The Willmott Family Third Century Professor of History

B.A. (1968) Eckerd College

Ph.D. (1973) Emory University

 

James.B.Wood@williams.edu

Stetson F17

413.597.2551

 

Office Hours

Monday, Thursday 2:00-4:00

 

Courses

HIST 127: The Expansion of Europe

HIST 135: The Great War, 1914-1918

HIST 326: War in European History

HIST 327: Knighthood and Chivalry

HIST 475: Modern Warfare and Military Leadership

HIST 487T: The Second World War: Origins, Course, Outcomes, and Meaning

 

Research

Early modern Europe, the expansion of Europe, the origins of modern warfare, World Wars I and II, American military history

 

Thesis Students

Brad Naranch '96, Building an Empire Builder: Carl Peters, German East Africa, and the Will to Create Through Conquest. A Study in Self-Representation and Imperial Theory and Practice.

Laura Hunt '97, The Limits of Power: Redefining the Terms of Military Success and Failure in a Comparative Historical Perspective, Tenotchitlán, 1519, Tet, 1968.

Sarah Wood '97, Repression and Obsession: Mythmaking the French War: A Historiographical Study of World War II France.

Martin West '98, Survival Under Extreme Conditions: Japanese Civilian Internment Camps in the Philippines, 1941-1945.

Josh Burson '01, The Court of Mary I

Peter Krause '02, Stopping Them Cold: How Siege Warfare Prevented Germany Victory on the Eastern Front

Ian Tate '02, Rising from the Ashes: Myth, Memory and the Blitz

 

Selected Publications

The King's Army, Warfare, Soldiers and Society During the Early Wars of Religion in France, 1526-76 (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Winner of the 1998 Distinguished Book Award from the Society of Military History, 1998.  Precis

The Nobility of the Election of Bayeaux, 1463-1666, Social Continuity and Change Among the Provincial Nobility in Early Modern France (Princeton University Press, 1980).