By any standard, the Twentieth Century was a time of sheer Hell — two world destroying wars; unending civil war; fascist and communist totalitarianism, and myriad other forms of dictatorship, genocide, xenophobia, religious hysteria, political assassination, and terrorism. I define the Twentieth Century as the period between July 28, 1914 and September 11, 2001. We will explore this era by focusing on the following themes: 1) the experience of living through Hell; 2) the contending theories of Hell's origins; 3) the threat of going to Hell; and 4) the problem of reckoning with Hell. We will use ten widely recognized images of Hell to address these themes.

A major goal of this seminar is to begin preparing you for life after Notre Dame. Every Notre Dame graduate should be a leader. Leadership is nothing more than the art of persuasion. To this end, we will concentrate on the four skills required to persuade others to follow you into battle: reading, writing, speaking, and arguing.

This is a demanding course. You must keep up with all of your assignments to avoid being left behind.

The section and requirements links are to the left of this page.

This Web site is the authoritative syllabus for the seminar. It will change as we move along. Therefore you must consult it on a regular basis throughout the semester.