The Global Legacies of World War II

Photograph of a World War II African American soldier, 1941 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09570)

Veterans Legacy Program Seminar: The Global Legacies of World War II is a weeklong PD event for up to 40 K–12 teachers at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, CA. This seminar will examine the Second World War in a global context, but with an emphasis on the American experience. As fewer and fewer of our students know someone who served in the war, rethinking ways to teach it has become ever more important. This seminar will conclude with an examination of how the war created our world today, with a special focus on its impacts on Russia, China, Europe, and the United States. We are still living with the world the war created and its legacy in many of the world’s conflicts, including Korea, Ukraine, the Middle East, and Taiwan. This seminar can, therefore, help place today’s wars in historical context.

In partnership with the National Cemetery Administration (NCA), a division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs

Application Information

Interested K–12 teachers should complete an application to be considered. Applications will be reviewed by Gilder Lehrman Institute and National Cemetery Administration staff. The deadline to submit an application was March 5, 2024. Selected teachers will be notified by April 5, 2024.

Michael S. Neiberg, Lead Scholar

Michael S. Neiberg is a professor of History and chair of War Studies at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His book Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe (Basic Books, 2015) won the Harry Truman Prize. The Wall Street Journal named his Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I (Harvard University Press, 2011) one of the five best books ever written about the First World War. His latest book, When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Relationship (Harvard University Press, 2021), won the 2022 Society for Military History Book Prize. In 2017 Neiberg was awarded the Médaille d'Or du Rayonnement Culturel from La Renaissance Française, an organization founded by French president Raymond Poincaré in 1915 to keep French culture alive during World War I.

Ron Nash, Master Teacher

Ron Nash is a former senior education fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Previously, he taught high school history and special education in New Jersey for thirty-five years. Retiring from teaching in 2007, he took a position as a Department of the Army civilian with the 353rd Civil Affairs Command (the same unit he served as a colonel until 2003).

As a military planner in the US Army Civil Affairs Corps, Ron was involved in several major projects, including a public diplomacy initiative with EMERCOM, Operation Enduring Freedom-Trans Sahara, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Moreover, he was part of a team that revised the CIMIC curriculum for the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.
 

Part of the National Cemetery Administration (NCA), a division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Legacy Program commemorates our nation’s veterans through the discovery and sharing of their stories. VLP encourages students and teachers at the university and K–12 level around the country to immerse themselves in the rich historical resources found within NCA national cemeteries. Participants research veterans interred in national cemeteries and develop educational tools that increase public awareness of veteran service and sacrifice.

Founded on Memorial Day 2016, the Veterans Legacy Program has established itself as a leading model of community engagement. Partners from across the country have created VLP products and events that reflect the unique impact of veterans on their local community.

Please find more information and resources on Gilder Lehrman's work with VLP here.