USAHEC Perspectives Lectures Series (Audio)

Dr. Robert F. Williams, Army University Press Research Historian & author, delivers his lecture titled “The Airborne Mafia: Organizational Culture and Institutional Change in the Cold War US Army” at the United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC). 

The lecture explores how a small group of World War II airborne officers took control of the US Army after World War II. Dominating institutional thought and imparting their values, beliefs, and norms throughout the service they enjoyed a special privilege within the group culture. Focusing on the paratrooper triumvirate of Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and James Gavin and the lasting impression they made on how the US Army fought.

Major Brennan Deveraux a U.S. Army strategist serving as a national security researcher at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, delivers his lecture, "Strike Cell: Exterminating ISIS during Operation Inherent Resolve".

The lecture will explore Major Deveraux’s 2016 deployment to Iraq as the theater-level rocket artillery liaison in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. The presentation covers critical themes of, employing emerging technologies, airspace deconfliction on a modern battlefield, collateral damage in urban warfare, the dehumanization of the enemy, and the impact of “virtual warfare” on service members and will conclude looking to the future and a tie-in to modern conflicts from the transparent battlefield to the controversial components of drone strikes.

Major Brennan Deveraux has three defense-related master’s degrees and focuses his research on military adaptation, emerging-technology management, and the characteristics of future warfare. Deveraux is the author of numerous books; his most recent book is the war memoir Exterminating ISIS: Behind the Curtain of a Technological War.

The General Omar N. Bradley Memorial Lecture, Patton's Finest Hours, explores how Third Army commander George S Patton performed at his very best during the deadliest battle of WW2 for the US Army. 

Alex Kershaw is a journalist and a New York Times bestselling author of books on World War II. Born in York, England, he is a graduate of Oxford University and has lived in the United States since 1994.

Presenting the first Perspectives in Military History Lecture of the 57th Season! This month we welcome Dr. Michael Neiberg, Chair of War Studies and Professor at the U.S. Army War College.

The best way to understand the crises in Europe today is through rigorous study of European history since at least 1914.This presentation uses the War College's "Historical Mindedness" methodology to better understand where Europe is today, where it might go in the future, and the options open to Americans as we relate to it. Ultimately, it asks whether Europe can truly be, as President George H. W. Bush, hoped, "Whole, Free, and at Peace" given the legacies of its complicated past.

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is excited to present a special American Revolution lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson. The lecture focuses on his book, “The Fate of the Day,” the second volume in his Revolution trilogy.