Prof. Edwin E. Moise
Office: Hardin 102
Phone: 650-8845
e-mail: eemoise@clemson.edu
Messages can be left in my mailbox in Hardin 124, or in the box on my office door.
Office Hours: I will try to be in my office at the following hours, but it won't always be possible. On the other hand, I will be in my office, and available to you, for much more of the week than my official office hours. E-mail me, or just check and see if my door is open. If you are nervous about meeting face to face indoors, you could Zoom me through my computer, or if the weather is decent we could sit on the plaza in back of the building.
Monday 11:15-12:00 2:30-3:20
Tuesday 11:00-12:00, 2:00-3:15
Wednesday 11:15-12:00 2:30-3:20
Thursday (none officially scheduled but I will often be available)
Friday (none officially scheduled but I will often be available)
There are no prerequisites for HIST 3900.
If the pandemic gets bad enough I may have to change my plans, but if possible I plan to teach this as a traditional history class. Lectures, the quiz, and tests will take place in the classroom. Most discussion will be in the classroom, though some will take place through Canvas. You will turn in written assignments (other than the quiz and tests) through Canvas.
I do not emphasize trivial factual details in this course. On tests and quizzes I will NOT ask you to tell me the dates of the battle of Arnhem, or the names of the commanders in it. There are some facts you need to know, but they are more important things than dates and names. On the other hand, I will expect you to get an idea of the sequence of events, what came first and what came later.
The most important single part of your grade will be the course paper. You can write it on whatever topic you please, within the limit of the subject matter of this course. The papers should be at least eight pages long typed double spaced for the actual text (not including title page, maps, illustrations, or Works Cited page). Longer papers are acceptable. If footnotes take up a lot of each page, make it at least nine pages.
For more detailed guidelines on the term paper, see Writing a Term Paper in Military History.
The paper is due Wednesday, December 1. I request that you turn it in electronically through Canvas, which records the date you submitted it. If Canvas says it was turned in on December 1 (in other words, if it got in before midnight), it will be considered on time. There will be a five point penalty if the paper is submitted on December 2 or 3. The penalty will be fifteen points if it is not in by midnight December 3.
You can have a pretty free choice of topics for this paper, within the limits of the subject matter of this course. You must come in and talk to me about your paper, and discuss the sources you will be using. It is not enough to say to me as we are walking out of the classroom one morning "Professor Moise, is it OK if I write about the Battle of Chancellorsville?" You will need to talk things over with me for ten or fifteen minutes, not just a few seconds. After we have talked, I will give you a blank topic sheet, which you will then fill out and return to me. The sheet should describe your topic, with a list of the main sources you plan to use. There will be a five point penalty if you have not given this to me by October 18, and an additional five points if it is not in by October 25. If it still is not in by November 1, I will either give you yet another five-point penalty, or else simply hand you a sheet of paper telling you what topic you must write on, and what sources you must use.
If you give me a preliminary draft of your paper as an e-mail attachment by April 18 (preferably before that), I will look it over and give you suggestions about how you could improve it.
The paper is worth 150 points. The other work will be:
--Two
newspaper research exercises, worth 40 points each.
--One essay quiz (20 points).
--The midterm test (70 points)
and the final exam (120 points),
which will be mostly essay questions.
--Eight questions about the reading, which I will post on Canvas and you will answer on Canvas, due ten minutes before the beginning of class,
ten points each but only your six best count toward the final grade: 60 points.
--Class participation, either in class or through the Discussion section on Canvas. If you are the sort of person who feels comfortable speaking up
in class, do so. If you don't feel comfortable with that, post in the discussion section on Canvas so you won't lose out on this. 20 points.
This adds up to 520 points for the course.
The basic grade scale is that 90% (468 points) is the bottom of the
A range, 80% (416 points) is the bottom of the B range, and so on. Sometimes
I alter the scale in the students' favor, never against them.
Thus 468 points is a guaranteed A; 466 or even 460 points might be an A, if the
average for the class is low.
All infractions of academic dishonesty by undergraduates must be reported to Undergraduate Studies for resolution through that office. In cases of plagiarism instructors may use the Plagiarism Resolution Form.
See the Undergraduate Academic Integrity Policy website for additional information and the current catalogue for the policy.
The ways students have gotten into problems of academic dishonesty in this course, in past years, have been:
Large portions of a term paper copied from a book or web site, without any indication that the material was copied. Typically this involves both large amounts of material quoted word-for-word, without quotation marks, and also a serious shortage of source notes pointing to the book from which the material came. Often there are misleading source notes claiming the material came from some source other than the one from which it was actually copied word-for-word. These false source notes are especially strong evidence that the copying was dishonesty and not just carelessness.
Whole term paper obtained from some source (a commercial term paper service, or the Internet, or the collection of term papers that one of the fraternities used to have, and may still have).
One student copies another student's 40-point newspaper research exercise, maybe changing a few words and substituting synonyms, but leaving the two papers still so similar that it is obvious the resemblance could not be coincidence. I would be likely to bring charges both against the student who copied and the student who allowed his or her paper to be copied.
A less likely possibility would be one student looking sideways during a test, and copying the answers being written by the student in the adjacent seat.
If a student copied a paper from someplace without citing that source, but rephrased it, substituting synonyms for enough words so that the copied paper was not identical, word for word, to the original, this would still be academic dishonesty, but would be more difficult for me to prove.
There are some ways in which it is all right for students to help each other. If two students want to study together getting ready for a test, that is perfectly OK. Only after I have handed out the questions does help on a test become improper. But if two people work together on a newspaper research exercise, and turn in papers that are very similar because each has been getting a lot of help from the other in writing it, both will be in deep trouble. If one of your fellow students asks to look at your paper, to get a better idea of how the assignment was to be done, please say no. They should come to me to ask for further explanations of the assignment, rather than looking at a completed paper to give them their clues. If two papers are so similar it is obvious the author of one must have seen the other, I will file charges.
In furtherance of its Academic Integrity policy, Clemson University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism in student assignments. I will request that you submit your research papers, at the end of the semester, to Turnitin through Canvas. You will have the right to refuse to do this, if you wish. Turnitin will provide me with an originality rating and notation of possible text or contextual matches with other source documents. Turnitin does not make any determination of plagiarism. Rather, it identifies parts of an assignment that may have significant matches with other source documents found on the Internet, in the Turnitin database, or from other sources. If matches are identified and indicate the possibility of inclusion of material that is not properly cited, I will discuss this information with you before reaching any judgment or decision.
Do not turn in a paper in this course that you have also submitted in some other course, in this semester or a previous one, without consulting me first.
Under normal circumstances, my policy for most written assignments is: If you do not turn it in on time, you will be able to make it up. However, you will be marked off for lateness. You will be marked off even if your excuse is very, very good. You can avoid a penalty only if I have told you before the work was due that you would be able to do it late without penalty. 40-point papers will not usually be accepted at all (you just get an F) if they are more than seven days late. 10-point short questions about the reading are not accepted late at all, but if you miss getting one by thirty seconds, that will just be one of the ones that does not count toward the final grade. Don't miss more than two.
Clemson University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, veteran’s status, genetic information or protected activity in employment, educational programs and activities, admissions and financial aid. This includes a prohibition against sexual harassment and sexual violence as mandated by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This Title IX policy is located on the Campus Life website. Ms. Alesia Smith is the Clemson University Title IX Coordinator, and the Executive Director of Equity Compliance. Her office is located at 223 Brackett Hall, 864.656.0620. Remember, email is not a fully secured method of communication and should not be used to discuss Title IX issues.
Clemson University values the diversity of our student body as a strength and a critical component of our dynamic community. Students with disabilities or temporary injuries/conditions may require accommodations due to barriers in the structure of facilities, course design, technology used for curricular purposes, or other campus resources. Students who experience a barrier to full access to this class should let the instructor know and make an appointment to meet with a staff member in Student Accessibility Services as soon as possible. You can make an appointment by calling 864-656-6848, by emailing studentaccess@lists.clemson.edu, or by visiting Suite 239 in the Academic Success Center building. Appointments are strongly encouraged – drop-ins will be seen, if at all possible, but there could be a significant wait due to scheduled appointments. Students who have accommodations are strongly encouraged to request, obtain and send these to their instructors through the AIM portal as early in the semester as possible so that accommodations can be made in a timely manner. It is the student’s responsibility to follow this process each semester.
You can access further information at the Student Accessibility Website. Other information is at the university’s Accessibility Portal.
There will also be reading assignments that I will make available online.
August 18: Introduction to the course.
August 20: The Battle of Agincourt, 1415: One of the last important battles in which gunpowder weapons played
no significant role.
>>> Read the chapter on Agincourt in Keegan, The Face of Battle
August 23: Gunpowder weapons change the nature of battle.
August 25, 27: The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and Napoleon
>>> Keegan, The Face of Battle, pp. 117-203
Major
Campaigns of the Revolutionary War
Europe in 1809
Map: Waterloo
August 30: The War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the runup to the Civil War.
>>> Matloff, American Military History,
pp. 178-189 on the Mexican War, and
pp. 197-207 on the runup to the Civil War.
Map: The American Civil War
September 1: The Civil War Begins; QUIZ
>>> Matloff, American
Military History, pp. 207-213, on the Battle of Bull Run and its aftermath.
Map:
The Battle of Bull Run
September 3: The serious fighting begins
>>> Attack and Die, by Grady McWhiney and Perry D.
Jamieson (University of Alabama Press, 1982), Chapter One. I have placed this in Canvas. Click on "Files" and then click on attack1.html.
Map: The Shiloh Campaign
September 6: The battles of 1863.
>>>Matloff, American
Military History, pp. 253-67, on the Battles of Chancellorsville
and Gettysburg, in the Eastern Theater, in 1863.
Map: The
Chancellorsville Campaign, up to April 30, 1863
Map: The
Gettysburg Campaign: Lee Moves North
Map:
Gettysburg, July 1, morning
Map:
Gettysburg, July 1, late afternoon
Map:
Gettysburg, July 2, afternoon
Map: Pickett's Charge,
July 3, 1863
September 8: The Civil War, 1864-65; the Franco-Prussian War
>>>Matloff, American Military History,
pp. 283-304
Map: Sherman
Advances Toward Atlanta, May-July 1864
Map: Sherman's March
Map: Map:
Grant against Lee, initial stages
Map:
Grant against Lee at Petersburg, July-August 1864
September 10: Making War More Lethal, 1871-1914
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 16
September 13: The Beginning of World War I
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 17
Europe 1914
The Western Front: The Plans
The German advance,
August 2-26
Allied Retreat,
August 26-30
Allied Retreat,
August 30-September 5
The Battle
of the Marne
The Front
Extends to the North, and Stabilizes
September 15: World War I, 1914-1916
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 18
September 17: The Battle of the Somme, 1916
September 20: World War I: Air and Naval
Notice whose opinions you are reading. Was the item written by a journalist? If not, mention what sort of person the author was. If it was written by a
journalist, was the journalist presenting his/her own opinions, or summarizing or quoting other people's statements? If a journalist was summarizing or
quoting other people's statements, did the journalist show signs of believing those statements, or doubting them, or did the journalist not show any signs
one way or the other?
I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate mini-essays, each based on a single
article. Try to select articles that will allow you to have some unifying themes in your essay.
Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper
which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have
a list at the end, if I can't tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing
where. Source notes must give page numbers. I don't care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what
I need to know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the author's name if that was given (a lot of articles
are published without the author's name being given),
the title of the article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK.
There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Post, or The Times of London,
but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the
Clemson
Library's Databases Page. Articles from newspapers are also available onine through various other paths, such as Google News.
If you want to use weekly newsmagazines,
the easiest way is to use the ones that have been
bound into volumes, on the shelves on level 1 of the library. Some are also on microfilm.
Please turn in you paper electronically through Canvas as an MS Word document.
September 22: 1917
September 24: The End of World War I
September 27: The Interwar Period and the Beginning of World war II
September 29: Germany's War Spreads more Widely
October 1: TEST
October 4: Air and Naval War; The Pacific Theater
October 6: The Mediterranean Theater; the Eastern Front
October 8: Germany in Retreat
FALL BREAK: No class October 11
October 13: The Battle of Aachen
October 15: The Defeat of Germany
Due date for term paper topic sheets: October 18
October 18: Japan in Retreat
October 20: The Defeat of Japan
October 22: The Nuclear Era
October 25: The Korean War
October 27: The Vietnam War: Background and Early Stages
The countryside of
northern Vietnam
The countryside of
southern Vietnam
The Mekong Delta:
Photos by Robert D. Jester
October 29: The Vietnam War: Large American combat forces
November 1: The Vietnam War: Marine Corps Counterinsurgency
November 3: The Vietnam War: Combat intensifies further, and American will cracks
November 5: Hand in newspaper research exercise. Choose at least four articles, editorials,
or other items, about the fighting in Vietnam, and/or the
political disputes in the United States over the Vietnam War, published during September 1968.
Write an essay of about two pages (typed double spaced), or more, about what you found. What was
there in the articles that you found interesting or surprising?
Evaluate the attitudes
of the authors. Is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. What kind of bias was it (false statements, or use of emotionally
loaded language, or just careful selection of facts so that only
facts favorable to one side get mentioned)? Notice what you are reading:
Notice whose opinions you are reading. Was the item written by a journalist? If not, mention what sort of person the author was. If it was written by a
journalist, was the journalist presenting his/her own opinions, or summarizing or quoting other people's statements? If a journalist was summarizing or
quoting other people's statements, did the journalist show signs of believing those statements, or doubting them, or did the journalist not show any signs
one way or the other?
I want to see one essay based on several articles, not a string of essentially separate
mini-essays, each based on a single article. Try to select articles that will allow
you to have some unifying themes in your essay.
Please give source notes. I want to be able to tell in each section of your paper
which article or articles you are discussing in that section. It is not enough to have
a list at the end, if I can't tell as I read the paper which article you are discussing
where. Source notes must give page numbers.
I don't care about the format of source notes as long as they tell me what I need to
know. Any format that allows me easily to discern the name of the author, the title of the
article, the title of the publication, and the date and page, is OK.
There is no requirement that you use The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Post, or The Times of London,
but those papers have the advantage that you can access them online through the
Clemson
Library's Databases Page. There also used to be a huge variety of news articles available through the "archive" section of Google News, but I can
no longer find this on the Google News search page. It may still be there, somewhere.
Please turn in you paper electronically through Canvas as an MS Word document.
November 8: The end of the Vietnam War; assorted small conflicts
November 10: Wars in the Middle East
November 12: The First US-Iraq War: Triumph achieved largely by air power
November 15: The First US-Iraq War: Ground Combat
November 17: Terrorism and the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
November 19: The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, and seemed at first to have won a quick, easy victory. But soon, heavy
fighting broke out against insurgents.
November 22: The insurgency in Iraq became extremely messy.
THANKSGIVING: No class November 24, 26
November 29: Progress in Iraq; Problems in Afghanistan
December 1: Renewed crisis in Iraq and Syria
December 1: Submit term papers online through Canvas
December 3: Endgame in Afghanistan
Final exam: Friday, December 10, 3:00 p.m.
Other Links
Web site of the Perry-Castaneda
Library Map Collection at the University of Texas
Military
History Atlases (U.S. Military Academy, West Point)
Selected Statistics on the Vietnam War, With a Few from Iraq
http://libproxy.clemson.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/97992709?accountid=6167
French Cavalry on the Western Front, October 1916
Revised October 13, 2021.
>>> Keegan, the chapter on the Battle of the Somme
The Stabilized Front, 1915-1916
The Somme
Newspaper research exercise. Choose at least four articles about World War I published in newspapers or magazines
during March 1917. Write an essay of about two pages or more (typed double spaced) about what you found. How
did the press portray the military action? Say what
there was in the articles that you found interesting or surprising. Evaluate them for
bias: is there anything that leads you to distrust them, or to think that the facts may
be being distorted to fit the author's viewpoint? Do they use loaded language? Notice
the source; did the reporter say that something was true, or only that somebody else had
said it was true? If you say there is bias, please make it clear exactly what was said,
that you consider biased. Don't just use the first four articles you see that fit the assignment. Search around a bit,
and find articles that allow you to say something interesting about their content and/or tone. You would probably be better off not using very short articles;
they are seldom very interesting.
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 19
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 20
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 21
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 22
Map:
Western Europe in June 1940
Map:
The Mediterranean and North Africa
Map:
The Eastern Front, June-August 1941
Map:
The German Advance toward Moscow, August to December 1941
Map:
The Soviet Winter Counteroffensive, December 1941 to May 1942
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 23
Map:
The Pacific Theater
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 24
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 775-796
Map:
The Plan for Overlord (the Normandy Invasion)
Map:
The Normandy Invasion, June 6-12, 1944
Map:
Expansion of the Normandy Beachhead up to July 24
Map:
After the Breakout: August 1-13
Map:
The Drive across France, August 26 to September 14
>>> McManus, chapter 3
Map:
21st Army Group Operations September 15 to December 15
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 797-808
>>> McManus, chapter 4
Map:
Battle of the Bulge, December 16-25
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 809-823
>>> McManus, chapter 1
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 824-42
>>> McManus, chapter 2
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 27
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 28
Map: The
Korean War
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 901-921
>>> McManus, Chapter 5
>>> McManus, Chapter 6
>>> McManus, Chapter 7
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 922-928
rockets.
--A news article is not supposed to have too much of the reporter's own opinions in it, but
there is nothing inherently wrong with the reporter quoting the opinions of other people. If a reporter is
quoting some very opinionated person, try to judge whether the reporter agrees with the person's opinions.
--An editorial is supposed to present the opinions of the newspaper; there is
nothing inherently wrong about it being opinionated. But you can still complain about bias if the
editorial is illogical or deceptive in the way it pushes that opinion.
--The same applies to an opinion piece written by someone who does not represent the newspaper.
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 929-933, 965-979, 994-1003.
Map of South America
Map of Central America and the Caribbean
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, chapter 30
>>> Moise, "Limited War"
Map of Israel
Map:
The Eastern Mediterranean Area
Map:
The Iran-Iraq War
Map: Asia
>>> Doughty, Warfare in the Western World, pp. 980-994
>>> McManus, Chapter 8
>>> James Dao and Thom Shanker,
"Special Forces, On the Ground, Aid the Rebels",
The New York Times, October 31, 2001. I
>>> Jon Lee Anderson,
"The Surrender: Double agents, defectors, disaffected Taliban,
and a motley army battle for Kunduz." The New Yorker, December 10, 2001.
>>> Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker,
"Afghans' Retreat
Forced Americans to Lead a Battle",
The New York Times, March 10, 2002.
>>> McManus, Chapter 9
>>> McManus, Chapter 10
>>> Dexter Filkins,
"Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm.", The
New York Times, September 21, 2008.
>>> Lt. Col. Thomas Brouns,
"Exploiting
Insurgent Violence in Afghanistan" Military Review, LXXXIX:4 (July-August 2009), pp. 10-20.
>>> Alissa J. Rubin,
"U.S. Forces Close Post in Afghan
'Valley of Death'" New York Times, April 15, 2010.
Some useful information can be found in the Afghanistan
Index but you are not required to look at this.
