War, Revolution, and Modern American Society

Catalog description

War has fundamentally shaped the ways that Americans think about themselves, their fellow Americans, and the meanings of national citizenship. Whatever the extent of American participation, war has transformed how Americans think about other nations, the environment, technology, and the meaning of death and dying. War has also posed challenges of representation, both for those who fought as well as those who did not. Wars and revolutions abroad have likewise played a part in molding American identity. This course examines how Americans have observed, experienced, and thought about modern war and revolution in history, literature, and popular culture. Course themes will include mobilization, protest and dissent, building empire, gender and masculinity, race and xenophobia, the economics of war, coercion and propaganda, war and the environment, and the changing meanings of death and sacrifice. The course begins with the American Civil War, and takes students through the rise of American empire, the world wars, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Cold War, Vietnam, and closes with the War on Terror. Students will be introduced to a variety of primary and secondary sources and historical methods directed at probing the paradox of how conflict creates social cohesion, and will be guided by a basic ethical question: how do we live together?