John Willard Shy (March 23, 1931 – April 8, 2022) was a military historian and professor emeritus at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Shy was part of a group of military historians who examined the interplay of the military, politics, and society in the colonial and revolutionary periods of American history.

Education

Born in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, Shy attended 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 ...

, graduating with a B.S. degree in the class of 1952. He received his M.A. degree in history from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

in 1957. Shy graduated with his Ph.D. degree in history from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1961. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''The British army in North America, 1760-1775''.

Career

Shy was commissioned as a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

officer in 1952 and served on active duty until 1955. He transitioned to the

Army Reserve A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve ...

and ultimately attained the rank of captain. Shy became an associate professor at Princeton in 1959, an associate professor at Michigan in 1968 and a full professor there in 1971. He was a visiting professor at the

United States Army War College The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military offic ...

from 1974 to 1975. Shy specialized in the American Colonial and Revolutionary periods. The University of Michigan presented him with the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in 1994. Shy received the Morison Prize from the

Society for Military History The Society for Military History is a United States–based international organization of scholars who research, write, and teach military history of all time periods and places. It includes naval history, air power history, and studies of technol ...

in 2002. Shy gave the 2008 George C. Marshall Lecture in Military History. Shy lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan after his retirement and died in 2022.

Selected works

*Paret, Peter, and John W. Shy. ''Guerrillas in the 1960s''. New York: Published for the Center of International Studies, Princeton University, by Praeger, 1962. *Shy, John W. ''Toward Lexington; The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965. *Shy, John W. ''A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. *Gilbert, Benjamin, and John W. Shy. ''Winding Down: The Revolutionary War Letters of Lieutenant Benjamin Gilbert of Massachusetts, 1780–1783: From His Original Manuscript Letterbook in the William L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan''. nn Arbor University of Michigan Press, 1989.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shy, John 1931 births 2022 deaths United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Ohio United States Army officers United States Army reservists University of Vermont alumni Princeton University faculty Princeton University alumni Military historians Historians of the American Revolution University of Michigan faculty United States Army War College faculty