Contemporary Historians Series: Reflections on the American Profession of Arms
In 2012, the Presidio Trust continues its popular Contemporary Historians at the Presidio lecture series. Talks by nationally known historians cover large themes in American and world history, and put the Presidio into context as a former military post and an innovative national park.
Reflections on the American Profession of Arms
Featuring Richard W. Stewart, Chief Historian of the U.S. Army Center of Military History
What are the roots of the profession of arms? What unique aspects have been added by the American Army’s practice of that profession over the past two hundred years? Why have Americans sometimes celebrated their soldiers and the martial arts while at other times they have exhibited a deep distrust and even hostility to those same soldiers and to the study of war? Is the American Army truly a reflection of American society? And finally, how has the creation of a highly skilled professional Army, now tested in war over the past ten years, changed the way in which the profession of arms is viewed?
Richard W. Stewart was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as the Chief Historian of the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, in Washington D.C. in 2006. Prior to assuming this post, he was the Chief of Histories Division, Center of Military History; Command Historian at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and the Center for Army Lessons Learned, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1986.
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