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Military History
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What is Military History?

Military history examines armed conflict, military institutions, leadership, and strategy across different eras and regions. It appears in history, political science, and international relations courses, as well as in specialized programs focused on defense and security studies. What makes it academically rich is its intersection with politics, culture, logistics, and social change — war shapes nations, economies, and identities in lasting ways. Papers in this area engage with specific conflicts like the Philippine War of 1899 to 1902, the Soviet-Afghan War, and the American Civil War, as well as broader institutional questions about how militaries are organized, supplied, and led.

Student papers on this topic take a range of approaches. Some focus on individual leadership, examining figures like General Patton or comparing him with commanders such as Norman Schwarzkopf. Others are historical and analytical, exploring events like Great Britain's use of its navy or the military origins of the American republic between 1763 and 1789. Case-study approaches appear in conflict analyses of specific wars, while social and cultural angles emerge in papers on topics like veterans dealing with PTSD and substance abuse, or the experiences of Muslim communities shaped by military and political history. Logistical and institutional perspectives round out the range.

A strong military history essay requires a focused thesis that moves beyond summarizing events toward explaining causes, consequences, or significance. Primary sources, strategic records, and well-regarded historical accounts carry the most weight as evidence. The most common pitfall is treating military history as a series of isolated battles rather than connecting conflicts to the broader political, social, and cultural forces that produced them.

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Research Paper Undergraduate

Oral History and Historiography: The Role of 9/11 Accounts

Oral history has often been discounted by the academic community as hearsay because it is often not based on provable fact. Therefore, oral history has been omitted from many traditional accounts of events.

Hezbollah: A Short History — Norton's Book Reviewed

Augustus Richard Norton's book Hezbollah: A Short History attempts to provide a balanced and nuanced view of the Shiite Islamic organization. Concerned primarily with the issue of self-rule and self-determination within…

Paper Undergraduate

David McCullough's 1776: A Military History Book Review

David McCullough's 1776 provides a detailed account of the formative events that helped to found the nation of the United States of America. Focusing as it does on the titular year, McCullough's 1776 cannot help but…

Research Paper Doctorate

Canada–US Relations During the Cold War Era, 1945–1957

¶ … United States and Canada has always been one of constant change. During the post-World War II era and through the emergence of the Cold War, the relationship between these neighboring countries continued to develop…

Research Paper Doctorate

Robert E. Lee in Two Books: Davis and Flood Compared

¶ … Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood. Specifically, it will review and discuss the book. Flood's book looks at the final five years of Lee's life after the Civil War. It is a moving look at a man who gave…

Research Paper Doctorate

U.S. Army Transformation: Division Units to Units of Action

At the Pentagon, briefings routinely begin with the old adage that

Paper Doctorate

The 1970 Cambodian Incursion: Military Success, Political Failure

In June 1969, President Nixon announced the beginning of a gradual troop withdrawal from South Vietnam. Although peace talks had begun in Paris, military commanders had no reason to believe that North Vietnam troops would allow American troops to leave the country safely. The biggest threat to American and S. Vietnamese troops were Viet Cong and North Vietnam Army bases located inside Cambodia along the border region, so when the leadership of Cambodia became anti-communist in early 1970, an opportunity presented itself to clear the border area of these sanctuaries. This essay describes the events surrounding the Cambodian Incursion that followed.

Paper Doctorate

The United States After World War I: Society and Economy

World War I, also known as the Great War, officially came to an end in 1918 and reshaped the country in a variety of ways. One of the most immediate changes was the way the world perceived the United States. Before the war, most of the country and its leaders preferred an isolationist stance to any international conflict. In 1914 the U.S. had only a small army and a pitiful navy, yet as the war progressed many Americans began to disapprove of the German's use of submarines to sink neutral ships such as the infamous sinking of the Lusitania (Hickman). However, it is interesting to note that the German's were actually correct in their assertion that the Lusitania was being used to carry military ammunition, as divers have recently uncovered from the wreckage, which did actually make the ship a legitimate military target (Greenhill).

Research Paper Doctorate

Aircraft and Warfare: From Hot Air Balloons to Modern Air Power

Few technologies have so dramatically transformed the nature of human warfare as aircraft. As early as the late eighteenth century, aviation technologies have been used with a high degree of success in military…

Paper Doctorate

Western vs. Asian Warfare Theories Before Westernization

There are numerous points of comparison between Asian and Western conceptions of military and war during the 19th century prior to the Westernization of the latter country. However, Europeans repeatedly showed greater sophistication in these areas than their Asian counterparts. Contrasting notions of total war and other tactical methods readily confirm this fact.

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