Run by School of History, Law and Social Sciences

20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 1

Organiser: Dr Alexander Sedlmaier

This module aims to gain an understanding of the social, cultural, economic and political processes underlying the development and articulation of protest in the context of twentieth-century warfare. In most cases, those who – for various reasons – disagreed with the use of force to compel an enemy and challenged war efforts embraced alternative means of political articulation due to the established channels of decision making being controlled or dominated by the supporters of the war in question. Focusing on various forms of protest, the module demonstrates the historical significance of dissent vis-à-vis vast machineries of war during the twentieth century. 1) The module provides advanced training in documentary analysis, through use of printed sources, grey literature from protest movements, media coverage, political thought, art, and film. 2) It develops historiographical skills, by using primary and secondary material to construct genuine historical arguments and to expand and/or challenge existing interpretations. 3) By expanding the study of war-time protest into comparative territory beyond the well-researched topics of the Cold War peace movement and the Vietnam War, it demonstrates that critics and protesters either focused on war as such being morally untenable or, historically more prevalent, on specific constellations or practices of warfare that they deemed to cause an unjustifiable amount of suffering and destruction. 4) By discussing critiques and challenges mounted against warfare by protesters as well as issues such as upholders and defenders of contested war campaigns invoking their readings of just-war doctrines, often relying on police and military forces to contain or criminalise their opponents, it merges an historical approach with methodological and conceptual issues used by political scientists and sociologists. 5) By taking this approach, the module applies conceptual and research skills to a specific research area, and thus demonstrates how research might progress at doctoral level.

The module will examine the historical interrelation of war and protest from the First World War to the Iraq War, including the whole range of motivations of war-time protest, from pacifist convictions via different levels of moral critique to armed struggle designed to end war. Students will be considering the following questions, which correspond not only to different historiographical approaches to the field, but also to different perspectives of historical inquiry more generally: 1. What were the social backgrounds of war-time protests? 2. Which role did gender play in the dynamics of protest? 3. How did economic conditions influence protest? 4. Which resources did protesters mobilise? 5. How did artists and intellectuals contribute to protest? 6. How did political violence enter into protest scenarios? 7. How did protest relate to decolonisation? 8. What were protesters’ visions of a post-war future? Students will be asked to tackle these questions comparatively with reference to their choice of the following wars: World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, and the Iraq War.

C- to C+

Threshold students (C range) will apply relevant secondary sources to their chosen primary source and present their analytical study in a reasonably correct form with some evidence of critical thinking. Their essay will demonstrate an appropriate range or depth of knowledge of at least parts of the relevant field, and will make at least partly successful attempts to frame arguments which engage with historical controversies and examine key concepts.

good

Good students (B range) will write an analytical study meeting the criteria above, but also containing some nuanced or sophisticated interpretation, which would suggest effective and imaginative use of sources. Their work should also show critical acumen. Their essay will be adequately structured and should include perceptive understandings of the state of the chosen field, an imaginative use of the secondary literature, or a good understanding of the possible problems (as well as strengths) of the chosen methodology. They will show a solid to good level of achievement in all the criteria listed above.

excellent

Excellent students (A range) will produce a correctly presented analytical study that draws on an imaginative use of sources with critical comment of a very high standard. The structure and content of their essay will be fully effective showing great insight or significance as well as originality. Their work will show solid achievement across the criteria combined with particularly impressive depth of knowledge and/or subtlety of analysis.

1. demonstrate a systematic understanding of innovative historical research that links the still largely separated historiographies on war and protest, and transgresses the boundaries between political, economic, social and cultural history.

2. reconstruct and analyse changing ideas about war-time protest, appreciate current debates and controversies, link historical evidence to the former, and make critical judgments on the merits of different interpretations and research methods.

3. demonstrate self-direction and creativity in pursuing ideas and in planning and writing an original piece of historical investigation and analysis.

4. show a comprehensive understanding of different types of relevant primary sources and to critically analyse their significance.

5. display a conceptual understanding of different and interdisciplinary approaches to the field.

Type	Name	Description	Weight
	Analytical Study 3000 word		50.00
	Essay 3000 word		50.00

		Hours
Tutorial	One or more tutorials to discuss progress on and issues relating to assignments	1
Private study	Tailored reading lists for each topic and corresponding seminar will guide students' reading by highlighting core reading as well as providing choice.	169
Seminar	1.5-hour sessions weekly for 10 weeks based on diferent topics and questions plus sessions for general introduction and conclusion	30

• Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
• Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
• Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
• Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
• Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
• Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
• Presentation - Able to clearly present information and explanations to an audience. Through the written or oral mode of communication accurately and concisely.
• Teamwork - Able to constructively cooperate with others on a common task, and/or be part of a day-to-day working team
• Management - Able to utilise, coordinate and control resources (human, physical and/or financial)
• Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
• Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Resource implications for students

None, other than perhaps the purchase of a few books.

Reading list

War and protest – general and introductory Ackerman, Peter and Jack DuVall, A force more powerful: a century of nonviolent conflict (2001) Adams, David, The American Peace Movements (1985) Anderson, Carol, Eyes off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944–1955 (2003) Arnesen, Eric (ed.), Black Protest and the Great Migration: A Brief History with Doc-uments (2003) Beer, Francis A., Peace against War: The Ecology of International Violence (1981) Biggs, Michael, ‘Dying without Killing: Self-Immolations, 1962–2003’, in Diego Gambetta (ed.), Making Sense of Suicide Missions (2005) Brock Peter and Thomas B. Socknat (eds.), Challenge to Mars: Essays on Pacifism from 1918 to 1945 (1999) Brock, Peter and Nigel Young, Pacifism in the Twentieth Century (1999) Brown, Timothy and Lorena Anton (eds), Between the Avant-Garde and the everyday: subversive politics in Europe from 1957 to the present (2011) Campbell, Kenneth J., A tale of two quagmires: Iraq, Vietnam, and the hard lessons of war (2007) De Groot, Gerard J. (ed.), Student protest: the sixties and after (1998) De Nardo, James, Power in Numbers: The Political Strategy of Protest and Rebellion (1985) Della Porta, Donatella et al. (eds), The Policing of Transnational Protest (2006) Della Porta, Donatella and H. Reiter, Policing Protest: the Control of Mass Demon-strations in Western Democracies (1998) Dumbrell, John and David Ryan (eds), Vietnam in Iraq: tactics, lessons, legacies and ghosts (2007) Fiala, Andrew G., Public war, private conscience: the ethics of political violence (2010) French, Peter A., War and Moral Dissonance (2011) Haberski, Raymond J., God and War: American civil religion since 1945 (2012) Hardiman, David, Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas (2003) Hastings, Tom H., Meek ain’t weak: nonviolent power and people of color (2002) James, Rawn, The double V: how wars, protest, and Harry Truman desegregated America's military (2013) Jenkins J. and B. Klandermans (eds), The Politics of Social Protest (1995) Keegan, John, A History of Warfare (1993) Kissin, Stephen F., War and the Marxists: Socialist Theory and Practice in Capitalist War (1988) Klandemans, Bert, The Social Psychology of Protest (1997) Kuisel, Richard, Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization (1993) Mann, Robert, Wartime dissent in America: a history and anthology (2010) Marable, Manning, Race, reform, and rebellion: the second reconstruction and beyond in Black America, 1945–2006 (3rd ed. 2007) McDermott, Kevin, Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe: Challenges to Communist Rule (2006) McQuiston, Liz, Graphic Agitation: Social and Political Graphics since the Sixties (1995) Mead, Margaret, “Alternatives to War,” in War: The Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression (1968): 215–228 Mershon, Sherie and Steven Schlossmann, Foxholes and Color Lines: Desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces (1998) Metres, Philip, Behind the lines: war resistance poetry on the American homefront since 1941 (Iowa City, 2007) Metres, Philip, Behind the lines: war resistance poetry on the American homefront since 1941 (2007) Meyer, David S., “How the Cold War was Really Won,” in How Social Movements Matter, eds. Marco Giugni, Doug McAdam, and Chrales Tilly (Minneapolis: Universi-ty of Minnesota Press, 1999): 182–203 Meyer, David S. and Sam Marullo, “Antiwar and Peace Movements,” in The Black-well Companion to Social Movements, eds. David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003): 641–665 Moore, Colin, Propaganda Prints: A History of Art in the Service of Social and Politi-cal Change (2010) Morris, Ian, War! What Is It Good For? Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots (2014) Mueller, John E., ‘Trends in popular Support for the Wars in Korea and Vietnam’, The American Political Science Review 65,2 (1971): 358–375. Mueller, John E., War, Presidents and Public Opinion (1973) Navickas, Katrina, ‘Protest History or the History of Protest?’, History Workshop Journal 73,1 (2012): 302–307 Nehring, Holger, Politics of security: The British and West German Protests against Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War (2012) Nepstad, Sharon E., Nonviolent revolutions: civil resistance in the late 20th century (2011) Ness, Immanuel (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest (2009) O’Connor, Brendon, ‘A Brief History of Anti-Americanism: From Cultural Criticism to Terrorism’, Australasian Journal of American Studies 23,1 (2004): 77–92 O’Gorman, Ned, Spirits of the Cold War: contesting worldviews in the classical age of American security strategy (2012) Phillips, Kimberley L., War! What is it good for? Black freedom struggles and the U.S. military from World War II to Iraq (2012) Pollner, Murray and Thomas E. Woods (eds), We Who Dared to Say No to War: Amer-ican Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now (2008) Roberts, Adam and Timothy Garton Ash (eds), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-Violent Action from Ghandi to the Present (2009) Scalmer, Sean, Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest (2011) Smith, Lyn, Voices against war: a century of protest (2009) Suri, Jeremi, Power and protest: global revolution and the rise of détente (2003) Swindall, Lindsey R., Paul Robeson: A Life of Activism and Art (2013) Veldman, M., Fantasy, the Bomb and the greening of Britain: Romantic protest 1945-1980 (1994) Virden, Jenel, Americans and the wars of the twentieth century (2008) Yoder, Amos, The evolution of the United Nations system (2nd ed. 1993) Young, Richard P., Roots of rebellion: the evolution of black politics and protest since the Second World War (1970) Ziemann, Benjamin (ed.), Peace movements in Western Europe, Japan and the USA during the Cold War (2008)

Optional in courses:

• V1AQ: Diploma History year 1 (DIP/HIST)
• V1AR: MA History year 1 (MA/HIST)
• V1AJ: MA Welsh History year 1 (MA/WH)