HI178: Farewell to Arms? War in Modern European History, 1815–2015

In the early twenty-first century, many commentators argue that European societies have broken politically, military, and culturally with a past long shaped by wars and military conflicts. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing transatlantic dispute, many US conservative commentators argued with Robert Kagan that "Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus" (Of paradise and power. America and Europe in the New World Order, 2003). In this view, Europeans would now be both both unwilling and incapable of using war and military power to ensure their security. More recently, historian James Sheehan invited us to rethink modern European history as the painful, cruel, and costly process whereby European societies redefined their relationship to war as an instrument of policy (Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? The Transformation of Modern Europe, 2008). These debates, like the history of warfare, raise a series of ethical, political, and intellectual issues of continuing import and relevance.

This module introduces students to the history of war and conflicts in modern European history from 1815 to 2015. It will consider how war, its conduct and experience, shaped states and societies in Europe. It also investigates how the transformations of warfare reflected the evolutions of European societies. The lectures provide a brief outline of the military conflicts that shaped the experience of Europeans throughout the period. Most importantly however, in conjunction with weekly seminar discussions, they help students understand how wars affected – and were transformed by – political ideologies and regimes, cultures, understandings of race and gender, economic systems and international relations and institutions.

Aims and outcomes

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key concepts and themes in modern European history and the history of warfare
• Demonstrate an ability to evaluate critically a range of secondary and primary sources, and an enhanced capability for individual and self-motivated study
• Demonstrate enhanced research, writing and oral communication skills, and the ability to locate, assess, and use internet-based sources
• Demonstrate am ability to develop and sustain coherent intellectual argument

This module will allow students to acquire knowledge and understanding of the role of war and military conflicts in modern European history. Neatly complementing the core first-year modules, it will introduce them to a range of historical problems raised by the study of war. It will illustrate how and why scholars have now moved from military history to the history of warfare, in line with recent historiographical developments.

Students will also be able to analyse critically a range of primary and secondary sources; to formulate, argue, and support their individual interpretation of the European past; to acquire a range of essential communication and intellectual skills.

Indicative readings

• T. C. W. Blanning (ed.), The Oxford History of Modern Europe (Oxford, 2001).
• James J. Sheehan, Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe (Boston, 2009).