The Swamp and River Expeditions, January 1-April 30, 1863
The dawn of 1863 brought a new phase of the Union's Mississippi Valley operations against Vicksburg. For the first four months, Union attempts to reach high and dry ground east of the Mississippi River were be plagued by high water everywhere, and the resulting bayou and river expeditions would test everyone involved, including the defending ......
The Accidental LGBTQ Precedent of Price Waterhouse V. Hopkins
On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, in a 6-to-3 decision with a majority opinion authored by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The decision was a surprise to many, if not ......
The Modern Presidency and the Politics of Warfare and Welfare
An illuminating study of how foreign and domestic policies have reinforced each other in post-New Deal presidencies. Studies of presidential leadership tend to separate foreign and domestic policymaking as discrete avenues of inquiry, both empirically and analytically. This "two presidencies" syndrome has especially afflicted the study of the ......
Intervention, Nation-Building, and Insurgency in Somalia, 1992-1995
The first historical look at what happened during the Somalia intervention; what went wrong and what lessons we should learn from it.The story of Black Hawk Down is a familiar one. On 3 October 1993 two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, and in the ensuing Battle of Mogadishu eighteen Americans and hundreds of Somalis were killed. But very few ......
The Case for Civically Engaged Political Scientists
While academics often treat their subject matter with a posture of detached objectivity, some have moved beyond the ivory tower of academia toward a more personal and active engagement with their area of research. The field of political science lends itself particularly well to this kind of activity given the relevance, impact, and importance of ......
The Case for Civically Engaged Political Scientists
While academics often treat their subject matter with a posture of detached objectivity, some have moved beyond the ivory tower of academia toward a more personal and active engagement with their area of research. The field of political science lends itself particularly well to this kind of activity given the relevance, impact, and importance of ......
Of the original Gilded Age, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote: "There is no other period in the nation's history when politics seems so completely dwarfed by economic changes, none in which the life of the country rests so completely in the hands of the industrial entrepreneur." The era of William Jefferson Clinton's ascent to the presidency was ......
Winner: Paul Birdsall Prize Winner: Society for Military History book Award When Germany launched its blitzkrieg invasion of France in 1940, it forever changed the way the world waged war. Although the Wehrmacht ultimately succumbed to superior Allied firepower in a two-front war, its stunning operational achievement left a lasting impression on ......
US Army Physical Culture and Systematic Training, 1885-1957
Physical training in the US Army has a surprisingly short history. Bodies for Battle by Garrett Gatzemeyer is the first in-depth analysis of the US Army's particular set of practices and values, known as its physical culture, that emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to tactical challenges and widespread anxieties over diminishing ......
