Sowing the Seeds of Transformation: The United States Military Between the Civil War and World War One

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jr. Setter ◽  
John G.
Author(s):  
Aaron Shaheen

The chapter first shows how the spiritualized version of prosthetics originated in the Civil War, which rendered approximately 60,000 veterans limbless. Prominent physicians such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and S. Weir Mitchell postulated that artificial limbs gave both physical and emotional solace to shattered soldiers, especially among those who suffered phantom limb syndrome. The devices’ “spiritual” potential proved limited, if not illusory; in fact, they were often so fragile, cumbersome, and painful that amputees simply preferred to go without them. Upon entering World War I, the United States created a rehabilitation and vocational program that aided injured veterans to reenter the workforce. Reflecting the way in which “personality” had come to replace a more traditional notion of spirit, orthopedists such as Joel Goldthwait and David Silver, both employed at Walter Reed Hospital, designed artificial limbs for both physical and psychological compatibility.


2019 ◽  
pp. 80-110
Author(s):  
Charlie Laderman

This chapter examines the attempt by American missionaries to help remold the Ottoman state into a constitutional political system in the aftermath of the 1909 Young Turk Revolution. It explains why Americans, who had long regarded their missionaries as humanitarian aid agents helping to support and uplift the Armenians through their mission stations, now looked to them to extend their “civilizing mission” across the Empire. It explores the growth of the Protestant missionary lobby in the United States and the ways in which it developed support for an attempt to build a civil society in the Ottoman Empire that would ensure security for the Armenians within a reformed Ottoman polity. It explains why missionaries and their supporters viewed this as part of a larger mission to spread Christian ideals and representative government around the world alongside British evangelists. Missionary dreams of a new Ottoman nation collapsed when, amidst World War One, the Ottoman Armenians faced wholesale destruction. This chapter concludes by exploring how Woodrow Wilson’s administration and the missionaries responded to this “Crime Against Humanity,” and why their determination to maintain American neutrality so infuriated Theodore Roosevelt. It examines how the missionary lobby pioneered an unprecedented relief operation, and worked in partnership with the leading British champion of the Armenians, James Bryce, to publicize the atrocities and plan for Armenia’s ultimate liberation from Ottoman rule.


Inner Asia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-377
Author(s):  
James Boyd

AbstractIn works dealing with modern Mongolia, the 'Mad' or 'Bloody' Baron UngernSternberg is always mentioned and, more often than not, the picture that is painted of him is a man driven by demons, someone who committed unspeakable atrocities against almost all he encountered. This article does not dispute that Ungern-Sternberg committed atrocities during the Russian civil War, but draws on contemporary english-language sources that suggest that the portrayal of the baron as a 'monster' is open to doubt.


Author(s):  
James Schwoch

Opening with the impact of the Civil War on telegraphic communications in Washington, this chapter discusses the lack of telegraph security at the onset of the war. Various decisions by Edwin Stanton, Western Union, and telegraph corporations led to the creation of the United States Military Telegraph (USMT) Company, which effectively privatized Union Army telegraph communications and blunted Albert Myer and the Signal Corps. The latter half of the chapter details the increasing conflicts between indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and various militias and Union Army troops, including the Sand Creek Massacre, the Julesburg battles, and the retaliatory actions against the Transcontinental Telegraph and telegraph branch lines by Great Plains warriors in 1865 and 1866.


1942 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Lawrence Preuss

In a previous issue of this JOURNAL the writer has discussed the position of the British courts with respect to the cases which arose out of the requisition of merchant ships during the Spanish Civil War. It was there suggested that the decisions in these cases might throw some light upon the legal situation which would possibly be created as a result of the conflicting claims of rival governments, and of dispossessed owners, to ships which were without the national territory at the time their states of registry were occupied by Axis forces. The courts of the United States were not confronted with such a wide range of problems growing out of the Spanish conflict as were those of Great Britain. This was, perhaps, due in large part to the fact that the United States accorded no recognition to the régime of General Franco prior to recognizing it as the de jure government of all Spain. Questions relative to the status of an insurgent authority recognized as a local de facto government did not, therefore, arise. In one important case, however, legal problems relating to the immunity of foreign public vessels and to the validity of extraterritorial decrees of requisition were fully examined. As Professor Hyde has remarked, the case of The Navemar may not have produced a cause célèbre, but the series of adjudications which it inspired have resulted in the most significant contributions to the law concerning the status of foreign public vessels which have been made by the American courts since the period immediately following the close of the World War.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Burwood

Socialism in the United States between 1901 and 1919 has usually been viewed in a national context replete with assumptions about American Exceptionalism. Taking their cue from Werner Sombart's classic 1906 essay “Why Is there No Socialism in the United States?,” historians of American socialism from Daniel Bell and David Shannon to Seymour Martin Lipset have pointed to distinctly American conditions inimical to the growth of Socialism. For Ira Kipnis and Philip Foner, the problem was that American socialism before World War One was too rooted in American political traditions, not pure or Marxist enough. For Daniel Bell, it was a “foreign virus,” and was unable to be domesticated. And in the work of Paul Buhle, the “foreign” nature of American socialism in its ethnic and immigrant members has found its rescuer. The distinction between the “American” and “foreign” character of American socialism dominated debate for far too long.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
W. Howard McAlister ◽  
Jeffrey L. Weaver ◽  
Jerry D. Davis ◽  
Jeffrey A. Newsom

Optometry has made significant contributions to the United States military for over a century. Assuring good vision and eye health of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines is critical to maximizing the military functions necessary to achieve victory. There was little organization or recognition of the profession in World War I, but optometrists were essential in achieving the mission. Recognition of the profession of optometry was still limited in World War II but it was improving, especially with commissioning as officers occurring in the Navy. Through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, optometry grew in stature and strength with all services eventually commissioning all optometrists, and Army optometrists were assigned to combat divisions. Continuing through the more recent conflicts in the middle east, the profession has continued to make an impact and has become an essential part of the armed forces of the United States. Doctors of optometry are now an integral part of the Department of Defense. The nation cannot field an effective fighting force today without the dedicated performance of these officers.


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