The Legacy of the 20th Century World Order

This course provides an overview of the world events that occurred after World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century. It connects this century of ideological conflict to events happening in the present. Most of the focus will be on what is called the “cold war” era—a period of time in which the United States-Soviet Union rivalry co-occurred with decolonization and national independence movements throughout the world. Students will gain an understanding of how this history shaped the present time in which the world is still often described as a contest among "great power" adversaries armed with nuclear weapons.

The daily cycle of reporting in the mass media tells citizens about many urgent problems in the world: environmental destruction, financial crises, and conflicts over religion, ethnic identity and resources. However, for young people this news can be a flood of meaningless information because it is usually presented in short reports without historical context. In this course, we will attempt to overcome this problem by examining how the present world order has grown out of events of the 20th century--WWI, the Bolshevik Revolution, WWII, and the smaller wars that followed in the developing world.

During the fifteen sessions of the course we will take a regional approach to the subject, discussing how the major world powers fought over spheres of influence in various parts of the world, and how nuclear weapons changed the nature of this struggle in profound ways.
Students will note that this topic is extremely broad. The choice to do general coverage of a broad topic will give students many options to focus on specific aspects of the topic that they want to cover in their final projects due at the end of the semester.
The final project consists of a research report presented to the class toward the end of the semester. Ideally, there should be many voices heard in the classroom, but in order for this to happen, students must do background readings and come to each class with informed opinions and questions for discussion.

In recent years, it has been necessary to conduct some lessons online or by assigning on-demand materials to study. The use of such methods will probably not be necessary in 2024,but for emergencies or infection response, students will be informed about revised methods, content, and evaluation criteria. Two out of fifteen lessons may be conducted as on-demand lessons involving reading articles or viewing documentary films. The schedule for online lessons will be decided according to the progress of the class, and students will be notified via WebClass at least two weeks prior to the class.

The teacher will give spoken feedback during class discussions, and written feedback for homework and the final presentation project. Students will submit a first draft of the final project so that the teacher can suggest corrections and improvements before the student presents the work to fellow students.

Students should do the assigned readings or film viewings each week and find research materials related to the course on their own initiative. Students will have to prepare written commentaries on some of the materials studied. The students will send these to the teacher. The teacher will give feedback, then the students will use their written commentaries as a basis of discussion in the next class.

Participation requires completion of homework assignments after each class because they form the basis of discussion in subsequent classes.
Success on the final presentation assignment requires the student to complete a first draft, receive feedback on it, and make improvements on it before the day of the final presentation. Students should also rehearse the presentation several times in order to communicate effectively.

＜No textbook required.＞

Students do not need to buy "The Untold History of the United States," but it is recommended as a very useful resource. This book has been translated into Japanese and there are also abridged versions of the book and a video documentary series based on the book.

A very high proficiency in English is not required, but students should have some ability to discuss the challenging topics covered in this course. Students will need more than the ability to do "daily conversation" and they will need to be seriously motivated to use and improve their English. Some of the students in this class may be native speakers of English, so non-native speakers of English should understand that this is not an English language training course. However, it is a good way to prepare for studying at a university overseas where English is the language of instruction.
If students have good attendance, complete assignments on time, do background reading, participate in class, and make thoughtful contributions to discussions, and complete the final project, they will succeed.