A textbook co-authored by a Rogers State University professor is now required reading at the United States Air Force Academy.
“Ways of War” was written by RSU assistant professor Dr. David Ulbrich and Dr. Matthew Muehlbauer, a visiting assistant professor at Manhattan College in New York, and traces the history of American warfare from colonial times through the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their book will be assigned to every cadet at the Air Force Academy taking the introductory military history course.
Ulbrich said that he wrote “Ways of War” with Muehlbauer to fill a niche in military history education. A medium-length U.S. military history textbook, “Ways of War” is a survey-level account of American warfare and military leaders in their cultural, technological, diplomatic and political context. “Our book tells compelling stories and gleans important lessons from the past, but we do not glorify violence. That is why we chose the photograph on the cover. The empty helmet on the Normandy beach on D-Day calls to mind the sacrifices during wars,” Ulbrich said.
The book is available in both hardback, paperback, and ebook editions from Routledge.
“Ways of War” is Ulbrich’s second book.a The first, “Preparing for Victory,” was published in 2011 by the U.S. Naval Institute Press. It recounts how Thomas Holcomb, as commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, resuscitated a branch of the armed forces that had dwindled to a shadow of its former glory during the years after World War I. Ulbrich credits Holcomb with transforming the Marine Corps into a modern amphibious force that helped win the America’s battles for the Pacific in World War II.
In 2012, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation awarded Ulbrich the organization’s Gen. Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for excellence in nonfiction writing.
Ulbrich is an assistant professor at RSU, focusing on military history. RSU is the first institution in Oklahoma to offer a bachelor’s degree in military history, advancing the education of the nation’s armed services and drawing on its own traditions as the Oklahoma Military Academy from 1919 to 1971.