2006 Handbooks

This unit looks at the ways in which issues of war and peace are shaped by specific cultural and historical conditions that can only be understood in a broader international context. While war can be viewed purely in terms of military strategy and through the lens of advancing armies, it also has wider social, economic and cultural meanings that situate men and women as historical actors in the formation of cultural civilizations and the reconstruction of new world orders. By looking at the many situations in which wars have been fought across the world in the name of national freedom, religious crusade and political justice, we ponder the ways in which war is the arena in which national and imperial memory is forged. Our travels will take us to Britain, India, Germany, the United States, South Africa, Japan, Algeria, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia to look at the role of war in the construction of historical memory. We also pay particular attention to the experiences of women in war, to the colonial context of much international conflict and to the moral questions that arise from notions such as 'winning' and 'losing'.