1
Rosa Luxemburg: War and the Workers-The Junius Pamphlet-1916 This site offers the text of a speech written in response to the decision of many Socialist Party members to support their countries’ participation in the Great War.
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/lux.html
Questions for further exploration:
Why does Rosa Luxemburg believe that socialist parties should not support the war effort? What is it about socialism and about the nature of European War that makes socialist support for any combatant nation tantamount to a betray of socialist beliefs?
3
Wilfred Owen This site is devoted to the poems of Wilfred Owen, perhaps the greatest poet of the Great War.
http://bewoner.dma.be/ericlaer/cultural/owen.html
Questions for further exploration:
Read the short biography of Wilfred Owen available at this site. Then scroll down to the section listing links to his poetry and other war poets. Scroll down this list and read the poem by Owen Seaman entitled “Pro Patria.” Then scroll down to the section “Owen’s Poems” and read his most famous work,“Dulce Et Decorum Est.” Compare the content of these two poems—one that celebrates death in defense of one’s country and the other that finds that most calls to patriotic duty serve only the cause of man’s inhumanity to man.
6
Elie Weisel This site offers the brief text of a Holocaust survivor’s remarks at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum.
http://www.civnet.org/index.htm
Questions for further exploration:
Scroll down the index to the “Great Documents” link and then scroll down and click on “Elie Weisel.” Why does Weisel believe that those who died in the Holocaust must be remembered? According to Weisel, what are the lessons of the Holocaust?
7
President Franklin Roosevelt This site offers the text of a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina in which President Roosevelt explained why the United States had to abandon its policy of isolation from the increasingly troubled affairs of Europe.
http://www.usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/52.htm or www.civnet.org/resoures/teach/basic/part8/52.htm
Questions for further exploration:
What were the underlying causes of American isolationism? How did Roosevelt explain why such concerns had to give way to others in view of developments in Europe?
8
The Use of Atomic Weapons Against Japan This site offers an essay that examines the decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. To many veterans of the Second World War, there is no debate over the propriety of the use of these weapons. To these men and women, the bombs ended the war. However, there is a deep division among scholars over whether this was, in fact, true or not, a debate heightened by the accounts of those who were responsible for its use, some of whom tried to stop its use, such as the "father" of the bomb, Albert Einstein. This site and its links can be used to access the full range of deabate over this controversial issue. This essay, however, takes the position advocated by General and later President Dwight Eisenhower that, "it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."
http://www.doug-long.com/hiroshim.htm or http://www.doug-long.com/
Question for further exploration:
What key factors are cited by the author as evidence that the use of nuclear weapons was not necessary to bring an end to the war with Japan with a minimum loss of life?
