American military historian (born 1958)
Robert M. Citino (born June 19, 1958) is an American military historian and the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum. He is a leading authority on modern German military history, with an emphasis on World War II and the German influence upon modern operational doctrine.[2]
Citino received recognition for his works from the American Historical Association, the Society for Military History, and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. The Historically Speaking journal described him as "one of the most perceptive military historians writing today".
Early life and education
Citino was born and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. His father was a United States Army veteran of the Pacific War who served in the Guadalcanal Campaign as a combat medic and gave Citino a copy of Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis.[3]
After graduating magna cum laude with his Bachelor of Arts in history from Ohio State University in 1978, he earned his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from Indiana University in 1980 and 1984.[4] Citino is fluent in German, having first learned it as an undergraduate, and is a prolific reader of early 20th-century German military literature.[3]
Career
Citino has held academic postings at the University of North Texas, Lake Erie College, Eastern Michigan University, United States Military Academy at West Point, and the United States Army War College.[5]
He is a fellow of the Barsanti Military History Center, a trustee of the Society for Military History, and a consultant for the White House staff. He has also appeared as a consultant on the History Channel.[6]
He currently chairs the Historical Advisory Subcommittee of the Department of the Army.
Wehrmacht history
Throughout his career Citino has advocated changing the current nomenclature of German military tactics. Although he uses the word Blitzkrieg on the cover of his books, he has always espoused the view that it should be called by its proper German military term, Bewegungskrieg, or manoeuvre warfare. Citino has taught courses on Nazi Germany and American military history, including Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War.
On March 15, 2013, Citino was awarded the 2013 Distinguished Book Award by the Society for Military History for his work The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943. The book explores German losses in key campaigns in 1943—losses which would eventually lead to an erosion of the German military's strategic advantage. It is his second Distinguished Book Award; he previously received one in 2004 for his book Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm.[7] Citino was a visiting professor at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the 2013–14 academic school year.[8]
