Ronald Harvey Spector (born January 17, 1943) is a military historian, who contributes to scholarly journals and also teaches history. He is currently a professor at the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

Military career

He enlisted in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

and served in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, 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 The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

. He was tasked to prepare a study of the Grenada operation.

Education

He graduated from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, and later gained a Ph.D from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

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

The George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presid ...

in Washington, DC.

Publications

* ''A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955''. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2022. * ''In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia''. New York: Random House, 2007. * ''At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Warfare in the Twentieth Century''. New York: Viking Press, 2001. * ''The Oxford Companion to American Military History''. New York: Oxford University Press: 1999. Co-edited with Fred Anderson, John W. Chambers, Lynn Eden and Joseph Glatthaar. * ''After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam''. New York: Free Press, 1993. * ''Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan''. New York: Free Press and Macmillan, 1984. * ''Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960 - The U.S. Army in Vietnam, Volume 1'' (1983) * ''Professors of War: The Naval College and the Development of the Naval Profession'' (1977) * ''Admiral of the New Empire: The Life and Career of George Dewey'' (1974, second edition 1988)

Awards

Spector was awarded the

Samuel Eliot Morison Prize 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 ...

, for his breadth of contributions to the field of military history. 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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spector, Ronald H. Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers United States Marine Corps officers United States Marine Corps personnel of the Vietnam War University of Alabama faculty George Washington University faculty Yale University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni United States Marine Corps reservists 1943 births American male non-fiction writers