632 Select Military Innovation in the Inter-war Years, 1918-1939
Class | Registration opens 2/3/2025 11:00 AM
With the legacy of the Great War (1914-1918) being one of either extremely bloody success or of extremely bloody failure, the conflict propelled the militaries of the world's dominant powers to find a way to quick victory should war come again. The approach each nation took depended on its sense of strategic problem. Germany, France and the Soviet Union, for example, saw their primary problem as being that of land warfare. Seeking to avoid another chapter of trench warfare, the Germans developed a dynamic, de-centralized, maneuver-centered, tactical doctrine labeled by an observer as "Blitzkrieg" (lightening war). Japan and the United States accepted that a war between them in the Central Pacific was within the realm of possibility. While each entered the war believing the battleship to be the dominant vessel on the high seas, both had given considerable thought as well as dedicated money to the building of their naval aviation capability. It was in this area that the war in the Pacific was decided.
Through lectures, discussions and films. Students will explore developments in land, sea, air and psychological warfare. Classes may run from 90 minutes to two hours.
REQUIRED TEXT: Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. eds. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (paperback)
Joseph Fischer
JOSEPH R. FISCHER graduated from Shikellamy High School, Class of 1971. He served 28 years in the U.S. Army, first as an Infantry officer before volunteering and being accepted into Special Forces. He retired in 2005 after completing a tour of duty in Iraq. His academic credentials include a doctoral degree in history from Pennsylvania State University (1993). His teaching experience includes seven years of teaching in the public schools (Shikellamy and Lewisburg), three years as an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., and eleven years as a teacher of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He retired at the academic rank of full professor in 2015 and returned home to the Susquehanna Valley.