The Hillsdale College History Department offers a minor in Military History and Grand Strategy (MHGS). This minor prepares students for careers in the government, military, academia, think tanks, and policymaking as it provides understanding of war and its conduct from a global perspective. This minor is open to all students regardless of their major, and students may enroll in any course even if they do not decide to pursue the MHGS minor. The minor requires 18 credits including the following four core courses: War in World History I, II, and III, and the capstone course, American Grand Strategy.
The minor also requires completion of six additional hours of military history and/or strategy courses from departmental offerings. Students may take the four core courses in any sequence—therefore, they do not have to take each course in chronological order. Students may not count any credits toward both the MHGS minor and the history major or the history minor. The minor’s four core requirements may not be fulfilled with transfer credit.
Warfare remains a vital issue for Americans to understand. This is the first of the three-core course sequence, which confronts the complex topic of war and analyzes global culture during antiquity until AD 500. Several key issues frame our study: what makes war so alluring, what causes wars, how are they fought, and does the concept of a Western Way of War exist, and if so, how does it differ from non-Western cultures? In addition, we explore the importance of war in shaping human affairs as well as the motivation of each culture’s combatants. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered autumn semesters, even-numbered years.
This course serves as a continuation of the history of warfare, addressing the same questions and seeking the same answers. This course confronts the complex topic of medieval war and analyzes global culture from AD 500 to 1500, whilst debunking modern myths of medieval society being dark or crude. Major topics include the devastating power of the Asian Steppe armies, the Crusades, and the Hundred Years’ War. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered spring semesters, odd-numbered years.
This course serves as a continuation of the history of warfare, addressing the same questions and seeking the same answers as parts I and II. This course confronts the complex topic of war and analyzes global culture from AD 1500 to the eve of World War I. It surveys the major military and naval innovations, including the Military Revolutions. In addition to examining major wars and operations, the course will also closely examine the interaction of war with political, economic, and cultural change. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered autumn semesters, odd-numbered years.
This course examines the evolution of US strategic thinking from the time of the nation’s founding to the present. Through analysis of major events and thought of leaders, it traces enduring themes and truths of international relations and statecraft. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered spring semesters, even-numbered years.
In addition to the courses below, the CMHGS faculty also offer other unique courses, such as Case Studies in the Origins of War, or classes on wars (e.g., the American Revolution) or a particular country (e.g., Russia).
A broad introduction to the American military and naval experience from the colonial period to the eve of World War I. In addition to the major land campaigns of American history, we examine the role of foreign activities and naval warfare, considering the changing cultural, political, economic, and religious norms of the United States. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered spring semesters, odd-numbered years.
Survey of US military history, broadly conceived, from World War I to the wars of the early twenty-first century. The course addresses military strategy, the interplay of force and diplomacy, technological innovation, civil-military relations, leadership, and the cultural and social underpinnings of military power. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered autumn semesters, even-numbered years.
A global survey of the First World War (1914-1918). We examine the campaigns and the cultures of war—with emphasis upon strategies, operations, tactics, and generalship. In addition, we study the ordinary soldier and civilian, as well as the home fronts. The course challenges students to reflect whether the war created modernity or modernity created the war? Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered autumn semesters, even-numbered years.
A global survey of the Second World War (1937-1945). We examine the campaigns and the cultures of war—with emphasis upon strategies, operations, tactics, and generalship. In addition, we study the ordinary soldier and civilian as well as the home fronts. The course provides a balanced assessment of both the European and Pacific theaters, and begins combat operations with the Japanese attack against China in 1937. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered spring semesters, odd-numbered years.
This course covers the military, diplomatic, political, and cultural dynamics of the struggle for South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. Students will evaluate competing interpretations of the war and their ongoing relevance to debates on US foreign policy and national identity. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered autumn semesters, odd-numbered years.
This course examines the static nature, yet changing character, of strategy in war. We scrutinize the strategists such as Sūnzǐ and Carl von Clausewitz, as well as the strategies such as annihilation and attrition to counterinsurgency and nuclear deterrence. Global in scope, primary source readings cover all continents, strategists, and major empires, whilst reflecting on the sociocultural influences on war’s conduct. From antiquity to the present, this course challenges students to craft their own definitions of strategy and examine how the art of war instructs the future of American foreign policy. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered autumn semesters, odd-numbered years.
Utilizing primary source readings, this course surveys the key minds who constructed, influenced, and shaped the ethical implications of warfare in the West. We begin in antiquity with ancient Greece and Rome and end in the present. Whilst examining case studies from major wars throughout history, we face the Herculean task of confronting war through a theological and philosophical lens. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered spring semesters, even-numbered years.
Since the end of World War II, the United States has sought to strengthen allies and alleviate suffering through foreign assistance programs ranging from military support to humanitarian aid. This course examines the theories underlying these programs, the implementation of programs, civil-military cooperation, and aid effectiveness. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered spring semesters, odd-numbered years.
This course provides a history of governmental efforts to thwart insurgents and terrorists with all the instruments of national power. The course considers the causes of insurgency and terrorism as well as the strategies, tactics, leadership, and interagency collaboration employed against them. Prerequisite: HST 104.
Offered autumn semesters, even-numbered years.
This course traces the rise of the American national security state from its humble origins in the American Revolution to its massive growth in the twentieth century and its transformation in the twenty-first century. Students will explore the national debates over the need for national defense, the growth of defense spending and taxation, the rise of the defense industry, the inefficiencies and abuses of the national security bureaucracy, and the compromises to American liberty resulting from perceived national security threats. Prerequisite: HST 105.
Offered autumn semesters, odd-numbered years.