{"id":21464,"date":"2022-05-27T10:48:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T14:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/?post_type=profile&#038;p=21464"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:48:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:48:56","slug":"hi-279-experiencing-total-war","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/profile\/hi-279-experiencing-total-war\/","title":{"rendered":"HI 279: Experiencing Total War"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Spring 2026 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/profile\/alexis-peri\/\">Alexis Peri\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n<table width=\"435\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"87\"><strong>Day<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"87\"><strong>Start<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"87\"><strong>Stop<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"87\"><strong>Bld<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"87\"><strong>Room<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/history\/files\/2019\/03\/BU_Hub_wordmark_RGB-700-636x153.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"48\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2019\/03\/BU_Hub_wordmark_RGB-700-636x153.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2019\/03\/BU_Hub_wordmark_RGB-700-768x185.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2019\/03\/BU_Hub_wordmark_RGB-700-1024x247.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2019\/03\/BU_Hub_wordmark_RGB-700.jpg 1459w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/h3>\n<p><span>Analyzes how soldiers and civilians experienced WWI and WWII, which brutally penetrated their everyday lives and affected their bodies, vocabularies, and world-views. Major sources include combat accounts, diaries, letters, songs, material culture, food, and more. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled &#8220;Intimate Histories of War&#8221; that was previously numbered CAS HI 279.\u00a0<\/span><strong>BU Hub Areas (Effective Fall 2018): Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Creativity\/Innovation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Additional Course Materials:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"responsive-video responsive-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"HI 279: Experiencing Total War (Course Trailer)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Wb32Zv0o8M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/hi-279-syllabus.doc\">Syllabus, Professor Alexis Peri, Fall 2021<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Expanded Course Description:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen faced with the prospect of total destruction, how do human beings respond? What strategies do they devise in order to survive? What thoughts haunt the mind as they stare down the prospect of death? In this course, we take a deep dive into what has been called the quintessential experience of the twentieth century: the experience of total war. We investigate the ordeals of WWI and WWII and their lasting effects on the bodies, thoughts, and worldviews of Europe\u2019s men, women, and children. And we will examine the massive effect that these wars have had on numerous aspects of life today\u2014from military tactics, to our vocabularies, foodways, international law, political philosophy, and art.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Course Themes:<\/strong><br \/>\n\u2022 total war, genocide, atrocity, modernism and postmodernism as frameworks for WWI and WWII<br \/>\n\u2022 the experiences of soldiers fighting on land, in the air, and at sea<br \/>\n\u2022 the particular ways that ethnic minorities, women, and children were immersed in and brutalized by war<br \/>\n\u2022 breakthroughs in art, science, cuisine, and philosophy, which emerged from war<\/p>\n<p><strong>Selected Readings:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>\u2022 Shahen Derderian, Death March: An Armenian Survivor&#8217;s Memoir of the Genocide of 1915<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2022 The Diary of David Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2022 Stolen Voices: Young People\u2019s Diaries, from World War I to Iraq<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u2022 Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/spring-2024-courses\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"75\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring.png 1250w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring-636x159.png 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring-1024x256.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/files\/2022\/05\/Return-to_Spring-800x200.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"author":20057,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/21464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20057"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/21464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26757,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/21464\/revisions\/26757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}