History 717 Introduction to Military History Thurs 5-7:50, Greenlaw 304 (UNC) Office hours: 3-4 W; 3-5 TH
Professor Wayne Lee 400 Hamilton
[email protected] 962-3973
1. Intent: This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the study of military history, with a special emphasis on examining western and non-western societies. In addition to doing the reading and participating in discussion, you will prepare clear, informative, critical, analytical, and concise, reviews for each book (we will discuss the format for the reviews in class). You will find that the process of preparing such a review will enormously aid your retention of a given book's thesis or theme, and will also sharpen your writing skills. Finally, during class discussion each week, you will further develop your analytical skills and critical thinking through debate and discussion with the other members of the class over the nature of each work and its place in the field. After the first week each student will be expected to lead discussion twice; in one case focusing on a negative critique of the work for that week; in the other focusing on a positive critique (this pattern will be varied depending on enrollment). The final grade for the course will be based on the average grade of each of the reviews (70%) and 30% on class participation (which includes attendance). You should purchase or secure copies from local libraries of the following books. They have NOT been ordered through the bookstore. I have supplied "new" prices as posted at Amazon.com You should also be able to find many of them even more cheaply in local used bookstores or through internet used book search engines. (Try www.bookfinder.com). A number of these books are available in different editions, please attend to the most recent edition for Parker. 4. Books: Porter, Patrick. Military Orientalism: Eastern War Through Western Eyes. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Hanson, Victor Davis. The Western Way of War. 2nd Ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Luttwak, Edward N. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Ratchnevsky, Paul. Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991. McNeill, William H. The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society since A.D. 1000. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 15001800. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Chase, Kenneth Warren. Firearms: A Global History to 1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Gat, Azar. War in Human Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. McPherson, James M. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0195124995 $19 Keegan, John. The Face of Battle. New York: The Viking Press, 1976. Hull, Isabel V. Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2004. Overy, R. J. Why the Allies Won. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Biddle, Stephen D. Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
SCHEDULE Aug. 23 Introduction Porter, Military Orientalism also: Wayne E. Lee, “Mind and Matter—Cultural Analysis in American Military History: A Look at the State of the Field,” with comments by Tami Davis Biddle, Brian P. Farrell, Marc Milner, Brian Holden Reid, and Ronald H. Spector, and “A Final Word” by Lee, Journal of American History, 93 (2007): 1116-1162; Robert M. Citino, "Military Histories Old and New: A Reintroduction," American Historical Review 112 (2007): 1070-90. Aug. 30
Sep. 6
Hanson, Western Way of War also: Everett Wheeler, "Introduction," in The Armies of Classical Greece ed. Everett Wheeler (Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2007), xi-lxiv.
Sept. 13
Luttwak, Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire also: Peter J. Heather, "Holding the Line: Frontier Defense and the Later Roman Empire," in Makers of Ancient Strategy from the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, ed. Victor Davis Hanson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 227-42; Scheidel Review of Eckstein. [also, don't read, but be aware of: Everett L. Wheeler, "Methodological Limits and the Mirage of Roman Strategy," Journal of Military History 57 (1993): 7-42 & 215-240.
Sept. 20
Ratchnevsky, Ghengis Khan Thomas T. Allsen, "The Circulation of Military Technology in the Mongolian Empire," in Warfare in Inner Asian History, 500-1800, ed., Nicola Di Cosmo (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 265-93.
Sept. 27
McNeill, Pursuit of Power
Oct. 4
Parker, Military Revolution also: Günhan Börekçi, "A Contribution to the Military Revolution Debate: The Janissaries Use of Volley Fire During the Long Ottoman-Habsburg War of 1593-1606 and the Problem of Origins," Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungarica 59 (2006): 407-38; William R. Thompson, "The Military Superiority Thesis and the Ascendancy of Western Eurasia in the World System," Journal of World History 10 (1999): 143-78. [Be aware of Geoffrey Parker, "The Limits to Revolutions in Military Affairs: Maurice of Nassau, the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600), and the Legacy," Journal of Military History 71 (2007): 331-72.]
Oct. 11
Chase, Firearms also: Kaushik Roy, "Horses, Guns and Governments: A Comparative Study of the Military Transition in the Manchu, Mughal, Ottoman and Safavid Empires, circa 1400 to circa 1750," International Area Studies Review 15 (2012): 99-121.
Oct. 18
FALL BREAK
Oct. 25
Gat, War in Human Civilization
Nov. 1
McPherson, Cause and Comrades Mark Grimsley, "In Not So Dubious Battle: The Motivations of Civil War Soldiers," Journal of Military History 62.1 (1998): 175-88
Nov. 8
Keegan, Face of Battle
Nov. 15
Hull, Absolute Destruction
Nov. 22
Thanksgiving break
Nov. 29
Overy, Why the Allies Won
Dec. 6
Biddle, Military Power
