Background
Weigley, Russell Frank was born on July 2, 1930 in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Frank Francis and Meta Beulah (Rohrbach) Weigley.
( A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the ...)
A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the events which continue to dominate the American imagination and identity nearly 150 years after the war’s end. In personal as well as historical terms, more even than the war for independence, the Civil War has been the defining experience of American democracy. A lifelong student of both strategy and tactics, Weigley also brings to his account a deep understanding of the importance of individuals from generals to captains to privates. He can put the reader on the battlefield as well as anyone who has ever written about war. All of the important engagements are covered, and he does it countless times in A Great Civil War. From Fort Sumter to the early clashes in the West and border states to the naval encounters in the East and on through the great and horrible battles whose names resound in American history―Shiloh, Corinth, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Antietam, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomattox. A brilliant narrator of battle action and historical events, Weigley is never content merely to tell a good story. Every student of war will find new insights and interpretations at the strategic and the tactical level. There are firm judgments throughout of the leaders on both sides of the conflict. A Great Civil War also analyzes the politics of both sides in relationship to battlefield situations. Weigley is unique in his ability to put all of the pieces on the board at once; the reader understands as never before how war and politics (and individuals) interacted to produce the infinitely complex story which is the Civil War. As with any major work, there are themes and subtexts, explicit and implicit: Both sides began the war with strategic and tactical concepts based on Napoleon which were already obsolete because of changes in technology―and both sides struggled throughout the war to develop new strategic and tactical procedures. The Civil War was great not only in the massiveness of the slaughter and destruction. It was, for all its horror, a war about values―democracy and the freeing of the slaves―that was worth the effort. The South, despite its powerful defense, was ultimately ambivalent about leaving the Union and gave up more easily than might have been expected. Finally, there is an intimacy, a sense of personal urgency, in Weigley’s grand account. He is connected by blood as well as profession. Jacob Weigley, the author’s great grandfather, visited Gettysburg soon after the battle and wrote about it to his brother Francis, who was serving with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry; Francis later died in a Confederate prison camp. Then and now the Weigleys live in Pennsylvania, and the war and its lessons remain part of the family’s living memory, as it is also the nation’s.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253337380/?tag=2022091-20
(Age of Battles : Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenf...)
Age of Battles : Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo by Russell F. Weigley. Indiana University Press,1991
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OQ6XFG/?tag=2022091-20
(A collection of scholarly essays commemorating Philadelph...)
A collection of scholarly essays commemorating Philadelphia's 300th anniversary. Table of contents, acknowledgments, endnotes, index, biographical sketches of authors and contributors. Black and white illustrations throughout. xii, 842 pages. cloth, dust jacket, spine gilt-stamped, fore-edge uncut. 8vo..
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( "... a strong and stimulating book. It has no rival in ...)
"... a strong and stimulating book. It has no rival in either scope or quality. For libraries, history buffs, and armchair warriors, it is a must. For political science students, career diplomats, and officers in the armed services, its reading should be required." ―History "A particularly timely account." ―Kansas City Times "It reads easily but is not a popularized history... nor does the book become a history of battles.... Weigley’s analyses and interpretations are searching, competent, and useful." ―Perspective
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/025328029X/?tag=2022091-20
(Russell F. Wiegley's study, the History of the United Sta...)
Russell F. Wiegley's study, the History of the United States Army is not for the casual reader. Neither is it for the reader looking for a one-volume "drum and trumpet" history of American wars. It is not an attempt to show how the United States army fits into the social, economic, and political fabric of the nation. This is pure institutional history. Admittedly, it is rather unique institutional history-the history of General Motors or IBM would not read the same way-but it is as close to being history in a vacuum as one could imagine for an organization that is so complex and subject to outside forces.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0026256401/?tag=2022091-20
( "One of the most interesting, important, and ambitious ...)
"One of the most interesting, important, and ambitious books about the conduct, and perhaps the ultimate futility, of war." ―Gunther E. Rothenberg "A highly scholarly and wonderfully absorbing study." ―John Bayley, The London Review of Books "What Russell F. Weigley writes, the rest of us read. The Age of Battles is a persuasive reminder that even in the age of ‘rational’ warfare, one can honestly wonder why war seemed an unavoidable policy choice." ―Allan R. Millett, The Journal of American History
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253217075/?tag=2022091-20
Military historian university professor
Weigley, Russell Frank was born on July 2, 1930 in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Frank Francis and Meta Beulah (Rohrbach) Weigley.
He graduated from Albright College in 1952, attended the University of Pennsylvania for his master"s degree and doctorate, and wrote his dissertation under Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Roy F. Nichols.
His research and teaching interests centered on American and world military history, World World War II, and the American Civil War. One of Weigley"s most widely received contributions to research is his hypothesis of a specifically American Way of War, id est (that is) an approach to strategy and military operations, that, while not predetermined, is distinct to the United States because of cultural and historical constraints. lieutenant was published as Quartermaster General of the Union Army: A Biography of Medical Corps Meigs (Columbia University Press, 1959).
After receiving his degree, Weigley taught at Penn from 1956 to 1958, and from 1958 to 1962 at Drexel University.
Then he joined the faculty at Temple as an associate professor and remained until his retirement in 1998 as Distinguished University Professor. The school considered him the heart and soul of the History department, and at one point he had over 30 Doctor of Philosophy candidates working under him concurrently.
He also was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and the United States. Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Weigley"s graduate teaching emphasized military history defined in a broadly comprehensive way, including operational, combat history but also extending to the larger issues of war and its significance.
To the history of ideas about war, peace, and the armed forces.
And to the place of the soldier in the state and in society. Weigley died in Philadelphia on March 3, 2004 of a heart attack.
( A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the ...)
( "One of the most interesting, important, and ambitious ...)
(Age of Battles : Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenf...)
(A collection of scholarly essays commemorating Philadelph...)
(a strong and stimulating book. It has no rival in either ...)
(Non Fiction)
(Russell F. Wiegley's study, the History of the United Sta...)
( "... a strong and stimulating book. It has no rival in ...)
Member history advisory commission Department of Army, Washington, 1976-1979, 88—92, 2003-2004, Pennsylvania History Records Advisory Committee, Harrisburg, 1977-1979. Board directors Masonic Library., Museum of Pennsylvania, The Grand Lodge of Masons of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1990-1995, 1997-2003. Member History Society Pennsylvania (vice chairman 1989-1993, councilor 1983-1989, 92-98, emeritus 1998-2004), Pennsylvania History Association (president 1975-1978, vice president 1967-1975, council 1967-2004, editor journal 1962-1967), American History Association, Organization American Historians, Society Military History (Distinguished Book award 1992), Southern History Association, Society of America Historians Inc., Interuniv.
Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, American Philosophical Society, Masons (33d degree, Scottish rite supreme council northern Masonic jurisdiction 1999).
Married Emma Eleanor Seifrit, July 27, 1963. Children: Jared Francis Guldin, Catherine Emma Rohrbach.