Military History Commons^™

The United States And The Origins Of The Second World War, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This brief but detailed narrative of the origins of World War II evaluates the claims by both Axis and Allied powers that they were fighting a just war.

Away From Home: William Gifford Palgrave's Letters From India, 1847-1848, David E. Latane

English Publications

William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888) became one of the great Victorian travelers, immortalized in a poem by Alfred Tennyson, “To Ulysses,” in 1888. The letters transcribed here are the record of his first voyage outward in 1847 as an Ensign in the 8th Bombay regiment of native infantry, just after his graduating with a First from Oxford. The letters are found in volume 5 of the Palgrave papers (British Library Add. MS 45738). The first letter is to his mother, dated 28 January 1847 from “Off Cape Mondego” in Portugal, and it describes life on board an outbound steamer. The last …

Borderlands Course Reader, Volume One, Jamie Starling

Open Educational Resources - Books

This collection compiles primary source documents and narratives from the present-day U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Region from c.1500 to 1865. The collection is designed for use with U.S. History and Mexican American surveys as well as Texas history and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands history courses. A few documents are abridged or excerpted from longer sources. All sources contain a citation or link to a source at the foot of the document. Documents span from indigenous accounts and sources of early contact through the late Spanish colonial period, era of Mexican independence, U.S. expansion and the American Civil War.

China Lake, The Most Important Place You’Ve Never Heard Of, Tristan M. Bollenbaugh

Emerging Writers

How can one small community centered around a naval base in the middle of California's Mojave desert have had an enormous impact on critical geopolitical events of the twentieth century, such as the Cold War, while being largely absent from the shared knowledge of the citizens of the United States? China Lake has been the United States Navy's premier weapons research and development laboratory since its establishment in 1943. For 80 years, it has produced such systems as the Sidewinder air-to-air missile that helped to keep the nation of Taiwan safe from a Chinese invasion and the Polaris submarine-launched nuclear …

Enduring The Elements: Civil War Soldiers’ Struggles Against The Weather, Cameron Boutin

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation is an environmental history that studies the variety of ways that soldiers in the American Civil War experienced the pressures of weather over the course of their military service. For the troops of the U.S. and Confederacy, the weather was more than simply a passive backdrop to their time in the military, but a central preoccupation. This dissertation analyzes how weather intersected with some of the most central experiences of soldiering – tent camping and winter quarters, marching, bivouacking, manning sentry posts and field fortifications, and fighting in battles. Life in Civil War armies consisted of all of …

The Wehrmacht Experience In World War Ii, Tyler Masterson

Theses and Dissertations

German soldiers who were in the Wehrmacht during World War II faced many different experiences from the beginning of the war when it seemed they were in control to later parts of the war were they were being driven back by the Allies. Along with the different experiences from different times of the war, they also faced different experiences when it came to what front they were fighting on. Fronts and theaters that stretch from North Africa and the Mediterranean Campaign to Eastern Europe and Russia to Western Europe. When it comes to the troops that were fighting in the …

Military Cooperation And The Relocation Of Quapaw And French Settlements In Colonial Arkansas: A Case Study In Colonial International Relations, Morris S. Arnold

Arkansas Archeological Survey Academic Papers

A previous article made the case that the Quapaw Indians had played a role in the defense of Arkansas Post, and had entered several colonial wars on the side of the French, during the time that France had claimed sovereignty over the Arkansas country.

The purpose of the present effort is to describe and explain the origin and nature of the alliance between the Quapaws and the French, and to identify the considerations that led the tribe to conclude that it was often in its national interest to collaborate with the French in their defensive and offensive military operations. The …

“Laugh, When I Gives You A Joke”: The Forms And Functions Of Humor In The Great War, Samuel Sakoulas Griffin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In today’s popular memory, the First World War experience is not well-known for its humor. Yet during and after the war, soldiers produced a small but significant wave of wartime joke books and humorous war-story collections, in part to cope with their experiences in terrible, industrialized war, and also as a way to interpret, commemorate, and remember the war. These humorous interpretations and memories of the war clashed with the dominant literary reaction to the war, that of the mutilation of bodies and pointless deaths. But humor appeared in the midst of the slaughter, and today serves as an opening …

The Fight For Equality: African American Seabees During World War Ii, Victoria Castillo

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis outlines the Navy’s movement towards black inclusion from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II through the lens of African American Seabees as well as the two integrated Seabee Battalions, 34^th and 80^th. While examining African American Seabees during World War II, one can see the injustices they were facing in the Navy. Seabees are one of the forgotten branches during World War II, but while examining the history of African Americans serving in the U.S. Navy and the Seabees, we start to understand how they were able to …

"Always A Rocky And Rippling Stream": The Penobscot River And War, 1604-1869, Mary Moody Mclean

Theses and Dissertations

This paper broadly examines how rivers can be used as a pawn in war and, more specifically, how the Penobscot River, located in Penobscot County, Maine, influenced significant battles in America and the fabric of the developing nation due to its geographical location and geological development. This analysis focuses on one critical aspect of the Penobscot River that motivated attacks: the fur, fish and lumber trades, all of which were established due to the proximity of the coast and how the land developed during the Holocene era.

My thesis illustrates how North Americans, British and French used the Penobscot River …

San Antonio At The Military City, Santos Mencio

Capstone Projects

The San Antonio as the Military City project aims to create a digital medium available to the public that recounts the long history of the many military installations scattered across San Antonio. Exploring the role of these bases in the myriad conflicts the United States has participated in and the impact the bases have had on veterans and the people of San Antonio. This information is conveyed using ArcGIS story maps, and the personal stories of those who have served on these bases will provide a more personal perspective on the role of these bases.

Memories Of War: An Oral History Of The United States Army Special Forces Actions In The Gulf War, Justin Mcintosh

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This thesis uses memories of former members of 5th Special Forces Group as the lens to explore the impacts and context of US Army Special Forces operations and activities during the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War was the defeat of the Iraqi military in Kuwait at the hands of a technologically superior United States force. Historians have focused Persian Gulf War scholarship on three key aspects: the interpersonal relationship between the United States military commanders and political leaders, the rapid deployment of military forces to the Middle East, and the use of airpower to strike at enemy centers …

Op Lobe And The Evacuation Of Canadian Personnel From Libya, 2014: An Interview With Major (Retired) Doug Henderson, Andrew Burtch

Canadian Military History

In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Libya and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s intervention that overturned Muammar Gaddafi’s government amid fears of reprisals against civilians, Canada and other countries re-established a diplomatic presence. The region was still unstable with many competing militias in a tentative truce following Gaddafi’s downfall. Canada’s embassy required a military presence to secure the compound and the safety of Canadian VIPs. In July 2014, the men and women of Operation LOBE were forced to evacuate from Libya amid a diplomatic exodus during a resurgence of civil war. This piece, based largely on …

Review Of "The Secret History Of Rdx: The Super-Explosive That Helped Win World War Ii" By Colin F. Baxter, Alex Souchen

Canadian Military History

Review of The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive that Helped Win World War II by Colin F. Baxter

Review Of "The Empire On The Western Front: The British 62nd And Canadian 4th Divisions In Battle" By Geoffrey Jackson, Bradley Shoebottom

Canadian Military History

Review of The Empire on the Western Front: The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle by Geoffrey Jackson.

Review Of "Always Ready: A History Of The Royal Regiment Of Canada" By Donald E. Graves With Captain (Ret’D) Mihail Murgoci, Roger Sarty

Canadian Military History

Review of Always Ready: A History of the Royal Regiment of Canada by Donald E. Graves with Captain (ret’d) Mihail Murgoci.

Review Of "Winning And Losing The Nuclear Peace: The Rise, Demise And Revival Of Arms Control" By Michael Krepon, Paul Esau

Canadian Military History

Review of Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace: The Rise, Demise and Revival of Arms Control by Michael Krepon

Review Of "Dying To Learn: Wartime Lessons From The Western Front" By Michael A. Hunzeker, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

Review of Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front by Michael A. Hunzeker.

Review Of "The Battle Of The Peaks And Long Stop Hill: Tunisia, April-May 1943" By Ian Mitchell, Tobias Clark

Canadian Military History

Review of The Battle of the Peaks and Long Stop Hill: Tunisia, April-May 1943 by Ian Mitchell.

Review Of "From Rinks To Regiments: Hockey Hall-Of-Famers And The Great War" By Alan Livingstone Macleod, Peter L. Belmonte

Canadian Military History

Review of From Rinks to Regiments: Hockey Hall-of-Famers and the Great War by Alan Livingstone MacLeod.