ECU names new history chairman

Michael A. Palmer, an East Carolina University history professor, has been named chairman of the ECU Department of History, effective Aug. 1.

Dr. Palmer specializes in military and diplomatic history and is the author of 10 books about these subjects. He has been a member of the history department’s program in Maritime Studies since 1991.

His appointment to the post was announced this week by Dr. Keats Sparrow, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He succeeds Dr. Bodo Nischan, an ECU history professor, who has served as the interim chair of the department. Dr. Roger Biles, the former history chairman, resigned last July. For the past academic year, Palmer has been the acting chair of the ECU Department of Geography. He attended Temple University where he received both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees.

Before joining ECU, he was a historian with the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. Among his books are: “Lee Moves North: Robert E. Lee on the Offensive,” published last year; “Guardians of the Gulf: A History of America’s Expanding Role in the Persian Gulf, 1833-1992” in 1995; “The War That Never Was,” a novel in 1994; “On Course for Desert Storm: The U.S. Navy and the Persian Gulf” in 1992; and “Arctic Strike: The Campaign on the North Flank,” another novel, in 1991. His latest work, “Command at Sea: Naval Command and Control Since the Century,” is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. An earlier volume, “Stoddert’s War: Naval Operations during the Quasi-War with France, 1798-1801” won several awards.

Written in 1987, the book received the 1988 Samual Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature by the Naval Order of the United States and the Book of the Year Award for the best history of the era of the American Revolution, by the American Revolution Round Table of New York. In addition to his books, he has written more than 100 journal articles, papers and book reviews.