GENERALIZED 2-DIMENSIONAL QCD

We study two-dimensional gauge theories with fundamental fermions and a general first-order gauge-field lagrangian. For the case of U(1) we show how standard bosonization of the Schwinger model generalizes to g ive mesons interacting through a general Landau-Ginzburg potential. We then show how for the case of SU(N) 't Hooft's solution of large-N tw o-dimensional QCD can be generalized in a consistent and natural manne r. We finally point out the possible relevance of studying these theor ies to the string formulation of two-dimensional QCD as well as to und erstanding QCD in higher dimensions.