Geoffrey Jensen
- Title
- Associate Professor of History
- jenseng2@erau.edu Email
- Department
- Behavioral & Social Sciences Dept
- College
- College of Arts & Sciences
Office Hours
See posted schedule outside of my office for current office hours.Areas of Expertise
Race, Civil Rights, and the American Military; African American Military History; Cold War History; American Foreign Policy; Presidential Politics, The American South; the American War in Vietnam, and Chinese History.
Biography
As a Twentieth Century Americanist, my teaching and research investigates the confluence of several historical forces in recent American history: presidential leadership and Cold War civil rights reform; the African American pursuit for civil rights reform; war or even the threat of potential Cold War conflict and how that shaped the country; the omnipresent influence of the American south on domestic, foreign policy, and military affairs of the United States; and the rise of conspiracy, conspiratorial rhetoric, and the power it wielded in Twentieth Century American society. As a scholar, I have presented my research on several different occasions and I have authored over a dozen book reviews for H-War (H-Net), The Journal of Military History, The Journal of Southern History and The Strategy Bridge.
In the last seven years, I have produced three different volumes that highlight my scholarly interests. My most recent work, The Racial Integration of the American Armed Forces: Cold War Necessity, Presidential Leadership, and Southern Resistance (Kansas, 2023) examines the intersection of these forces as it applies to the racial desegregation of the American military during the volatile years of the Cold War. As opposed to past studies that largely discuss the situation from the viewpoint of the trials and tribulations of African American military personnel or those within the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement who were desperate to use the armed forces as a social and political laboratory, I examine the topic from that of the perspective of the necessity of waging the Cold War, how that motivated, in part, American presidents to act, and how southerners fearful of the military becoming a trojan horse for racial and societal reform within their own region and its racial zeitgeist grabbed onto the strings of various Cold War conspiratorial beliefs to knit together a challenge against the reform effort.
Prior to this I published with Dr Matthew Stith (University of Texas at Tyler), Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam War (2019). An edited volume, Beyond the Quagmire offers new interpretations of various subjects involving the American War in Vietnam and includes, but is not limited to, discussions over race, the environment, the War on Poverty, memory, geography, politics, gender, and the role of women in the war. Within this study, I penned a chapter on the often-criticized Project 100,000, a Lyndon Johnson War on Society era program originally designed to aid the American poor through Cold War military service.
And in 2016, I produced The Routledge Handbook of the History of Race and the American Military (2016; paperback 2018), which is comprised of twenty essays exploring various aspects of race and the American military. In that collection, I authored a chapter on Harry S. Truman and Executive Order 9981, which began the racial transformation of the American military during the early throes of the Cold War.
Lastly, I am also a former West Point Seminar Fellow, whose research has been generously supported by grants from Embry-Riddle, and the Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman presidential libraries.
For current projects that I am working on, please see below.
Education
- Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in History, University of Arkansas
Currently Teaching
- SS 311: U.S Military History 1775-1900
- SS 120: U.S. History
- SS 321: U.S. Milita Hist 1900-Present
Courses Taught
African American Military History, 1770 to Present
American Military History, 1900 to Present
American Presidents and War (seminar)
Research seminar (Graduate)
Strategic Intelligence: Diplomacy, Covert Operations, and War (Graduate Seminar)
The American War in Vietnam: 1945-1975 (Graduate Seminar)
The Cultural Cold War (seminar)
US-Asian Relations, 1850-2000 (seminar)
US Foreign Policy, 1890-Present
US History (I and II)
World Civilizations (I and II)
World Civilizations II (Online)
World Civilizations II (Honors)
Publications
SERIES EDITOR
American Military Studies, University of North Texas Press, 2022-Present
BOOK
The Racial Integration of the American Armed Forces: 1940-1969 (Kansas 2023)
EDITED VOLUMES:
Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam Conflict, with Matthew M. Stith. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2019 (Reviewed in: Publisher’s Weekly, History Net, Journal of Military History, Air Power History, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Marine Corps History, Military Review: The Journal of the U.S. Army.)
The Routledge Handbook of the History of Race in the American Military, New York: Routledge Press, 2016 (Paperback, 2018)
CHAPTERS (Peer Reviewed)
“A Parable of Persisting Failure: Project 100,000” in Geoffrey W. Jensen and Matthew M. Stith, eds., Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam Conflict (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2019)
“The Political, the Personal, and the Cold War: Harry Truman and Executive Order 9981” in Geoffrey Jensen, ed., The Routledge History of Race and the American Military (New York: Routledge Press, 2016)
BOOK REVIEWS
Over a dozen reviews published in: The Journal of Military History, The Journal of Southern History, H-Net, The Strategy Bridge, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, and Pacific Northwest Quarterly
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
“Desegregation of the Department of Defense School System” and “Desegregation of the Veteran’s Administration” in Alexander M. Bielakowski, Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the U.S. Military: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 159-161.
CURRENT BOOK PROJECTS
Edwin Walker: From Hero to Conspiratorial Radical: I have begun preliminary research for a manuscript exploring the conspiratorial radicalization of General Edwin Walker. A graduate of West Point, Walker had served in the Army during WWII—specifically as a member of the First Special Service Force, a joint-US-Canadian special operations group—and the Korean conflict. His future in the military seemed to be a promising one, but he ultimately left the Army after an incident where he was accused of indoctrinating his men with anti-communistic material from the John Birch Society. His action ended what had largely been a promising career, but it was one of many steps he would take that would lead him down the path to radicalization.
On the Prowl: The Black Panthers of the 761st and their Crusade for Racial Atonement during World War II (Working title). I am nearing completion of the preliminary research for this book, which explores the story of the African American tankers of Second World War with special emphasis on the Black Panthers of the 761st.
Professional Experience
PROFESSIONAL TALKS
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
[Online] Roundtable with select authors of Beyond the Quagmire, “1970-71: Nixon, Discord, and the US Withdrawal from Vietnam”, Vietnam Center & Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, 2021
[Chair] “The Citizen-Soldier”, The Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2019
“War as a driving force of History. 19th and 20th Centuries.” The 14th Conference of the Spanish Association of Contemporary History, Alicante, Spain, 2018
“The Tragedy of the Triumvirate: Project 100,000 ”, “Waging Peace” Conference, Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, The University of Southern Mississippi, 2016
“‘It is without question our shining opportunity’: The Perplexing Perception of Project 100,000”, The Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2015
“The War on Poverty meets the Vietnam Conflict: Project 100,000”, Policy History Conference, 2014
“Presidential Prerogative: A Comparison of Lincoln and Truman’s Civil Rights Reforms in the Military”, The Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2013
“Getting in the Way of the Action: Kennedy, the Cold War, and Civil Rights Reform in the Military”, The Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2011
“Waging the War on Poverty: Project 100,000”, Arkansas Association of College History Teachers Annual Meeting, 2010
“Through the Specter of Communism: Truman, Southern Segregationists, and the Integration of the Armed Forces”, Session: Segregation and Integration in the American Military,
Missouri Valley Historical Conference, 2010
[Chair] "Matters of Race and Media", Louisiana Historical Association Annual Conference, 2009
INVITED LECTURES
“What is Leadership?” Guest Speaker, Army ROTC Ball, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ, 2022
“What is History?” Scholarly Speaking, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ, 2017
“On the Prowl: The Black Panthers of the 761st and their Crusade in Europe”, Faculty Research Presentation, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ, 2014. Available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP0RFgwv3mY
Fellow presentation, “Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Red Menace, Truman, Southern Segregationists, and the Desegregation of the Armed Forces”, West Point Summer Seminar, USMA, 2012
"The First African American Students at the University of Arkansas", Washington County Historical Lecture Series, 2007
MANUSCRIPT REFEREE AND COMMENTATOR
The University Press of Kansas
The University of North Texas Press
The University of Massachusetts Press
Arkansas Historical Quarterly
TEXTBOOK ADVISOR
I have reviewed textbooks for Bedford/St. Martin’s, Cengage, MacMillan, Pearson, and Oxford University Press.
Memberships and Credentials
Professional affiliations:
The Society for Military History
Army Historical Foundation
The Southern Historical Association
Awards, Honors and Recognitions
TEACHING AWARDS
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Student Government Association, Faculty of the Semester, Fall 2013
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND RESEARCH AWARDS
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, College of Security and Intelligence, Researcher of the Year, 2015-16
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Faculty Development Fund Grant, 2013-2014, 2015, 2016
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Internal Research Grant, 2013-2014
United States Military Academy (West Point), West Point Summer Seminar Fellow, 2012
Harry S. Truman Library Institute, Research Grant, 2010
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Moody Research Grant, 2008