MH 356 French Military History

Course Objectives | Textbook Information | Methodology and Assignments | Course Schedule | Links to Readings | Military History Links | APUS login

This course is a survey of French military history from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 up through the colonial wars of the 1950s. We will cover military institutions, battlefield events, and military policy. But the course will also strongly emphasize the interplay of war and the military on politics and society in general. That will include a discussion of the political upheavals and modernizing effects of the Franco-Prussian War, a special unit on cultures of memory following the Great War, and the fall of the fourth republic in the context of the war in Algeria.

This does not, however, exclude earlier or later periods of French history or other aspects of military history from consideration. Students who wish to do so can write their special research projects on the Napoleonic era, the Crimean War, the First Gulf War, French nuclear doctrine or on France and NATO, to name just a few examples. Our classroom discussions and assigned reading will be limited to 1870 - 1960, but students can range beyond those boundaries at will for their own research.

The era chosen might appear to be a bit unfair to France. After all, despite having a strong military tradition and once having been the most powerful and skilled army in Europe, they lose four of the five wars under consideration in this class. The limitation to this period is both pragmatic - we can't cover everything - and systematic. It is not the point of history to study only success, and a prolonged case-study in failure is interesting. Indeed, the French case is interesting because France is a country which has been both bitterly divided (especially during the 19th century) and subject to the great stresses of modernization, empire and military defeat.

The scope is not purely military history. The instructor is of the school that military history cannot be studied in isolation. While our focus is on times of war, anything having to do with the interplay of war or military institutions and society/state is a valid field of investigation.

Course Objectives

Students will obtain a general knowledge of these events and their effects on French society and politics as well as detailed knowledge on a research subject of their choice. It is also hoped that students will come away from the course with a perception of France and French history which runs at least in part counter to the negative stereotypes of the country prevalent in America.

Furthermore, the course strives to instill or strengthen in students the idea that history is not a chronology of names and dates, but a science. In history as well as in the natural and other social sciences, interpretations are neither arbitrary nor etched in stone. The questions we ask as historians, the selection of sources that we bring to bear on those questions, and their interpretation are matters of debate. Students will practice bringing this approach to bear on Russian military history.

Textbooks

Howard, Michael: The Franco-Prussian War. The German Invasion of France, 1870-1871. Routledge: London and New York, 1961.

Jackson, Julian: The Fall of France. The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2003.

Smith, Leonard V.; Audoin-Rouzeau, Stephane; Becker, Annette: France in the Great War, 1914-1918. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2003.

Methodology and Assignments

Participation: 30% of the final grade

Class discussion of our readings will worth 30% of the final grade. In the online classroom, interaction is where most of the learning takes place, hence the heavy emphasis put on it here. Students will be expected to contribute to each weekly topic and to return to each weekly topic so as to respond to contributions made by others. This is not only more interesting than simply submitting answers, but it contributes directly to the goal of a history education. This is independent of the number of students who enroll in the class. Students will practice exercising their right and duty as historians to provide their own, considered interpretations.

It works like this. Each student must submit, by the end of the week, a statement or two with a total length of at least 500 words to the newsgroup on that topic. Then, over the course of the following weeks, students should actively discuss those statements and the readings with the instructor and other students.

The statement can take many forms, depending on student tastes and the subject matter. Students can

- try to summarize the main points that the author/s make/s - draw attention to contradictions, either within the reading or with other things they have read - elaborate on especially interesting points - contrast the reading with the experience of other countries - criticize the author's interpretation

These are only ideas. Students are encouraged to be creative, but serious and sober. The emphasis should be on demonstrating thoughtful understanding of the material. There is no commute to the classroom, there are no lectures. All that is left is dialogue, where we demonstrate to each other that we have thought about our subject and the reading.

Term Paper: 30% of the final grade

Students will select a topic relevant to our course that is of particular interest to them and write a research paper of no fewer than 10 pages (including title page and bibliography page - so at least eight pages of text). The subject of the paper will take the form of a question. That is, the basis of the paper is an historical inquiry - not just a "topic". The title of the paper does not need to take the form of a question, but a research question should become clear to the reader in the introduction. And the writing in the paper should be focused on answering that research question. Data and ideas presented should contribute to the answer and not just fill pages.

There will be a special, mandatory newsgroup in the classroom for discussing the term paper. Students must discuss their topic with the instructor and with their classmates in that newsgroup. You may come up with an idea of your own from any period or war from Napoleon up to the present day. You may ask your classmates or the instructor for ideas or advice.

If you haven't written a research paper before or have had difficulty doing so, it is suggested that you consult the Quigley-Nelson Guide (pdf file).

That guide will provide some useful ideas on how to efficiently organize your research so that you can quickly and effectively write your paper while accurately and completely documenting your citations.

Use Turabian-style citations are preferred, but any clear and consistent system will be accepted. See http://hatlie.de/teaching/teaching-policyreserachpapers.html

Book Review: 15% of the final grade

Students will select a book with a topic relevant to our course and write a book review of no fewer than 1,500 words. The review will cover at least the following information:

You can also see http://hatlie.de/teaching/teaching-policybookreviews.html, but it repeats much of the information given here.

You will submit the book review as a message to the Book Review newsgroup. There, we will all discuss each other's work. Your book review will count 15% of the final grade; your discussion of your classmate's and your own book review in that newsgroup will count as part of your participation grade.

Final Exam: 25% of the final grade

At the end of the term there will be a comprehensive final exam administered on line. It will be a short list of broad essay questions about our readings and discussions.

Course Schedule

Course weeks run Monday to Sunday. The readings for our discussions will occasionally include more than only the textbook, but short additional readings, usually an historical document, which will be pointed out in the classroom and found under Course Materials, linked to this webpage, or elsewhere on the WWW. I will choose documents which have potential to spark interest and discussion.

Readings

During the term, we will read some of the following articles and texts. They are almost all copyrighted and can therefor not be made available to a wider public. You will need a user name and password which the instructor will make available in the online classroom.

19th Century / General

World War One

World War Two

Postwar France, Indochina, Algeria

Military History Links

General Links and Military Strategy and Theory
Journals and Reference Works
World War One Sites and Collections
World War Two Sites and Collections
Russian Military History

General Links and Links on Military Strategy and Theory

World War One Sites and Collections

These three sites will get you started on just about any aspect of the First World War from combat to poetry, zeppelins to women in the workforce.

Various Wars and Conflicts (primarily Russia and USSR)

There are countless summaries of various wars that can be found with a simple google search. The following webpages have been chosen if they provide original or documentary material.

World War Two Sites and Collections

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Russian Military History

Most of these sites are not terribly scholarly. They are more on the level of "hobby." There is some useful information here, however, especially on weapons, uniforms and operations.



Contact / Impressum:
Mark R. Hatlie (ViSdM)
Im Feuerhägle 1
D-72072 Tübingen
Germany

+49-7071-792696

info @ hatlie.de

Disclaimer

Web-Design/Web-Master:
Oliver Gassner,
og @ carpe.com