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Updated as of 2 October 05
Today in History:
On October 2, 1780, Major John
André, a British spy associated with Benedict Arnold, was
executed on this day in history.
Quote of the Day:
"In my view we are much worse
off now than when we went into Iraq. This is not a partisan position. I voted
for these guys."
A senior figure at a
military-sponsored think tank as told to James Fallows in "Bush's Lost Year" in
The Atlantic Monthly (Oct. 2004)
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Take the Ann Coulter
Quiz
Where are you politically? Take
the
Neocon Quiz and find out.
"History
is Far too Important to be left to History Professors"
Teaching isn't such a novel idea
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Age of Total War
Handout Nine
Topic:
The Failure to Stop
Aggression
OUTLINE:
IX. The Failure to Stop Aggression
A.Introduction.
B.Abyssinia and the Rhineland
C.The Spanish Civil War and the Axis
D.The Anschluss
E.Munich and After.
F.The Final Days of Peace
QUESTIONS:
- AJP Taylor argues in his controversial account of the
origins of World War II that Hitler was just a traditional German statesman
and the causation of the Second World War is much more complicated than
previously believed. His book was attacked at the time of publication. Why did
that happen? Was Taylor correct? Explain.
- The late Lawrence Stone of Princeton University came up
with an ingenious model to explain armed conflicts. The first involves
preconditions, those long-term tensions that make war possible. The second
centers upon the idea of precipitants, the near-term tensions that make war
highly likely. The final category is the trigger, the event that sparks the
outbreak of war. How does this apply to World War II?
- The Spanish Civil War has lead to many different
interpretations. How would you evaluate the Spanish Civil War? Was it a
testing ground for World War II or was it an internal conflict involving the
future of Spain?
-
Jan Huizinga, a well-respected medieval historian, was
deeply disturbed by the world situation in the 1930s. He watched as the world
moved closer to war. He was so concerned that he wrote the following In the
Shadow of Tomorrow: “We are living in a demented world. And we know it.
It would not come as a surprise to anyone if tomorrow the madness gave way to
a frenzy which would leave our poor Europe in a state of distracted stupor,
with engines still turning and flags streaming in the breeze, but with spirits
gone.” He even went much further, by noting, “Everywhere there are doubts as
to the solidity of our social structure, vague fears of the imminent future, a
feeling that our civilization is on the way to ruin. They are not merely the
shapeless anxieties, which beset us in the small hours of the night when the
flame of life burns low. They are considered expectations founded on
observation and judgment of an overwhelming multitude of facts. How to avoid
the recognition that almost all things which once seemed sacred and immutable
have now become unsettled, truth and humanity, justice and reason? We see
forms of government no longer capable of functioning, production systems on
the verge of collapse, social forces gone wild with power. The roaring engine
of this tremendous time seems to be heading for a breakdown.” From what we
studied since mid-semester, what do you believe accounted for Huizinga’s
pessimism? What was he writing about? Was his prognosis correct? Explain.
TERMS:
Konrad Henlein
Kurt von Schuschnigg
Neville Chamberlain
Hoare-Laval Agreement
Adowa
Caudillo
Edouard Benes
Sudetenland
Munich Conference
Lord Runciman
Emil Hacha
William Strang
The Strang Mission
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