How it Works
Choose one of 17 topics to be presented virtually, via zoom, or in-person by one of our world-class historians to your staff, clients or even family and friends. Presentations run for one hour and include a Q&A session with the historian. Two weeks ahead of your presentation date, you’ll receive an email introduction to your historian along with suggested reading.
To schedule a Historian Speakers Bureau presentation or for additional information, contact us at speakersbureau@nationalww2museum.org or call 504-528-1944 x 458.
Topics
African Americans in World War II
This topic will examine the African American experience of segregation before the war, and explain how war provided new opportunities and raised expectations for African Americans. The experiences of African Americans in military training, service, and combat including civilians on the home front will be examined, setting the stage for postwar desegregation of the military and the civil rights movement.
Women in World War II
This topic will examine the military service experiences of women, how the war changed the roles of women within the American economy and society, and how these experiences initiated the postwar women’s liberation movement.
The Arsenal of Democracy: American Industry and Victory in World War II
This topic will examine the role American industry and home front played in the Allied victory, and how the nation mobilized its manpower and natural resources to create what President Franklin Roosevelt called the “mighty arsenal of democracy.”
Popular Culture in World War II
This topic will examine how the war and popular culture intersected in America. The roles of patriotism and propaganda to mobilize the citizenry will be examined with specific examples in movies, radio, music, newspapers, and other media.
Leadership in World War II
This topic will examine key leaders in the American government, military, and private sector, showing how they contributed to Allied victory through political, military, and economic strategies and decisions taken from boardrooms to the battlefields. This lecture can be tailored to address strategic military/political/industrial leaders or custom-made to discuss tactical level commanders from various campaigns.
The Road to Tokyo: War in the Pacific
Designed to reflect the museum’s “Campaigns of Courage” exhibit, this topic focuses on the conflict between the US and Japan in the Pacific. It will address the existing tensions between the two countries leading to the events at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the brutal nature of war in the Pacific, and the difficulties of fighting and operating in such an expansive area on the fringes of empire.
The Atomic Bomb
This topic will examine the race to build the bomb that led to the American Manhattan Project, the major scientific and military challenges faced in building the bomb, and the decision to use the bomb against Japan at the war’s end.
The Road to Berlin: War in Europe
Designed to reflect the museum’s “Campaigns of Courage” exhibit, this topic will examine the story of the American military’s major campaigns in Europe against Nazi Germany from 1942-1945, including the Allied strategy through the campaigns in North Africa, Italy, France, and into the German homeland.
D-Day in Normandy
This topic will focus upon the Allied landings on D-Day in Normandy. The preparations, planning, specific events, and highlights of June 6, 1944 will be featured, explaining why this battle was the fight the Allies had to win for victory in World War II.
Liberation and the Legacy of World War II
This topic will examine how WWII continues to shape our modern world by examining its legacies regarding politics, genocide, civil rights, economic arrangements, and science and technology.
Louisiana in World War II
This topic will tell the story of Louisiana’s special experience during wartime and focuses on the state’s contributions to the defeat of fascism and the Allied victory through industrial output, military service, and home front labor.
The National World War II Museum
This topic will tell the story of The National World War II Museum, including its original inspiration from the Higgins boats built in New Orleans for the war, to the Museum’s founding as the D-Day Museum by the late Dr. Stephen Ambrose, and the Museum’s expansion and plans for the future.
Asian American Experience in World War II
This topic will examine the contributions of Asian Americans to the war effort, the experiences of Japanese Americans with wartime incarceration, and the impact of the war on Asian American communities.
The Latino Experience in World War II
This topic will examine the contributions of Latinos and Latinas to the war effort, the impact of the war on these communities, and the impact of the war on civil and political rights.
The Native American Experience in World War II
This topic will examine briefly the experiences of Native American peoples with the US government prior to World War II, then cover their contributions to the war effort, especially the role played by the Code Talkers, and the impact of the war on Native American communities.
The Jewish American Experience World War II
This topic will examine the experiences of Jewish Americans with immigration and antisemitism prior to World War II, their contributions to the war effort, and the impact of the war and the Nazi genocide on Jewish American communities.
The Holocaust
This lecture will give a brief overview of Nazi racial ideology and explain how it played out on the ground in Eastern Europe in two phases: the Holocaust by bullets and the mechanized murder of the Jewish population in extermination camps. Other groups targeted for extermination such as Sinti, Roma, and the mentally and physically disabled may also be examined upon request.
Historians
Michael S. Bell, PhD (COL, USA, Ret.)
Mike Bell is the Executive Director of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. Commissioned in Armor following graduation from the US Military Academy at West Point, he is a combat veteran, historian, and strategist who has served at every level from platoon through theater army, as well as with US Central Command, the Joint Staff, the West Point faculty, and the National Defense University. As a civilian faculty member at the National Defense University, he also served details to the Office of the Secretary of State and as a National Security Council Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President of the United States. He holds a MA and a PhD in American history from the University of Maryland, College Park and a MS in national security strategy from the National Defense University, where he was a distinguished graduate of the National War College. His monograph on the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was published by the Strategic Studies Institute. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star, Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award, Joint Staff Badge, and Combat Action Badge.
Sean Scanlon, PhD
Sean Scanlon is a World War II Military Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. He received his BA in History and Religious Studies from Stonehill College, and his MA and PhD in History from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. A specialist in 20th-century U.S. diplomatic, military, and political history, Dr. Scanlon has done research at six presidential libraries and is a member of both the American Jewish Historical Society and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Before coming to the National World War II Museum, Dr. Scanlon was a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the University of Mississippi, where he taught a wide range of undergraduate courses in Modern U.S. History. He is proud to honor his three grandparents who served during World War II, including Thomas S. Scanlon, Jr., who joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 and retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1971 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Jeremy Collins
As a student pursuing his history degree at the University of Missouri, Jeremy Collins joined The National WWII Museum in 2001 as an intern with the Collections & Exhibits Department. In 2008, he moved to the Travel & Conference Department, which saw him scout, lead, or manage tours all over the world including the Philippines, the Mediterranean, England, and Northwest Europe.
A member of the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, Collins also oversees the creation, planning, marketing, and execution of many of the Museum marquee public programs, including book launches, distinguished lectures, symposia, and the Museum’s annual International Conference on World War II.
Selected Articles:
"Everyone Has a Katrina Story”: 15 Years of Reflection
Private Joseph Pantillion Martínez: Medal of Honor Series
Operation Manna-Chowhound: Deliverance from Above
Jennifer Putnam, PhD
Jennifer Putnam is the Research Historian at The National WWII Museum's Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. She received her PhD in history from the University of London, where she studied prisoner graffiti in Nazi concentration camps and ghettos. Her research was supported by the Bonnart-Braunthal Trust and the Gerda Henkel Foundation and has been published in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology. Prior to her PhD, Jennifer received an MPhil in linguistics from Trinity College Dublin and an MA in contemporary history and politics from the University of London. Jennifer is also a Conny Kristel Fellow with the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI), a board member of the Art Deco Society UK, and a board member of the Challenging Research Network.
John Curatola, PhD
John Curatola is the Military Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. A Marine Corps officer of 22 years, he graduated from the University of Nebraska and is a veteran of Operation Provide Hope in Somalia, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort. He holds masters’ degrees in both American and Military History. With a PhD from the University of Kansas, John’s research focuses upon World War II, airpower, and the early Cold War period. Previously he taught history at the US Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His first book Bigger Bombs for a Brighter Tomorrow addressed the nature of the American atomic monopoly with his latest entitled, Autumn of Our Discontent, assessing US national security policy development in 1950. Additionally, his works are available in compendium books, popular magazines, and academic journals with his many presentations available for viewing on CSPAN and YouTube.
Mark Calhoun, PhD
Mark earned his PhD in History from the University of Kansas in 2012 and is the author of General Lesley J. McNair: Unsung Architect of the U.S. Army (University Press of Kansas, 2015), the first comprehensive military life of General Lesley J. McNair. The book reveals previously unpublished details of McNair's forty-year career and assesses the impact of McNair’s views and actions on America's mobilization for and involvement in World War II. Mark's current research interests center on General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth US Army, and Ninth Army’s operations during the campaign in Northwest Europe from 1944 to 1945. A career U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot and war planner, Dr. Calhoun retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2008, after which he served for fourteen years as an associate professor on the faculty of the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth.
