And my argument - that maybe it would be a good idea to pay close attention to what happened in recent wars- is also reminiscent of things that I talked about in my PhD and first book!
02.12.2025 22:08 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0@davidfitzgerald.bsky.social
Historian of war, militarization and the US in the world at University College Cork. Author of Uncertain Warriors: The United States Army betwen the Cold War and the War on Terror (https://cambridge.org/9781009235808).
And my argument - that maybe it would be a good idea to pay close attention to what happened in recent wars- is also reminiscent of things that I talked about in my PhD and first book!
02.12.2025 22:08 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I recently had the strange (but not unpleasant) experience of publishing a piece in Military Review, the outlet that was an important primary source for my PhD research a long time ago.
www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Mil...
My latest this AM with @warontherocks.bsky.social. Of note: "[Military officers] will be active participants with choices to make about the degree to which they continue to serve civilians intent on undermining the liberal values enshrined in the Constitution."
1/
warontherocks.com/2025/12/the-...
Calling all historians of US foreign relations. @shafrhistorians.bsky.social
11.11.2025 21:50 β π 21 π 10 π¬ 1 π 0Hard to imagine a more sinister & dangerous argument, couched in euphemism & high-minded language. "This essay does not argue liberalism will collapse, only that [US] military officers should be intellectually (and spiritually) prepared for alternatives." warontherocks.com/2025/10/the-...
30.10.2025 21:15 β π 367 π 86 π¬ 23 π 17Thereβs the joke about Sun Tzu being basic instructions for idiots like βfeed your troopsβ but the most important part of Clausewitz is also just βthink about what you are actually trying to accomplishβ
13.10.2025 18:47 β π 373 π 50 π¬ 6 π 10A nice job has opened in my department at Cambridge: Assistant Prof. in US History since 1920.
Please share widely!
No references letters required up front. Applications close 27 Oct. 2025.ποΈ
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...
I spoke to the Irish Times for this very good and rounded piece on the real-world effects of C***GPT in the humanities classroom: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/educ...
10.09.2025 08:48 β π 118 π 54 π¬ 12 π 23Shameless self-promotion and all of that, but it is genuinely unsettling to see how some of the most cartoonish ideas that I came across while writing the book have turned into actual policy.
07.09.2025 09:09 β π 6 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0maybe 10% of the current crop of GOFOs legitimately understand that the US public's default position towards the military historically is somewhere between ambivalence and dislike, and that the last several decades have been different because a variety of institutions made efforts to change it
22.08.2025 18:55 β π 115 π 16 π¬ 5 π 0An excerpt in @foreignpolicy.com from Andrew Preston's superb new book, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/30/f...
Not your dadβs WW2βfind out more in this interview I did recently and get 50% off the book at the same time π₯³
29.06.2025 21:04 β π 24 π 6 π¬ 0 π 0It was great to catch up with @ceceliacancellaro.bsky.social but also really cool to see my book out in the wild again!
27.06.2025 15:02 β π 8 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0The spicier take is while this will never happen, there objectively should be an investigation into what unauthorized/unknown to the rest of DoD/the executive communications CENTCOM was having off the books with the Israeli government, because suffice to say I have my suspicions
22.06.2025 00:25 β π 413 π 66 π¬ 8 π 1Never thought that writing a piece years ago on the post-Gulf War parades would be of contemporary relevance, but here we are.
17.06.2025 10:01 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I hate when my historical research is relevant. The GI Rights Hotline has a history going back to before its 1994 founding by a network of peace activists after the Gulf War. GI counseling has been a cornerstone of peace activism since the Vietnam War. Some of the same ppl are still doing it. ποΈ
10.06.2025 16:22 β π 81 π 50 π¬ 2 π 2OK, I know more about the CA case and we have more information on the deployments coming out, so a few thoughts.
1. This is a massive overreach of POTUS authority. Using Section 12406 to federalize/deploy military forces w/out also invoking the Insurrection Act is literally unprecedented. 1/
Friends, followers, and colleagues: some professional news, as they say.
After four wonderful years with the US Army War College, I resigned my position effective May 2, 2025. 1/
Utterly disgraceful and an open assault on the historical profession. These are utterly professional, non-partisan advisors, overseeing and giving advice to the State department on the declassification of US government documents.
30.04.2025 23:20 β π 28 π 9 π¬ 0 π 0Took a while, but the ad is also now up on an actual jobs website! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMV502/l...
24.04.2025 18:26 β π 6 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0A book cover with the main title in white text reading "The Greater Second World War" and subtitle in yellow text reading "Global Perspectives" in front of a brown wall with holes and deterioration.
ICYMI, Team #MilitaryHistory - the stellar volume edited expertly by Andrew Buchanan and Ruth Lawlor, "The Greater Second World War: Global Perspectives," has reached its publication date! Head to @cornellupress.bsky.social's page to get one. I'll wait...
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
wow the US Army now has officially less understanding of and care for their soldiers' morale & wellbeing than the Italian army of 1918! way to go, guys!
happy to sell Pete Hegseth a copy of my book to explain why this is Not Smart but it might have too many long words for him to understand
Job alert! My dept is hiring a lecturer in international economic history. This a permanent, full-time post and it's (hopefully) a really good time to be joining the School of History here. Very happy to chat with anyone about the role, UCC, or life in Cork in general. ποΈ
www.ucc.ie/en/future-hu...
Job alert! My dept is hiring a lecturer in international economic history. This a permanent, full-time post and it's (hopefully) a really good time to be joining the School of History here. Very happy to chat with anyone about the role, UCC, or life in Cork in general. ποΈ
www.ucc.ie/en/future-hu...
We're hiring! I can echo what Jay says in his second post that there's a lot of exciting stuff on the way in our dept and that Cork is a really great place to live.
11.04.2025 13:11 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0The Society for Military History is now archiving historical materials related to military history that are disappearing from federal or state websites. We are open to submissions, anonymously or otherwise. Please see
www.smh-hq.org/archivedreso... and note there the submission links.
I am a recent member of the Society for Military History @smh-historians.bsky.social, so I'm not in charge or anything, but I have mutuals who are members, too.
What is SMH saying about the erasures from public military history sites? Is there a statement? Is it on the agenda for the conference?
not by any stretch the first person to say this but: it is darkly funny how nakedly imperialist Trump turned out to be given the lengths to which some professional opinion havers went to take his "isolationism" intellectually seriously
11.03.2025 15:51 β π 2853 π 401 π¬ 39 π 31For those historians keeping track, esp #milhist folks, βhistoryβ is now a flagged word bc of its apparent connection to #DEI. Canary in a coal mine, indeed. @smh-historians.bsky.social ποΈ www.tpr.org/military-vet...
03.03.2025 00:45 β π 737 π 408 π¬ 25 π 81