This course offers students the chance to read, and think, about war in various and often opposing ways, from the medical to the philosophical, the literary to the historical. Some of what we'll be reading makes for very tough reading. At times, no doubt, the questions we ask of certain books will seem outrageous, irrelevant, disrespectful. Still, we should be prepared to ask some of those "big" questions, if only to keep us from succumbing totally to outrage and horror: How do people understand and write about war? Do women, men, and children share identical experiences, or has war affected each differently over time? What, if anything, do all wars have in common? What, if anything, do the "prosecutors" of war share with war's "victims"? Is there a difference between prosecutors and victims, combatants and noncombatants? Can you study early modern wars, such as King Philip's War and the American Revolution, in the same way that you might study, say, World War I or Vietnam? |