HSTAA 212: The Military History of the United States
from Colonial Times to the Present - Spring 2024
Room: Fisheries Sciences 107 Time: Monday & Wednesday 10:30-12:20
Instructor: Nathan E. Roberts
Office: Smith Hall 113A
Email: ner3@uw.edu
Office Hours: by appointment in person or on ZOOM.
Course Design and Goals
This course will provide students with materials and concepts to understand the roles that the military has played in U.S. history. This course takes a “war and society” approach. That is, it explores the U.S military as a set of institutions that conduct security and war, but it also examines the military and war as producers and products of American society and culture. We will maintain a dual focus on changes to the military’s organizational structure, duties, technological capabilities, and engagements AND the ways that the military and war have shaped and been shaped by American society, politics, and culture.
By completing the course requirements, students will learn 1) how to think historically about the U.S. military, 2) how to analyze both primary and secondary sources as core elements of historical study, 3) some of the research methods and investigative techniques used by historians and social scientists, and 4) how to synthesize information and present analysis.
Required Reading – You will be asked to read approximately 100 pages per week.
- Allan R. Millett, Peter Maslowski, and William B. Feis, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States from 1607 to 2012 (3rd edition, 2012).
- Tim O’Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1975).
*Additional required readings will be available as .pdf files on the course’s Canvas website.
Recommended Reading
Good, clear writing is an essential part of history. I recommend that all students, regardless of previous writing experience, consult Michael Harvey, The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (2003), especially chapters 1 & 2 on “Concision” and “Clarity.” I have placed these two chapters on the course’s Canvas’s website under the “Class Resources” module. When we grade your written work, we do so expecting that you have read and understood these chapters.
Assignments & Grading with the Percentage of Your Final Course Grade
3 Quizzes 30% (10% each)
2 Short Papers 30% (15% each)
Online Posts & Discussions 20%
Final Exam 20%
Organization of Classes
Monday and Wednesday classes will meet in person for lecture and discussion. We will take a five minute break near the midpoint of each class. Come prepared with readings and materials to take notes. The lectures are meant to be paired with the For the Common Defense readings listed on the class schedule below. This pairing will make up the course’s main content and the subject for the quizzes and final exam.
Notes
This course is a survey of U.S. history, and therefore includes a substantial amount of content that spans great amounts of space and time. Success in the class depends upon good note-taking as you read AND during lecture and discussion. The quizzes and the final exam demand attention to details that can only be achieved by skilled note-taking, and you are expected to use your notes on quizzes and the final exam.
Quizzes & Final Exam
We will evaluate your ability to understand and synthesize the course content through three quizzes and a final exam - all through the course’s Canvas website. The quizzes will include multiple choice, short answers, term identifications, image analysis, maps, and other exercises. You will be allowed to use notes, lectures, and books on the quizzes and the final exam. On the days of the quizzes (always Fridays), you will have from 5AM until 10PM to take the quiz. Each quiz will be 100 minutes in length. Once you begin you must finish the quiz; DO NOT begin until you are ready to take the quiz. The quiz is due at 10PM and will be inaccessible at 10:01PM.
Make-up and Missed Quizzes Policy: Quizzes may only be made up if 1) an arrangement is made with the instructor at least one week ahead of time, or 2) the student provides documented evidence of an official absence from a doctor, police, or other official source. Otherwise, there are no re-takes. Missing the quiz or final exam for any other excuse results in a zero on that assignment.
The final exam will be an expanded version of the quizzes. It will contain both comprehensive questions and questions covering specific material from the last few weeks of the course. I will provide you with a study guide for the comprehensive section during the last week of the course. All quiz dates and the final exam date are listed on the class schedule below.
Discussions & Online Posts
Engagement with the course’s topics will be evaluated through live discussion during our class sessions and through posts on the Canvas Discussion Board. On Canvas, all participation grades are based on useful, substantive, and generative comments and questions that are related to course materials. The purpose of the online discussion is to generate genuine conversation and grades will reflect that intention. Merely answering questions as if you are completing an assignment is not as useful.
Papers
Each student will write two short papers of 800-900 words each worth 15% of your final grade. We expect college-level composition and your grade will be based as much on your ability to communicate your ideas as on the merit of your ideas. I will go over writing resources during class, but please consider myself and your TA as valuable resources when composing these essays. We will be available to give notes on thesis paragraphs, writing samples, and outlines. A detailed rubric for how we grade written work is on the course’s Canvas website. Due dates are listed on the class schedule below. The prompts and other requirements will be available in Canvas. I will cover expectations and strategies for success in class.
Late Papers
Late papers will be assessed a penalty of 0.5 grade points on the 4.0 scale per day that they are late. All papers must be turned in through Canvas.
Suggestions on how to succeed in this course:
1. Take good clear notes during lecture. Study them with classmates to fill gaps and clarify any confusion. Ask clarifying questions in class! The whole class will benefit from your inquiries.
2. Take notes when you read. Search for main ideas and search for the author’s evidence that supports the main ideas. Do not highlight entire paragraphs. Remember: if you highlight an entire paragraph, then nothing in it is highlighted.
3. Keep up with the reading. Set a reading schedule for yourself and enjoy. These are good books!
4. Start early on paper assignments. Meet with me or our TA to discuss ideas and critique drafts.
5. Come to every class prepared to engage the material and the other students.
Additional Policies:
Plagiarism
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct, and ultimately it devalues both the person who engages in it and the broader learning environment in this course and the university. True intellectual work requires the free, open, and honest exchange of ideas.
The Committee on Academic Conduct in the College of Arts and Sciences has defined plagiarism in the
following way:
• Using another writer's words without proper citation.
• Using another writer's ideas without proper citation.
• Citing your source but reproducing the exact words of a printed source without quotation marks; or, borrowing the structure of another author's phrases or sentences without crediting the author from whom it came.
• Borrowing all or part of another student's paper or using someone else's outline to write your own paper.
• Using a paper writing "service" or having a friend write the paper for you.
The obligation to properly cite the work of others applies to internet, oral, and written sources.
The key to avoiding plagiarism is to show clearly where your own thinking ends and someone else’s
begins. For additional resources on avoiding plagiarism and appropriately citing various types of sources, please see the link on the course website.
It is my sincere hope that no one in this course will be tempted to plagiarize any portion a paper assignment. To avoid the possibility of that temptation, you are urged to begin your assignment early, ask questions about anything you are unsure of, and ask for any kind of help that you need.
If plagiarism is discovered, it will be treated very seriously. A paper in which significant portions have been plagiarized will be forwarded to the Dean’s representative on Academic Misconduct. If plagiarism is confirmed, the student will receive a 0 for the assignment, and may also receive a failing grade in the course.
Personal technology:
Laptops and tablets will be allowed only so long as they are used for course note-taking and are not disruptive of the learning environment. Many students find it distracting when people around them are checking Facebook and surfing the web. Please consider downloading a web-blocking program if you need to. If students are observed using laptops in class for other purposes, or if I receive any complaints about laptop misuse, additional restrictions will be placed on their use in this course.
Class Schedule: Dates of Instruction March 31-June 6; Final Exam Monday June 9
Week 1: March 31 – April 4 1500-1763
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense (FCD) ch. 1 & 2 (pp.1-43).
- Andrew Bacevich, “The Revisionist Imperative: Rethinking Twentieth Century Wars,” The Journal of American Military History 76 (April 2012): 333-342. pdf on Canvas
Mon Mar 31 Introductions & the Syllabus
Lecture 1:U.S. History & the U.S. Military
Wed Apr 2 Lecture 2: North American Encounters
Week 2: Apr 7 – 11 1763-1848
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense chapters 3-5, but the following sections are optional: “The War of 1812” (pp. 95-107) and “The Mexican War 1846-1848,” (pp.128-141).
- Olivia Williams Black, “The 150-Year War: The Struggle to Create and Control Civil War Memory at Fort Sumter National Monument,” The Public Historian Vol. 38 No. 4 (Nov. 2016): 149-166.
- H.E. Gulley, “Women and the Lost Cause: Preserving a Confederate Identity in the American Deep South,” Journal of Historical Geography Vol. 19 No. 2, (1993): 125-141.
Mon Apr 7 Lecture 3: The Colonial Wars and the New Nation
Wed Apr 9Lecture 4:National Expansion and Manifest Destiny
Week 3: Apr 14 – 18 1848-1863
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense, ch. 6, (pp.142-180).
- Hague and Sebesta, “The Jefferson Davis Highway: Contesting the Confederacy in the Pacific Northwest,” Journal of American Studies, Vol. 45 No. 2, (2011): 281-301.
- Patrick J. Kelly, “The Election of 1896 and the Restructuring of Civil War Memory,” Civil War History Vol. 49 No. 3 (2003): 254-280.
Mon Apr 14Lecture 5: The Civil War’s Causes and Beginnings
Wed Apr 16 Lecture 6: 1862-1863: Confederates in Control
Fri Apr 18 Quiz #1 on Canvas 5AM-10PM
Week 4: Apr 21 – 25 1863-1890
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense (FCD) chs. 7 & 8 (pp.181-251)
- WATCH: American Experience: “Last Stand at Little Big Horn”
- DUE Wed Apr 23 by class time
Mon Apr 21Lecture 7:1864-1865: A War of Attrition and “A New Birth of Freedom”
Wed Apr 23Lecture 8:The Western Constabulary and Indigenous Resistance
Sat Apr 26 ESSAY #1 DUE at 11:59PM on Canvas
Week 5: Apr 28 – May 2 1898-1919
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense chs. 10 & 11 (pp. 282-338)
- Edward T. Linenthal: “Anatomy of a Controversy”
- DUE Wed Apr 30 by class time
Mon Apr 28 Lecture 9: Overseas Imperialism: Cuba and The Philippines
Wed Apr 30 Lecture 10: From Isolationism to Internationalism
Week 6: May 5 – May 9 1920-1941
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense chs. 12 & 13 (pp. 339-403)
- John Dower, “Three Narratives of Our Humanity.”
- DUE Wed May 7 by class time
Mon May 5 Lecture 11: The Interwar Period and the Rise of Fascism
Wed May 7 Lecture 12: 1938-1942 - Why We Go to War
Fri May 9 Quiz #2 on Canvas 5AM-10PM
Week 7: May 12 – 16 1942-1953
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense chs. 14 & 15 (pp. 404-474)
- Paul Boyer, “Whose History is it Anyway?” and Marilyn Young, “Dangerous History: Vietnam and the ‘Good War.’”
- DUE Wed May 14
Mon May 12 Lecture 13: 1943-1944 - A War on Two Fronts
Wed May 14 Lecture 14: Last Shots, First Shots
Week 8: May 19 – 23 1953-1967
BEGIN READING:
- Tim O’Brien, If I Die in A Combat Zone… chs. 1-10 (pp. 1-100)
- For the Common Defense (FCD) chs. 16 & 17, (pp. 475-536; the sections “The New Look” and “Reorganization and Allies” pp. 478-496 are optional)
- DUE Wed May 21
Mon May 19 Lecture 15: Nuclear Deterrence & Covert Actions
Wed May 21 Lecture 16: Vietnam - In Country
Week 9: May 26 – 30 1967-1993
BEGIN READING:
- Tim O’Brien, If I Die in A Combat Zone… chs. 10-the end (pp. 101-212)
- For the Common Defense (FCD) ch. 18 (pp. 537-568)
- DUE Wed 28
Mon May 26 NO CLASS - MEMORIAL DAY
Wed May 28 Lecture 17: Vietnam - Out of the Quagmire
Fri May 30 Quiz #3 On Canvas 5AM - 10PM
Week 10: June 2 - 6 1993-2001
BEGIN READING:
- For the Common Defense (FCD) ch. 20; chapter 19 is optional
- Vietnam War documents on Canvas
- DUE Wed June 4
Mon Jun 2 Lecture 18: The Specter of Vietnam
Wed June 4 Lecture 19: End of the Cold War and the War on Terror
Closing Remarks
Essay #2 Due on Canvas by 11:59PM
Final Exam Monday June 9 on Canvas. 5AM - 10PM on Canvas