War, Rebellion, and the Formation of American Identity, 1754-1865

3 units

Warfare is a creative process. New states, identities, and cultural movements appear from the violence and destruction. This course will survey the United States' experiences with organized armed conflict from before the American Revolution to the end of the Indian Wars. Though the class will deal with war, its focus will not be on military tactics or the outcome of battles. Rather, the course will utilize war as a prism through which to view the ways in which Americans conceived of themselves. Students will address a number of questions: How and why did people in North America conceive of themselves as distinct from Europeans? Did war lead to more inclusive or exclusive views of who was considered American? How did people of different backgrounds view violent conflict? Why did some wars become central to American myth and others largely forgotten? Did war and rebellion promote a newly formed nationalism or did they help lead to sectionalism and the Civil War? What is the relationship of warfare to cultural products? Readings will consist of secondary materials from a range of disciplines and primary documents that include novels, speeches, newspaper articles, letters, memoirs, editorial cartoons, and paintings.