Teaching Beyond the "Band of Brothers": Shakespeare at War

This article shares course materials, student insights, and instructor lessons learned from a pilot elective at the master’s degree-granting Command and Staff College at Marine Corps University. During this eight-session, one credit hour elective, the O-4 and O-5 students learned to explain the influence of storytelling on adults’ cognitive and affective development and how to apply that influence to lead others in the profession of arms. Then, students analyzed the rhetorical structure and value of Shakespearean texts within the context of representations of war and in alignment with the core intermediate level professional military education (PME) curriculum. Building on pedagogical precedents set throughout military education institutions and civilian policy schools, the article brings a fresh perspective to incorporating rhetorical analysis instruction into national security curricula. The author offers resources for PME educators considering new coursework, such as discussion points, and targeted excerpts from the Shakespeare canon for readers who might seek to replicate this learning experience in their own organizations.