Date of Award
Summer 2011
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
School
Humanities
Committee Chair
Andrew Wiest
Committee Chair Department
History
Committee Member 2
Andrew Haley
Committee Member 2 Department
History
Committee Member 3
Michael Neiberg
Committee Member 3 Department
History
Abstract
Cultural perceptions guided the American use of submarines during the twentieth century. Feared as an evil weapon during the First World War, guarded as a dirty secret during the Second World War, and heralded as the weapon of democracy during the Cold War, the American submarine story reveals the overwhelming influence of civilian culture over martial practices. The following study examines the roles that powerful political and military elites, newspaper editors and Hollywood executives, and ordinary citizens - equal players in a game larger than themselves - assumed throughout the evolution of submerged warfare from 1914 to 1991. In each period, cultural discourse about the vessels propelled the on-the-ground realities of implementing a practical, yet acceptable, approach to an often misunderstood weapon system. 11
Copyright
2011, Matthew Robert McGrew
Recommended Citation
McGrew, Matthew Robert, "Beneath the Surface: American Culture and Submarine Warfare in the Twentieth Century" (2011). Master's Theses. 428.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/428