Topics can be of a diplomatic, biographical, religious, economic, or other nature, not necessarily strictly military.
Use the Discovery Catalog to identify and save selected books and articles to use in your research papers. Watch this short video to learn how: Introduction to Discovery: Cite, Link, Email, Save.
Watch this short video for instructions on using the Discovery catalog to find resources: Introduction to Discovery: Simple Search. Please NOTE: Because the Discovery catalog underwent a major upgrade after this video was created, the images are different. However, the functionality is the same.
Last updated March 2022.
Search queries for each war: (simply copy and paste into the Discovery search box) 
su:world war 1914-1918
su:world war 1939-1945
su:korean war 1950-1953
su:vietnam war 1961-1975
Search queries for each war in relation to a specific country or people group: add the name of the country or people group. Like this:
su:world war 1914-1918 united states
su:world war 1914-1918 mexicans
su:world war 1939-1945 great britain
su:world war 1939-1945 romani
su:korean war 1950-1953 france
su:korean war 1950-1953 irish
su:vietnam war 1961-1975 australia
su:vietnam war 1961-1975 filipino
Here are some suggested search terms to use in conjunction with each war. Search each war as a phrase (put quotations marks around it) and add these terms: impact, consequences, social conditions, social impact. Like this:
"world war I" impact
"world war II" consequences
"korean war" "social conditions"
"vietnam war" "social impact"
Search your focused topic as a keyword in conjunction with a subject search. Like this:
su:"world war i" AND propaganda
su:"world war i" AND technology
su:"world war ii" AND women
su:world war ii AND internment
su:"korean war" AND medicine
su:"korean war" AND music
su:"vietnam war" AND movies
su:"vietnam war" AND moral* [the asterisk (*) is a truncation command instructing the search engine to look for records with the root word and every variation thereafter, as in "moral", "morals", "morality", "moralistic", etc.]
Last updated March 2022.
Here are some resources you can use to help you decide on a more focused topic related to WW I, WW II, Korean War, Vietnam War.
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by
The untold story of how the First World War shaped the lives, faith, and writings of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis The First World War laid waste to a continent and permanently altered the political and religious landscape of the West. For a generation of men and women, it brought the end of innocence--and the end of faith. Yet for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the Great War deepened their spiritual quest. Both men served as soldiers on the Western Front, survived the trenches, and used the experience of that conflict to ignite their Christian imagination. Had there been no Great War, there would have been noHobbit, no Lord of the Rings, no Narnia, and perhaps no conversion to Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Unlike a generation of young writers who lost faith in the God of the Bible, Tolkien and Lewis produced epic stories infused with the themes of guilt and grace, sorrow and consolation. Giving an unabashedly Christian vision of hope in a world tortured by doubt and disillusionment, the two writers created works that changed the course of literature and shaped the faith of millions. This is the first book to explore their work in light of the spiritual crisis sparked by the conflict.
The First World War by
In a compact but comprehensive and clear narrative, this book explores the First World War from a genuinely global perspective. Putting a human face on the war, William Kelleher Storey takes into account individual decisions and experiences as well as environmental and technological factors, such as food, geography, manpower, and weapons. With reorganized chapters designed to enhance classroom use, this edition brings the text up to date with current scholarship and new maps for the Great War's centennial. The author argues that the Great War profoundly changed the ways in which people imagined the landscape around them and thought about technology and the environment. Before the war, Europe and its colonies generally regarded industrial technology as an instrument of modernity; the landscape existed to be conquered, divided, and ruled. During and after the war, the costs of conquest became much higher, raising significant doubts about the value of progress. Soldiers experienced profound personal degradation, physical injuries, and mental collapse in the midst of nightmarish, technologically induced environmental conditions, which they vividly remembered when they formed new identities in the postwar world. Although people did not abandon thoughts of technological advance, after the war they had a keener sense of modernity's costs. Without neglecting traditional themes, Storey's deft interweaving of the role of environment and technology enriches our understanding of the social, political, and military history of the war, not only in Europe, but worldwide.
World War I by
From the highly acclaimed ""Eyewitness History"" series, ""World War I"" examines one of the most pivotal points in 20th-century history, exploring the social, cultural, military, and political impacts of this war on American society, as well as the role the United States played in the conflict. Unlike other references on the subject, this new volume discusses World War I's place in American history as the catalyst for World War II and the cold war, as well as explores its influences in today's world. Highlighting its historical connections to such timely topics as terrorism, the impact of technology on warfare, the rise of rogue states, the use of weapons of mass destruction, and the importance of the non-Western, especially Middle Eastern, countries, ""World War I"" brings this crucial time period to life through the eyes of those who lived through it. ""World War I"" provides hundreds of firsthand accounts - from diary entries, letters, speeches, and newspaper accounts - that focus on different warfare issues and on the social and cultural impacts of the war on Europe and the United States. As well as these primary source quotations, each illustrated chapter provides an introductory essay and a chronology of events. This volume also includes critical documents related to this topic, as well as capsule biographies of key figures, narrative sections, eyewitness testimonies, 102 black-and-white photographs, maps and graphs, a bibliography, notes, a glossary, chronologies, appendixes, and an index.
The World Remade by
An indispensable, sharply drawn account of America's pivotal-and still controversial-intervention in World War I, enlivened by fresh insights into the key issues, events, and personalities of the period, from the New York Times bestselling author of A World Undone
World War II, 1936-1947 by
Defining Documents in American History:World War II, 1936-1947 Provides readers with a new, interesting way to study the impact of World War II on American history. Through in-depth analysis of important primary documents from 1936 to 1947, readers will gain new insight into the causes, issues and lasting effects of this pivotal time in American history. This title offers a broad range of historical documents on important authors and subjects in World War II research. Written by historians and experts in the field, this resource examines a wide array of primary source documents with an in-depth critical analysis. Articles begin by introducing readers to its historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document was written. Defining Documents in American History: World War II is centered on the following themes: US in World Politics & the Causes of WWII American Participation in World War II Daily Life of a Soldier & Military Conditions Daily Life of a Soldier & Military Conditions Military Preparation and much more! A historical timeline and bibliography of important supplemental readings will support readers in understanding the broader historical events and subjects in the period. An introduction for each of the major subjects covered in the title considers the significance of document analysis for students and educators.
The Last European War, September 1939-December 1941 by
I. The main events -- Introduction: Germany and Europe -- Hitler's year -- The coming of the war in 1939 -- Reluctant war -- Germany triumphant -- Germany governant -- Germany conquerant -- Germany rampant -- Germany halted -- A second world war -- II. The main movements -- The lives of the peoples -- The march of the armies -- The movements of politics -- The relations of states -- The sentiments of nations -- The convergences of thought and belief.
Korean War Almanac by
Aimed at the general reader, this reference work provides an overview of the Korean War's major phases, plus background information on the history of Korea. It gives a chronology of events and numerous articles on the people, battles, weapons and key concepts.
The Korean War by
This first truly international history of the Korean War argues that by its timing, its course, and its outcome it functioned as a substitute for World War III. Stueck draws on recently available materials from seven countries, plus the archives of the United Nations, presenting a detailed narrative of the diplomacy of the conflict and a broad assessment of its critical role in the Cold War. He emphasizes the contribution of the United Nations, which at several key points in the conflict provided an important institutional framework within which less powerful nations were able to restrain the aggressive tendencies of the United States. In Stueck's view, contributors to the U.N. cause in Korea provided support not out of any abstract commitment to a universal system of collective security but because they saw an opportunity to influence U.S. policy. Chinese intervention in Korea in the fall of 1950 brought with it the threat of world war, but at that time and in other instances prior to the armistice in July 1953, America's NATO allies and Third World neutrals succeeded in curbing American adventurism. While conceding the tragic and brutal nature of the war, Stueck suggests that it helped to prevent the occurrence of an even more destructive conflict in Europe.
The Vietnam War by
Readings and discussion questions present conflicting points of view concerning American involvement in Vietnam.
Vietnam at War by
The Vietnam War tends to conjure up images of American soldiers battling an elusive enemy in thick jungle, the thudding of helicopters overhead.But there were in fact several Vietnam wars - an anticolonial war with France, a cold war turned hot with the United States, a civil war between North and South Vietnam and among the southern Vietnamese, a revolutionary war of ideas over what should guide Vietnamese society into its postcolonial future, and finally a war of memories after the official end of hostilities with the fall of Saigon in 1975. This book looks at how the Vietnamese themselves experienced all of these conflicts, showinghow the wars for Vietnam were rooted in fundamentally conflicting visions of what an independent Vietnam should mean that in many ways remain unresolved to this day.Drawing upon twenty years of research, Mark Philip Bradley examines the thinking and the behaviour of the key wartime decisionmakers in Hanoi and Saigon, while at the same time exploring how ordinary Vietnamese people, northerners and southerners, soldiers and civilians, urban elites and rural peasants, radicals and conservatives, came to understand the thirty years of bloody warfare that unfolded around them--and how they made sense of its aftermath.
The Columbia History of the Vietnam War by
Rooted in recent scholarship, The Columbia History of the Vietnam War offers profound new perspectives on the political, historical, military, and social issues that defined the war and its effect on the United States and Vietnam. Laying the chronological and critical foundations for the volume, David L. Anderson opens with an essay on the Vietnam War's major moments and enduring relevance. Mark Philip Bradley follows with a reexamination of Vietnamese revolutionary nationalism and the Vietminh-led war against French colonialism. Richard H. Immerman revisits Eisenhower's and Kennedy's efforts at nation building in South Vietnam, and Gary R. Hess reviews America's military commitment under Kennedy and Johnson. Lloyd C. Gardner investigates the motivations behind Johnson's escalation of force, and Robert J. McMahon focuses on the pivotal period before and after the Tet Offensive. Jeffrey P. Kimball then makes sense of Nixon's paradoxical decision to end U.S. intervention while pursuing a destructive air war. John Prados and Eric Bergerud devote essays to America's military strategy, while Helen E. Anderson and Robert K. Brigham explore the war's impact on Vietnamese women and urban culture. Melvin Small recounts the domestic tensions created by America's involvement in Vietnam, and Kenton Clymer traces the spread of the war to Laos and Cambodia. Concluding essays by Robert D. Schulzinger and George C. Herring account for the legacy of the war within Vietnamese and American contexts and diagnose the symptoms of the "Vietnam syndrome" evident in later debates about U.S. foreign policy. America's experience in Vietnam continues to figure prominently in discussions about strategy and defense, not to mention within discourse on the identity of the United States as a nation. Anderson's expert collection is therefore essential to understanding America's entanglement in the Vietnam War and the conflict's influence on the nation's future interests abroad.
Last updated March 2022.
