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American Military History: a Resource for Teachers and Students

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American Military History: a Resource for Teachers and Students AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS PAUL HERBERT & MICHAEL P. NOONAN, EDITORS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WALTER A. MCDOUGALL AUGUST 2013 American Military History: A Resource for Teachers and Students Edited by Colonel (ret.) Paul H. Herbert, Ph.D. & Michael P. Noonan, Ph.D. August 2013 About the Foreign Policy Research Institute Founded in 1955 by Ambassador Robert Strausz-Hupé, FPRI is a non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests. In the tradition of Strausz-Hupé, FPRI embraces history and geography to illuminate foreign policy challenges facing the United States. In 1990, FPRI established the Wachman Center, and subsequently the Butcher History Institute, to foster civic and international literacy in the community and in the classroom. About First Division Museum at Cantigny Located in Wheaton, Illinois, the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park preserves, interprets and presents the history of the United States Army’s 1st Infantry Division from 1917 to the present in the context of American military history. Part of Chicago’s Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the museum carries on the educational legacy of Colonel McCormick, who served as a citizen soldier in the First Division in World War I. In addition to its main galleries and rich holdings, the museum hosts many educational programs and events and has published over a dozen books in support of its mission. FPRI’s Madeleine & W.W. Keen Butcher History Institute Since 1996, the centerpiece of FPRI’s educational programming has been our series of weekend-long conferences for teachers, chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter A. McDougall. These weekends, usually three per year, focus on a wide range of topics in U.S. and world history. Teachers from 684 schools across 46 states have participated to date, and FPRI’s website offers an extensive archive of texts and video files drawn from the History Institutes. Renamed in 2012, the Madeleine and W. W. Keen Butcher History Institute, the main features are: • Selecting 40-45 teachers from around the country to participate in each weekend, drawing on private, public, and parochial schools, and including new, as well as more experienced, teachers. In particular, we seek teachers who can be “force multipliers,” demonstrated by a record of mentoring or leading other teachers (making presentations at professional conferences, leading the local or regional history or social studies council, or developing curriculum). That said, we also seek to provide enrichment to new and less experienced teachers. • Featuring as speakers eight top scholars, practitioners, or journalists who are known not only for their scholarship and depth but for their ability to communicate to non- specialists. • Offering the teachers free room and board, partial travel reimbursement, and, in exchange for a reproducible lesson plan, a stipend. • Circulating, for the widest possible dissemination of the lectures, to educators across the country (as well as to FPRI’s other key lists of policymakers, scholars, military personnel, and media), a 1,500 to 3,000 word write-up of each lecture by e-mail. We also videotape the lectures for posting on our website, with free access for all. The website draws 100,000 visits monthly; the e-mail bulletins are circulated to 35,000 key people in 85 countries weekly, and are invariably reposted on other websites and listservs, and forwarded by third parties. • Notably, bulletins drawn from our History Institute have been reprinted in American Educator, the magazine of the American Federation of Teachers (circulation: 800,000), on the Educational Resource Information Clearinghouse (a project of the U.S. Department of Education), the listserve of H-High, which reaches high school social studies teachers around the country, and the History News Network. • All participating teachers receive a certificate of instruction that may be used for their professional development record; plus, for a nominal fee, Carthage College grants one graduate credit for participation in each weekend. • We maintain ongoing contact with the participating teachers through our e-mail list and, where possible, develop individual relationships with them over time. Supplementary activities include: • Webcasts designed for use directly in the classroom; a webcast typically features a 45- minute interview with one of our scholars, with an opportunity for students to pose questions via the Internet in real time; the webcasts are also archived on our website. • A series of mini-history institutes, where we supply two speakers to professional meetings around the country. We acknowledge the support of the Butcher Family Foundation for the Butcher History Institute and, for our Teaching Military History Program, the Lynde Harry Bradley Foundation and the First Division Museum at Cantigny (a division of the McCormick Foundation). Over the years, our history weekends have been been supported by the Annenberg Foundation, the Ewing and Marion Kauffman Foundation, Robert A. Fox, the Agnes and James Kim Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership, and the US Institute of Peace. We have also benefited from the cosponsorship of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Asia Program, Carthage College, Atomic Testing Museum, Senator John Heinz History Center, World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, National Liberty Museum, National Constitution Center, and the University of Pennsylvania (Center for East Asian Studies, South Asia Center, and Penn Lauder). PREFACE Teaching America’s military history is an important civic duty because “We the People” are responsible for the common defense and therefore should know something about it. At the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), we encourage teachers to integrate military history into the history that they already teach, and we think they can do so without personal military experience, just as they teach about so many other aspects of American life. Starting in 2006, FPRI teamed up with the First Division Museum at Cantigny to offer the first Teaching Military History Institute for Teachers. This history institute series built upon and expanded the proven FPRI model that has been in operation since 1992. The concept is simple: assemble an audience of dedicated secondary school teachers, bring in first tier scholars of varied perspectives to address them on substantive military topics, and stimulate their interaction over a weekend at the world class setting of the First Division Museum. Omitted are the pedagogical lessons that can be learned back at one’s school. Teachers earn continuing education credits for attendance and are encouraged to develop lesson plans to incorporate knowledge from these weekends into their teaching. Since 2006, nearly 300 teachers have gone through one or more of these Institutes. This volume is a selection of materials presented at the eight Teaching Military History Institutes held since 2006. This e-book can be used as a resource by teachers, students, and the public to expand their understanding of how the U.S. military has helped to shape American history—not only on the battlefield but also socially, politically, economically, and technologically. We believe that our common defense will be better if the public is familiar with our military history. We hope that users and readers will enjoy this collection and use it to further that purpose. Michael P. Noonan Paul Herbert Co-Editor Co-Editor Foreign Policy Research Institute First Division Museum at Cantigny Philadelphia, PA Wheaton, IL We welcome and encourage feedback on this e-book. Comments and suggestions may be sent to [email protected] and [email protected]. Table of Contents INTRODUCTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 1: ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 War and the Military in American History By Walter McDougall CHAPTER 2: .......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Why Teach Military History? By Jeremy Black CHAPTER 3: .......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Teaching about the Military: Some Basics By Paul H. Herbert THE EARLY REPUBLIC ............................................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 4: .......................................................................................................................................................... 26 The Importance of Early American Military History By Kyle F. Zelner Chapter 5: ............................................................................................................................................................. 34 Understanding the Creation of the U.S. Armed Forces By Peter Maslowski Chapter 6: ............................................................................................................................................................. 43 “The Army of the Constitution”: The Military, American Values, and the Early Republic By Gregory J. W. Urwin Chapter
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