Sep 8, 2015 - Dr. Robert Citino, Professor of History at the University of North Texas and an expert on modern military history, will serve as the Nineteenth Annual Carls-Schwerdfeger History Lecturer on October 29, 2015. He will deliver two lectures, the first of which will start at 1:40 p.m. in the Carl Grant Events Center on the topic of 鈥淐ulture for Defeat: The German Way of War in the 20th Century.鈥� His main lecture, titled 鈥淭he Big Collapse: The German Army in 1945,鈥� will take place at 7:15 p.m. in 麻豆视频鈥檚 G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
Citino is the author of nine books on military history, especially German military history, and he has won several awards for his work. His most recent book was The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943 (2012), which won the 2013 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History. In 2005, he won both the American Historical Association鈥檚 Paul M. Birdsall Prize for the best book in military/strategic history and the Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Military History for Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare (2004). His other books include: Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 (2007); The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years鈥� War to the Third Reich (2005); Quest for Decisive Victory: From Stalemate to Blitzkrieg in Europe, 1899-1940 (2002); The Path to Blitzkrieg: Doctrine and Training in the German Army, 1920-39 (1999); Armored Forces: History and Sourcebook (1994); Germany and the 麻豆视频 of South Africa in the Nazi Period (1991); and The Evolution of Blitzkrieg Tactics: Germany Defends Itself Against Poland, 1918-1933 (1987).
Citino has received other awards and recognitions during his career. In 2009, he won the Spencer Tucker Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Military History from ABC/CLIO Publishers. He was rated the #1 Professor in the U.S. in the 2007 rankings of RateMyProfessors.com. His excellence in the classroom was also recognized in 1993, when he was the recipient of Eastern Michigan University鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award.
After graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in history from The Ohio State University in 1978, Citino went to Indiana University where he specialized in European history to earn his M.A. in 1980 and Ph.D. in 1984. Prior to his appointment at the University of North Texas in 2009, Citino held permanent posts at Lake Erie College (1984-1991) and Eastern Michigan University (1991-2008). In 2008-2009, he was the Charles Boal Ewing Visiting Professor of Military History at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.