Military Historians are People, Too!

Brian K. Feltman & Bill Allison
  • 4.6 (27)
  • History

Join military history professors Brian Feltman and Bill Allison as they chat with fellow military historians, public historians, scholars of war and society, and other exciting people about military history, career paths, BBQ, and life in general on Military Historians are People, Too! Recently named among the Top Military History Podcasts by Feedspot.com! Thanks for listening!

  1. 22h ago

    From the Vault: S3E15 Jayita Sarkar - University of Glasgow

    We're going nuclear today with Jayita Sarkar! Jay is a Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. Before settling down in Scotland, she was an Assistant Professor at Boston University and a Niehaus Fellow at Dartmouth College. She was also a Fellow with Harvard University’s Weatherhead Initiative in Global History, an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy, and a Stanton Postdoctoral Fellow, all also at Harvard. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Graduate Institute Geneva, an MA at the University of Paris IV, Sorbonne, and a BA and MA in Political Science and International Relations at Jadavpur University. Jay is the author of Ploughshares and Swords: India’s Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War (Cornell), which was a 2023 Honourable Mention for the Best Book Award of ISA Global Development Studies Section. Her articles have appeared in Cold War History, the Journal of Cold War Studies, the Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Journal of Global Security Studies, among others. Her 2018 article in Nonproliferation Review entitled “U.S. Technological Collaboration for Nonproliferation: Key Evidence from the Cold War”  (With J. Krige) won the 2018 Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Award. Her second book, Atomic Capitalism: A Global History, is under contract with Princeton University Press. Jay has received grants from the Stanton Foundation, The Hoover Institution, The Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, to name just a few. She was recently granted a British Academy Award to support “Partition Machine,” an upcoming conference she has organized on territorial partitions. Jayita sits on the Editorial Board of Cold War History, the Editorial Advisory Board of Global Nuclear Histories Book Series at McGill-Queen’s University Press, and the Board of Directors of the Arms Control Association. She is a member of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. On top of all that, she’s a polyglot who speaks Bengali, English, and French fluently with a little German, Hindu and Urdu thrown in for good measure. Join us for a delightful and really interesting chat with Jay Sarkar - we'll talk India's nuclear policy, Glasgow v. Edinburgh, Scottish Straight Cats, Diego Maradona, and Pink Martini, among many other topics! Rec.: 04/21/2023

    From the Vault: S3E15 Jayita Sarkar - University of Glasgow

  2. 2d ago

    S7E3 Kimberly Guise - National World War II Museum, New Orleans

    Our guest today is proud New Orleans native Kimberly Guise! Kim is the Associate Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, where she has worked since 2008. She holds a Hebraicum Certificate from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, a BA in German Studies from UMASS Amherst, and an MLIS from Louisiana State University. Kim secures capstone artifact donations and financial gifts and heads the Museum’s Curatorial Division, which includes producing exhibits and acquiring hundreds of collections per year. She helped launch the Museum’s digitization initiative and has contributed to several major exhibitions, including Guests of the Third Reich: American POWs in Europe, Our War Too: Women in Service, and Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII. Her work with WWII veterans over the years has produced countless oral histories, secured dozens of collections of letters and photographs, and created numerous amazing exhibits. Kim is a lifelong New Orleans Saints fan (season ticket holder, no less!) and has been known to attend a Pelicans basketball game here and there. Her life is one of serendipity and taking the road less traveled - how else do you get from the West Bank of the Mississippi to UMASS Amherst and Freiberg? Join us for a great chat with Kim - we'll talk Stalag 17, food in WWII, Dogpatch USA, living in Germany, Hurricane Katrina, Paul McCartney, Rothaus Pils, and, yes, crawfish. Enjoy! Shoutout to the Boiling Pot and The Shed BBQ! Rec.: 09/11/2026

  3. Sep 10

    From the Vault: S3E14 Andrew Huebner - University of Alabama

    Our guest today is Andrew J. Huebner, who clearly didn't think through the idea of recording live in the Odysea Waterfront Lounge at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego, in the middle of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History! Thankfully, most military historians avoid bars, pubs, etc. (NOT!). But we had a great chat and the sound turned out ok, so thanks for your patience with the sound quality on this one! Andrew is Professor of History at the University of Alabama. He earned his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and his PhD from Brown University. Andrew was a visiting professor at Brown from 2004-2006 and a lecturer in History and English at Harvard during the same span. Since 2017, he has been an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. He is the author of Love and Death in the Great War (Oxford), which won the President’s Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and The Warrior Image: Soldiers in American Culture from the Second World War to the Vietnam Era (UNC), a Nota Bene selection of Chronicle of Higher Education. He is co-editor with John Giggie of Dixie’s Great War (Alabama), and forthcoming titles The Cambridge History of War and Society in America (with Jennifer Keene), and Race and Gender at War (Alabama) with Friend-of-the-Pod Lesley Gordon. Andrew is also the co-author with Alan Brinkley and John Giggey of a popular American history textbook, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. In addition, his work has appeared in the Journal of American History, Film and History, The Sixties, American Studies, and Journalism History. His current project, Buffalo Soldiers and the Making of the United States Empire, s under contract with Liveright/W.W. Norton. Andrew has given talks all over the United States, is a frequent guest on history podcasts, and contributor and advisor to public history projects. He's a busy guy, but one of the most humble and enjoyable historians you'll come across. Join us for our chat with Andrew, as we discuss New Jersey, gender theory (or not), Modest Mouse, and even presidential aspirations, all while Andrew multi-tasks talking with us, enjoying a beer, AND watching the Alabama-San Diego State Sweet 16 match-up over our shoulders on the big bar TV (spoiler - the game didn't end well for Andrew)! As always, thanks for listening, please subscribe on whatever podcast service you use to Military Historians are People, Too, and all podcasts you enjoy, and don't forget to check out our Swag Store on Zazzle! Rec.: 03/24/2023

    From the Vault: S3E14 Andrew Huebner - University of Alabama

  4. Sep 8

    S7E2 Steve Vogel - Journalist and Historian

    Today's guest is historian and Washington Post journalist Steve Vogel. Born in West Berlin as the Wall went up, Steve was there decades later as a journalist when it came down in 1989. He's reported from the streets of DC, the Pentagon during 9/11, the Gulf War, Iraq, the Balkans, Rwanda - he's seen a lot. Like Washington Post colleague Rick Atkinson, whom Steve worked first worked for in Berlin, he's turned to his lifelong passion: military history. His books include The Pentagon: A History, Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks that Saved the Nation, Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation, and most recently A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the US Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir (which recently won the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award). Steve's "writing hut" in his backyard is actually a small log cabin original to the property - it's very, very cool. Steve's humility hides much of what he's experienced, but he shares a lot in this fascinating chat. We'll talk about having a father in the CIA and not knowing it, high school in Islamabad, almost starting a war between India and Pakistan, learning German from Mister Ed, using a Telex and a typewriter, the Allman Brothers, being a "stringer," and much more. You'll enjoy this one! Shoutout to Black Hog BBQ in Frederick, Maryland! Rec.: 08/27/2026

  5. Sep 3

    From the Vault: S3E13 Kate Clarke Lemay - National Portrait Gallery/AHEC

    Our guest today is the artsy, funny, and brilliant Kate Clarke Lemay. Kate WAS s an historian at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and is NOW the Director of the US Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) at Carlisle Barracks, PA. She was the lead historian for the signature exhibitions America’s Presidents and Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. and is currently curating a major exhibition titled 1898: American Imperial Visions and Revisions, which will open on April 28, 2023! Kate also serves as director of PORTAL, the National Portrait Gallery's Scholarly Center. She was Assistant Professor of Art History at Auburn University at Montgomery and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Brigham Young University. Kate earned a BA in Art History and French from Syracuse University and a PhD in Art History and American Studies from Indiana University. Kate's publications include Triumph of the Dead: American WWII Cemeteries, Monuments and Diplomacy in France (Alabama, 2018), which was awarded a Terra Foundation in American Art publication. In 2019, she published the eponymous catalog for the Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence exhibit with Princeton University Press. The book received the 2021 Smithsonian Secretary’s Prize for Excellence in Research as well as the 2020 Amelia Bloomer Book Award from the American Library Association. Kate was a guest editor for a special issue on transatlantic diplomacy and war cemeteries for The International Journal of Military History and Historiography.  Kate is a Fulbright Scholar and her work has been supported by the Terra Foundation in American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the Caen Mémorial Museum in France. She is a Presidential Counselor to the National WWII Museum, an advisor to the National Women's Suffrage Monument Foundation, and sits on the Advisory Board of the Association of Historians of American Art’s Panorama Journal. Join us for a fun and interesting chat with Kate Lemay. We'll talk Delaware, boarding school, researching at the American Battlefield Monuments Commission offices in France, suffering Friend-of-the-Pod Brian Linn's critique of Imperial Visions and Revisions, Foo Fighters, and being BBQ-adjacent. Speaking of which, shout out to Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, New York! As always, subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods, and check out the Swag Store on Zazzle! Rec.: 04/14/2023

    From the Vault: S3E13 Kate Clarke Lemay - National Portrait Gallery/AHEC

  6. Sep 1

    S7E1 Jessica H. Clark - Florida State University

    We're back with Season 7! Today's guest is Classicist Jessica H. Clark of Florida State University. Jessica is Professor of Classics and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Classics, coming to Tallahassee from California State University, Chico. Among her many scholarly pursuits, Jessica studies the Roman military during the Republic Period. Her publications include Triumph in Defeat: Military Loss and the Roman Republic (Oxford), Brill's Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society (edited with Brian Turner), and most recently Women in Fragments: Alternative Histories in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Wisconsin). She serves on the editorial boards of Brill's Historiography of Rome and Its Empire and the Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World series, and was the Program Chair for the Society for Military History 2026 conference. What a way to kick off Season 7! We'll talk Boston, the woods of Northern California, reading Latin, The Prince of Leeches, Springsteen, Gladiator, and more, while ignoring the obvious question: "What have the Romans ever done for us?" Shoutout to Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas, and all the roadside smokers in Tallahassee! Rec.: 08/20/2026

  7. Aug 27

    From the Vault: S3E12 David Kieran - Columbus State University

    Our guest today is the guitar-playing, hiking, marathon-running, American Studies guy-turned-historian David Kieran! Dave is an Associate Professor and the Colonel Richard R. Hallock Distinguished Chair in Military History at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Before coming to Columbus State, he was associate professor and chair of the history department at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA, where he also served as coordinator for the American Studies program. Dave was also a visiting assistant professor in the American Studies Department at Franklin & Marshall College and in the History Department at Skidmore College. He earned a BA in English from Connecticut College and a PhD in American Studies from George Washington University. A scholar of the post-Vietnam American military, Dave is the author of Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military’s Mental Health Crisis (NYU Press) and Forever Vietnam: How A Divisive War Changed American Public Memory (University of Massachusetts Press). He has also edited or co-edited several volumes, including The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror (Rutgers University Press) and At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Rutgers University Press), with Edwin A. Martini. David’s articles have been published in War & Society, the Journal of American Studies, and the Journal of War and Culture Studies, and he has contributed to numerous edited volumes. Finally, he has written for the Washington Post, Psychology Today, and Slate. His new project is tentatively titled How the Army Saved Itself: Maxwell R. Thurman and the Army’s Post-Vietnam Metamorphosis. Dave has two awesome dogs, has run over a dozen marathons, and has more guitars than Bill, which is a sore point with Bill. Join us for a great chat about interdisciplinary approaches to doing history, interviewing retired generals, running marathons, mental health issues in the American military, Bruce Springsteen, Alabama white sauce, acoustic viz electric guitars - and more! And forgive Bill's kitchen renovation noise! Military Historians have kitchens, too! Shoutout to Smoke Bourbon and BBQ in Columbus! Rec.: 04/06/2023

    From the Vault: S3E12 David Kieran - Columbus State University

  8. Aug 20

    From the Vault: S3E11 Lesley Gordon - University of Alabama

    Our guest today is Civil War scholar Lesley Gordon. Lesley is the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History at the University of Alabama. Prior to moving to Tuscaloosa, she was a professor of history at the University of Akron, and she started her academic career at Murray State University. Lesley received her BA from the College of William and Mary, and her M.A. and PhD from the University of Georgia. Lesley’s first book General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend (UNC Press) was a History Book Club Selection. She published “This Terrible War”: The Civil War and its Aftermath with Daniel E. Sutherland and Michael Fellman in 2003 and the book is now in its third edition. In 2014, Lesley published A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut’s Civil War (LSU Press). She has also co-edited four volumes, including Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and Their Wives, with Carol K. Bleser (Oxford), and Race and Gender at War: Writing American Military History, with Friend-of-the-Pod Andrew Huebner, which is forthcoming with the University of Alabama Press. She has also written more than a dozen essays and articles. Lesley is extremely active in her field and she is currently the president of the Society of Civil War Historians. She chairs the editorial board at the University of Alabama Press and served on the editorial board of The Journal of the Civil War Era. She is a current member of the advisory board for Civil War Times. Since 2009, Lesley has been an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. Join us for a fun and fascinating chat with Lesley Gordon. We'll talk girls drawing Civil War soldiers in middle school, being a tour guide at Mark Twain's home, sports bandwagons, Noah Wyle, writing biography, a little Alison Krause, and Daisy Joines & The Six, so tune in! Check out the MHPTPodcast Swag Store on Zazzle! Rec.: 03/14/2023

    From the Vault: S3E11 Lesley Gordon - University of Alabama
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Join military history professors Brian Feltman and Bill Allison as they chat with fellow military historians, public historians, scholars of war and society, and other exciting people about military history, career paths, BBQ, and life in general on Military Historians are People, Too! Recently named among the Top Military History Podcasts by Feedspot.com! Thanks for listening!

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