ATS1321 Nations at war: The twentieth century

Although World War I pronounced the death of the nineteenth-century world, the constitutive elements of that period lived on. This unit explores how wars, revolutions, and empires continued to shape the making and re-making of nations - but under new conditions. In particular, we will examine how the interwar crisis of capitalism, decolonization, the Cold War, and our present age of globalization affected the ways in which historical actors reconceived nations and nationalism. Themes covered include the Russian Revolution; Fascism and Nazism; nationalism and revolution in postwar Africa and Asia; religious and market fundamentalisms in the late 20th century. No background knowledge is assumed and students need not have taken Nations at War I.