Get The Elliott School Advantage
Watch our video and learn the advantages of an Elliott School education.
Watch Video
Full-time Faculty
Ronald H. Spector
Professor of History and International Affairs
On Leave, AY 09-10
Phillips 332
801 22nd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052
Phone: (202) 994-6425
Fax: (202) 994-6231
E-mail: spector@gwu.edu
Education:
Ph.D., Yale University
Expertise:
History of US foreign policy, modern naval and military history
Background:
Professor Spector received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins and his MA and Ph.D. from Yale.
He has served in various government positions and on active duty in the Marine Corps from 1967-1969 and 1983-1984, and was the first civilian to become Director of Naval History and the head of the Naval Historical Center. He has served on the faculties of LSU, Alabama and Princeton and has been a senior Fulbright lecturer in India and Israel. In 1995-1996 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Strategy at the National War College and was the Distinguished Guest Professor at Keio University, Tokyo in 2000.
At the Elliott School, Spector offers undergraduate and graduate courses on US-East Asia Relations, World War II, and the Vietnam War as well as a graduate seminar on Naval history and one on strategy.
His publications include: In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia (2007, paperback 2008); Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval Profession (2005); At War At Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century (2002); After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (1994); and Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan (1985). At War At Sea received the Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History, and Eagle Against the Sun won the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Prize for Naval History. Professor Spector is currently working on a study of the immediate aftermath of World War II in China and Southeast Asia.
Courses Taught:
Hist 126 The U.S. and the Wars in IndoChina, 1945-1975
Hist 127 The U.S., Japan, and East Asia Since 1900
Hist 129 War and the Military in American Society
Hist 228 Seminar: Modern Military and Naval History
Hist 229 Seminar: World War II
Hist 230 Readings Seminar: Strategy and Policy
Last update: 8/11/2009