Week 3 - Meaning of the World War

The war which broke out in August 1914 was not the first global conflict that mankind had ever waged. Suffice it to recall the Seven-year War in the XVIII century or the Napoleonic Wars in the XIX, raging in different continents and implicating hundreds of thousands of human beings, to make the above point clear.
Yet, there was something quite distinct in the nature of First World War, something going beyond the mere scale (staggering as it was), something which earned the war from its very outset the cognomen "the Great War."

I would like to ask you then what it was that distinguished this conflict from all other preceding conflicts. Why, after all, was it dubbed "the First World War" and what was so "universal" about it if not a mere scale of it?

Last-Minute Announcement

Today's class is rescheduled to take place at 4 pm in room 372. At 3 pm (i.e. at the time when our class is normally taking place) you are invited to come to the BG-Hall to listen to our professors reflect over presidential address. 

Week 2 - World War: Avoidable or Ineluctable

Europe, which seemed to have become the most sophisticated civilization, which had prided itself on being "civilized" in contrast to the rest of the world (found largely under its tutelage), had plunged itself into the abyss of barbarity from which it were never to recover. Some had considered this to be the inevitable result of social, political, economical and cultural anxieties, the kind of corollary of the very complexity and self-confidence in which Europe wallowed. Other observers, however, were quick to note that all previous crises - in Morocco, Bosnia (1908), Balkans (1912-1913), etc - were resolved without the use of arms (albeit, as Paxton puts its, after some ritual saber-rattling). They say too that in the long-run, Great Powers might have developed an algorithm, had come up with a rule whereby all conflicts involving issues of hegemony and pride might have been settled peacefully.

What is your stance on that issue? Could the war be avoided - or was it, on the contrary, unavoidable.

Week 1 - Europe in 1900: Traditional or Modern?

As it crossed the threshold of the XIX century, Europe offered a sight of conflicting scenes. Imperialist expansion transformed it into the Global Metropole, yet, most of the population kept on dwelling in profound province, buried in their parochial affairs. The poor, the middle class and the new wealth 'wrestled' with each other, giving a living testimony to the growing fluidity of the social life; at the same time, old aristocracy and withal the hierarchical structure which brooked no intervention, persisted as if it were immune to the challenges of the New Times. The old creeds - liberalism and conservatism - were permeated with the new ones, producing strange hybrids akin to Action Francaise of Charles Maurras.

This week you are asked to reflect over those contrasting visions and answer a somewhat schematic question: based on your reading and our lectures, do you consider Europe in 1900 as modern, traditional, or somehow a combination of both? You need to answer this by supporting your point with specific examples.

Good luck!

Introduction

This blog is designed as an integral part of your course. As I have mentioned in your syllabus, you are expected to contribute regularly by either answering to the major questions raised during the lectures or recording your reactions to the reading assignments scheduled for a given week. It goes without saying that your final grade depends to a large extent on the frequency of your contributions as well as the depth and relevance of your comments.

That said, you should view the blog not as an unavoidable onus constantly hovering over your harassed conscience, but as a chance to express your opinion in a relatively unconstrained and undogmatic environment. With the course offering your an opportunity to explore your temporal whereabouts, the blog should evolve into a forum wherein you could share your discoveries and revel in the discoveries of your colleagues. Hopefully this exchange of opinions will initiate you into the intra-subjective nature of history as a process, the mysterious entwining of individual experiences into a complex unity of shared fate.