Meet our featured tour historians and special guests.
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John C. McManus, PhD
John C. McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of US Military History at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and one of the world’s leading historians of World War II. He has written 12 books, most of which cover some aspect of the American combat experience in World War II, including The Americans at D-Day, The Americans at Normandy, September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, Alamo in the Ardennes, and The Dead and Those About to Die, D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach. He is in frequent demand as a speaker and has made hundreds of appearances as an expert commentator for radio and television outlets. He has appeared in numerous major documentaries that have aired on PBS, the History Channel, Netflix, the Smithsonian Network, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and others.
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Michael Neiberg
Michael Neiberg is the Professor of History and Chair of War Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. His published work specializes on the First and Second World Wars in global context. The Wall Street Journal named his Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War one of the five best books ever written about that war. He is also the author of The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, 1944, Potsdam: The End of World War II, The Remaking of Europe, The Path To War: How the First World War Created Modern America, and The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History.
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James Holland
James Holland is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of the best-selling Fortress Malta, Battle of Britain, and Dam Busters, he has also written nine works of historical fiction, five of which feature the heroic Jack Tanner, a soldier of the Second World War. He is currently writing a three-volume new history of the Second World War in the West. The first volume, The War in the West: Germany Ascendant, 1939-1941, and the second, The Allies Strike Back: 1941-1943, are complete. He regularly appears on television and radio, and has written and presented the BAFTA-shortlisted documentaries, Battle of Britain and Dam Busters for the BBC, as well as the Battle for Malta, Cold War, Hot Jets, and Normandy 44.
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Richard Frank
Richard Frank is an international expert on World War II. After graduating from the University of Missouri, he was commissioned in the United States Army, where he served for nearly four years, including a tour of duty in Vietnam as an aerorifle platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. He completed studies at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC., and afterward began research on his first book, Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Campaign. He has appeared and consulted on numerous television and radio programs, including the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Although his publications have focused on the Asia-Pacific War, Frank has also deeply studied the war in Europe, specifically armored and airborne operations, as well as numerous issues common to the European and Pacific theaters.
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Col. Ian Hope, PhD
Colonel Hope served 36 years in uniform, including 18 years in leadership roles with airborne and mechanized infantry battalions. Operational experiences include the first Gulf War, and multiple tours in the Balkans, Africa, and Afghanistan. He commanded the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group (Task Force Orion) in combat in Kandahar in 2006. In 2012-13 he commanded the NATO/Afghan National Army Collective Training (Fielding) Centre in Kabul. He earned a Masters of Military Arts and Science, a Masters of Strategic Studies, and a PhD in History from Queen’s University, and is the author of A Scientific Way of War (2015), Dancing with the Dushman (2008), Unity of Command in Afghanistan: A Forsaken Principle of War (2007). He currently teaches at the NATO Defense College in Rome.
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Kara Dixon Vuic
Kara Dixon Vuic, PhD is the LCpl Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict, and Society at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Dr. Vuic received her B.A. in History and English from Marshall University, and her M.A. and PhD in History from Indiana University. Her extensive research brings together the history of wars and militarization, the history of gender and sexuality, and social and cultural history. At TCU, she teaches courses on war and society, modern US history, American women’s history, and the history of gender and wars. Her publications include Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War and the upcoming, much anticipated work The Girls Next Door: Bringing the Home Front to the Front Lines.