Teaching War and Media
Below are some sample syllabi, course exercises and other materials of interest to our
members. If you have something suitable for sharing, please forward it to Stacy Takacs.
Sites of Interest on the Web
“A Veteran’s Perspective on Literature and the English Major” — a very helpful blog post about war, literature, and especially soldier-authored literature, by Travis Klempan, a creative writer and former Naval enlistee.
American Peace Society archives, a collection of historical pamphlets about teaching peace/ending war.
Institute for Humane Education’s “Teaching about War and Peace” Pinterest site — contains a variety of materials with an emphasis on peace curricula.
PBS Learning site about “Women, War and Peace” — geared to K-12, but there may be some useful materials, including clips from the PBS documentary.
Buffalo State U’s Vietnam Veteran’s Oral History and Folklore Project — see Lydia Fish’s amazing work on Vietnam folks songs.
Tom Pilsch’s History of War Resources page — Unbelievable collection of links to resources!
US Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry — the whole thing from the Office of War Information (WWII) in PDF!
US Library of Congress Experiencing War Site — this link is to a reference page for themed collections on various wars. See additional links from LOC below.
West Point History Dept. Atlas of West Point — great collection of documents, maps, charts, etc. on conflicts from ancient warfare through Iraq.
Witness to War — Video Histories of Combat Vets
Syllabi about War, Militarism, and Media
War in Film and Media – Spring 2017, Dr. Tanine Allison, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory U. Tanine is the author of the Destructive Sublime: World War II in Film and Media (Rutgers UP, coming soon). The course is an upper division course focusing on war in film and media (notably TV and video games) from WWI through the War on Terrorism.
War in American Culture – Spring 2016, Dr. John Kinder, Associate Professor of History and American Studies, Oklahoma State U. John is the author of Paying With Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran (U of Chicago Press, 2015). The course is an overview of war and conflict in American popular culture.
Introduction to Fim Studies: Social Traumas — Spring 2014, Dr. Anna Froula, Associate Professor of English, East Carolina U. Anna is the outgoing assistant editor of Cinema Journal, as well as co-editor the following volumes: Reframing 9/11: Film, Popular Culture and the “War on Terror” (Bloomsbury, 2010), It’s a Mad World: The Cinema of Terry Gilliam (Columbia UP/Wallflower, 2013), and American Militarism on the Small Screen (Routledge, 2016). Both readings and exercises here may be adaptable for War and Media courses.
War and Society in US Culture — Fall 2016, Dr. David Kieran, Assistant Professor of History and American Studies, Washington & Jefferson U. Dave is a member of the War and Peace Studies Caucus of the American Studies Association and author of Forever Vietnam: How a Divisive War Changed American Public Memory (U of Massachusetts Press, 2014), editor of The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror (Rutgers University Press, 2015) and co-editor of At War: Militarism and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Rutgers University Press, 2017).
Course Activities or Assignments
Intertextuality Project, by Anna Froula. The assignment sheet uses representations of war as the model for the project, which is adaptable to other topics.
Links to Museums and Archives
This list is very US centric. If you’ve got other suggestions please send to Stacy Takacs.
Canadian War Museum — Includes portal for interactive game “Over the Top” about life in the trenches of WWI.
International Spy Museum (USA)
Newseum (DC) — includes exhibits on news coverage of war and conflict
Texas Tech U Vietnam Center and Archive, I’ve researched here, and much is available online. Staff are awesome! Oral histories are very rich.
US Library of Congress — List of Collections (emphasis below is mid-19th c. – present)
After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I
American National Red Cross Collection
Ansel Adams’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
Brady-Handy Collection, including Matthew Brady’s Civil War photos
Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints
Crisis in Darfur 2006 Web Archive
David Seymour (CHIM) Photograph Collection
Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information Photos
Fenton Crimean War Photographs
George S. Patton Papers: Diaries, 1910-1945
Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers, 1942-1946
Military Battles and Campaigns (Map Collection that covers a broad time span. Maps here from WWII, Korea and Vietnam as well as older conflicts)
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs
Look Magazine Collection, including Vietnam-era photos
Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914-1919
Posters: Spanish Civil War Posters
September 11, 2001 Web Archive
September 11, 2001, Documentary Project
The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers’ Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919
Vietnam-Era Prisoner-of-War/Missing-in-Action Database
World War II Military Situation Maps
World War II Sketches by Victor A. Lundy
US Library of Congress, Veterans History Archive — Great oral history collections here.
US National Archives, Military Resources Guide
US National Vietnam War Museum