Dr. Mark Grimsley
Winter Quarter 1995
Overview
The course has two main objectives: first, to acquaint students with some of the most significant recent work on early American military history, with emphasis on works that integrate military affairs into a wider political, social, and/or cultural context; and second, to encourage students to think about certain larger issues in the study of military history, among them the effect of war on society (and the effect of society on the conduct of war), the problem of creating and controlling effective military institutions, and the impact of racial, ethnic and religious divisions on the conduct of war.
The books under discussion are on closed reserve in the Main Library. (The supplemental works, however, are not.) The required books are available for sale at SBX. I strongly recommend that you purchase some or all of them; they are worthwhile additions to your personal library.
NB. SBX has informed me that Ian K. Steele's Warpaths is temporarily out of stock. They expect to receive copies around January 6, in time for us to read it according to the current class schedule. However, if the shipment is delayed it may become necessary for us to read Malone first, then Steele. Also, Theodore Crackel's Mr. Jefferson's Army, originally assigned as required reading, has recently gone out of print. It's a good book, though, and if you can get a copy please do so.
Enrollment
All students must be officially enrolled in the course by the end of the second full week of the quarter. No requests to add the course will be approved by the department chair after that time. Enrolling officially and on time is solely the responsibility of each student.
Written Requirements
Students will be required to write one 6-page book review and two short (8- to 10-page) essays. The review should be similar in quality and approach to those published in scholarly journals. The two short essays will respond to questions of the sort asked in Ph.D general examinations; they should draw upon the supplemental as well as the required literature. Although I do not expect it to be necessary, I reserve the right to expand the written requirements if it appears the required readings are not being thoroughly studied and understood.
Format
Each week three students will organize and lead the discussion within a general framework given them by me. To do so they should meet for about an hour a day or two prior to class.
Grading
Book review: 20%
Essay 1: 35%
Essay 2: 35%
Discussion: 10%
Readings
The supplementary readings are primarily suggestions, and students are encouraged to draw upon whatever works they find useful.
Week 1. Organizational.
Don Higginbotham, "The Early American Way of War: Reconnaissance and Appraisal."
Week 2. Wars Against Native America, I.
Ian K. Steele, Warpaths.
Supplemental Reading
Russell Bourne, The Red King's Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England, 1675-1678 (1989).
Nicholas P. Canny, "The Ideology of English Colonization: From Ireland to America," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 30 (1973).
John E. Ferling, Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America (1993).
________, A Wilderness of Miseries: War and Warriors in Early America (1980).
Douglas E. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip's War (1958).
William L. Shea, The Virginia Militia in the Seventeenth Century (1983).
John Shy, "A New Look at the Colonial Militia," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 20 (April 1963).
Week 3. Wars Against Native America, II.
Patrick M. Malone, The Skulking Way of War.
Supplemental Reading
James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (1985).
________, The European and the Indian (1981).
Adam J. Hirsch, "The Collision of Military Cultures in Seventeenth-Century New England," Journal of American History 74 (March 1988).
Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800 (1988).
David Ralston, Importing the European Army: The Introduction of European Military Techniques and Institutions into the Extra-European World, 1600-1914 (1990).
Daniel Richter, "War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 40 (1983).
Week 4. Colonial Warfare
Fred Anderson, A People's Army.
Supplemental Reading
Marie Ahearn, The Rhetoric of War: Training Day, the Militia, and the Military Sermon (1989).
John Childs, Armies and Warfare in Europe, 1648-1789 (1982).
Christopher Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason (1986).
Douglas E. Leach, Arms for Empire: A Military History of the British Colonies in North America, 1607-1763 (1973).
Howard H. Peckham, The Colonial Wars, 1689-1763 (1964).
William Pencak, War, Politics, and Revolution. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1981.
Peter E. Russell, "Redcoats in the Wilderness: British Officers and Irregular Warfare in Europe and America, 1740 to 1760," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 35 (October 1978).
Harold E. Selesky, War and Society in Colonial Connecticut (1990).
Ian K. Steele, Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the "Massacre" (1990).
James Titus, The Old Dominion at War: Society, Politics, and Warfare in Late Colonial Virginia (1991).
Week 5. Anglo-American Tensions and the Standing Army Controversy
Douglas Leach, Roots of Conflict.
Supplemental Reading
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967).
Lawrence D. Cress, Citizens in Arms: The Army and Militia in American Society to the War of 1812 (1982).
Pauline M. Maier, From Resistance to Revolution (1975).
J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (1975).
John Philip Reid, In Defiance of the Law: The Standing Army Controversy, the two Constitutions, and the Coming of the American Revolution (1981).
John W. Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution (1965).
Reginald C. Stuart, "`Engines of Tyranny': Recent Historiography on Standing Armies During the Era of the American Revolution," Canadian Journal of History 19 (August 1984).
Wilcomb Washburn, The Governor and the Rebellion: A History of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia (1957).
Stephen Saunders Webb, The Governors-General (1981).
Week 6. The War for Independence - I.
John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed.
Supplemental Reading
Thomas C. Barrow, "The American Revolution as a Colonial War for Independence," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 25 (July 1968).
Richard Buel, Dear Liberty: Connecticut's Mobilization for the Revolutionary War (1981).
Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan: Revolutionary Rifleman (1961)
_________, The War for American Independence (1978)
_________, Reconsiderations on the Revolutionary War (1978).
________, War and Society in Revolutionary America: The Wider Dimensions of Conflict (1988).
Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775-1783 (1964).
Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (1982).
Dave R. Palmer, The Way of the Fox: American Strategy in the War for America (1975).
Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character (1979).
Robert Wright, The Continental Army (1983).
Week 7. The War for Independence - II.
E. Wayne Carp, To Starve the Army at Pleasure.
Supplemental Reading
R. Arthur Bowler, Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America, 1775-1783 (1975).
James A. Huston, Logistics of Liberty: American Services of Supply in the Revolutionary War and After (1991).
Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (1979).
Erma Risch, Supplying Washington's Army (1981).
Jonathan G. Rossie, The Politics of Command in the American Revolution (1975).
Kenneth R. Rossman, Thomas Mifflin and the Politics of the American Revolution (1975).
Week 8. The War for Independence - III.
Charles Royster, Light Horse Harry Lee.
Supplemental Reading
Bernard Bailyn, Faces of Revolution (1991).
Marcus Cunliffe, George Washington: Man and Monument (1958).
Don Higginbotham, George Washington and the American Military Tradition (1985).
Pauline Maier, The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams (1980).
Paul D. Nelson, Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic (1985).
Willard Sterne Randall, Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor (1990).
Norman Risjord, Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation (1980).
Week 9. The Creation of a Permanent Military Establishment - I.
Richard H. Kohn, Eagle and Sword.
Supplemental Reading
Don Higginbotham, "The Debate over National Military Institutions: An Issue Slowly Resolved, 1775-1815," in William M. Fowler, Jr., and Wallace Coyle, The American Revolution (1979).
John K. Mahon, The American Militia: Decade of Decision (1960).
James Kirby Martin and Mark E. Lender, A Respectable Army: the Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789 (1982).
Thomas P. Slaughter, The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution (1986).
See also the supplemental list for Week 5.
Week 10. The Creation of a Permanent Military Establishment - II.
Don Hickey, The War of 1812.
Supplemental Reading
Robert S. Browning III, Two If By Sea: The Development of American Coastal Defense Policy (1983).
Harry L. Coles, The War of 1812 (1965).
Theodore J. Crackel, Mr. Jefferson's Army (1987).
Reginald Horsman, The War of 1812 (1969).
J.C.A. Stagg, Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783-1830 (1983).
Reginald C. Stuart, War and American Thought from the Revolution to the Monroe Doctrine (1982).
________, The Halfway Pacifist (1975).
Steven Watts, The Republic Reborn: War and the Making of Liberal America, 1790-1820 (1987).
Week 11. The Creation of a Permanent Military Establishment - III.
William B. Skelton, An American Profession of Arms.
Supplemental Reading
Edward M. Coffman, "The Long Shadow of The Soldier and the State," Journal of Military History 55 (Jannuary 1991).
Marcus Cunliffe, Soldiers and Civilians: The Martial Spirit in America, 1775-1865 (1968).
Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State (1956).
Christopher McKee, A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of a U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815 (1991).
James L. Morrison, Jr., "The Best School in the World": West Point, The Pre-Civil War Years, 1835-1866 (1986).
Francis P. Prucha, Broadax and Bayonet: The Role of the U.S. Army in the Development of the Northwest, 1815-1860 (1953).
________, The Sword of the Republic: the United States Army on the Frontier, 1783-1846 (1969).