American Empire

In a popular image from the Spanish-American War, Uncle Sam assumed a masculine pose as he rolled up his sleeves and flexed his muscles in preparation for the impending conflict. Decades later, the U.S. State Department projected a more benign image of the nation by dispatching jazz musicians to sing their way into the hearts and minds of newly independent African countries. What prompted these changes in the images America projected to the world? How did Americans’ understandings of foreign lands and peoples shape the nature of foreign relations? This course will explore these questions and others by examining the relationship between culture and foreign relations. We will examine the ways race, gender, and culture have framed the nation’s interactions with the world, both in peacetime and in war.

War and Gender in American History

This course examines the ways gender and sexuality shape wartime experiences, investigates the symbolic functions of gender and sexuality in war making, and considers the ways wars shape peacetime gender norms. A study of key moments in the history of American wars, the course explores both how gender has shaped Americans’ understandings and experiences of war, and how wars have framed social constructions of gender.

War and Memory in American Culture

In her testimony before the U.S. Senate in 1988, Vietnam veteran Diane Carlson Evans posed the question: “Who decides whom America will remember?” This course will answer her question by considering how Americans have remembered the wars of our history. What do we remember about wars, and conversely, what do we forget? Whose participation have we celebrated, and whose have we ignored? How and why have our memories of war often differed from the reality of what happened? And, who has decided the answers to these questions, policymakers or the people? To answer these questions, this course will examine the ways in which memorials and monuments, commemorative activities, and historical sites create public memories of wars and the challenges inherent in creating these memories. It will also consider to what degree these memories have been accepted and rejected in different time periods as well as the changing nature of memory. Thus, it will consider not only how wars have been remembered, but also how they have been interpreted by different people at different times.

The United States in the World Wars

Wars dominated American history in the twentieth century. The century began and ended with the U.S. military involved in wars on other continents. Men faced the possibility of required military service for much of the century, while military service shaped notions of citizenship for all Americans, whether they served or not. A wartime economy—even in times of peace—framed American businesses, labor, and politics. Military service played a crucial role in civil rights movements for African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, and other marginalized groups. This seminar will consider the broad influence of wars and the military on U.S. society, politics, culture, and the military through a focused look at American involvement in World War I and World War II. The readings reflect recent trends in the history of the wars, especially trends that connect military history to social, gender, and cultural history.

The Vietnam War

This reading seminar will explore America’s Vietnam War in the larger context of Vietnamese history and the Cold War, American political and military strategy, and the American social and cultural climate of the 1960s and early 1970s. A history of the war both at home and abroad, the course will consider the broad and lasting influences of the war on Vietnam, on American political institutions, and on American national identity. Our readings will thus introduce us to such topics as military strategy, diplomacy, gender, class, race, ethnicity, and memory. The class coincides with the 2019 LCpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt Symposium on War, Conflict, and Society, which will focus on the Vietnam War.

War, Conflict, and Society in Twentieth Century America

The study of military history in the past decades has expanded dramatically from a focus primarily on operations, leaders, and tactics to include a consideration of the ways social and cultural processes have framed military engagements, and in turn, the ways wars and militarization have shaped American society and culture. Over the course of this semester, our readings will consider these themes and processes through a focused look at the relationships among war, conflict, and society in twentieth-century America.