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October 2022: Military History

Veterans

1) Veterans’ Day Special : How we Memorialize War, by G. Kurt and Piehler (Talking History, Nov. 1998) 

  • Including this for the commentary by historian, intelligence officer and army helicopter pilot, Connie Reeves, on women in combat.

2) Creating Group Identity: Disabled Veterans and American Government, by David Gerber (Magazine of History, 2009) 

  • A history of the VA system, famous actors, and the fight for Disability benefits. 

3) Veterans Day, by Doris Weatherford and Michael Kelley (Talking History, 1999)

4) Veterans’ Day by Philip Bobbit and Alan Winkler (Talking History, 2002) 

  • Talking History celebrates Veterans' Day by looking at the impact of war on history. We begin with a conversation with Philip Bobbitt on his new book on war and peace, The Shield of Achilles. Following our interview, in our weekly commentary, Alan Winkler talks about how Americans have faced the decisions of whether to do to war, or not, in the past

Civil War 

1) Noncombatant Military Laborers in the Civil War, by Thavolia Glymph (Magazine of History, April 2012) 

  • An analysis of Black Labor on both sides during the Civil War. 

2) Civil War: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, by Louis Masur, Jean Edward Smith, William J. Cooper Jr., and Bruce Cadwick (Talking History, March 2002) 

  • Part One of the four-part series on the Civil War. Historian Louis Masur looks at the year 1831 and why he considers it a pivotal one in the Civil War. Masur is a professor of history at the City College of New York and author of 1831: Year of Eclipse.

  • Part Two is a look at the life of Ulysses S. Grant, a national hero and two term president, with biographer Jean Edward Smith. Smith is a professor of political science at Marshall University and author of Grant, recognized by the New York Times as one of the most distinguished books of 2001.

  • Part Three: William J. Cooper Jr., looks at the life of Jefferson Davis. Cooper is Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University. His book on Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis, American, received the 2001 Los Angeles Times' Book Award for best biography.

  • The last segment of the Civil War series looks at the impact of movies on American's view of History with Bruce Chadwick, a former editor at New York Daily News. Chadwick lectures on history and film at Rutgers University. In his book The Reel Civil War: Mythmaking in American Film, Chadwick asserts that two of the biggest American box office hits have been the Civil War epics, Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind.

3) Buffalo Soldiers, by Frank Schubert (Talking History, Feb. 1998) 

4) Gender History and the Origins of the Civil War, by Elizabeth R. Varon (Magazine of History, April 2011) 

5) Civil War Political Parties, by Jim Madison and Mark Neely (Talking History, 2002) 

  • Talking History looks at political party conflict during the American Civil War. Much has been written on politics before the war. Less has been done of politics after secession -- how disunion affected political parties, political contests, and the conduct of the war itself. Jim Madison speaks with Mark Neely, author of "The Union Divided."

6) The Afterlives of a Confederate Archive: Civil War Documents and the Making of Sectional Reconciliation, by Ed Linenthal and Yael Sternhell (JAH Podcast, 2016) 

  • Ed Linenthal, executive editor of the Journal of American History, speaks with Yael A. Sternhell, Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Tel Aviv University. They discuss her article appearing in the March 2016 issue of the JAH.

7) Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory, by Ed Linenthal and Anne Sarah Rubin (JAH Podcast, 2014) 

8) A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek, by Ed Linenthal and Ari Kelman (JAH Podcast, 2014) 

9) Clothing and Material Culture during the Civil War, by Sarah Jones Weicksel (Process History Blog, 2015) 

  • An interview with Sarah Jones Weicksel about her dissertation: “The Fabric of War: Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American CIvil War Era.” 

10) Military Medical History: The Ameriacn Civil War, by Dale C. Smith (Magazine of History, 2005) 

  • “War and medicine are two of society's more powerful forces and their impact on each other is a significant part of history (1). In American history the two greatest examples are the Second World War and the Civil War. However, the impact of war on medicine, on the one hand, and medicine on war, on the other, is multifaceted.”

11) Creating A Military Image: Lincoln as Commander in Chief, by William C. Davis (Magazine of History, 2009) 

  • A re-evaluation of Lincoln’s Presidency through the lens of his role as commander and chief during the civil war and its impact on policy. 

12) 1863: Military Turning Points, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Tullahoma, by Brian Holden Reid (Magazine of History, 2013) 

  • A history of why these events were turning points in the Civil War. 

Vietnam

1) “Stories of Vietnam” and the Pedagogical Value of Building a Course Around a Local History Project, by David Kieran (Process History Blog, 2015) 

  • Analyzing the “Stories of Vietnam” exhibit at the New York State Military Museum, Kiernan Looks at the role of oral histories, books, local history, and museums in teaching emotionally difficult topics like the Vietnam War. 

2) What should Our Students Know About Vietnam?, by George Burson (Magazine of History, 1988) 

  • An article advocating for teaching the Vietnam War within a larger context of United States Asian policies. 

3) Gulf of Tonkin, by Erich Martel (Magazine of History, 1992) 

  • A Lesson Plan for teaching about the Gulf of Tonkin incident. 

4) The Tet Offensive: The Turning Point of the Vietnam War, by Jennifer Walton (Magazine of History, 2004) 

  • A Lesson plan for teaching about the Tet Offensive. 

5) Teaching the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese Perspective by Jessica Chapman (Magazine of History, 2004) 

  • A lesson plan that asks students to analyze the local context of the Vietnam War, and to consider the impact of American and French policies on the country’s struggle for independence and political unity. 

6) Road to Victory: Building the Ho Chi Minh Trail, by Marianne Kenney (Magazine of History, 1993) 

  • A lesson plan to develop student awareness about the geographic and historical issues surrounding the building of the Ho CHi Minh Trail. 

7) Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam”, by Eric Cook and Stan Pesick (Magazine of History, 2005) 

A lesson plan to analyze the why, risks, and receptions behind Dr. King’s decision to speak out against the war in VIetnam. 

8) American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity, by Ed Linenthal and Christian G. Appy (JAH Podcast, April 2015) 

9) Lessons of Vietnam by JIm Willbanks, (Talking History, 2001) 

  • A look at the lessons the U.S. Army took away from its experience in Vietnam with Jim Willbanks, professor of National Security Policy at the Army's Command and General Staff College. He is also the author of Vietnamization: Neither Peace nor Victory. This program contains an op-ed by H. Bruce Franklin on the myths surrounding the Vietnam experience. Franklin is the author of Vietnam and Other American Fantansies and a professor of American Studies at Rutgers University.

10) The Vietnam War, by H.R. McMaster (Talking HIstory, 1998) 

11) Vietnam, by Andrew Rotter (Talking History, 2000) 

  • A talk with Andrew Rotter, author of Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Vietnam War Anthology. Rotter is the chairman of the Department of History at Colgate University. The program contains an op-ed by conscientious objector Joe Volk, who refused to fight in Vietnam, on what Memorial Day means to him. Volk is the executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

12) AALR: “(Re)Collecting the Vietnam War, by OAH Blog Staff (Process History Blog, 2015) 

  • An interview with Cathy J. Schlund-Vials and Sylvia Shin Huey Chong about the special issue of THe Asian American Literary Review, which commemorates the 40 year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and examines the complexities of the Vietnam War. 

13) The Vietnam War, a documentary, by Christian Appy (Process History Blog, 2017) 

14) The Cold War and Vietnam, by George C. Herring (Magazine of History, 2004) 

  • An article arguing that The Cold War and the American War in Vietnam cannot be disentangled. 

15) Vietnam in First Person: The Virtual Vietnam Archive, by Susanna Robbins (Magazine of History, 2004) 

  • A collection of internet resources for teaching about the Vietnam War through primary sources. 

16) Conscientious Objection to the Vietnam War, by James Tollefson (Magazine of History, 1994) 

  • A lesson plan for teaching the major issues involved in individual conscientious objection to military service, filtered through the Vietnam War. 

17) Young Americans and the Draft, by Donald W. Maxwell (Magazine of HIstory, 2006) 

  • A history of the draft and its effect on young americans, particularly during the Vietnam War

18) The Contradictions of 1968: Drafted for War, The Westmoreland Cohort Opted for Peace, by Jerry Lembcke (The American Historian, May 2018)

  • An examination of the history of GI dissent

19) Vietnam War POWs: Their Unsettled Legacy at Fifty Years, by Jerry Lembcke (The American Historian, Summer 2022)

  • A look at the legacy of POWs.

Korea

1) The Paradoxes of the Demilitarized Zone by Elizabeth D. Schafer (Magazine of History, 2000) 

  • A lesson plan that highlights the political, military, and diplomatic nuances of Korea’s Demilitarized Zone. 

2) Limited War or a Rollback of Communism?: Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean Conflict, by Bruce Lesh (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • Teachings strategies and alignment with National Standards for teaching about the Korean Conflict in its historical context. 

3) The Korean War Homefront, Then and Now, by Elizabeth D. Schafer (Magazine of History, 2000) 

  • A lesson plan that teaches about the Korean War and its impact through varying primary sources. 

4) The Korean War: An ERIC/ChESS Sample, by Laura A. Pinhey (Magazine of History, 2000) 

  • An ERIC Resources index for Korean War source material. 

5) Korea 50 Years Later, by Burton Kaufman (Talking History, 2000) 

  • A talk with Miami of Ohio University history Professor Burton Kaufman on his book, The Korean War: Challenges in Crises, Identity and Command. The program contains an op-ed by Bruce Cummings on the unresolved problems that remain in Korea. Dr. Cumings is a Norman and Edna Freehling Professor of International History and East Asian Political Economy at the University of Chicago and author of The Origins of the Korean War.

6) New Light on a “Forgotten War”: The Diplomacy of the Korean Conflict, by Priscilla Roberts (Magazine of History, 2000) 

  • A new look at archival materials that provide a more thorough picture of the Korean War. 

 7) Massacre at No Gun Ri?: American Military Policy Toward Civilian Refugees during the Korean War by Carl R. Weinberg (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • Teaching with Documents surrounding the Korean War and its newspaper headlines. 

WWI - The Great War

1) American Women and the Great War by Lynn Dumenil (Magazine of History, Oct. 2002) 

  • A lesson plan for teaching World War I American Poster Images of women. 

2) From the Archives… America enters World War I by Process Editors (Process History Blog, 2017) 

  • A history and resources list of OAH articles related to teaching WWI. 

3) The United States and the Great War a HIstoriography by Dennis Showalter (Magazine of History, 2002) 

  • A historiography of scholarship on World War I. 

WWII 

1) Teaching about Rosie the Riveter: The Role of Women during World War II, by Karen Anderson (Magazine of History, June 1998) 

  • This article focuses on centering social and feminist history rather than military history in classrooms that focus on World War II history.  

2) A Martial Freedom Movement: Black G.I.s’ Political Struggles during World War II, by Benjamin Irvin and Thomas A. Guglielmo (JAH Podcast, March 2018) 

  • Benjamin Irvin, executive editor of the Journal of American History, speaks with Thomas A. Guglielmo, Associate Professor of American Studies at George Washington University, about his article appearing in the March 2018 issue of the JAH.

3) Keeping a Record of Life: Women and Art During World War II, by Kimberly L. Phillips (Magazine of History, March 2005) 

  • A history of war time propaganda targeted at women and how it reified social differences. 

4) The 1944 Nisei Draft at Heart Mountain, Wyoming: Its Relationship to the Historical Representation of the World War II Japanese American Evacuation by Arthur A. Hansen (Magazine of History, 1996) 

  • A lesson plan placing the Japanese AMerican Evacuation within a meaningful historical context and capitalizing the responses to the Nisei draft. 

5) Atomic Bomb Cinema, by Jerome Shapiro (Talking History, 2000) 

  • A talk with historian Jerome Shapiro on the use of the Atomic Bomb as the central theme for movies. Shapiro is the resident Cinema Studies scholar at Hiroshima University in Japan.

6) The Japanese “Internment” Cases Revisited, by Edward T. Robinson (Magazine of HIstory, 2003) 

  • Revisiting the supreme court cases of Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and Endo because they have primarily been misdescribed by high school history and government textbooks. 

7) Further Thoughts on the Japanese American Cases, by Roger Daniels (Magazine of History 2003) 

  • Dialogue with Edward T. Robinson gives a different view point. The two articles could be used together to facilitate debate about the cases. 

8) From Memory to History? The Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary, by Geoffrey White and Daniel Martinez (Process History Blog, 2016) 

  • An analysis of the role of anniversaries through the lens of Pearl Harbor commemorations. 

9) Obama in Hiroshima: A Mandate for Looking Back, by Susan Southard, (Process History Blog, 2016) 

  • An analysis of former President Barack Obama’s address when voting Hiroshima in May of 2016 - the first President to do since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

10) The Boats that Won World War II, by Jerry Stahan and Ira Chernus (Talking History, 2000) 

  • A talk with author Jerry Strahan about boatbuilder Andrew Jackson Higgins, whom Dwight Eisenhower credited with winning the Second World War. The program contains an op-ed by professor Ira Chernus, about how modern nationalist sentiment has contributed to the Palestinian/Israeli struggle over Jerusalem.

11) Dr. Seuss goes to War, by Richar Miner (Talking HIstory, 2000) 

  • A talk with historian Richard Minear about the political cartoons of Dr. Seuss during World War II.

12) Mildred Harnack by Shareen Brysac (Talking History, 2001) 

  • Historian Shareen Brysac talks about the only American woman executed for treason during World War II on Hitler's orders. Mildred Harnack's heroism was once well known, but Brysac says after the war her story was forgotten. Brysac is the author of Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra.

13) “I love America”: Fundamentalist Responses to World War II by Anderson Rouse (Process History Blog, 2019) 

  • “World War II provided fundamentalists with opportunities to develop and refine their message and identity. The horrors of global war gave new urgency to fundamentalists’ calls for revival and lent credence to dispensational eschatology.  The war allowed fundamentalists to redefine themselves as relevant, patriotic, and, perhaps most importantly, mainstream. “ 

Early America and the Revolution

1) Bacon's Rebellion in Indian Country, by James D. Rice (JAH, December 2014)

  • Historians have long presented Bacon's Rebellion (1676-1677) as a critical moment in the creation of American democracy, slavery, and freedom, normally treating it as an expression of Anglo-Virginia's social and political dynamics. James D. Rice, how­ever, argues that the rebellion is best situated within the context of Native American diplomatic systems, the boom in the Indian slave trade, and the colonists' fears of a Catholic-Indian conspiracy against English Protestants

2) The internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772 -1832, by Stephen Andrews and Alan Taylor (JAH Podcast, 2014) 

  • Stephen Andrews talks with Alan Taylor, the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American History at the University of Virginia and the author of The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832. In this podcast they discuss how the institution of slavery, enslaved people, and white Virginians were affected by the experience of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. 

Paul Revere Recycled: How More than Two Centuries of Material Reuse Informs the Future Success and Failure of Environmental Services Industrial Society, by Carl A. Zimring (Process History Blog, 2017) 

  • A history of recycling told through its early days in the revolutionary and second world wars. 

War on Terror and War on Drugs

1) From the Archives… September 11, 2001 and the War on Terror, by OAH blog staff (Process History Blog, 2016) 

  • A history (and resource list) of archival materials and blog posts about the war on terror. 

2) Teaching 9/11, Fifteen Years Later, by Thomas A. Schwartz (Process History Blog, 2016) 

  • An article about navigating the cultural and political challenges of teaching about 9/11 and other actions in the War on Terror. 

3) The Grassroots Origins of the War on Drugs by Emily Dufton (Process History Blog, 2015) 

  • An interview with Dr. Dufton about their book: “A Higher Calling: How Grassroots Activists Launched America’s Marijuana Revolution and Shaped in the Modern War on Drugs.” 

4) The Suburban Imperatives of America’s War on Drugs by Matthew Lassiter (Process History Blog, 2015) 

  • An interview with Dr. Lassiter about his article “Impossible Criminals: The Suburban Imperatives of America’s War on Drugs.” 

5) Human Rights Law, American Justice, and the “War on Terror” by Martin S. Flaherty (Magazine of History, 2011) 

  • The U.S. government's response to the 9/11 attacks, and the human rights limitations on those measures that civilian and military rights advocates invoked, raise an array of issues that challenge even the most seasoned experts. But with background and focus, students can grasp, analyze, and debate both the key issues and the general topic of human rights post-9/11. The following framework seeks to provide teachers a way to do the main ideas justice, yet also keep them manageable.

Other 

1) St. Patrick’s Battalion of the Mexican-American War, by Peter Stevens (Talking History, 1998)  

2) Anarchism and the Long Red Scare in the Caribbean, 1897-1925, by Kirwin Shaffer (Process History Blog, 2018) 

  • A History of the expansion of the Red Scare outside of the United States and into the Caribbean with a focus on transnational intelligence sharing and military actions. 

3) Sleeping Soldiers and the War for the Mind by Franny Nudelman (Process History Blog, 2020) 

  • An article on mental illness and in particular, sleep deprivation, in the US Military from WWII forward. 

4) Selling American Vigor: The Cold War and the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, by Rachel Louise Moran (Process History Blog, 2018) 

  • A history of health care, unfitness, military recruitment, and national progress. 

5) View from the Ranks: Social and CUltural History of the American Armed Forces, by Carol Reardon (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • “Military historians have begun to draw freely from the methods and interpretive frameworks of social and cultural history to learn more about the American military past. As a consequence, teachers no longer must rely solely on confusing maps marked in profusion with blue and red rectangles and squiggly arrows to teach about the nation's major armed conflicts.” 

6) The American War of War, by Brian McAllister Linn (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • A state of the field style article about the debate among military historians about “What is an American War of War?” 

7) Reimagining Military History in the Classroom, by Carol Reardon (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • A case for changing the way that military history is taught in the classroom to better reflect societal and scholarly changes since the Vietnam War. 

8) American Wars on the Web: Internet Resources for Teaching Military History, by Susannah U. Bruce (Magazine of History, 2008) 

  • Advice for teachers on how to teach military history to become more engaging for students through the use of the internet. 

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