Hist 104, Lecture 15:
The Making of "Total War"
(PDF)(DOC)

The Final Solution, strategic (saturation, carpet, terror) bombing, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Manhattan Project, Nuremberg Principles

1. The Not-So-Basics of WWII

a. When and where did the war begin?
b. Why did the war begin?
c. A note on naming the war in Asia

2. The Idea of “Total War”

a. The idea of limited war
b. In what ways “total”?
c. Civilians as combatants
d. Advertising Total War

3. “Crimes against Humanity”

a. The idea of “rules of warfare” and how they were “broken”
b. What is a “war atrocity” and “war crime”?
c. Who’s guilty; or, rather, who’s innocent in total war?

4. Living with the Bomb . . . and Ourselves

a. The legacy of the Manhattan Project
b. Hope and fear in the New World Order/Disorder