1945, London 2016, 105-142.
Monty Noam Penkower, American Jewry and the Holocaust, From Biltmore to the American Jewish Conference, in: Jewish Social Studies, 2/47 (1985), 95-114.

Additional Reading Material:
Recommended reading (prior or during the semester):
Antony Beevor, The Second World War, London 2014.
Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms. A Global History of World War II, Cambridge 2005.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 15 %
Participation in Tutorials 15 %
Project work 70 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
This is a research seminar. The participation as well as reading the necessary material is mandatory. The students ought to come prepare to the classroom in order of enabling a meaningful discussion. During the first lesson an introduction will be given concerning the reading list and the way the material should be presented in the classroom. It is not necessary to read all the sources in the reading list, but it is essential that the reading will dig into the text as throuroughly as possible