Read the Sheehan along with Stephen B Johnson’s work on the USAF and innovation, and Jacob Neufeld on the USAF and ballistic missiles. For the incredible story of the Army effort and its Germans, see the Michael Neufeld book on von Braun.
Long story. It’s true it was partly just self interest. They had kept the ICBM project alive with a bit of their own money and felt this wasn’t rewarded. If you read the Sheehan book, you’ll see he was very anti-Convair. But Convair and others rightly questioned why R-W, a tiny outfit, was selected.
The main one I’m referring to here is that while it’s true the Air Force decided against Convair as prime for Atlas, WDD used an intermediary, Ramo-Wooldridge (which would become TRW) to coordinate the vast early ICBM projects. Convair and others resented this, with some good reason, in my view.
In my view the Navy’s Polaris program is more impressive and perhaps closer to the model you are imagining.
In the book I hope to publish next year, I have a chapter comparing the Army, Air Force, and Navy ballistic missile programs of the 1950s.
As you probably know, the full story is more complicated and interesting, with WDD relying heavily, and controversially, on a systems engineering contractor, Ramo-Wooldrige, to coordinate the ICBM program. Neil Sheehan wrote the popular history book but there is also more academic literature on it.
You will want to read Anand Toprani’s excellent book on Lehman, now available for preorder. www.sup.org/books/politi...
In the supply-shock era, we should revisit a lost industrial policy tool: public factories.
🏭In a new paper, Ganesh Sitaraman & I explore the history & future of US public factories.
⚡️In another paper, I propose public factories for critical energy components
www.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt-p...
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Congratulations!!
I appreciate @kschake.bsky.social's efforts to shed light on these vital issues, but I am less sanguine
Politicization operates through multiple mechanisms not captured by analyzing the credentials or past partisan commentary of senior officers replacing those who have been fired. 1/
Blurbs are in for my new book, Gangster of New York!
Many thanks to Eric Rauchway (@rauchway.bsky.social), Rebecca Jo Plant, and Douglas Egerton.
North Carolina’s budget stalemate froze raises, cutting average teacher pay ~1% to $60,984. The state ranks 43rd nationally, and about 10.1% of teachers—roughly 1 in 10—leave each year, worsening shortages. #NCed
Miller Center oral history interviews with Obama administration officials now available. (Apparently different from broader set of Obama presidency interviews also released recently from a Columbia University Incite Institute project.) millercenter.org/the-presiden...
Microsoft, in a legal filing, is challenging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s action last week to shut Anthropic out of military work by labeling its AI products as posing a threat to national security.
Not sure about that…. I have been working for the last few years on the 1950s-2020s period.
👋 Say hello at #BHC2026 👉 Business History is sponsoring workshops and is an official sponsor of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social in London.
We look forward to connecting, hearing about your work, and continuing conversations around #bizhis #businesshistory.
A 21st century policymaker reflects on lessons from the WWII industrial mobilization, while offering a generous and astute discussion of my 2016 book on the subject. www.factorysettings.org/p/what-does-...
Never has so much US combat power been assembled with so little explanation to the public, allies, or Congress regarding why or how it will be used. Never.
Got an idea for reforming defense acquisition? The Pentagon’s all ears. | “We need radically different ideas,” says assistant defense secretary. | by Jennifer Hlad, reporting from Honolulu:
The program for the BHC 2026 Annual Meeting in London is now available‼️
You can view the full meeting program here: thebhc.org/meeting-prog...
Note that there are visa requirements to enter the UK for most nationalities -- ETA application form: www.gov.uk/eta
#BHC2026 #bizhis #BHCLondon
RIP to Nick Salvatore, author of Eugene V. Deb’s: Citizen and Socialist, one of the book’s that inspired me to pursue the study of history.
“A 3rd (awful) NYT editorial on the future of war has dropped”
Use code: UPKHOLIDAY25 to receive 40% off (kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640089/).
@strickjl.bsky.social
#americanpresidency #presidentialleadership #welfare #FranklinDRoosevelt #harrystruman #DwightDEisenhower #JohnFKennedy #LyndonBJohnson #ForeignPolicy #upkansas
How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. How a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft, and, in the process, found his soul. Wonderful writing by the great Kurt Streeter.
Good news: the US National Archives system is still making its way through researchers’ Mandatory Declassification Review requests.
Not so good news: the update I received today concerned a request I filed in March 2015, nearly 11 years ago.
Cover of Cambridge UP Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations
Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations won’t be out officially until 2026 but is shipping now🗃️ edited by Frank Costigliola and Barbara Keys, exceptional contributors and graat chapters, also mine on #ideology @shafrhistorians.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/highereducat...
"Death by Lightning," Episode 3 reaction thread:
• Praise for the series
• Major players: What's right/wrong/missing
• What was machine politics? How did the spoils system work? Why do they keep talking about the New York Custom House?
Let's get wonky!
1/14
In time for the holidays, now pre-orderable, the long awaited Oxford Handbook of American Military History, edited by Sam Watson. 32 chapters by top scholars in the field, including @bethbailey.bsky.social , @notabattlechick.bsky.social , @karadixonvuic.bsky.social, yours truly, and many more.
Three points about the “Department of War” talk:
1. Hegseth called for the name change before he was nominated.
2. The term used historically, for the most part, was actually “War Department.” Its sister was the Navy Department.
3. Only Congress can change the name.
From Ben Dooley on the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant: In the late 2000s, the Army “gave the operator two choices: maintain the equipment in a state of readiness or use the excess capacity to make rounds for the commercial market. The contractor chose the latter…” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...
