304R Fall 2026 The Mexican American War 1846-1848

The Mexican American War is America's forgotten war. There is no monument to the war in Washington, D.C. There is no course on the war at GMU. However, this war resulted in a huge transfer of land to the U.S. which changed our map and our history. In this class, we will discuss the following topics: the political, social, economic, cultural and religious situation in the U.S. and in Mexico in the first half of the 1800s, the reasons for the war, the military history of the war in Mexico, New Mexico and California, and the unusual circumstances around the treaty that ended the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Philip Massey is a former radiologist with an interest in American history. He had given 5 OLLI classes on Civil War subjects.