Military History at the Graduate Level
Some Inspiration…
Assignments
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Syllabi
If you are looking for inspiration for your next graduate military history course, you will find sample syllabi covering topics ranging from war and society to operational art. While many have been taught at civilian universities, several come from PME curricula.
Reading Lists
“Military History/War & Society Studies are for good or ill at the core of the human experience. War shapes peoples and nations through experience, the shaping of memory, and national narratives (often competing ones). Teaching military history, then, complements other history courses (because far too many ignore the war experience and its legacies), but more so educates students, instilling awareness of how the world today has been shaped by conflict, and to better understand conflict today. Understanding how Russia and China view war, how their national narratives have been shaped by war, is a crucial factor in dissecting the apparently aggressive stances Russia is taking against Ukraine and China in the Taiwan straights. What do they want? Why do they want it? What are they willing to do to get it? And why do we care, and what are we willing to do to prevent them from getting what they want, if that is in our national interest? Military History and War & Society Studies are part of the tool kit to help us understand.
What do I like? The human experience - from the ground up rather than top-down. Both are important, but ultimately it's individual people who experience combat, starvation, disease, displacement, and lasting trauma in and of war.”
— Bill Allison, Georgia Southern University
Featured
“I switched from diplomatic to military history in graduate school because of the way that military history--and the experience of combat in particular--touches on the full range of human emotions in a way that completely hooked me. I had also read a few intriguing books that revealed to me how much the study of military history is full of fascinating debates that affected every aspect of societies, not just military institutions. I also began to appreciate fully that military history is far more than just the study of battles or weapons.”
— Heather Venable, Air Command and Staff College