HIST 356(S) Modern Warfare and Military Leadership

Since the late-eighteenth century, the history of the West has been marked by a number of enormously destructive and decisive wars fought by nation-states on a continental and global scale. This era witnessed dramatic changes in the size, armaments, organization, and lethal nature of military forces at sea, on land, and, more recently, in the air, culminating in highly mechanized warfare, and its ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb. This course will study that warfare, paying special attention to the role military leadership played in its development. We will concentrate our attention on the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II, and such leaders as Napoleon, Lee and Grant, Haig and Ludendorff, Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Marshall, Eisenhower, and MacArthur. Do these great leaders provide the key to our understanding of modern warfare? Or are certain "timeless" principles, factors, and behaviors that consistently transcend local historical contexts more important? Requirements: a substantial (no upper limit on length) research paper on a topic of the student's choice growing out of some aspect of the course. Participants will, in teams of two or three, lead class discussion at least once as well as give class reports on the course readings. There will be several required films, and the class will also play some computerized historical wargames. Enrollment limited.
Groups A and B.

Hour: WOOD