Module POL2105 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL2105: Total War, Total Peace
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- the World Wars
- the Napoleonic Wars
- industrial wars
- ‘tribal’ and ‘nomadic’ warfare
- non-Western ‘total’ wars
- wars and ‘policing operations’ of empires
- post-WW2 conflicts
- civil wars
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activity | 22 | 11 x 2-hour seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Private study reading and preparing for seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 78 | Preparation for essay and pre-seen exam including researching and collating relevant sources; planning the structure and argument; writing up the essay |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Black J. 2010. The Age of Total War, 1860-1945. Plymouth: Roman and Littlefield, 1-12.
Giddens, A. 1985. ‘Capitalist development and the industrialization of war’. In: The Nation State and Violence. Cambridge: Polity, 222-254.
Heuser, B. 2010. The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Howard, M. 2005. ‘Total war: some concluding remarks’. In: Chickering, R., Förster, S., and Geiner, B. (eds). A World at War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 375-383.
Howard M. 2009. War in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Keegan J. 1994. A History of Warfare. London: Pimlico.
Imlay, T. 2007. ‘Total war’, The Journal of Strategic Studies 30:3, 547-570.
Philpott, W.J. 2006. ‘Total war’. In: Hughes, M. and Philpott, W.J. (eds). Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 131-152.
Saint-Amour, P.K. 2014. ‘On the partiality of total war’. Critical Enquiry 40:2, 420-449.
Strachan, H. 2000. ‘Essay and reflection: on total war and modern war’. The International History Review 22:2, 341-70.
