By Leonard V. Smith (NHC Fellow, 1993–94) Literary and historical conventions have long painted the experience of soldiers during World War I as simple victimization. Leonard Smith, however, argues that a complex dialogue of resistance and negotiation existed between French soldiers and their own commanders. In this case study of wartime military culture, Smith analyzes … Continued
By John R. KelsoEdited by Christopher Grasso (NHC Fellow, 2016–17) While tales of Confederate guerilla-outlaws abound, there are few scholarly accounts of the Union men who battled them. This edition of John R. Kelso’s Civil War memoir presents a firsthand account of an ordinary man’s extraordinary battlefield experiences along with his evolving interpretation of what … Continued
By Thomas J. Brown (NHC Fellow, 2015–16) This sweeping new assessment of Civil War monuments unveiled in the United States between the 1860s and 1930s argues that they were pivotal to a national embrace of military values. Americans' wariness of standing armies limited construction of war memorials in the early republic, Thomas J. Brown explains, … Continued
By Margaret Humphreys (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) Black soldiers in the American Civil War were far more likely to die of disease than were white soldiers. In Intensely Human, historian Margaret Humphreys explores why this uneven mortality occurred and how it was interpreted at the time. In doing so, she uncovers the perspectives of mid-nineteenth-century physicians and … Continued
By Margaret Humphreys (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) The Civil War was the greatest health disaster the United States has ever experienced, killing more than a million Americans and leaving many others invalided or grieving. Poorly prepared to care for wounded and sick soldiers as the war began, Union and Confederate governments scrambled to provide doctoring and … Continued
By Leonard V. Smith (NHC Fellow, 1993–94) How did the soldiers in the trenches of the Great War understand and explain battlefield experience, and themselves through that experience? Situated at the intersection of military history and cultural history, The Embattled Self draws on the testimony of French combatants to explore how combatants came to terms with the … Continued
During the Civil War, in Northern hospitals men shot rats for target practice; in Southern hospitals they roasted them for lunch. The differences that lay behind that comparison offer insights into why the North won and why the South lost. This seminar will explore the best and worst of Civil War medicine to assess what … Continued
The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center’s motto is “Telling the Army’s Story, One Soldier at a Time.” The U.S. Army’s history is NOT just military history – it is also social, political, medical, economic, and technological history, just to name a few. The USAHEC is the U.S. Army’s primary archives and conservation center for … Continued
Ina Dixon explains how a letter from her grandfather to her grandmother, written just before the Battle of the Bulge in WWII, reconnects her to her grandfather and the hardships he suffered at the time. Transcript Andy Mink: My name is Andy Mink, I’m the vice president for education at the National Humanities Center. I’m … Continued