The Price of Freedom: Normandy, 1944

GW students receive a tour of the Hillman Bunker

The Price of Freedom: Normandy, 1944, is a special course that includes a spring break trip to the site of the Normandy Campaign in France. This four-credit course satisfies a WID requirement.

Normandy Scholars Website

“My goal is to give students a perspective on conflict and its impact on individuals and families that you can’t get from reading a book or watching a movie. I want them to feel the weight of the human loss.”

Tom Long
Assistant Professor of History

How to Apply

Applications for the Spring 2023 Normandy class can be found here (docx) and are due on Friday, September 30th. Learn more about the class and see photos from past trips on the Normandy Scholars website. If you have questions, please e-mail Professor Tom Long at [email protected].

Course Material

Through class lectures, discussion and film viewings, students examine the causes and impact of the campaign on individuals, communities and the nation. During the course, each student learns about a soldier who died in the Normandy Campaign and is buried in the American Battlefield Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Research is extensive and includes tracking war records, combing through yearbooks and interviewing family and friends.

Trip Agenda and Expenses

Image of a hotel and row of houses along a beach in France

We plan to travel first to England to visit sites important to the Normandy Campaign. After arrival in France at the beginning of spring break the class travels to Pegasus Bridge, where British Airborne troops landed on D-Day, June 6, 1944. From there, students participate in a rigorous “staff ride”—army-speak for an educational tour—of the entire campaign to Paris. Each student conducts a briefing about some element of the campaign at the appropriate location. The class concludes its visit to the landing beaches by laying a wreath at the memorial in the American Cemetery. Each student then presents a eulogy for his or her assigned soldier at the graveside. Expenses associated with travel are estimated at $3,500 for items like airfare, hotels, meals, bus transport, etc. Financial aid may be available in some cases.