Concentration in the American Revolution
APUS offers one of the nation’s only graduate concentrations on the American Revolution. Students study the philosophies, personalities, strategies, leadership, and other factors that led to, influenced, and resulted from the United States of America’s foundation and permanent break from Great Britain. As a major event in the larger sweep of the Enlightenment, the following aspects of the American Revolution are analyzed: principles of colonialism, monarchy, democracy, republic, and “nation-building;” military leadership, strategies and individual soldiers on each side; international diplomacy; economics; and American culture.

Objectives
Upon completion of this program students will be able to:

• Dissect and critique the American Revolution from its antecedents to its legacy to include events leading to the revolt, Declaration of Independence, strategy and tactics, campaigns, and the aftermath of war on the new nation. 
• Analyze the American Revolution in reference to the operational contributions of American and British military leadership using selected land battles as examples of the strategies and tactics involved. 
• Evaluate an early and pivotal campaign in the American Revolution by critiquing the strategy, tactics, and results of campaign on the subsequent course of the Revolution and post-war Anglo-American relations. 
• Explain the perspective of the American Revolution from the British viewpoint in relation to colonial policies, diplomacy, military leadership, and other influences in Great Britain during and after the war. 
• Assess and critique the conclusive military strategy of the American Revolution and why the strategy was distinctive from other military theatres of operation. 

Concentration Requirements (18 semester hours)

• LW567 / HIST551 - The American Revolution in Context
• LW570 / MILH531 - Strategy, Tactics, and Leadership of the American Revolution
• LW569 / MILH532 - The British Perspective of the American Revolution
• LW523 / MILH533 - The American Revolution Canadian Campaign
• LW558 / MILH534 - The American Revolution Southern Campaign

AND choose one (1) of the following:

• LW562 / MILH637 - The Seven Years War
• LW524 / MILH638 - Warfare in Colonial America (Pre-Revolution)
• LW514 / MILH639 - America’s Early Conflicts (Post-Revolution)
• MH680 / MILH680 - Special Topic - this course, when offered, may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.
• MH690 / MILH690 - Independent Study – this course may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.

Concentration in the Civil War

Upon completion of this program students will be able to:

• Place events of the Antebellum period, the Civil War, and Reconstruction into the broader scope of American History by assessing the similarities and differences in social, cultural, economic, and political developments in North and South. 
• Discern and assess the political, economic, cultural, social, and military aspects of the Civil War to specifically include their impact on causative factors, conduct of the war, and post-war aftermath. 
• Examine the operational contributions of Union and Confederate military leaders by critiquing selected land battles of the war as examples of the strategies and tactics involved. 
• Compare and contrast the national, theater, and operational command structures of the Union and Confederacy in relation to leadership styles of key military leaders on both sides and the evolution of command and control during the war. 
• Identify, assess, and explain the diverse historical assessments and interpretations of the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras as presented in the writings of prominent and influential historians.

Concentration Requirements (18 semester hours)

• CW500 / HIST552 - Civil War: Seminal Event in American History
• CW501 / MILH541- Civil War Strategy and Tactics
• CW502 / MILH542 - Civil War Command and Leadership
• CW510 / HIST657 - Antebellum America: Prelude to the Civil War
• CW522 / HIST658 - Reconstruction and Post Civil War America

AND choose one (1) of the following:

• CW519 / MILH647 - Intelligence Operations in the Civil War
• CW524 / MILH648 - Civil War Cavalry: Theory Practice and Operations
• LW504 / MILH649 - The Mexican – American War: 1846-1848
• MH680 / MILH680 - Special Topic - this course, when offered, may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.
• MH690 / MILH690 - Independent Study – this course may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.

Concentration in World War II
Students in the World War II concentration study the history, politics, leaders, strategies, and campaigns under which the 20th Century's history, (and some would argue, the modern world's), seminal events unfolded. The World War II student takes a course of study that includes study of the major political and military leaders of both Allied and Axis powers as well as study of the war's major theaters. Students then have the opportunity to study of major and lesser campaigns and battles, military strategy and leadership, and World War II political and military institutions.

Concentration Objectives

Upon completion of this program students will be able to:

• Discern and critique the strategies, tactics, leaders and lessons learned during the fighting in the China-Burma-India Theater, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Aleutians, and in the Philippines. 
• Explain and assess the strategy, tactics and leadership from the blitzkriegs into France, the Balkans, and the Soviet Union to the campaigns in North Africa and Italy. 
• Explain and assess the Allied victory in Europe to include the generalship and decisions concerning the amphibious invasions, airdrops, and the crossing of the Rhine. 
• Distinguish the politics, political leadership, and diplomacy in Germany, Japan, and Italy that enabled the rise of the respective countries’ Axis leadership that ruled during World War II. 
• Distinguish the political leadership that defined the Allied powers of the United States, Great Britain, and Russia before, during, and post-World War II.  

Concentration Requirements (18 semsester hours)

• LW631 / HIST560 - World War II in Context
• MH530 / MILH551 - World War II in Europe
• LW550 / MILH552 - World War II in the Pacific
• LW630 / MILH553 - Axis Powers: Politics, Political Leadership, & Diplomacy
• LW632 / MILH554 - Allied Powers: Politics, Political Leadership, & Diplomacy

AND choose one (1) of the following:

• LW581 / MILH657 - Barbarossa: Blitzkrieg into Russia
• LW582 / MILH658 - Stalingrad to Kursk
• LW583 / MILH659 - Red Storm over the Third Reich
• MH680 / MILH680 - Special Topic - this course, when offered, may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.
• MH690 / MILH690 - Independent Study – this course may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.

Concentration in War since 1945
Students in the War since 1945 will focus on the American culture of war from World War II to the present. It traces the history and evolution of American strategic, operational, and tactical doctrine during the Cold War as well as United Nations peace-keeping operations in this time period. Topics cover national security interests including foreign policy and military operations and their relation to domestic political, economic, and social components as well as the major foreign wars and the emergence of the United States as a world power. In addition, students have the opportunity to examine our response to selected regional issues in the Balkans, Middle East, and other threat situations in the world.

Concentration Objectives
Upon completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Examine the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, with emphasis on the actual scene of superpower conflict in the Third World and an analysis of the varied levels of power and their interrelationships that made the Cold War unique.
• Contrast the evolution and functioning of United Nations peacekeeping operations during the Cold War period to include comparative assessments of each peacekeeping operation as a tool of conflict management.
• Analyze of the origins and structures of insurgency and revolution to include the actual history of specific groups of insurgents and revolutionaries such as the Chinese Communists, the Viet Minh/Viet Cong, and the militant Islamist insurgents.
• Assess great and middle power military interventions into civil wars during the 1990s and extraordinary security enjoyed by the great and middle powers of the Western world in the Cold War's aftermath.
• Evaluate turbulent areas in the history of the world, with emphasis on modern political and military issues, to include the Balkans, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other regions.

Concentration Requirements (18 semester hours)

• MH620 / MILH620 - War Since 1945
• MH621 / MILH621 - The Cold War Era and Aftermath
• MH622 / MILH622 - Great Power Military Interventions
• LC531 / MILH564 - History of Peacekeeping: 1945-1987
• LC532 / MILH565 - History of Peacekeeping: 1988-Present

AND choose one (1) of the following:

• LC530 / MILH667 - The Balkans: Conflict and Peace
• LW571 / MILH668 - The War in Vietnam
• MS670 / MILH669 - Arab-Israeli Conflict: Contemporary Politics & Diplomacy
• MH680 / MILH680 - Special Topic - this course, when offered, may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.
• MH690 / MILH690 - Independent Study – this course may be applied to fulfill major course requirements or elective requirements with permission of the Department Chair.

Student may select any graduate level courses to fulfill elective requirements.  Recommend History, Military History or Military Studies courses that have not been used to fulfill core or concentration requirements.

• MH700 / MILH698 - Comprehensive Examination [0 semester hours] - Taken once all other degree requirements have been met.
• MH798 / MILH699 - Master’s Capstone Seminar in Military History [3 semester hours] - The Capstone Seminiar will satisfy an Elective requirement.