A select group of high school educators walked back in time on campus July 18-24 to take a critical look at several overlooked American wars.
Miami University history professor Andrew Cayton and University of Colorado history professor Fred Anderson taught a seminar sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, which sponsors almost twenty similar summer sessions every year. They focused on the French and Indian War (1754) through the Civil War, aiming to highlight "the importance of warfare, trying to get teachers to talk about wars we ignore" in American history.
Gilder Lehrman selected the pair of professors to teach this session because of a book they co-authored, called "The Dominion of War," a study of North American war from the year 1500 to 2000.
According to Anderson, "empire fits uncomfortably" in America's "cultural assumption about ourselves." So the War of 1812, where the U.S. was set to take over Canada, is largely overlooked, stuck "in the footnotes" of textbooks.
Cayton said these imperial wars "aren't necessary the prettiest. They're not what make us feel good. They make you rethink how we dealt with the world in the 19th century." He asked rhetorically, "What would happen if we paid attention to the War of 1812? Or about the conquest of Indians in Ohio? How does that change the way we see American history?"
These are the questions that Cayton and Anderson sought to answer, and the 23 attendees shared that passion as well. Kendra Hakola, a graduate student of history at Miami, said, "There needs to be a reevaluation of history, looking at expansion culturally."
Cayton said the session was attended by 23 teachers from all across the country.
"They're a really smart, lively group of teachers," he said. (I just decided to cut what I had here. I was afraid that it wouldn't fit and I had put it several places before sticking it there so I just decided to chop it off.)
Cayton and Anderson met at Harvard in the 1980's, where Anderson was a graduate student and Cayton was helping to teach a few history sections. Anderson said their offices were across the hall from each other and they talked often. They had similar interests and were both deeply interested in imperialism and warfare. They also had academic wives who became good friends as well.
"We're old friends and we never run out of interesting things to talk about," Anderson said.
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