AMST 1581

America at War to 1898

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

This course propels students into the chaos, destruction, and often brutal violence experienced by inhabitants of North America prior to the 20th century. Students will analyze armed conflict and its relationship to the history of human societies in North America from 10,000 B.C.E. (the beginnings of recorded human warfare) to 1898 (the commencement of American efforts to project its military strength into the wider world). Key themes of the course include: pre-contact indigenous warfare and its legacies in conflicts between indigenous nations and intruding settler societies; imperial contests for control over North American territory and resources; the creation of the United States' military institutions and the role of warfare in shaping the American nation-state; the relationship between the "winning of the west" during the late nineteenth century and the origins of American military interventions abroad; and the contrast between an understanding of warfare as a lived human experience and its memorialization through writing, reporting, commemoration, debating, and myth-making.

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (HA-AS)

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