Faculty

After 14 years of teaching in the history departments of Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University, Professor David Kaiser joined the Strategy and Policy faculty in 1990.

An authority on the origins and consequences of modern war, he has lectured on a wide variety of topics, including the annual introduction to Clausewitz, the two world wars, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. He is the author of six books: Economic Diplomacy and the Origins of the Second World War; Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler, a bold and wide ranging book analyzing five centuries of conflict; books on baseball and the celebrated case of Sacco and Vanzetti; American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War; and The Road to Dallas, the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, as well as numerous articles. In 2006-7, he was the Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professor at Williams College. In addition to his work in S&P, he teaches the elective Generations in the American Military and American Life, using films to illustrate, investigate and apply the generational theories of William Strauss and Neil Howe. Prof. Kaiser served as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1970 to 1976.