Military History

[willemvanoranje]

I was wondering if anyone is applying to, doing, or has done a program in military history and what your experiences are.

I am a Dutch student from Utrecht and will do my military history master in the UK next year. I got into Glasgow but am still keeping my fingers crossed for King's College London.

For PhD I am also thinking about American universities since I went on exchange to UW Madison for a semester and I like the level of education.

Anyone doing something with military history here?

I am personally mostly interested in 20th century military history, conventional conflicts like both World Wars but mostly guerrilla wars, especially in Southern Africa.

[Nikki]

I applied for military history PhD programs (my interests are 20th century US military - naval and aviation).

[chickadee21]

I'm really interested in military history too, though I don't know if I'll end up focusing on it in grad school - depends where I end up. My main area of interest is World War II, especially in Western Europe.

willemvanoranje, I'd recommend looking at WUSTL- I went there for my undergrad and had several great professors who encouraged my interest in military history. UNC Chapel Hill and Yale both provide good support for military history research, as does Ohio State. Best of luck!

[Mercer]

Ohio State may be the best military history program in the U.S. I've heard that UNC is pretty good too.

[Joe Lordan]

Ohio State may be the best military history program in the U.S. I've heard that UNC is pretty good too.

How about the University of Kansas? My interest is American involvement World War 1, I know that the museum is in Kansas City (an amazing place, check it out if you're ever in the area) but I don't know if the proximity to the museum and national monument breeds academics who make WW1 their professional focus

Edited March 4, 2010 by Joe Lordan

[Mercer]

How about the University of Kansas? My interest is American involvement World War 1, I know that the museum is in Kansas City (an amazing place, check it out if you're ever in the area) but I don't know if the proximity to the museum and national monument breeds academics who make WW1 their professional focus

I've heard of Kansas' program, but I honestly don't know much about it.

[Encomendero]

I think it depends on which are you want. I would go to Ohio State if you were interested in Early Modern or Modern Strategy. Kansas has a superb program for American. It just depends. UNC and Duke are perhaps the most well rounded though.

[willemvanoranje]

Thanks for the advices. I looked at the UPenn and Ohio State programs just now and they seem quite good. UNC/Duke is also interesting, especially since you can take classes from both if you are in one of them. In any case it's good to know that there are more military history programs in the US than I thought.

I prefer a school that gives considerable freedom in choosing the major, or already has a specific major program military history. My main interest is Southern African military history but most African History programs are not really into that, so going to a school that only allows regional specializations is not very attractive for me.

I know Duke allows a major in military history and saw the same is true for Ohio.

If it's too hard to fit my interests in a program then I might go to the UK for PhD as well. They have some good schools with faculty interested in military history, and US military history is not what I want to specialize in.