FALL 2007 HONORS COURSES

HONR 258V American Attitudes Toward Warfare and the Military
Thursday, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Dr. David Hogan, Senior Lecturer in University Honors; Senior Historian, U.S. Army Center of Military History

Are Americans a peaceable people? Have they fought just wars? Do they demonize their adversaries? What do they think of military institutions, service, and values? How has their memory of past conflicts affected their views on warfare and the military? How have these and other social, intellectual, and cultural factors influenced the organization of their military institutions and the conduct of their wars? This course will focus on these questions in examining American attitudes toward warfare from colonial times to the present. In exploring these issues, it will draw on materials from history, literature, philosophy, and the arts. Possible subjects include Puritanism and warfare, the right to bear arms, peace movements, Thoreau and civil disobedience, religion and the Civil War, the influence of Social Darwinism, preparedness during World War I, the Lost Generation and the literature of warfare, attitudes toward strategic bombing, the culture of the Cold War, the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War, and current American debates on warfare.

The emphasis of the course will be on a generous amount of readings and reaction to the readings through discussion, written reports, and book reviews. Lectures will set a context for the discussion. On occasion, classes will also utilize audio visual materials. For a class of this type, participation in discussion is essential. The course will close with a final examination.

Tentative Reading List:
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
Marcus Cunliffe, Soldiers and Civilians: The Martial Spirit in America, 1775-1865
Ernest Hemingway, Farewell to Arms
James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War
Reginald C. Stuart, War and American Thought: From the Revolution to the Monroe Doctrine
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

CORE–Social or Political History [SH]