HST 108 - Introduction to History: World War One and Remembrance

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU.
World War One began for the few who caused it as a gamble to expand vast world empires or to solve a looming crisis within their state. Most of the world entered the war with the expectation that it would be brief and its destruction limited. Instead, Europe unleashed devastation on an unimaginable scale. World War One altered the direction of European and World History. It shattered the myth of Western Civilization by destroying Europeans’ own confidence in their society and culture and exposing the weaknesses of the West to the world. The war also begat huge social, ideological, and political shifts that determined much of the course of the 20th century. But how would those who lived through these events remember them? How would subsequent generations remember this war? The course examines both the history of World War One and its remembrance.