The Vietnam War: Teaching Approaches and Resources

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In many secondary schools, colleges, and universities across the country, the study of the Vietnam War has become a standard part of the curriculum. In this work, editor Marc Jason Gilbert has organized essays that are designed to serve the needs of the instructors currently teaching or planning to institute such courses. Each essay, written by a leading scholar in his or her field, addresses specific teaching strategies and resources, surveying approaches and providing a detailed examination of those issues that teachers have identified as the most useful or important. The book seeks to furnish instructors with the methods to present the war's broad perspective and complexity to a classroom. It begins with a discussion of some of the major interpretive stances, approaches, and issues that may be pursued in teaching about Vietnam. Subsequent chapters address the operational issues of the air war and misconceptions concerning guerilla war and counterinsurgency; the nature of people's wars; the effectiveness of decision-making and foreign policy-making analysis as classroom learning techniques; the need to place the war in the context of Indochinese, American, and world history; the use of teaching strategies and resources derived from literature, film, and the voice of the veteran; the use of Asian, European, and American literary sources to gain insight into the experience of the Vietnamese people; the anti-war movement; issues of peace, sex, and ethnicity; the integration of such approaches and issues into a course on the war; the use of materials drawn from the Vietnam War to further students' analytical skills; innovative ways of bringing primary printed sources into the classroom; and the strength and weaknesses of Vietnam War classroom texts and key monographs. The book concludes with a guide to further resources and a selection of Vietnam War course syllabi employed by scholars active in the field. This work will be a major resource for teachers and those studying to be teachers, as well as for courses on the Vietnam War, Southeast Asia, and U.S. History and Politics.

Reviews

Gilbert has brought together a collection of articles, bibliographies, and syllabi that college and high school instructors will find useful. He and 11 other scholars, including Larry E. Cable and Cecil B. Currey, consider ways to teach about such subjects as the air war, wars of national liberation, decision making, literature and films, and veterans' issues. Most of the articles include lengthy annotated bibliographies or detailed discussions of primary and secondary sources. Some of the materials presented, particularly those that deal with Vietnamese history, will be new even to those already teaching about the war. Moreover, the author's suggestions for how to use certain books and films and how to organize courses on the war around intellectually sound yet provocative themes are valuable.-Choice
Gilbert's work is essential for those who want some of the best scholarship on the subject and who are serious in presenting as much of the truth about Vietnam as course time permits.-Journal of Third World Studies
This book is tightly organized around its theme: the teaching of the war....The wealth of material here, including 56 pages of appendices, should be welcomed by any scholar and teacher of the Vietnam War.-Journal of Third World Studies
This is a book that deserves to be reprinted regularly.... it is useful for its variety of approach, its accuracy, and its authority. What is perhaps most worthwhile about it, though, is its ideological balance. There are chapters about both sides of the conflict--non-American perspectives are not ignored as is usually the case--and the various teachers doing the writing afford a degree of dignity and pedagogical authority to the subject of Viet Nam War Studies. . . . This is a fine and worthy text.-Journal of American Culture
"Gilbert's work is essential for those who want some of the best scholarship on the subject and who are serious in presenting as much of the truth about Vietnam as course time permits."-Journal of Third World Studies
"This book is tightly organized around its theme: the teaching of the war....The wealth of material here, including 56 pages of appendices, should be welcomed by any scholar and teacher of the Vietnam War."-Journal of Third World Studies
"This is a book that deserves to be reprinted regularly.... it is useful for its variety of approach, its accuracy, and its authority. What is perhaps most worthwhile about it, though, is its ideological balance. There are chapters about both sides of the conflict--non-American perspectives are not ignored as is usually the case--and the various teachers doing the writing afford a degree of dignity and pedagogical authority to the subject of Viet Nam War Studies. . . . This is a fine and worthy text."-Journal of American Culture
"Gilbert has brought together a collection of articles, bibliographies, and syllabi that college and high school instructors will find useful. He and 11 other scholars, including Larry E. Cable and Cecil B. Currey, consider ways to teach about such subjects as the air war, wars of national liberation, decision making, literature and films, and veterans' issues. Most of the articles include lengthy annotated bibliographies or detailed discussions of primary and secondary sources. Some of the materials presented, particularly those that deal with Vietnamese history, will be new even to those already teaching about the war. Moreover, the author's suggestions for how to use certain books and films and how to organize courses on the war around intellectually sound yet provocative themes are valuable."-Choice

Author Bio

MARC JASON GILBERT is a Professor of History at North Georgia College. Specializing in South and Southeast Asian History, he is the author of numerous journal articles and reviews.