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MODERN WARS
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Wellington |
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Soldiers
in Afghanistan,
2004. Photo courtesy of US Army |
"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."
[Michael Walzer; often
misattributed to
Trotsky]
War is often studied by either its practitioners or its bitter enemies. The first give us technical details and neat battle plans; the second show us the dead and mutilated, in soul or body. However, war is an integral part of history. It is conducted (or avoided) by human beings in societies whose political, cultural and economic characteristics affect their military institutions and practices. We will examine the development of the theory, nature, and practice of modern war since the late 18th century, with particular emphasis on the viewpoint of the ordinary person involved in a war.
Goals: Students who successfully complete the course will have (1) increased their knowledge and understanding of the interconnections between war and society in the past two centuries; (2) used their knowledge of the past to deepen their understanding of contemporary military events; and (3) by reading about modern wars through the eyes of ordinary people, developed a sense of what it was like to live then and there, as opposed to here and now.
Grades: Grades will be based on four short response papers on the assigned reading (20%); group presentations on current military events (10%); a mid-term (18%); a film and history paper (20%); and a final (25%). Class attendance and participation is expected, and will count for 7% of the final grade (this segment may include quizzes). Fuller explanation of these assignments is included below and explained on the class Blackboard site. The plus-minus system will be used: x0-x2= Grade -; x3-x6=Grade; x7-x9=Grade +.
Students who plagiarize or cheat in any way will earn an F. For all written work, save your preparation materials and be prepared to explain everything you write. If you are unsure about the definition of plagiarism, see the definition provided in Clifford's Advice, http://www.unf.edu/~clifford/ca/ca1.html
Christon Archer, John Ferris, Holger Herwig, and Timothy Travers, World History of Warfare (University of Nebraska Press) [referred to as Archer et al in assignments below]
Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War: War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865. (Cambridge University Press)
Martha Hanna, Your Death Would Be Mine: Paul and Marie Pireaud in the Great War (Harvard University Press)
E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (Oxford)
John A. Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (University of Chicago Press)
A historical atlas is strongly recommended (we will have map quizzes) but optional; the bookstore will stock both the Rand-McNally Historical Atlas of the World and Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War (Oxford University Press)
Articles
and excerpts
available on reserve, on our Blackboard site or on-line:
Excerpts from Clausewitz, On War, posted to Blackboard
J.R. McNeill and David S. Painter, "The Global Environmental Footprint of the U.S. Military, 1789-2003," in Charles E. Closmann, ed. War and the Environment: Military Destruction in the Modern Age (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), 10-31.
CLASSROOM
DECORUM AND
PARTICIPATION:
During each session we will be engaged
in several
different
ways of coming to grips with the subjects at hand, and one of those is
discussion. You cannot discuss if you are not present; attendance will
affect
your grades. Because this class meets only once a week, you
cannot afford
to miss more than one class, regardless of the excuse. Plan to arrive
on time,
stay for the entire class (we will have adequate breaks), and turn cell
phones
off. Excessive tardiness or early departure will be counted
as an
absence.
You cannot
discuss intelligently if you have not read the material before the
discussion -
and remember that a significant question is often a major contribution
to discussion.
The rules of civil discourse apply: dispute the evidence as
hotly
as you
like, but no ad hominem
attacks; appreciate the possibility of
differing
interpretations.
Students with disabilities who seek reasonable
accommodations in
the classroom or other aspects of performing their coursework must
first
register with the UNF Disability Resource Center (DRC) located in
Building 10,
Room 1201. After receiving all necessary documentation, the
DRC
staff
determines whether a student qualifies for services and if so, the
accommodations the student will be provided. DRC staff then
prepares a
letter for the student to provide faculty advising them of approved
accommodations. For further information, contact the DRC by phone (904)
620-2769, email (kwebb@unf.edu),
or
visit
the DRC website (http://www.unf.edu/dept/disabled-services).
CURRENT
MILITARY EVENTS
ASSIGNMENTS:
One regular feature will be a weekly discussion of current military
events
(generally about 15 minutes). You will be assigned to a small group
which will
be responsible for leading discussion one week. Groups must
be
prepared
to discuss the background of the week's events, and lead the class to
important
maps or other materials on our blackboard site and on the
web.
The
discussion should not only convey information, but analyze
current military events
in the context of what we have learned in the course about the culture
and
nature of warfare.
You can prepare for these discussions by
regularly
reading a good newspaper or newsmagazine, or listening to NPR. You will
find
some useful sites linked from the class Blackboard site.
Groups
should
plan to meet with me on one or more occasions before the session for
which they
will lead discussion.
SHORT
RESPONSE PAPERS:
There will be six opportunities to write a short response paper on the
assigned
reading, and you must do four of them. The assignment and due
dates are
spelled out on the class Blackboard site. The first of these
assignments will
be due the second week of class. Response papers are 1 1/2 to
two
pages
in length (typed, double-spaced; all your own work), and must respond
to
specific questions posted to the Assignments section of
Blackboard. All
response papers are due in hard copy at
the beginning of the class period
during which we will discuss the
work in
question. No late
papers will be accepted, regardless of the
excuse. [If some
unusual problems emerge, talk with me.]
FILM
AND HISTORY PAPER:
Each student must write a paper which analyzes a film (generally a
feature
film, not a documentary) with a military history focus. The
paper
must
review the film as history, and must also analyze the ways it is (or is
not)
good "history" of the period and events in which it is set.
The
review should include the basic information about the film (title,
date,
director, lead actors) and a brief account of subject matter, but the
bulk of
the paper should consist of analysis and critical review. In addition
to the
film, you will need to consult at least three reputable historical
sources (not
including texts read for the class; we will discuss how to identify a
reputable
source). As with all papers, these must include appropriate
citations for
the source of your information and ideas - and if you use someone
else's
phrases or sentences, those must be in quotation marks with appropriate
citation. See Clifford's
Advice
for advice on writing a history paper, and for a
definition of
plagiarism. We will spend time in class discussing how to view and
analyze a
film historically, and there is explanatory material about the
assignment
posted on Blackboard. All film choices must have prior approval.
Papers must be 5-7 pages, typed,
double-spaced, and
are due
no later than the beginning of class on 1 December. Late
papers
will be
penalized.
25 August - Introduction. What is modern war? Warfare in the 18th century. Read Archer et al, 317-369.
1 September - American Revolution. Read Archer et al, 369-79, and **Wayne E. Lee, "Restraint and Retaliation: The North Carolina Militias and the Backcountry War of 1780-1782," inJohn Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts (De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007): 163-190, posted on Blackboard in .pdf.
8 September - From Revolutionary to Napoleonic Warfare. Read Archer et al, 380-409.
15 September - The industrialization of war after Waterloo; Clausewitz and military theory. Read Archer et al, 410-439; excerpts from Clausewitz posted on Blackboard.
22 September - Map quiz (practice). American Civil War. Read **Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War.29 September - War and Global Empire. Read Archer et al, 440-482.
6 October -World War I. Read Archer et al, 483-511; and **Hanna, Your Death would be Mine.13 October -- Mid-term examination. [first half of class]
A war to end wars? The interwar era: fearing war, planning war. [includes film clips]
20 October -War in the Movies: Introduction to World War II. Read Jeanine Basinger, “Translating War: The Combat Film Genre and Saving Private Ryan,” Perspectives, October 1998. http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/1998/9810/9810FIL.CFM. We will spend time discussing the film and history paper.
3
November -World War II in
the Pacific. Read **Sledge,
With
the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.
17 November -Insurgency, Counterinsurgency, and Vietnam. Read Archer et al, 579-89, and **Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife.
24 November – War and peacekeeping after 1975. **Read McNeill and Painter, "The Global Environmental Footprint of the U.S. Military, 1789-2003," posted on Blackboard in .pdf.
1 December - Putting Vietnam behind us? wars of the recent past -- and of the future. Film and history papers due.
Final Examination: 6-7:50 Tuesday, 8 December