A nation must think before it acts.
Announcing the Publication of American Military History: A Resource for Teachers and Students
A Free E-Book Co-Published by
Foreign Policy Research Institute
And
First Division Museum at Cantigny
Edited by Paul Herbert and Michael P. Noonan
With an Introduction by Walter A. McDougall
The Foreign Policy Research Institute, in collaboration with the First Division Museum at Cantigny, is proud to announce the release of a new E-Book, American Military History: A Resource for Teachers and Students. This volume – co-edited by Dr. Michael Noonan, Director of the FPRI Program on National Security, and Dr. Paul Herbert, Executive Director of the First Division Museum – is a selection of materials presented at seven history weekends for high school teachers on American military history, comprising 29 essays that cover everything from early America to the most recent conflicts. Jointly sponsored by FPRI and the Museum, all the weekend-long programs have been held at the Museum since they began in 2006. The premise of the work is that all Americans are responsible for the common defense, and all Americans should know something about it.
Although primarily designed as a resource for teachers and students at the high school level, the essays have been written by the nation’s foremost scholars on the subject and are meant to inform the non-specialist. The e-book will enrich understanding of how the U.S. military has helped to shape American history—not only on the battlefield but also socially, politically, economically, and technologically.
The Teaching Military History Program grew out of FPRI’s History Institute for Teachers (now called the Madeleine and W.W. Keen Butcher History Institute), which, since 1996, has been providing high school teachers with professional development on issues in US and world history and international relations. Chaired by David Eisenhower and the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Walter McDougall, the Butcher History Institute has garnered a national reputation for excellence, working with 941 teachers from 681 schools in 46 states! Following, each weekend, many more teachers access the video files and texts from the conferences from FPRI’s website. The Military History Program is a project of FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West.
About the Foreign Policy Research Institute
The Foreign Policy Research Institute was founded in Philadelphia in 1955 on the premise that “a nation should think before it acts,” as founder Robert Strausz-Hupe put it. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, FPRI is devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests. We add perspective to events by fitting them into the larger historical, cultural, geographical context of international politics.
About the First Division Museum at Cantigny
The First Division Museum at Cantigny Park, part of the nonprofit Chicago-based Robert R. McCormick Foundations, promotes public learning about America’s military heritage and affairs through the history of the “Big Red One”—the famed 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. It stands in tribute to all who have served our country in the armed forces. The museum’s main exhibit hall transports visitors to the trenches of World War I, the beaches of World War II and the jungles of Vietnam. Outside, tanks are displayed from every era, along with personnel carriers and artillery. The Robert R. McCormick Research Center, open to the public, houses the museum’s library, archival and photo collections. Visit the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park online at FirstDivisionMuseum.org.