The Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee was established in January 1947 within the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. In 1996, it was made a subcommittee of the

Department of Defense Historical Advisory Committee Department of Defense Historical Advisory Committee was chartered on 24 Jan 1996. Its purpose is to provide advice to the United States Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments regarding the professional standards, histor ...

History

The Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee is the oldest of the historical advisory committees within the U.S. Department of Defense. Its antecedents were the very short-lived Advisory Board on Historical Work to the Army War College's Historical Section in 1928-1930 and, more directly, a group of three civilians and three officers, who met from May 1943 to 1946 to draft plans for the Army's history of the Second World War that led to the creation of what would become the

United States Army Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...

. The Secretary of the Army appoints members, which includes civilian scholars as well as those who represent the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

, the Army War College, the

Command and General Staff College The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military ...

, and the

Training and Doctrine Command The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is a major command of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is charged with overseeing training of Army forces and the development of operational doctrine. ...

. The committee meets annually to review and to advise on the current and future plans of the

Chairmen

The following, listed in chronological order, have served as chairmen of the committee. In those case where individuals have also served as individual members their names and dates are also shown separately for that service in the alphabetical list of members: *

James Phinney Baxter III James Phinney Baxter III (February 15, 1893 in Portland, Maine – June 17, 1975 in Williamstown, Massachusetts) was an American historian, educator, and academic, who won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book ''Scientists Against Time ...

, 1943–1955 *

Henry Wriston Henry Merritt Wriston (July 4, 1889 – March 8, 1978) was an American educator, presidential advisor, and served as president at both Brown University and Lawrence University. Early life Henry Merritt Wriston was born in Laramie, Wyoming, Laramie ...

, 1955–1956 *

Elmer Ellis Elmer Ellis (July 27, 1901 – August 27, 1989) was an American educator and fourteenth president of the University of Missouri, from 1955 to 1966, and first president of the University of Missouri System. He was instrumental in the expansion ...

, 1957–1958 * Fred H. Harrington, 1959–1961 * Oran J. Hale, 1961–1962 * Fred C. Cole, 1963–1967 *

Walter C. Langsam Walter Consuelo Langsam (January 2, 1906 – August 14, 1985) was president of the University of Cincinnati from 1955 to 1971. Langsam was a historian. He wrote 15 books, including "The World Since 1919". He was succeeded by Warren G. Bennis. L ...

, 1967–1972 * Otis A. Singetary, 1972-
Jon T. Sumida
2003–2005

Members

Samuel Flagg Bemis Samuel Flagg Bemis (October 20, 1891 – September 26, 1973) was an American historian and biographer. For many years he taught at Yale University. He was also president of the American Historical Association and a specialist in American dip ...

, 1955–1958 * Charles B. Burdick, 1966–1971 * Edward M. Coffman, 1971- * Harry L. Coles, 1975- *

Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. In the 19 ...

, 1943–1952 *

Gordon A. Craig Gordon Alexander Craig (November 13, 1913 – October 30, 2005) was a Scottish-American liberal historian of German history and of diplomatic history. Early life Craig was born in Glasgow. In 1925 he emigrated with his family to Toronto, Onta ...

, 1953–1958 *

, 1954–1956 * William H. Emerson, 1960–1965 * James A. Field, Jr., 1963–1968 * Douglas S. Freeman, 1947–1952 *

Frank Freidel Frank Burt Freidel, Jr. (May 22, 1916 – January 25, 1993) was an American historian, the first major biographer of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and one of the first scholars to work on his papers stored in the Roosevelt Library ...

, 1973- * Oron J. Hale, 1958–1960, 1963 * E. Pendleton Herring, 1943–1952 * John D. Hicks, 1947–1954 * W. Stull Holt, 1955–1960 * William T. Hutchinson, 1947–1956 * Richard W. Leopold, 1966–1971 *

S. L. A. Marshall Brigadier General Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, also known as SLAM, (July 18, 1900 – December 17, 1977) was a military journalist and historian. He served with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, before becoming a journalist, spec ...

, 1947–1954 *

Ernest R. May Ernest Richard May (November 19, 1928 – June 1, 2009) was an American historian of international relations, whose 14 published books include analyses of American involvement in World War I and the causes of the Fall of France during World War ...

, 1964–1969 *

Louis Morton Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...

, 1968–1972 *

Peter Paret Peter Paret (April 13, 1924 – September 11, 2020) was a German-born American cultural and intellectual historian, whose two principal areas of research were war and the interaction of art and politics from 18th to 20th century Europe.

, 1971- * Forrest C. Pogue, 1969–1974 * Earl S. Pomeroy, 1960–1965 *

Charles P. Roland Charles Pierce Roland (April 8, 1918 – April 12, 2022) was an American historian and professor emeritus of the University of Kentucky who was known for his research field of the American South and the U.S. Civil War. Roland was a Captain in th ...

, 1964–1969 *

Theodore Ropp Theodore Ropp (1911–2000) was an American historian who served as a professor at Duke University. Academic career Theodore Ropp's first teaching position was as an instructor in history at Harvard University in 1937–38. In 1938, Duke Univers ...

, 1961–1966 * E. Dwight Salmon, 1947–1952 * Charles S. Snydor, 1950–1953 * Charles H. Taylor, 1947–1952 * Frank E. Vandiver, 1969–1974 * Russell F. Weigley, 1975- * Bell I. Wiley, 1958–1963 *

T. Harry Williams Thomas Harry Williams (May 19, 1909 — July 8, 1979) was an American academic and author. For the majority of his academic career between the 1930s to 1970s, Williams taught history at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, Williams was a Boyd ...

, 1955–1960Elizabeth A. Brennan & Elizabeth C. Clarage, ''Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners'' (Oryx Press, 1999): 37. * C. Vann Woodward, 1957–1962 * Walter L. Wright, 1947–1949 * James Carafano, ?-

Sources

* Richard W. Leopold, "Historians and the Federal Government: Historical Advisory Committees: State, Defense, and the Atomic Energy Commission," ''The Pacific Historical Review'', vol. 44, No. 3. (Aug 1975), pp. 373–385.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Department Of The Army Historical Advisory Committee History of the United States Army Military historiography History organizations based in the United States