Each lecture/discussion will address the seminar’s key questions in relation to a specific war: Who serves, and why? How was each war fought, and what did that mean for those who served? What was the relationship between Service members and the home front?
Program Dates: July 22–25, 2024
Location: Online (Broadcast from National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia)
Cost: Free
In addition to the core questions, this lecture/discussion will address the militia tradition and constituting armies; the roles of enslaved or formerly enslaved men and of women; the profound social impact of war on civilian society; death, injury, and survival; and the process of accounting for the dead and commemorating those lost, including the ongoing political implications of how the Civil War is remembered.
In addition to the core questions, this lecture/discussion will address military professionalization; the new importance of testing and data; contemporary ideas about masculinity and military service; technology and combat; the first women serving in uniform; and the creation of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
In addition to the core questions, this lecture/discussion will acknowledge the reach and range of military service; the function of the draft; the wide variety of military service across the globe; the role of technology; the creation of the Women’s Army Corps; the use of a racially segregated military; and the GI Bill, the experience of homecoming, and notions of “the greatest generation.” We will view brief segments of the documentary Why We Fight: War Comes to America and of the Hollywood film The Best Years of Our Lives.
In addition to the core questions, this lecture/discussion will include the experience of fighting an increasingly unpopular war; the draft and the move to an all-volunteer force; US military nurses; race relations and racial tensions within the US military; the variety of military experience in the war; and homecoming and the controversies surrounding the Vietnam memorial(s).
