HIST 154
The American Way of War: The First Three Centuries Spring 2014
Division II Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

Is there an historically distinct American way of war? How have Americans experienced warfare? From the earliest days of European settlement through the final campaigns against American Indians west of the Mississippi, Americans have often been at war. Long before the United States became a world power those conflicts had determined many of the basic contours of American society, culture, and nationhood. This tutorial will investigate the nature and development of American wars over the period 1600 to 1900. Though some attention will be paid to the American Revolution and the Civil War, the tutorial will concentrate primarily on lesser known but still historically significant wars, including King Philip’s War, the Seven Years War, the War of 1812, Jackson’s Indian Wars, the Mexican-American War, the Plains Indians Wars, and the Spanish American War. All but the last were fought to conclusion in North America itself. How did Americans fight these wars? How did American militaries establish control over such a huge and varied continent? What role did military institutions play in the development of a distinctive American society? Did war abet social mobility, or lend itself to social control? What role did race play in the creation and sustaining of martial goals? What was the relationship between local military institutions and centralist attempts to create a national and/or professional army? What was the impact of warfare on American culture, on concepts of masculinity, and national or community images? Despite the fact that Americans have often conceived of themselves as a peace-loving people, war from the beginning has played a key role in shaping their society and nation. It is exactly the nature, meaning, and paradoxes of American wars that this tutorial will attempt to unravel.