War & American Society

Photo of a metal relief sculpture of Civil War-era soldiers marching with rifles and gear.

Photographic detail of monument to black Civil War soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts regiment. (Image courtesy of Daniel Bersak.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21H.223

As Taught In

Fall 2002

Level

Undergraduate

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Course Description

Course Highlights

This course features archived syllabi from various semesters.

Course Description

Writing in the wake of the Civil War, poet Walt Whitman insisted that "the real war will never get in the books." Throughout American history, the experience of war has fundamentally shaped the ways that Americans think about themselves, their fellow Americans, and the meanings of national citizenship. War has also posed challenges of representation, both for those who fought as well as those who did not. This subject examines how Americans have told the stories of modern war in history, literature, and popular culture, and interprets them in terms of changing ideas about American national identity.

Related Content

Christopher Capozzola. 21H.223 War & American Society. Fall 2002. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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