Hey guys,
My concentration as a History major has been ‘war and revolution.’ As I said in class, one of the most interesting research experiences I had was researching USAF Captain’s actions in Vietnam during the 1950s, and getting a firsthand look at the realities on the ground during that time through his diary.
I think for my paper I want to again look at war through one individual’s eyes, and use his or her experience to interpret and contextualize what the big picture was at the time. Additionally, I have been thinking about our theme this quarter, “identities.” I think it would be interesting to approach my research from this angle, and not only explore what this individual saw, but how they viewed themselves at the time.
Along those lines, I’ve come up with three (very tentative) possible topics.
1) Focus on a minority individual’s experience serving in World War II. Look into things like their internal conflicts, i.e. their love for their country versus the realities of racism at the time, both at home and in the armed forces. Broader themes include the experience of that individual’s family. I was thinking of focusing on the experience of a Hispanic or Native American soldier.
2) Doing the same thing but with a more modern American conflict, such as the Gulf War. Another way I could go is to look not only at their battle experiences, but their experiences in training as well.
3) My final idea is a lot different. I’ve always been interested in the life of Robert S. McNamara, and have wanted do some more research on him because he was such a controversial figure. Specifically I would focus on his experience as Secretary of Defense, while possibly relating it to his earlier formative years as analyst during World War II and his post-war business career.
- Brendan
Hi Brendan,
ReplyDeleteI don't know very much about any of these topics, but they all look like they have a lot of different ways they could go. Researching one particular soldier's life could be a great way to draw some conclusions about the experiences of minority soldiers in general, though it might be a challenge to avoid generalizations - I would love to see where this went. I also think some sort of comparison of minorities in the armed forces in WWII and more recently would be interesting. Can't wait to see which topic you choose and where it takes you!
Hey Brendan,
ReplyDeleteI think your first topic is very compelling, and obviously something you've enjoyed in the past. While a more recent war would also be interesting, one of the reasons I'd find WWII to be appealing was that racial identities would have been pronounced by the structure of the military at the time, and there might be a wealth of material on soldiers experiencing racially different surroundings for the first time in their lives. Tomorrow I'd also enjoy hearing more about what your thoughts on the broader topic of the individual's family would be—would it concern their experience of having a family member at war, or would it too be tied up with minority or racial divisions and experience—and how would it be? That would be interesting to learn.
Hi, Brendan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jenni that a great way to focus your first two topics would be to focus on one particular soldier's (or one particular minority company's) experiences. The only quesion/reservation I would have is how will you quantify/qualify a soldier's "love for his country?" It seems like you might need to focus on something more concrete.
Brendan--
ReplyDeleteTopic one and two are both very cool ideas but if you combined them I think you could get into something really interesting. Perhaps looking at the role of minority soldiers during WWII and how their role may have changed in the interim years up until the Gulf War or even the Iraq War. I don't know what there is out there as far as sources goes and it might be even tougher to find sources for the modern stuff instead of the WWII stuff but I'm just speculating. Choosing to analyze Robert S. McNamara would be really cool as well. I don't know enough about him to really offer suggestions on where to go with that idea, but if it would be a topic that you could get really in to, it's a good way to go.
Wow these sound like interesting topics. With regards to the first, I remember hearing something about American high ups tried to spread institutionalized racism to military bases and allied bases during WWI.
ReplyDeleteHi Brendan,
ReplyDeleteI really like all of these ideas, but am really really compelled by your idea of looking at race relations within the US military during the Gulf War and Iraq War.
In class you said you were worried you might not have all that many primary sources to work with here because it's all so recent, but you might be surprised. I don't know really anything about military archives, but I feel like these are important topics and SOMEONE must be writing on them officially, (maybe??). It might be interesting to look into seeing if you can find anything, and if not, examining why there isn't more written about this (either by soldiers or by reporters or laymen). The other thing is, it seems like there could be potential here to conduct interviews with veterans, which might be one way to create some primary sources for yourself!
Not sure about the undergrad population, but I know some of the grad schools have clubs for veterans/veterans' affairs (like the GSB Off Duty Club). Their president/members might be able to help you with research/finding veterans to interview.
--Sylvie