American Military Culture

American Military Culture examines the various cultural forces that have produced the American armed forces, the most powerful and most expensive military establishment in the world. This course explores how American military culture expresses the strengths and weaknesses of American society. The course traces the evolution of a defense system originally based on the idea of universal military obligation to today’s all-volunteer military that reflects the fragmentation of American society by outsourcing military service to a restricted number of men and women, many of whom consider that their career. American Military Culture also explores inter-service rivalry and civil-military tensions.

Soldiers, Wars, and Societies: The British Army

This course will trace the history of the British Army from its founding in 1660-61 to the present. Emphasis will be placed on organization, recruitment, wars, battles, campaigns, prominent commanders, and how changes in the British Army mirrored changes in British society. Other important themes will be the army’s role in conquering and defending the British Empire and major developments in British military policy and strategy. The class will examine how Britain’s indirect, balance-of-power, “blue-water” strategy facilitated the acquisition of extensive imperial holdings by a relatively small army and with a relatively low cost in British lives. Britain’s decision to abandon that strategy in the 20th century and assume the role of a major continental power with huge conscript armies would result in an enormous expenditure of British lives and capital in the two world wars – events that triggered the dissolution of the empire and Britain’s transformation from a capitalistic oligarchy to a social welfare state. In the post-imperial and Cold War era, the British Army has carved a new niche for itself as the junior partner to the American military in coalition wars in the Middle East.

Civil War and Reconstruction

This course offers students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the historical literature dealing the so-called “middle period” in United States history, or the era of the Civil War and the First Reconstruction, extending roughly from 1831 to 1877. All students in the course will be exposed to seven salient studies demonstrating how historians have dealt with various aspects of this period. At the same time, they will have the opportunity to advance their respective degree programs by reading a cluster of eight other books of their own choosing. They will share what they have read with their classmates through oral reports and annotated bibliographies, thus broadening everyone’s knowledge of the best current historiography on the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

World War II

This course offers a survey of World War II, the largest and most destructive armed conflict in human history, with coverage of its causes and consequences. It utilizes the prism of grand strategy to analyze national policy and military strategy. In addition to detailed descriptions of major military operations, the course will assess the impact that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston S. Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt had on the war. While this course emphasizes military events and wartime diplomacy, some attention will be paid to the internal politics of the major belligerents and economic factors. There are no prerequisites for this course.

United States at War

This course is a survey of the rise of the American military establishment from its origins as a small, neglected cadre of coastal and frontier guardians to a mighty world police force and the most expensive concern of the federal government. Emphasis will be placed on the development of military policy, the principles of war, and the inter-relationship between military affairs, technology, politics, and social change.

Studies in the Comparative History of Modern Warfare

This course offers students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the historical literature dealing with the evolution of warfare and military systems in the modern world. It begins in the 17th century, with the emergence of armies and navies whose officers were distinguished by a growing professionalism, and it extends to the latter half of the 20th century. Although much of the available literature deals with the military developments in the West (Europe and the United States), students will also have the opportunity to study the military systems of non-Western cultures in hopes of attaining a truly global perspective.

Rise of the American Military Profession

The overriding purpose of this course is to provide students with a theoretical framework for analyzing the evolution of modern military institutions and the people who lead them. Students will examine the development of the military profession in the United States from the War of Independence through the 1990s. Students will examine contemporary concepts of military professionalism by studying the careers of American officers in their historical context. This course will also address the major European influences that revolutionized standards of officer procurement, training, education, and advancement in the United States and around the world.