This course will provide students with a basic grounding in the military history of the United States, the current global superpower and Australia's key strategic partner. Following consideration of the colonial origins of the American military and early colonial military experience, the course will examine the evolution of the American way of war across the 18th-20th centuries. Attention will focus on the development of the US armed forces, the growth of national security machinery, the role of the military in westward expansion and the creation of an American empire, the military as a vehicle for social engineering, the marriage of American technology with American warmaking, and the political economy of the US military, amongst others. It will conclude with consideration of developments since the September 11 attacks.