Coleman, David G.

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Coleman, David G.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Queensland, Australia, B.A. (history and literature), 1994, B.A. (honors; history and U.S. foreign relations), 1995, Ph.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Charlottesville, VA. Office—Miller Center of Public Affairs, P.O. Box 400406, 2201 Old Ivy Rd., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4406. E-mail—dgcoleman@virginia.edu.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, guest lecturer in the department of history, 1997-99; Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, assistant professor, 1999—, Presidential Recordings Program, began as deputy director, became director, 2004—.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Moody Grant, Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation, 2005.

WRITINGS:

(With Joseph M. Siracusa) Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2002.

(With Joseph M. Siracusa) Real-World Nuclear Deterrence: The Making of International Strategy, Praeger Security International (Westport, CT), 2006.

Contributor to books and encyclopedias, including Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2nd edition, edited by Alexander DeConde, Richard Dean Burns, and Fredrik Logevall, Scribner, 2001; The Dictionary of American History, 3rd edition, edited by Stanley Kutler, Scribner, 2002; and Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the Homefront, edited by John P. Resch. Macmillan, 2005. Contributor to journals, including Journal of Cold War Studies, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Ascribe, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Also associate editor of The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis, concise edition, edited by Philip Zelikow and Ernest May, W.W. Norton, 2002. Founder, webmaster, and managing editor of the WhiteHouseTapes.org and consulting editor for the AmericanPresident.org; also manuscript reviewer for Cambridge University Press, 2003, and Journal of Cold War Studies, 2002-05.

SIDELIGHTS:

David G. Coleman is a historian whose special areas of interest include nuclear history and international foreign policy. He has written extensively on subjects such as U.S.-German relations, Cold War foreign policy, and John F. Kennedy. He is the author, with Joseph M. Siracusa, of two books: Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan and Real-World Nuclear Deterrence: The Making of International Strategy.

Depression to Cold War focuses on U.S. history and society from 1929, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression, to 1989, which essentially marked the end of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union. To tell their history, Coleman and Siracusa focus primarily on the office of the U.S. presidency, key advisors to the presidents, and some other political influences during these years.

In the book's preface, the authors note: "We have attempted to focus on American behavior at home and abroad. Within this context two major interrelated themes emerge. Domestically, American society continued the process of industrialization and urbanization." The authors go on to point out the impacts of these two processes on American society, from the rise of control by a "corporate elite" to "social problems of employment, housing, education, health and recreation" to a government that "had to adjust and expand its functions beyond its traditional scope." The authors also write in the preface: "The second theme to emerge from our text relates to foreign affairs. Because of its industrial growth and vast wealth, and consequent interest in foreign markets, the United States naturally became one of the foremost great world powers whose very existence necessarily affected the global balance of power."

The authors begin their book by discussing America at the beginning of the twentieth century and then examine the New Deal as forged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. Other topics include America during World War II and the transition following the war, America's ongoing approach to foreign policy, the Great Society as envisioned by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the troubled presidency of Richard M. Nixon, and the conservative revolution. Kenneth A. Osgood, writing for the Presidential Studies Quarterly, called Depression to Cold War a "well-written account of American political life" and added later in the same review: "A particular strength of Depression to Cold War is its comprehensive treatment of foreign policy issues, which effectively incorporates the latest research."

The next book authored by Coleman and Siracusa, Real-World Nuclear Deterrence, "offers a sobering counterpoint to the more sanguine attitudes towards nuclear weapons," according to Arena Magazine contributor Christopher Scanlon. In their book, the authors focus on the history of nuclear deterrence and how it has worked. Their survey of the history of nuclear weapons policies includes an in-depth look at how various governments have grappled with specific issues in nuclear policy development, including the number of nuclear weapons that are deemed enough and what exactly will deter other countries from developing and stockpiling nuclear weapons.

The authors write in the book's preface: "The bomb still matters. Although an atomic bomb has not been used in anger in over sixty years, concerns about its potential use have remained conspicuously present on the world stage." The authors go on to point out that, unlike many other observers, they have concluded that nuclear deterrence issues have not faded with the end of the Cold War but remain an important issue today. Arena Magazine contributor Scanlon wrote that the authors "show that efforts to end the proliferation of weapons and the materials used to make them has been patchy at best." Writing for Foreign Affairs, Lawrence D. Freedman commented that the authors' "approach is fresh and lively."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Coleman, David G., and Joseph M. Siracusa, Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2002.

Coleman, David G., and Joseph M. Siracusa, Real-World Nuclear Deterrence: The Making of International Strategy, Praeger Security International (Westport, CT), 2006.