Week 11 - War, Violence, and Modernity I: Faces of War
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great holiday and is well rested for our busy second term. As always, even though I don't have a scheduled office hour I am more than happy to talk via email or meet and talk about anything relating to MMW and/or your forthcoming essays. So, please get in touch.
For this week want you all to think about oral history, the associated skill for this week. To help you with this topic, please watch The Fog of War (2004), a documentary about former United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1916-2009). It is available through the Short Loan Library and via Vimeo.
In addition, please read the following, digital copies available through Tallis Aspire:
- C. Townshend, The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War
(1997), ch. 1. - H.T. and T.F. Cook, Japan at War: An Oral History (1992), pp. 21-47, 121-45, 231-40, 441-462.
- I. Beckett, ‘Total War’, in C. Emsley (ed.) War, Peace and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Europe (1989).
(Additionally, please be aware the the Modern Records Centre here on campus has made part of its collection of archival material available for your use.)
Music By Which to Read
This week's music choice is Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, Op 66 (1962). This work has special significance to Coventry as Britten was commissioned to composed the work for the opening the new cathedral. This recording is of Kurt Masur conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and the Tiffin Boys Choir with Christine Brewer, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Gerald Finley. The playlist is here (and don't worry that it says week 12).