Thursday 2/3: World War II: What Happened? Why? What was it Like?

You can access the Zoom link for class here. The passcode is 612933

You can watch/listen to the class here.

Please read for class on Thursday (PDFs are below):

• Michael Adams, “The Patterns of War, 1939-1945” OR Eric Hobsbawm, “The Age of Total War” [optional brief overviews of the war]

• President Franklin Roosevelt, “State of the Union [Four Freedoms Speech],” January 1941, excerpts; “The Atlantic Charter” (August 1941). If you'd like to listen to the audio of the full 'Four Freedoms' speech, you can do so here.

• Michael Adams, “Overseas,” The Best War Ever

• Excerpts from Studs Terkel's book "The 'Good' War"

Some questions to think about while doing the readings:

• Drawing on the Terkel readins, pick out a theme that you see in several of them. This could be an experience, idea or emotion that are common across some of them (an example might be how the war changed them). Or it could be a theme that the historians (Adams and Hobsbawm) raise about the experiences of soldiers, which you see reflected (or challenged!) in the Terkel stories. Come to class prepared to share/discuss the themes you came up with.

• What does Roosevelt argue for in the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms speech, and why does he argue it? If you were helping FDR to write the ‘Freedoms’ speech, would you add to or change any of them?

• In #63 of "Four Freedoms" speech, FDR says this: “As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone. Those who man our defenses, and those behind them who build our defenses, must have the stamina and the courage which come from unshakable belief in the manner of life which they are defending. The mighty action that we are calling for cannot be based on a disregard of all things the worth fighting for…” What is he arguing here? Based on your readings (and your experiences), is FDR right that soldiers need a clear sense and “unshakable belief” in ideas or principles, in order to have “stamina” and “courage”?