Is in a box in front of the History reception desk. Apologies for its late arrival on Friday afternoon – I had to wait until the photocopier engineer had visited.
Some of you have had problems locating articles in e-journals not on J-Stor, so I’m going to run a little reminder session at the start of next week’s lecture.
Really enjoyed marking everyone’s essay plans – I felt this was a great exercise and really allowed me to have some input into improving the largest piece of assessment on this course.
This week we shifted onto looking at the Home Front again (although arguably, previous lectures on America and Russia contained a lot about how the ‘world’ war was perceived on the home front – it’s these inter-connections that I enjoy so much about the course). I gave a lecture on voluntarism and compulsion, arguing that this is a crucial analytical concept to apply to the way that Britain fought and Britons experienced the war. The effect of ‘totalising’ war is to blur the lines between the two – compulsory measures are administered by volunteers, many compulsry measures are so far-reaching that abiding by them is essentially voluntary, but at the same time the weight of public involvement means that it could be hard not to ‘choose’ to participate voluntarily.
The seminars on crime and the black market worked pretty well I thought for this time of year. The moral, legal, social and political factors that make up what constitutes a ‘crime’ make a good nexus for discussion. I was disappointed that for the second time this semester, the group responsible for my second seminar session had not prepared (indeed, only one turned up). My own actions probably contribute to this – students know that if they don’t prepare, I will still run the class. It would be a shame, however, if the same students who didn’t attend were those who criticise the university system for not giving them enough contact hours. Next week is group A’s responsibility. I expect them to be fully prepared, and to offer an explanation in advance if they are unable to attend. I will have your yellow sheets with me, and those who do not turn up can expect a phone call.
