Ronald H. Spector

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Ronald Harvey Spector
Ronald H. Spector 1980s.jpg
Spector in late 1980s
Born (1943-01-17) January 17, 1943 (age 82)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationHistorian, writer, professor
NationalityAmerican
Education Johns Hopkins University (BA)
Yale University (PhD)
SubjectMilitary history

Ronald Harvey Spector (born January 17, 1943) is an American military historian. [1] He is a professor at George Washington University. [2]

Contents

Military career

He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Vietnam War, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves. He was a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military history and taught at the University of Alabama. He was tasked to prepare a study of the Grenada operation.

Education

He graduated from Johns Hopkins University, and later gained a Ph.D from Yale University. [3] [4]

Academic career

Spector was a Senior Fulbright scholar in India from 1977 to 1978. He has taught at the National War College, the University of Alabama, and the U.S. Army War College. He currently is serving on the faculty of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. [5] He is also a contributing writer for the Encyclopedia Britannica. [6]

Spector joined the State Department's Historical Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation in the late 1980s as a representative of the American Historical Association. At the 1989 meeting, Spector and other members discussed expediting the publication of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series and improving the process of classifying and declassifying documents. He advocated reprinting and distributing the 20 backlogged volumes of FRUS to depository libraries, and suggested lobbying Congress for funding for this purpose. Spector also expressed his views on the need to maintain a complete historical record. [7] [8]

Accolades

In 2012, Spector was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, for his breadth of contributions to the field of military history. [9] [10] His book Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan was the 1986 winner of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History. [5]

OrganizationsYearCategoryWorkResultRef.
The New York Council of the Navy League of the United States 1986 Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with JapanWon [5]
Society for Military History 2001Distinguished Book AwardsAt War, at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth CenturyWon [11]
[12]
[13]
2002The Oxford Companion to American Military HistoryWon
2012Samuel Eliot Morison PrizeHonored [14]

Bibliography

Books

Articles

Papers

References

  1. "National Archives NextGen Catalog, Spector, Ronald H., 1943-". National Archives and Records Administration . Archived from the original on November 12, 2024. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  2. "Spector, Ronald H. | Elliott School of International Affairs | The George Washington University". Elliott School of International Affairs . Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  3. "Ronald H. Spector | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived from the original on November 13, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  4. "Dissertations by year, 1960-1969 | Department of History". Department of History - Yale University . Archived from the original on November 13, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 "Spector, Ronald H. | Department of History | Columbian College of Arts & Sciences | The George Washington University". Department of History - Columbian College of Arts and Sciences . Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  6. "Ronald H. Spector | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  7. "Minutes of the 1989 Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation". Office of the Historian . November 16, 1989. Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  8. "1990 Report of the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation". American Historical Association . October 1, 1990. Archived from the original on April 27, 2025. Retrieved April 27, 2025.
  9. "Society for Military History Announces Its Annual Awards". American Historical Association . April 1, 2012. Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  10. "Samuel Eliot Morison Prize". Society for Military History . Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  11. "Content Advisory Committee". Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund . Archived from the original on April 1, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  12. "Distinguished Book Awards". Society for Military History . Archived from the original on April 9, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  13. "The Society for Military History Distinguished Book Awards". Minnesota State University Moorhead . Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  14. "2012 Society for Military History award winners announced". History News Network . May 3, 2012. Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 11, 2024.
  15. Coletta, Paolo E. (1975). "Reviewed Work: Admiral of the New Empire: The Life and Career of George Dewey Ronald Spector". The Journal of American History . 62 (2). Oxford University Press: 439–440. doi:10.2307/1903330. ISSN   1936-0967. JSTOR   1903330.
  16. Karsten, Peter (1979). "Reviewed Work: Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval Profession Ronald Spector". The American Historical Review . 84 (3). Oxford University Press: 865–866. doi:10.1086/ahr/84.3.865-a. ISSN   1937-5239. JSTOR   1855614.
  17. Doughty, Robert A. (1984). "Reviewed Work: United States Army in Vietnam: Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 Ronald H. Spector". The Journal of American History . 71 (2). Oxford University Press: 420–421. doi:10.2307/1901816. ISSN   1936-0967. JSTOR   1901816.
  18. Middleton, Drew (November 5, 1984). "Books of the Times". The New York Times . p. 15. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 10, 2024. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  19. Safer, Morley (April 11, 1993). "A Time for Dying". The New York Times . p. 14. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  20. Reid, Brian Holden (2001). "Reviewed Work: The Oxford Companion to American Military History by John Whiteclay Chambers II, Fred Anderson, Lynn Eden, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Ronald H. Spector, G. Kurt Piehler". The Journal of American History . 88 (2). Oxford University Press: 617–618. doi:10.2307/2675115. ISSN   1936-0967. JSTOR   2675115.
  21. Cohen, Eliot A. (November 1, 2001). "Review: At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century". Foreign Affairs . Vol. 80, no. 6. Council on Foreign Relations. ISSN   0015-7120. JSTOR   20050360. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  22. Samuels, Richard J. (September 9, 2007). "Victorious and Clueless". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  23. Gallicchio, Marc (2009). "Review: In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia, by Ronald H. Spector". Pacific Historical Review . 78 (2). University of California Press: 325–326. doi:10.1525/phr.2009.78.2.325. ISSN   1533-8584. JSTOR   10.1525/phr.2009.78.2.325.
  24. Jager, Sheila Miyoshi (August 30, 2022). "When Japan Surrendered, Wars Broke Out". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved April 26, 2025.