Michael S. Neiberg is an American historian, author, and professor specializing in the First and Second World Wars, especially the American and French experiences. He is Professor of History and the inaugural Chair of War Studies at the United States Army War College, and is known for books including Dance of the Furies, The Blood of Free Men, Potsdam, and When France Fell.
Background
Michael Scott Neiberg was born on August 2, 1969, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, to Laurence Neiberg, a teacher, and Phyllis Neiberg. His scholarly career developed from an early grounding in American higher education and later focused on the political, social, and international dimensions of modern warfare, particularly the history of France, the United States, and Western Europe during the two world wars.
Education
Neiberg attended the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1991. He subsequently studied at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, earning a master's degree in 1992 and a Ph.D. in history in 1996. His doctoral training in social and policy history contributed to the approach that characterizes his later work, which examines warfare through political, diplomatic, social, and cultural as well as operational perspectives.
Career
Neiberg began his academic career at the United States Air Force Academy, where he served successively as an assistant professor of history, associate professor, and professor of history between 1998 and 2005. In 2005 he joined the University of Southern Mississippi as a professor of history and co-director of the Center for the Study of War and Society. His research and teaching there centered on military history, the First World War, American military history, and the relationship between war and society.
In 2015 Neiberg was selected as the inaugural Chair of War Studies at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the Department of National Security and Strategy. He serves as Professor of History and Chair of War Studies, working with senior-level national-security professionals and using historical models to examine global crises, strategy, political violence, and international security. His published scholarship specializes in the First and Second World Wars, with particular attention to the American and French experiences and to the wider history of Western Europe. He has also been associated with the Foreign Policy Research Institute as a senior fellow in its Center for the Study of America and the West.
Achievements
Michael Scott Neiberg has been listed as a noteworthy history professor by Marquis Who's Who.
The Wall Street Journal named Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I one of the five best books ever written about the First World War.
Fighting the Great War: A Global History received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award in 2006.
Neiberg's Making Citizen-Soldiers: ROTC and the Ideology of American Military Service was a finalist for the Thomas J. Wilson Prize and was named an Association of American University Presses Book for Understanding Our Times.
(An edited collection examining the origins, development, ...)
2006
The Great War Reader
(An edited collection of primary and secondary sources on ...)
2006
Arms and the Man: A Festschrift in Honor of Dennis Showalter
(Co-edited scholarly collection honoring historian Dennis ...)
2011
Finding Common Ground: New Directions in First World War Studies
(Co-edited with Jennifer D. Keene, this volume presents ne...)
2011
Views
Neiberg has emphasized the value of historical thinking for national-security professionals. He argues that history helps decision-makers recognize the complexity of global crises, identify connections among political and social conditions, and avoid reducing contemporary problems to the immediate headlines or to narrowly military explanations.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
The Wall Street Journal named Neiberg's Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I one of the five best books ever written about the First World War.
Connections
Neiberg married Barbara Neiberg on December 17, 1994. His parents were Laurence Neiberg, a teacher, and Phyllis Neiberg.
Father:
Laurence Neiberg
Neiberg's father, who worked as a teacher.
Mother:
Phyllis Neiberg
Neiberg's mother.
Spouse:
Barbara Neiberg
Neiberg's wife; they married on December 17, 1994.