WAR AND PEACE

 

 

 


TEXTS  -- John Keegan, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme (Penguin, 1976); Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude (Norton Critical Edition, 2e, 1996); and William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (Longman, 4e, 2000).

 

CORE -- Visit this page for the second part of our syllabus (Connecting) and to get started with the crucial attitudes and perspectives for our course.

 

 


FACING BATTLE, I

 

ADLER AND TOLSTOY -- Adler's "War and Peace" and Tolstoy's "God Sees the Truth, but Waits."

 

KEEGAN -- Atlas for Ancient Warfare (US Military Academy): "The Natural Tendency" (last entry for "The Greek Hoplite in Classical Warfare) for phalanx fighting; and Sir John Keegan (Wikipedia).  Optional: Sir John Keegan (C-Span in Depth with Brian Lamb, 27 December 2003), a long, thirteen-part interview; and Ground War, four-part series (PBS) .

 

AGINCOURT (1415) -- All You Need To Know About The Battle Of Agincourt; Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene III: Lawrence Olivier (1944) [11 minutes]; and Kenneth Branagh (1989) [5 minutes]. Optional: The Barron Knights, The Battle of Agincourt [3 minutes], for fun; The Battle of Agincourt (Britishbattles.com); and Bernard Cornwell's History of Agincourt [4 minutes].

 

 

 

 

 

 


BORODINO (1812): Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

 

NAPOLEON -- The Western Tradition, 40: The French Revolution: Click on VoD [Video on Demand] for this 26-minute illustrated lecture; Napoleon's Empire, 1812 (Norton iMaps); Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon (The History Guide); The rise, the glory, the fall: the Empire seen through the eyes of great artistsOptional: Napoleonic Wars (US Military Academy) (US Military Academy).

 

WAR AND PEACE: Cartoons -- War and Peace comic strip, Parts 1 and 2; and Cartoonstock.

 

WAR AND PEACE: Films -- War and Peace (1956): theatrical trailer for King Vidor's epic [3.30 minutes]; miniseries trailer (2007) [a long 9 minutes]; and Wikipedia on the interpretations by Vidor (1956) and Sergei Bondarchuk (1968).

 

BOOK 1 -- War and Peace (1968): begins with the Anna Scherer's soiree and ends with Lisa interrupting the conversation between Andrei and Pierre, and 2/14: through the bear party [end at 08.10]; and War and Peace (1956), Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 (end at minute 3.00).

 

BOOK 3 -- Napoleon: The Battle of Austerlitz (PBS): Episode 3: Summit of Greatness, parts 2 and 3 for the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz [20 minutes]; and War and Peace (1956), Parts 4 (begin at minute 3.00) and 5 (end at minute 4.00). Optional: 1805 Campaign (Napoleonic Miniatures War Game), for details and maps; Battle of Austerlitz (History Channel), in five parts; and Napoleon: Austerlitz (History Channel: The Great Commanders).

 

BOOK 4 -- War and Peace (1956), Parts 5 (begin at minute 4.00), 6, and 7 (end at minute 2.10, which jumps to Book 7, ignoring for now Andrew's engagement to Natasha in Book 6).

 

BOOK 6 -- War and Peace: Is it possible to be so happy?/ The moon (2007: short clips from the television miniseries: Andrew, Pierre (not in the novel); Natasha at Otradnoe; If she turns and looks at me now . . .Wonderful like everything you do; You seem to live life very intensely; I love you . . .; and Andrey and Natasha's farewell.

 

BOOK 7 -- War and Peace (1956), Parts 7, 8, and 9 (end at minute 7.25) admixture Books 6 and 7 with the Rostov's country visit and wolf hunt (including Andrei among the party, Natasha's balcony scene, and THEN the great ball and engagement . . . sigh . . .

 

BOOK 8 -- War and Peace (1956), Parts 9 (begin at minute 7.25), 10, and 11; and War and Peace: Natasha's Betrayal (2007)  [2 minutes].

 

BOOK 10: Borodino, I: Battle -- Napoleon (PBS): Episode 4: The End, parts 1 and 2 (end at 6.54); History comes to life at Borodino (RT), text and video; Battle of Borodino, 1812 (Napoleon, His Army and Enemies); The Mother of God Smolenskaya (British Museum); Black Virgin of Smolensk, 1912 picture of altar destroyed in 1941 and scroll down the page to compare Tolstoy's account of the Russians honoring the Virgin with Joseph-Louis Hippolyte Bellange's painting of Napoleon admiring the portrait of his son, the King of Rome.  Optional: Memorial 1812 Year.

 

BOOK 10: Borodino, II

BOOK 11 -- War and Peace (1956), Parts 14, 15, and 16;  War and Peace (2997): Take me to Natasha . . . and I love you even more then before (2007).

 

BOOK 12 -- War and Peace (1956), Parts 17 (end at minute 7.30); and War and Peace (2007): Perhaps there's still some hope, and One must live, one must love, one must . . .

 

BOOK 13 -- Serge Prokofiev, War and Peace (1941-53): Andrei's death (Opéra national de Paris, 2000) [3.30 minutes].  Optional: Andrei's death scene in two parts (Tokyo 2003)  [13 minutes]: slow and poorly filmed, but containing all the music of this powerful scene.

 

BOOK 15 -- War and Peace  (1956), Parts 18, 19, and 20; and Marche Henri IV (Wikipedia): lyrics (French and English) of the song Henri Quatre.

 

LOVE AND DEATH -- Woodie Allen, Love and Death (Wikipedia); Edible Books: War and Peace: scroll to the bottom; and Tolstoy Studies Journal: Virtual Exhibit: Tolstoy and the Arts," "Tolstoy Image Gallery," and "Tolstoy Film."

 

 


FACE OF BATTLE, II

 

WATERLOO (1815) -- All You Need To Know About The Battle Of Waterloo; Napoleon (PBS), Episode 4: The End, parts 3, 4, and 5; and Abba, Waterloo: Eurovision contest winner performance [4.00 minutes].   Optional: Battle of Waterloo (Napoleon, Armies and Enemies); The Battle of Waterloo (britishbattles.com); Interactive Battle Simulator (PBS); Battle of Waterloo section of Sergi Bondarchuk's Napoleon (1970).

 

SOMME (1916) -- Europe Plunges into War (The Map as History); All You Need To Know About The Battle Of The Somme [5 minutes]; The Battle of the Somme (PBS); and Animated Map: Battle of the Somme, with Keegan's commentary (BBC).  

 

MOSCOW (1941) -- The War of the World, 3: Killing Space [47 minutes]; 1943: Battle of Kursk (Seventeen Moments in Soviet History); Bondarchuk, A Man of Destiny (1959): parts 6 and 7 (through minute 2.10) for the Russian prisoner (Bondarchuk) challenging his German captors . . . Bondarchuk, directing his first film, drew on his experiences as a POW during the Second Patriotic War.  Optional: The trailer and opening of Sergei Bondarchuk's Oni srazhalis za rodinu (They Fought for their Motherland, 1975), set in July 1942; Tanks: Battle of Kursk (video); Moscow 1941 [60 minutes]; Operation Barbarossa (Holt, Rinehart and Winston) and Battle of Moscow (PBS); and Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985), watching Part 2.3-5 for a young partisan's experience with Germans in Byelorussia (now Republic of Belarus) in 1942 [33 minutes].

 

 

 

 

Dr. C. McAllister, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC

 

Return to WebBooks for History Courses