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James G. Hershberg

Associate Professor of History and International Affairs

Phillips 326
801 22nd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052

Phone: (202) 994-6476
Fax: (202) 994-6231
E-mail: jhershb@gwu.edu

Education:

Ph.D., Tufts University

Expertise:

International history of the Cold War, contemporary international relations, nuclear history

Background:

Born in New York City (Brooklyn) in 1960, Professor Hershberg received an A.B. in American History from Harvard College in 1982; a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in 1985; and a Ph. D. from Tufts University in 1989. After teaching at Tufts and the California Institute of Technology in 1989-91, he directed the Cold War International History Project (and edited the project's Bulletin) from 1991-96 before coming to George Washington University in 1997 and now edits the CWIHP book series co-published by the Stanford University and Wilson Center Presses. He is the author of James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (Knopf, 1993; Stanford University Press, 1995), a study of the former Harvard president, atomic bomb project administrator, diplomat, and educational commentator. He received the 1994 Stuart Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy. Other scholarly and popular articles have focused on topics related to the Cold War and nuclear history such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam and Afghanistan Wars, the Iran-contra affair, and revelations from the communist archives.

Currently working on various case studies of US communications with Cold War adversaries (Cuba, China, North Vietnam, Iran), he is a co-founder of "GWCW", a Cold War studies group at GWU for both faculty and students, and works closely with the National Security Archive, a declassified documents repository and research institute based at the University.

Courses Taught:

Hist 101 History of the Nuclear Arms Race
Hist 182 20th Century American Foreign Policy
Hist 282 History of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1898-1980
Hist 297 New Evidence on Cold War History

Last update: 07.10.08