War and Society

Catalog description

Historians, especially social and cultural historians, have been suspicious of military history, equating it with a catalogue of tactics and regimental histories that cater to a specialized body of readers, and with an apology of militarism. Since the 1980s, however, military history has evolved into an investigation of soldiers’ experiences of battle, the ethnic composition of armies, the relationship between war and technology, between war and medicine, war and nation-building, the environmental consequences of war, and the gendered aspects of war extending to the home front. War is not taken for granted but questioned, including reflections on human aggression. War can be approached from numerous perspectives and it is the aim of this course to introduce students to some of these.