This course will expose students to tools and methods of analysis for use in assessing the challenges and dangers associated with nuclear weapons in international politics. The first two weeks of the course will look at the technology and design of nuclear weapons and their means of production. The next five weeks will look at the role they played in the Cold War, the organizations that managed them, the technologies that were developed to deliver them, and the methods used to analyze nuclear force structures and model nuclear exchanges. The last six weeks of the course will look at theories and cases of nuclear decision making beyond the original five weapon states, and will look particularly at why states pursue or forego nuclear weapons, the role that individuals and institutions play, and the potential for both new sources of proliferation and new consequences.

Poster showing three women pulling a plow. Adapted from photo by Brown Bros. No. W.P. 7. Title from item.

This course investigates Paris’s oversized status as a global capital by looking at the events, transformations, cultures, and arts for which the city is known to help us better understand Paris and its place in French and global cultures today. Taught in French.

This course offers an analysis of the keen interest shown by France and the French in North American cultures since the eighteenth century. Not only did France contribute to the construction of both Canadian and American nations but also it has constantly delineated its identity by way of praising or criticizing North American cultures. Taught in French.

U.S. Marines recruitment poster showing a group of marines rushing into battle carrying the American flag and the flag of the Marine Corps. Title from item. Reproduction of painting by F.C. Yohn.

This course examines the changes in contemporary French society through the study of political debates, reforms and institutions since 1958, and analyzes the deep influence of politics on cultural and social life, despite a decline in political participation. Public controversies and political cleavages, from the Algerian war to postcolonial issues, from the birth of the European Union to the recent financial crisis, and from the moral “revolution” of the seventies to the recognition of new families are revisited.
This course is taught in English.

Poster showing a canteen entrance with soldiers below an arch; the street is strewn with rubble. Visa-15,749.

In this Wonder of the DayR, learners will be introduced to the French Revolution. They will explore what the French Revolution was,What caused the French Revolution, and What the French Revolution accomplished. 

Poster showing refugees in a ruined street. Text continues: They cannot fight & raise food at the same time. Denying ourselves only a little means Life to them. United States Food Administration. No. 19. Title from item.

Three women pulling cultivating machine. Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2007.

Poster showing a truck fitted out as a YMCA canteen, serving soldiers, with smoke rising from battlefields in the distance. Title from item.

Poster showing a sandbag shelter, a YMCA canteen, with soldiers relaxing out front with cups of coffee. Title from item.

Poster showing a YMCA canteen serving soldiers, with sign above the door, "George Williams' House. In memory of Sir George Williams who founded the Y.M.C.A. over 70 yrs. ago. To the glory of God and Britain's young manhood." Title from item.

Eugène Delacroix, Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, 1826, oil on canvas, 208 cm × 147 cm (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux). Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris, Smarthistory, and Steven Zucker.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Genetic testing companies hold data for tens of millions of consumers who have paid, online, for genetic information, without consulting a doctor. This information encodes more than just ancestry; it also captures aspects of wellbeing as well as traits or predispositions for which test quality is often poor. These private companies are strictly prohibited in France. But that hasn’t stopped French research teams from working with them, or French people from paying for illegal tests over the Internet. So how can France keep control over its own genetic data? Our solution is e-CohortE. Designed to achieve the same ends sought by genetic testing companies, but legally and more effectively, e-CohortEs would correspond to a specific and legal French research protocol of RIPH. RIPH sponsors currently address only a few questions on a single topic and then terminate a cohort..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Poster showing a Red Cross nurse with arms extended, as others tend to wounded soldiers, under the flags of France and the Red Cross. Title from item.