San Antonio College Library

Gives an overview of Military History from classical times to the present day, including the social, political, technological, and economic background of major conflicts.

"The influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people in one year than the Great War killed in four, sickening at least one quarter of the world's population. In Fever of War, Carol R. Byerly uncovers the startling impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic on the American army, its medical officers, and their profession, a story which has long been silenced. Through medical officers' memoirs and diaries, official reports, scientific articles, and other original...

Shooting Up: A Short History of Drugs and War examines how intoxicants have been put to the service of states, empires and their armies throughout history. Since the beginning of organized combat, armed forces have prescribed drugs to their members for two general purposes: to enhance performance during combat and to counter the trauma of killing and witnessing violence after it is over. Stimulants (e.g. alcohol, cocaine, and amphetamines) have been...

This work is an analysis of the links between the Vietnam War and the evolution of American drug policy. The image of the drug addicted American soldier, disheveled, glassy eyed, his uniform adorned with slogans of antiwar dissent, has long been associated with the Vietnam War. More specifically, it has persisted as an explanation for the U.S. defeat, the symbol of a demoralized army incapable of carrying out its military mission. Yet as the author...

"Caroline Cox examines the great gap that existed in the conditions of service of soldiers and officers in the Continental Army. She looks particularly at disparities between soldiers' and officers' living conditions, punishments medical care, burial, and treatment as prisoners of war. Using pension records, memoirs, and contemporary correspondence, Cox illuminates not only the persistence of hierarchy in Revolutionary America but also the ways in...