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Module Catalogue

HI3H6-30 Postwar: Aftermaths of World War II

Department
History
Level
Undergraduate Level 3
Module leader
Susan Carruthers
Credit value
30
Assessment
100% coursework
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

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Introductory description

World War II claimed in excess of 60 million lives: victims of combat, aerial bombardment, disease, starvation, and calculated annihilation. As warfare ended-- a rolling and partial process-- the victorious Allies struggled to agree on how best to tackle questions of humanitarian relief and political reconstruction that confronted their own societies as well as those of the defeated Axis powers and their former empires. The tumultuous half decade from 1945-50 saw the birth of the nuclear age; the division of Europe; the onset of the Cold War; the remapping of the Middle East; the reconstitution of colonial empires in Asia and Africa; and the inauguration of the United Nations.

Module web page

Module aims

This module examines the period from 1945 to 1950, adopting a thematic approach to wartime legacies and distinct forms of postwar reconstruction. Weekly readings generally comprise a number of scholarly articles rather than single monographs. These will be studied alongside selected primary source materials, including films, diaries, letters, and fiction from the late 1940s. The goal is to gain a multi-faceted appreciation of "postwar" derived both from contemporary sources and new scholarly interpretations of this profoundly consequential half-decade. We will thus read fresh work in the fields of transnational history; the history of gender and sexuality; the history of emotions; refugee and Holocaust studies, and works of cultural critique drawn from disciplines outside History.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

  1. Introduction: when and what was 'postwar'?
  2. Rape as a gendered experience of defeat
  3. Hiroshima: a war ends, and an 'age' begins
  4. The elusive quality of victory
  5. Prisoner politics, repatriation, and cold war origins
  6. Demobilization, 'reconversion,' and entitlement struggles
  7. Intimate reconstructions: the disabled veteran as victor and victim
  8. The camps and after: liberators & survivors
  9. Populations in motion: constructing and controlling 'refugees'
  10. The politics of hunger
  11. Sex under occupation
  12. The camera as witness, accuser, re-educator and obfuscator
  13. Rubble and realism: reconstructing national cinemas
  14. 'Victors' Justice'?: the war crimes' trials
  15. The creation of Israel/The Nakba
  16. Imperial reconstruction and deconstruction in Asia
  17. Empire unsettled: veterans in Africa
  18. The birth of the United Nations

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the ways in which World War II came to an end in different locations and the often messy processes by which war mutated into "postwar", as well as how central the immediate aftermath of World War II has been to individual and collective memory (and group identity-formation) thereafter
  • Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources (including printed and visual) with sensitivity to both the circumstances of their production and their contemporary reception
  • Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of “postwar”
  • Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the study of "postwar”

Indicative reading list

http://readinglists.warwick.ac.uk/modules/hi3h6.html

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.

Study time

Type Required
Seminars 18 sessions of 2 hours (90%)
Tutorials 4 sessions of 1 hour (10%)
Total 40 hours

Private study description

History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task.

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group A2
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
Seminar contribution 10% No
Reassessment component
1000 word reflective essay in lieu of Seminar Contribution Yes (extension)
Assessment component
1500 word essay 10% Yes (extension)
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
3000 word essay 40% Yes (extension)
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
7 day take-home essay with citations and a bibliography 40% No
Reassessment component is the same
Feedback on assessment

Written feedback provided via Tabula; optional oral feedback in office hours.

Courses

This module is Optional for:

  • Year 3 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
  • Year 4 of UENA-VQ33 Undergraduate English and History (with Intercalated year)
  • Year 3 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 4 of UHIA-V101 Undergraduate History (with Year Abroad)
  • Year 3 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
  • Year 4 of UHIA-V1V6 Undergraduate History and Philosophy (with Year Abroad)
  • Year 3 of UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
  • Year 4 of UHIA-VM12 Undergraduate History and Politics (with Year Abroad)
  • Year 3 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
  • Year 4 of UHIA-VL14 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with Year Abroad)

This module is Option list A for:

  • Year 3 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 4 of UHIA-V101 Undergraduate History (with Year Abroad)

This module is Option list B for:

  • Year 3 of UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
  • Year 4 of UHIA-V101 Undergraduate History (with Year Abroad)
  • Year 3 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
  • Year 4 of UHIA-VL14 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with Year Abroad)