America and the world, 1945-2000: technology, conflict and the lives of others (Part 1)

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• research historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in written essays and reports
• utilise and develop your time-management skills
• locate and use effective textual, visual and material culture sources in the library and on-line, synthesising this material in order to develop cogent arguments

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Knowledge and understanding of the impacts of American war-making upon other societies
• Knowledge and understanding of the changing technologies of American warfare from 1945-1963
• Knowledge and understanding of the ethical issues surrounding modern warfare

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• engage with the secondary literature on post-war American foreign policy, and contribute to the debates relating to the historiography of that policy and its impact on the wider world
• analyse critically a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources
• structure your ideas and research findings into well-ordered essays

This module will focus on two particular themes: the role played by humanitarian concerns in American national security policy since the Second World War; and the actual impact of American national security policy and practices on the 'lives of others'. These themes will be explored with particular reference to the fire-bombing of Germany and Japan, the use of nuclear weapons and the evolution of early nuclear strategy, the Korean War, concerns about nuclear conflict and the effects of nuclear tests, the Berlin and Cuban Missile crises, and initial US counter-insurgency policy in Vietnam.

Teaching and learning methods

2 x 2-hour face-to-face seminars per week, encompassing a blend of plenary class and small group discussion, document analysis, and class exercises.

Resources & Reading list

Journal Articles

John Lewis Gaddis (1986). The Long Peace. International Security.

Textbooks

John Tirman (2011). The Deaths of Others.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External