History (HIST) 367

Overview

This course is intended to provide a fuller understanding of the events and attitudes of the war years and of some of the arguments that are very much alive today concerning what really happened in that vital decade of 1937 to 1947. The Second World War still affects our lives. The division of much of the postwar world into two armed camps, one dominated by the United States and the other by the Soviet Union, was to a large extent the result of actions taken and decisions made during the previous decade. The Second World War also directly affected the personal stories of many of us, through family deaths or marriage or other fundamental social changes that resulted from the worldwide upheaval.

This course will focus on a number of key wartime events, as well as on the issues and controversies that often still surround them and continue to absorb modern-day historians because of their political, social, moral and ethical implications and consequences. These will include but are not limited to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis; the expansion of Imperial Japan; the Nazi-Soviet Pact; the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain; the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; Hitler’s decision to invade the Soviet Union; the Nazi occupation of much of Europe and the adoption of the “Final Solution”; the area bombing of Germany; D-Day and the liberation of France; the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan; and the legacy of the Second World War and the postwar crisis that followed it.

Outline

• Unit 1: Sources of War in the West
• Unit 2: Sources of War in the East
• Unit 3: Expansion of the European War, 1939–1940
• Unit 4: Expansion of the War in Asia, 1937–1941
• Unit 5: Great Britain at War
• Unit 6: Soviet Russia at War
• Unit 7: Nazi Germany at War: The Fate of Occupied Europe
• Unit 8: In the Balance: The Western Theatre, 1941–1943
• Unit 9: The War at Sea
• Unit 10: The War in the Air
• Unit 11: Imperial Japan at War: The Pacific Theatre, 1942–1943
• Unit 12: The Defeat of Nazi Germany
• Unit 13: The Defeat of Imperial Japan
• Unit 14: The Postwar Crisis and the Legacy of the Second World War

Evaluation

To receive credit for HIST 367, you must obtain at least 50% on the examination and achieve a final course composite grade of D (50 percent) or better. The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

Other Materials

The course materials include an online study guide, online readings from learned journals and ebooks, and DVDs of the Thames Television series The World at War (26 episodes) which students will be able to borrow from the AU Library.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

To receive creditfor the HIST 367 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent)on the entire challenge examination.

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