The Society for Military History

Robert Berlin

Established in 1933 as the American Military History Foundation, renamed in 1939 the American Military Institute, and renamed again in 1990 the Society for Military History (SMH), the SMH is devoted to stimulating and advancing the study of military history. Its membership (of more than 2,300 individuals) includes scholars, students, soldiers, and citizens interested in military history. Many members are historians at universities and public historians working for agencies of the federal and state governments and public and private institutions. Members are from all fifty states, U.S. territories and many countries, making the society an international organization.

The society's officers and twelve trustees are elected every two years. Currently, the President is Tim Nenninger of the National Archives, and Alex Roland of Duke University is the Vice President. Regional Coordinators work to encourage military history activities and panels at regional conferences and historical meetings. The society is affiliated with the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association and is an active member and supporter of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History and contributes to National History Day.

Membership in the SMH comes with numerous benefits including a subscription to The Journal of Military History. Published quarterly by the George C. Marshall Foundation and the Virginia Military Institute and edited by Bruce Vandervort and Larry I. Bland with an Editorial Advisory Board headed by Ira Gruber, The Journal of Military History is the premier scholarly publication in the field and always welcomes article submissions covering all facets of military history. The current issue includes articles on: the Korean War by Allan R. Millett, the Allied Landings at Gallipoli by Tim Travers, memoirs, documents, nearly one hundred book reviews, an overview of articles published in other journals, and the annual index.

Members also receive the society's quarterly newsletter, Headquarters Gazette, edited by Kurt Hackemer of the University of South Dakota. Each issue provides society news, information on the activities of military historians, calls for papers, a meetings calendar, and articles relative to current events. The most recent issue, for example, includes a review of the film Pearl Harbor by Nicholas Evans Sarantakes.

The highlight of the year for society members is the annual meeting usually held in April or May. Hundreds of members and guests gather to hear a range of panels and papers in all fields of military history, to tour interesting sites, see old colleagues and meet new friends, dine together, hear noted speakers, and examine the latest publications in the field. The 2001 annual meeting was held at and sponsored by the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Thanks to the efforts of the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and the Department of History, society members experienced Canadian hospitality and scholarship.

The Society for Military History's next annual meeting--its sixty-ninth--will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, 4-7 April 2002 and is sponsored by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and coordinated by its director Rich Zeitlin. The meeting will be held at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Monona Terrace Convention Center. The theme for the meeting is "War and Remembrance, Constructing the Military Past and Future." For the first time the society is making available grants for graduate students whose papers are accepted by the program committee, headed by Jerry Cooper of the Department of History, University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The society's seventieth annual meeting will be 1-4 May 2003 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and will be sponsored by the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. One of the highlights of the annual meeting is the awards lunch where the society recognizes outstanding military historians for their activities and publications. This year's winners included: John Whiteclay Chambers II for The Oxford Companion to American Military History (Oxford University Press); and Brian McAllister Linn for The Philippine War, 1899-1902 (University Press of Kansas). The current awards committee is accepting book submissions and is headed by Jennie Kiesling of the Department of History at the United States Military Academy.

In cooperation with The George C. Marshall Foundation, the Society for Military History sponsors the annual George C. Marshall lecture presented annually at a prominent historical meeting. The next lecture will be held at the 2002 OAH Annual Meeting, 11-14 April, in Washington, D.C. Anyone interested in military history is welcome and encouraged to join the society. For more information, visit http:/www.smh-hq.org.

Robert H. Berlin is executive director of the Society for Military History.