JINS 369 - Why We Fight (template course)

War is a mystery. No one suggests it’s a good thing, but the world is rarely free of it. Why do we fight wars - in general, or particular wars? What, beyond thrones filled or emptied, territory gained or lost, do wars accomplish? How is war, or a given war, part of our thinking, our equipment for understanding the world? How does the remembrance of a given war condition our experience of the present? In “Why We Fight,” a given war is examined in terms of its identifiable material causes, the motivations of leaders and followers, the accounts of contemporaries and the interpretations of scholars and artists afterwards, as well as its lasting consequences and effects in the present. Various instantiations of the course may involve history (plus history of art), psychology, rhetoric and communication, engineering, military science, popular culture, film, history of religion, geography, economics, women’s studies, and other areas of specialization. The Crusades - In 1095, Urban II preached the first Crusade; for the next two hundred years, Christians would leave Europe to deliver the Holy Lands from what they saw as Islamic tyranny. Kingdoms would be founded and lost, and both sides would furnish enduring examples of both chivalry and barbarism. The course invokes history, religious studies, art, film, and other disciplines to inquire into the antecedents, conduct and outcome of a conflict whose results have powerful effects in the present day politically, economically and conceptually. The Civil War - Of all wars in United States history, the Civil War was the most disruptive, the most destructive of life and property, and most enduring in its material, sociological and psychological effects. The course focuses on the psychology of individual and collective military action, and examines the literary, artistic and historiographic legacy of the conflict. The Great War - The First World War brought the United States decisively into prominent participation in world affairs, and the whole planet was forced to contemplate conflict and destruction on a scale never before seen. Individual and national participation required a rethinking of the uses of military force. This course focuses on the psychology of individual and collective military action, and examines the literary, artistic and historiographic legacy of the conflict. World War II - Hitler. Stalin. Hirohito. FDR. Mussolini. Churchill. Fascism, communism, capitalism, The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere…World War Two was a clash of arms, ideology, and economic systems that led to over sixty million military and civilian deaths, and transformed the world. This course focuses on the psychology of individual and collective military action, and examines the literary, artistic and historiographic legacy of the conflict.

Prerequisite: Junior status.
Credits: 3
NOTE:
* This course fulfills the Junior Interdisciplinary Writing-Enhanced Seminar Interconnecting Perspective of the Liberal Studies Program.
** This course counts toward the 63-credit Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) graduation requirement.
*** This is a writing-enhanced course.