History Courses For Dr. Christopher C. Lovett
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History Courses For Dr. Christopher C. Lovett |
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Updated as of 2 October 05 Today in History: On October 2, 1780, Major John André, a British spy associated with Benedict Arnold, was executed on this day in history. Quote of the Day: "In my view we are much worse off now than when we went into Iraq. This is not a partisan position. I voted for these guys." A senior figure at a military-sponsored think tank as told to James Fallows in "Bush's Lost Year" in The Atlantic Monthly (Oct. 2004) Take the Ann Coulter Quiz Where are you politically? Take the Neocon Quiz and find out. "History is Far too Important to be left to History Professors" Teaching isn't such a novel idea
Bibliography:
History of Disease Contemporary Terrorist Organizations Map of Islamic Terrorist Cells in the U.S.A.
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Take Home Examination for Splendid Little Wars
This site is still under construction and more questions will follow Directions: Select one of the following essay questions. Answer the question as fully as possible, provide the necessary analysis and evidence as the question requires. You may use outside sources, but if you do, properly cite where the information came from in your endnotes. The take home exam should be no less than five pages in length, double-spaced, using a 12 pt font. The essay is due no later than 15 August 2003. 1. The U.S. Navy has been considered the "Shield of the Republic" ever since it's birth. How was the Navy used to project U.S. national power in the nineteenth century? Explain. 2. The first foreign adventure for the United States was the Barbary War. How did Thomas Jefferson establish a pattern for future presidents to follow in handling the issue of undeclared wars? How did the Navy finally silence the threat of the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean? Explain. 3. Britain is a mere island, but how did Britain manage to tame India and expand into Burma? What role did the British play in the process? What techniques did the British employ to pacify those regions? Explain. 4. There are many interpretations for the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The British actually were nearly driven from the Subcontinent, and even Queen Victoria considered it tragedy following the revelations of the Cawnpore Massacre. How then did the British actually suppress the mutiny? 5. The Russians have had a horrible time attempting to pacify the Chechens. Actually the Russians had a three-to-one advantage over the Chechen rebels and yet still managed to fail. Why then did the Americans manage to pacify the Philippines while being outnumbered two-to-one? What tactics did the Americans employ? What lessons did the Yankees learn from the Indian Wars on the American Plains? Explain. 6. Coalition warfare is always difficult even in the best of times. What problems did the allies face in order to suppress the Boxers in China in 1900? What role did the media play in hyping the crisis? 7. The U.S. Marines have been considered the Navy's police force. What role did the Marines play in exerting American national interests in the Caribbean? What lessons should have been learned by policymakers from those earlier experiences in power projection in Africa and the Middle East? 8. Afghanistan has always been a trouble spot. Ask the British or the Russians for that matter. Why did the British and Russians fail in pacifying the Afghans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? If the past is prologue, what problems may lay ahead for the United States? Explain. 9. The use of force by Great Britain and the United States depended upon a substantial military. Who were the men that composed the British and American armed forces in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that made this possible? What economic and social classes did the officers and men come from? How well-trained were the officers of the British and American army as well as the U.S. Marine Corps, who provided the necessary leadership? How were they organized? Explain. 10. Technology was crucial for the West to impose its will on the less developed regions of the world in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. How to the subject people's respond? Did the West ever fail to impose their will in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific regions? Explain. 11. Perceptions of Britain's small wars changed overtime during the long reign of Queen Victoria. Bryon Farwell contends that public attitudes vacillated between "jingoism" and "moralism" by the second half of her reign. What does he mean? Why the sudden shift? How did Britain's small wars change? What role, if any, did the media play in altering public attitudes? Explain. 12. The United States nearly went to war with Mexico in 1916. What were the root causes of the conflict? Evaluate Woodrow Wilson's role and that of John J. Pershing during the course of the conflict? Explain. 13. The First and Second Boer wars have been forgotten by history. Yet both were extremely important not only for the British Empire, but also the world at large. What were the causes of those conflicts? What should the British have learned from the First Boer War? Why were the Boers initially successful? Explain. 14. What can the study of small conflicts teach policymakers about the future? What can current politicians learn from the British and American experiences in the Third World? Explain. 15. Vietnam was a national disaster. What should the Pentagon have learned from the American experience in the Philippines? Likewise, what lessons can be drawn from the Philippines for American commanders in Iraq today? 16. The British believed during the First Afghan War that they had managed to subdue the Afghans. Events had proved the British wrong. What lessons exist for American policymakers following the the Second Gulf War from the tragedy that befell the British in 1842? Explain. 17. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were defeated by smaller, less developed nations. What accounts for those defeats? Where did the United States and the Soviet go wrong in planning for war in the Third World? Explain. 18. The United States following Vietnam thought big in terms of future deployments involving the American military as enunciated by the Powell Doctrine. How did the Powell Doctrine hamstring American policymakers in the 1990s? Where did the U.S. go wrong in providing for humanitarian aid in light of Colin Powell's analysis? What factors did the Clinton administration adopt while preparing for small scale operations in the Caribbean, Africa, and the Balkans? Where those fears justified? Were the conclusions reached by the Pentagon correct in light of available evidence? Explain. 19. Britain's adventures in the Sudan against the Mahdi in the 1880s are very reminiscent of the War on Terrorism. What comparisons can be made between the British effort to crush the Mahdists with the American objective to find Osama bin Laden and destroy Al-Qaeda? Explain. 20. Max Boot has argued that small wars are "doable." What does he mean? What were his conclusions concerning the American record in waging small wars in the past? What does he believe we can learn from those historical events? How has American officials analyzed the cost of small wars? What are the arguments against the United States becoming "globocop?" Explain.
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