Abstract
The American Civil War was of course the most devastating event in the American History. Thousands of people died during the war .Almost every American lost some one in the w3war be it: a relative or friend while thousands were injured. On the other hand, the Great War cost much havoc and suffering to people all over the world. The different effects of the two wars are still being felt today. In this essays I am going to look at various disciplines ad their relation to the both the two wars and cultural values prevailing in these societies during the wars. Still am going to look at various perspectives of these disciplines and how they can lead to further understanding of the whole issue of war and culture.
1) The American Civil War and the Great War were turning points in the in regard to both war and culture. They forever changed the course of military history, literature, psychology, and sociology. Politically the devastating the American civil brought the southern and Northern states closer to one another. This war ended the raging debate over slavery that caused conflict between the two sides. Historically and politically he individual states after several years of self reconstruction eventually joined together to form one strong union. These two wars resulted into o massive destruction of not only property but also to the psychological function of their victims
Sociologically, Civil War brought an end to slavery and the therefore the black Americans are now free to contribute very much to the development of the society during the war, the participation of the black American in the military activities raises issues of race and citizenship, the morality of slavery. In short, the upheavals and changes in the social order spelt a lot of change to sociology. Sociology as a discipline started putting more focus on social change such as the end of slavery, and the inclusion of the black Americans in the US army following the Civil war.
There are literary materials that talks about the civil war. For example, William Wells presents the issues of racism and slavery during the civil war in Clotelle: or The Colored Heroine (1867), particularly when he describes of a black American l death. Discussion on the civil war are also presented in the civil war narratives by Frances Harper and Paul Laurence. These artistic works bring to fore hostile attitude toward the involvement of the black Americans involvement in the civil war.
While looking at the military history ,the main point of observation of is the inclusion of the volunteer ‘colored’ regiments as well as the six Regular Army regiments of black American troops in the American Army for the first time(Barker,2002 ).Later on ,these infantry regiments were regrouped and used in the Indian war ,and during the Spanish-American war. When the Great War broke, there were four regiments of exclusively black people. The combatants were seen as heroes in their societies.
Politically, the Southern politics revolved around secession. The North was for union hence leading to bloody civil war. After the civil war, the Union government’s politics embarked on mobilizing volunteer into the army. During the Great War, the politics of the US was mainly about systematically mobilizing all American citizens to produce financial and human resource for the country’s military. This changed the social order as this had never existed before.
Psychologically, there during the Great War, psychologists became more of assessment specialists because of the development of two intelligence tests, Army Alpha and Army Beta, which tested the verbal as well as nonverbal skill. These tests were carried out on many hundred s of recruits before and after wars to ascertain their psychological functioning.
2. The evaluation of the two wars reveals some differences and similarities among different disciplines such as military history, literature, psychology and sociology. There is similarity in history, literature, psychology and sociology in terms of central concerns, values and relationships to public life. First, the central concern of these disciplines is the fact that they address the issue of change. History records events which up to their time of occurrences had not been seen before. The wars are historical events and they express changes in values and relationships among members of the society. For example the relationship between the whites and the black Americans is recorded historically as changing. Literature is also expressing the some changes .For example; they present the changes in human relationship such the more integration between the whites and the blacks. Still, these artistic works present a society that is full of disillusionment as a result of the terrible the Great War.
Psychology and Sociology also depict concerns changes in the society. Psychology may be used in the analysis of the behavioral changes in people affected in one way or another by the wars .For example in the examination of post-traumatic conditions which were common after the two wars. The same applies to Sociology which is in fact being highly influenced by the changing social order in the face of the two wars .Here it can be applied in the analysis of the change in racial relations that was highly increasing after the Civil war .For example the Blacks are allowed for the first time to join the army. Methodologies involved are also the same as they involve careful observation of the society.
However, the major difference is found between the psychology and the other disciplines in terms of the methodology used. Although all of them involve observation of the environment all that is going on in it, psychology may sometimes involve examination by special medical personnel through scientific tests.
3. There are many perspectives involving war and culture. The first one is the perspective is psychological .This one has to do with motivation. The causes of both the wars can be looked at in a psychological perspective. Here, we are going to carefully look at the motivating factors ,for example behind the Southerners’ resort to secede .Still, both wars the physical price that the people who were involved paid in the war would have an equivalent in the mental price, that the whole experience of the wars. The wars left many survivors with terrible psychological scars.
According to the official Union war records, for the Civil war, adverse psychological reactions to combat across a variety of categories that were never marched, or even approached, the shockingly physical loses from the war. Records taken by the Army Medical Records also presents hundreds of fighters to have committed suicide ( Barker,2002)The psychological conditions resulting from combats made Civil War made military medical personnel to start examining cases of post-traumatic stress that ids being witnessed even today.
For Sociological Perspective we are going to dwell on the social relations within the societies of the two wars. The inequality between the blacks and the white Americans during the civil war can is a good example .The blacks are seen as not equal to the whites hence their inclusion in the American army during the two wars is frowned upon by many people.
Literary perspective has to do with the depiction of characters in the artistic works through the employment of different methods of criticisms .We can for example use psychoanalytical criticism to look at the works of T.S Eliot to analyze the mental status of different characters in his works at the time of great disillusionment. These criticisms will help bring out the issues of concern on the effects of these wars in general and particularly the prevailing cultural values.
3. Local and global citizenship have responsibilities in regarding war and culture. This responsibility is realized through its integration of with academic knowledge and professional work. The point here is that there is relationship among historical, literary, psychological, sociological, and political knowledge. The first relationship is that all these types of knowledge draw their points of concern from the society. All deal with the lives of human beings in their natural world, real people living real lives. Historical knowledge presents to us records of human lives in totality. In presenting to us the records of wars and culture in the world we live, we are able to gain more knowledge factors that lead to, for example, instances of wars, effects of these wars and even measures taken to either prevent a repeat of the same(Kennedy,2004) .Still, we can get to know how to correct the negative effects of these wars in.
Literature is does not exist in a vacuum .Just like history, psychology, sociology and politics, it is drawn from the society .Many literary works have been written on the historical American Civil War, and the Great War. For example ,T.S Eliot’s poems mainly presents to us the aftermath of the devastating world One .The depiction of the society in these literary texts elaborates the societies of this period of time as being wrapped in fear and disillusionment as a result of the war. The study of the texts here will require the use of sociological methods and techniques to analyze the changes in the society as a result of the war. The minds of the people are changing as a result of the war may be due to losing their loved ones during the war can also be studied in these texts through employing psycho analytical criticism which involves psychological knowledge (Kennedy,2004). Political knowledge also comes in as there are political issues in most of these works, for example poor leadership being depicted as leading to the two wars and cultural problems
The different perspectives eyed in the study of war and cultures are very extensive in their coverage. They give not only theoretical observations but they also scientifically tested feedback which enhances the accuracy of observations m during the study. The methods or modes of inquiry are generally simple as we mainly use observation which any person with a good sense of sight can do. The processes of making decision for all the perspectives employed in the study are also very easy and simple ,What we have at the end will show how various disciplines can be used to show the whole issue of war and culture.
References
Barker, A(2OO2).The Civil War in America .Gale Cengage Learning .New York
Schouler J.(2001)(Ed) History of the USA: 1861-1865:To Civil War. New York
Kennedy,D.M.Over Here (2004):The First World War &American Society.Oxford.USA.
In conclusion, wars are generally destructive to the society and affects relationships in the society. People are forcefully separated
