HS3T82: Axis at War: Life and Death in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, 1936-45

Module code: HS3T82

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Patrick Major, email: p.major@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Axis at War provides a ‘history from below’ of Italian and German society during a war which razed German cities to the ground, sparked civil war in Italy, and sent millions to their deaths in the Holocaust. It asks methodological questions about how historians can reconstruct an ‘everyday history’ of the extraordinary and highlights biographical and social-historical sources such as diaries, letters, secret police reports, and Allied intelligence assessments. It attempts a differentiated view of life under fascism, ranging from careerist fellow-travelling, to passivity, to resistance and martyrdom for Marxist and Christian ideals. While making excursions to Spain’s Civil War and the conquest of Ethiopia, the module centres around the turning-point of 1943, when Italy deposed its Duce, Hamburg succumbed to a firestorm, and history’s largest tank battle raged at Kursk, all within a fortnight. Why did one fascist regime attempt to capitulate, while another fought to the bitter end?

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Differentiate discrete Italian and German social groups’ experiences of the Second World War
2. Test the propaganda claims of these regimes against social reality
3. Develop a critical empathy and judgment of the role of individuals caught up in totalitarianism
4. Explore the relations between outside Anglo-American liberators and indigenous resisters

Module content

The seminars will follow the following themes:

1. History from below: sources and approaches
2. Wars before the War: Intervention in Spain and Invasion of Ethiopia
3. Propaganda: Cinecittà and ‘ProMi’ between Hollywood and the BBC
4. Home Fronts: Volksgenossen and Brava Gente?
5. Fighting Fronts: From El Alamein to Stalingrad
6. Bombing: Morale under the Bombs
7. Holocaust Bystanders and Perpetrators
8. Holocaust Victims
9. Armed Resistance and Moral Opposition
10. Liberation and Retribution
11. Memory and Memorialisation

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

• Weekly lecture on each theme and to introduce primary sources + weekly follow-up quizzes
• Primary source pool will be posted by MC on Blackboard for portfolio assignment
• Digital mapping (examples of autobiographical sources will be plotted here)
• ºÚ¹Ï³ÔÁÏÍø preparation (one weekly core chapter-length text and one individually allocated text); findings to be posted on wiki on Blackboard
• Weekly 2-hour seminar in 4 breakout groups to cover historiography for essay assignment

Study hours

At least 33 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.