HST 216 - The Cold War in the Pacific

Min Units: 3
Max Units: 3
This course will explore what historians have called “The Cold War” in the Pacific. Our primary areas of focus will be East and Southeast Asia. The goal of this course is to challenge common tropes and narratives about the Cold War. By focusing specifically on the Pacific, we will investigate aspects of the Cold War that are not commonly considered, including the fact that the United States fought two destructive wars in the Pacific during this supposedly “cold” period. The second major goal of this course is to analyze how the Cold War impacted people on the ground. Rather than focus on elite politics, we will examine how the Cold War shaped culture, gender, understandings of race, social relationships, families, space, national identity, and a host of other phenomena. In order to explore these topics we will utilize a variety of sources, including historical monographs, fiction, and primary sources. (U/G) Occasionally