This course offers a survey of World War II, the largest and most destructive armed conflict in human history, with coverage of its causes and consequences. It utilizes the prism of grand strategy to analyze national policy and military strategy. In addition to detailed descriptions of major military operations, the course will assess the impact that Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston S. Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt had on the war. While this course emphasizes military events and wartime diplomacy, some attention will be paid to the internal politics of the major belligerents and economic factors. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Why take this course in Rome? Italy was one of the major battlegrounds of World War II, and it was seventy-five years ago that the U.S. Fifth Army captured Rome. The battle for Rome started on January 22, 1944 when American troops landed at Anzio and lasted until June 5. One of the highlights of the course will be our visit to Anzio and Nettuno where American and German forces were locked in mortal combat for more than four months before the Fifth Army broke through and entered Rome.