Readings | History of Media and Technology | Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Course readings.
Ses #	Topics	readings
Lec 1	Introduction	Talbot, David. "How Tech Failed in Iraq." MIT Technology Review.
Lab 1	Doctor Strangelove	Screening: Kubrick, Stanley. Doctor Strangelove.
Lec 2	Fictions of War, Philosophy of War, History of War	Orwell, George. 1984. Book One. New York, NY: Signet Classic, pp. 1-104. ISBN: 9780451524935. (Required Book) Tzu, Sun. Art of War. Translated by Lionel Giles. Sections I-VIII, The Internet Classics Archive. Thucydides. "Outbreak of War." In History of the Peloponnesian War. Penguin Classics. Book II, pp. 124-193. Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 9-50), chapter 5 (pp. 67-78). ISBN: 9780029331514.
Lab 2	Ran Air Force	Screening: Kurosawa. Ran. 1985. Hawks. Air Force. 1943.
Lec 3	WWII: Code Wars	Stephenson, Neal. Cryptonomicon. New York, NY: Avon, 2002, pp. 77-92, 143-183, 215-294, 315-364. ISBN: 9780060512804. Singh, Simon. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1999, Chapters 3-6 (pp. 101-292). ISBN: 9780385495318. Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 16-18 (pp. 235-283).. ISBN: 9780029331514. Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri. Multitude. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, pp. 12-62, notes: pp. 361-369.
Lab 3	Akira	Screening: Katsuhiro 'tomo. Akira. Arquilla, John, and David Ronfeldt. "Cyberwar is Coming!" pp. 24-50. Weiguang, Shen. "Information War - A New Challenge." pp. 84-95. Kittler, Friedrich. "On the History of the Theory of Information Warfare." pp. 266-272. From: Infowar, Ars Electronica Center (Springer Wien/New York).
Lab 4	Rumsfeld's War	Screening: Frontline: Rumsfeld's War. PBS, 2004.
Lec 5	The New War Machines Guest Speaker: Owen Cote, Associate Director of Security Studies at MIT	Cote, Owen. "The New War Machines." MIT Technology Review (March 21, 2003).
Lab 5	Eternal War Research Topics: Discussion of Final Papers and Projects Control Room	Screening: Noujaim, Jehane. Control Room. 2004.
Lec 6	History of War Technologies/War Games	DeLanda, Manuel. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. New York, NY: Zone Books. ISBN: 9780942299755. (Required Book) Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. New York, NY: Free Press, 1989, Chapters 1-3 (pp. 9-50), chapter 5 (pp. 67-78), chapters 12-13 (pp. 167-199). ISBN: 9780029331514.
Lab 6	War Games	Screening: Badham, John. War Games. Secrets of War: Spy Games of World War II. 1998. America's Army (Web Game) Patriot Act (Web) War Against Terror (Web) Interview Hyperlink: Democracy Now. Thursday, February 12, 2004.
Lec 7	First-Person Shooters	Haldeman, Joe. The Forever War. Eos. Herr, Michael. "Hell Sucks." In Dispatches. Reprint edition. New York, NY: Avon, 1978, pp. 70-85. ISBN: 9780380019762. Tesanovic, Jasmina. The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade. San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 2000, pp. 71-112. ISBN: 9781573441148. Wright, Evan. Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War. New York, NY: Putnam, 2004, Chapters 7-11, pp. 71-123. ISBN: 9780399151934.
Lab 7	The Fog of War	Screening: Morris, Erol. The Fog of War.
Lec 8	Virtuous War Guest Speaker: James der Derian	der Derian, James. Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industiral-Media-Entertainment Network. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001, pp. 22-249. ISBN: 9780813397948. Silberman, Steve. "The War Room." Wired (September 2004): 150-155, 171-173. Virilio, Paul, and Sylvere Lotringer. Pure War. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agent Series. Chapters 1-3, pp. 9-36.
Lab 8	Virtual War After 9/11 Wag the Dog	Levinson, Barry. Wag the Dog. Screening: der Derian. After 9/11.
Lec 9	Man Machines: Race and War Guest Speakers: Director Reggie Hudlin and Comic Artist Kyle Baker, Birth of a Nation Comic Book Project	Truth Series. Marvel Comics. Adas, Michael. Machines as the Measure of Men. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 343-401. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York, NY: Norton, 1999, chapter 13, pp. 239-264. ISBN: 9780393317558.
Lab 9	Birth of a Nation and Hearts of the World	Screening: Griffith, D. W. Birth of a Nation and Hearts of the World. 1918.
Lec 10	21 Century War: The War in Iraq and the Branding of Terrorism	Sante, Luc. "Tourists and Torturers." New York Times, May 11, 2004. Hiro, Dilip. War Without End: The Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response. New York, NY: Routledge. "The Rise of Islam," pp. 3-24. "Islamist Terrorism and Global Response." pp. 267-434. Agamben, Giorgio. "We Refugees." Black, Edwin. Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2004, chapters 13-17, pp. 211-352. ISBN: 9780471671862. Van Creveld, Martin. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present. Chapters 19-Conclusion, pp. 285-320. Michael, John. "Beyond Us and Them: Identity and Terror from an Arab American's Perspective." The South Atlantic Quarterly 102, no. 4 (Fall 2003): 701-728.
Lab 10	Battle of Algiers	Screening: Battle of Algiers.
Lec 11	Project Presentations
Lab 11	Project Presentations (cont.)
Lec 12	Project Presentations (cont.)
Lab 12	Project Presentations (cont.)