This course is a detailed, comprehensive look at World War I.  It consists of five sessions in the same week.

Session I:  1914--prelude to war, miscalculation by the world powers, the initial offensives, and the alliances.

Session II: 1915--trench warfare--how it evolved, how the soldiers fought, tactics by each side, Gallipolli, U-boats, and poison gas.

Session III: 1916--Verdun, the Somme, Jutland, the first tanks, the war in Africa, and the war in the air.

Session IV:  1917--French revolts, Russia out of the war, development of new weapons, and the battles of Arras, Vimy Ridge, Passchandaele, and the US enters the war.

Session V:  1918--Final German offensive, Influenza Pandemic, Americans in combat, the Armistice, the Versailles Treaty and it's implications, and Herbert Hoover and the relief effort.  Also, share individual research results.

This class will be very visual and very interactive.  I show pictures (photos, maps, and paintings) of all subjects we cover in the class.  I pose questions to individuals and collectively (example:  what should have been the French high command's response to the mass revolts within the Army?  Should the US have entered the war earlier?) that we discuss.  I invite learners to make comments.  I also assign each learner a person to research (not a general or senior leader but someone who was in the war at a lower level) and share what they learned about that person on the last session of class.

It's not essential that students know about WW1 but it is important that they have a basic sense of European geography prior to this class.