Dr. Benjamin P. Greene

Greene-B-Oct-2022

Benjamin P. Greene, Ph.D.

  • Position: Associate Professor Emeritus
  • Phone: 419-419-372-2030
  • Email: greeneb@bgsu.edu

AFFILIATIONS

  • American Culture Studies
  • American Historical Association
  • Ohio Academy of History
  • Organization of American Historians
  • Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
  • Society for Military History

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Benjamin Greene, Associate Professor (Ph.D., Stanford, 2004). Professor Greene teaches courses on 20th-Century America, Foreign Relations, and Military History.  He is the author of Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945-1963 (Stanford University Press, 2007) and numerous articles and book reviews on a range of topics related to America’s interactions with the world. His current research explores the intersections of culture and foreign relations, examining how American culture and American communities abroad have influenced international attitudes about the United States, its citizens, and its policies.  A retired Army officer, he has previously taught history at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Greene retired from BGSU in May 2023 and is currently an Historian with the U.S. Department of State.

Fields of Study

  • 20th Century America
  • Diplomatic/International
  • Empire and Post-Colonial Studies
  • Nuclear Studies
  • Public Policy
  • War and Society

Education

  • Ph.D. Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • M.A. Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • B.A. Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Selected Publications

  • Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945-1963. Stanford University Press, 2007.
  • “Dwight D. Eisenhower.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Military History. Ed. Kaushik Roy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
  • “Why the Planet Should Fear North Korean Nuclear Testing: Our Cold War History Shows the Deadly Fallout From Detonating Weapons in the Atmosphere.” Zócalo Public Square. November 2017.
  • "'You Boys Must Be Crazy!' Reconsidering Eisenhower, Ambrose, and Atomic Diplomacy in Asia." Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Spring 2016. 
  • “Selling the American West on the Frontier of the Cold War: Public Diplomacy and the German-American Volksfest in West Berlin, 1965-1981.” In Reasserting America in the 1970s: U.S. Public Diplomacy and the Rebuilding of America’s Image Abroad, ed. by Hallvard Notaker, Giles Scott-Smith, and David Snyder. Manchester University Press, 2016.
  • “‘Captive of a Scientific-Technological Elite’: Eisenhower and the Nuclear Test Ban.” Presidential Studies Quarterly. March 2015.
  • Contributor. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2011.
  • “American Exceptionalism: Challenges and Renewals.” In The United States and the World: From Imitation to Challenge, ed. by Andrzej Mania and Lukasz Wordliczek. Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press, 2010.
  • Additional articles or book reviews have appeared in the Diplomacy and Statecraft, Journal of American History, Journal of Military History, Journal of Strategic Studies, and H-Diplo.

Presentations

  • “The Militarized Landscape of Cold War Berlin.” Participant in roundtable discussion presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Military History, Louisville, Kentucky, April 2018.
  • “The Test Ban Treaty 50 Years On: New Perspectives on Nuclear Arms Control and the Cold War.” Participant in roundtable discussion presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Arlington, Virginia, June 22, 2013.
  • “Paving the Way for Arms Control: Eisenhower and the Test-Ban Treaty.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Madison, Wisconsin, June 25, 2010.
  • “American Exceptionalism: Challenges and Renewals.” Paper presented at the conference “The United States and the World: From Imitation to Challenge” at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, May 30, 2009. 

Invited Talks

  • "Comparative Cultural Diplomacy in Cold War Berlin." Paper presented at the conference "Cultural Diplomacy in the World since 1945: Prestige, Influence, Cooperation" at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France, May 2019 
  • “An American Outpost on the Frontier of the Cold War: The American Military Community in West Berlin.”  Paper presented at the conference “Americans Overseas: The United States in the World since 1865” at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, England, April 16, 2016.
  • “A ‘Benign Occupation’ on the Frontier of the Cold War? U.S. Bases in West Berlin, 1965-1989.” Paper presented at the conference “U.S. Bases and the Construction of Hegemony” at the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2015.
  • “Selling the American West on the Frontier of the Cold War: Public Diplomacy and the German-American Volksfest in West Berlin, 1965-1981.” Paper presented at the conference "Selling America in an Age of Uncertainty" at the Nobel Institute, Oslo, Norway, November 2, 2013.
  • “Banning Nuclear Tests: Eisenhower and the “Scientific-Technological Elite.” Paper presented at the conference “Ike Reconsidered: The Eisenhower Legacy in the 21st Century” at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute of Hunter College, City University of New York, March 7, 2013. 

Courses Taught

  • HIST 1260—Modern America
  • HIST 3014—American Military History
  • HIST 3334—The Vietnam War
  • HIST 3344—The Wars after 9/11: Afghanistan, Iraq and Beyond
  • HIST 4214—America in the World: 1775-1945
  • HIST 4224—America in the World: The Cold War Era, 1945 to the Present
  • HIST 4804—Seminar in War and Diplomacy
  • HIST 6175—U.S. Cultural Diplomacy
  • HIST 6520—Historiography and Introduction to the Profession
  • HIST 6800—Graduate Reading Seminar: 20th-Century American Foreign Relations
  • HIST 6290—Graduate Reading Seminar: Problems in 20th-Century American History

Master Teacher Certificate, 2011.

   Department of History, U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis, Maryland

Excellence in Teaching Award, 2004.

   Department of History, U.S. Military Academy (USMA), West Point, New York

Updated: 05/16/2023 09:23AM