Linn, Brian McAllister

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Hawaii at Manoa, B.A. (high honors), 1978; Ohio State University, M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1985.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Texas A&M University, Melbern G. Glasscock Bldg., Rm. 200A, College Station, TX 77843-4236; fax: 979-862-4314. E-mail—b-linn@tamu.edu.

CAREER:

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, visiting assistant professor of history, 1986-87; Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, visiting assistant professor of history, 1987-89; Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, assistant professor, 1989-95, associate professor, 1995-98, professor of history, 1998—; Military Studies Institute, director, 2001. Visiting professor of military history, U.S. Army War College, 2000; seminar leader, including U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center, 1988; U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1988, 1995; New York Military Affairs Symposium, 1990; Yale University, 1991; Columbia University, 1991; U.S. Marine Corps Staff College, 1990, 1993; U.S. Military Academy, 1991, 1995; U.S. Marine Corps University, 1993-2002; Institute of Defense Analysis, 1993; San Jose State University, 1994; Leeds University, 1997, 2002; University of Glasgow, 1997; Hawaiian Historical Society, 1997; West Point Seminar in Military History, 1999-2001; Air Force Association, 2001; International Congress of Military History, 2002; National War College, 1998, 2002; David A. Sayre History Symposium, 2002. Conference on the American Military Experience in Asia cochair, 1898-1998; advisor to the Centennial Project, Fort Point and Presidio Historical Association, 1996-98, and the Minnesota Historical Society, 1999-2001.

MEMBER:

Society for Military History, United States Commission on Military History, Philippine Historical Association, Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Visiting research fellowship, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1984-85; research grant, U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center, 1986-87; Moncado Prize, American Military Institute, 1988 and 2002; National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 1989; John M. Olin postdoctoral fellowship, Yale University, 1990-91; Texas A&M University grants; Susan Louise Dyer Peace Fellowship, Hoover Institute on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University, 1993, 1994; Army Historical Foundation distinguished book award, 1997, Choice outstanding book citation, 1997, and Society of Military History distinguished book prize, 1998, all for Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940; Society of Military History distinguished book prize, 2001, for The Philippine War, 1899-1902; Guggenheim fellowship, 2003-04; Woodrow Wilson Center fellow, 2004-05.

WRITINGS:

The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1989.

Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1997.

The Philippine War, 1899-1902, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 2000.

Eisenhower, the Army, and the American Way of War, Department of History, Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS), 2003.

Contributor of essays and chapters to books, including Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Ninth Naval History Symposium, edited by William R. Roberts and Jack Sweetman, U.S. Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1989; Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War and Its Aftermath, edited by James C. Bradford, U.S. Naval Institute Press (Annapolis, MD), 1993; Selected Papers from the 1992 (59th Annual) Meeting of the Association for Military History, edited by Donald F. Bittner, Marine Corps University Press (Quantico, VA), 1994; The Philippine Revolution, edited by Elmer A. Ordonez, National Centennial Commission (Manila, The Philippines), 1999; Guardians of Empire: The Armed Forces of the Colonial Empires, c. 1700-1964, edited by David Killingray and others, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2000; Transforming Defense, edited by Conrad C. Crane, Strategic Studies (Carlisle, PA), 2001; Warriors and Scholars: A Modern War Reader, edited by Peter B. Lane and Robert E. Marcello, University of North Texas Press (Denton, TX), 2005. Contributor of essays to scholarly periodicals, including Journal of Military History, War in History, Western Historical Quarterly, Intelligence and National Security, Kansas History, Military Affairs, Ohio History, and Pilipinas: A Journal of Philippine Studies. Member of the editorial board of Journal of Military History, 1998-2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brian McAllister Linn is "the leading authority on America's military presence in the Pacific before Pearl Harbor," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. In an American Historical Review article about Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940, Craig M. Cameron wrote: "Linn examines an exhaustive array of published works as well as unpublished army sources in eighteen different archival holdings." The critic added that Linn "has crafted a meticulously researched and well-written military history of a subject that has not been extensively explored."

The volume is a study of the two primary U.S. military forces in the Pacific, Hawaii's "Pineapple Army" and the "Caribao Army" of the Philippines, two armies formed in the wake of the Spanish-American War, both of which faced a common threat—the Japanese. The latter was never clear of its purpose regarding the Philippines, while the former knew a decade before Pearl Harbor that the Japanese were a formidable threat with their aircraft carrier-based air power. Linn questions why then were the Japanese able to attack Pearl Harbor and concludes that it was not due to intelligence failure or military incompetence, but rather to years of ambivalence, a lack of leadership from Washington, and the rivalry with and lack of cooperation from the U.S. Navy.

Pacific Historical Review correspondent Fritz Fischer noted that in Guardians of Empire Linn "displays impressive talents in historical research." Fischer called the book "elegantly written" and "more interesting and complete than anything else published to date." History: Review of New Books contributor R. Blake Dunnavent wrote: "A brilliantly constructed narrative, Guardians of Empire is the definitive work on the U.S. Army in the Pacific from the Philippine wars to World War II and will be the standard for years to come."

In The Philippine War, 1899-1902, Linn elaborates on the themes of his earlier The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902. He studies U.S. rule and conquest of the Philippines during the most ambitious period of U.S. military expansion, drawing on resources from the National Archives and the U.S. Army Military Institute in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. With this book he reemphasizes the importance of the period between the Apache campaigns and World War I through the testimony of the men who served through four difficult years. Journal of Military History contributor James G. Crawford wrote: "Linn's treatment of the Americans' breakout from Manila and their routing of General Emilio Aguinaldo's army in northern Luzon in 1899 is the best in print." Crawford considered the second part of the book, in which Linn addresses the occupation of the remainder of the archipelago, with its individual competitions, "his greatest contribution." Here he notes the mixed responsibilities of the U.S. military, which have been criticized by historians as often being inhumane. Most histories of the period state that American soldiers killed, tortured, and raped Filipinos.

Linn offers a counterbalance in writing of this period of United States colonialism without denying that abuses did occur. The need, according to Linn, was to restore order to the islands, a daunting task given that every village on every island required a different approach. While fighting frequently occurred, with Luzon being the site of the more conventional warfare, half of the islands saw no action at all. A Parameters reviewer noted: "Linn clears up much confusion about the nature of the war and refutes old mythology. He is particularly convincing in analyzing the charges that American pacification efforts were savage campaigns against defenseless Filipinos, marked by atrocities and devastation. There were indeed atrocities committed, by Filipinos as well as by Americans, particularly in the last stages of the war. But these instances were not typical." The reviewer concluded that The Philippine War, 1899-1902 reflects "an impressive scholarly background and depth of knowledge."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1990, Michael Paul Onorato, review of The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 1643; December, 1998, Craig M. Cameron, review of Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940, pp. 1710-1711.

History: Review of New Books, fall, 1997, R. Blake Dunnavent, review of Guardians of Empire, p. 7; spring, 2000, Steven C. Gravlin, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 136.

Journal of American History, September, 1990, Graham A. Cosmas, review of The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902, pp. 695-696; June, 2002, Joseph A. Fry, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 241.

Journal of Asian Studies, February, 1990, Bruce Cruikshank, review of The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902, pp. 214-215.

Journal of Military History, October, 2001, James G. Crawford, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, pp. 42-43.

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, March, 1999, D.K.R. Crosswell, review of Guardians of Empire, p. 205; June, 2001, Dan Crosswell, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 288.

National Interest, summer, 2000, Max Boot, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 111.

Pacific Affairs, summer, 1999, Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, review of Guardians of Empire, p. 315.

Pacific Historical Review, August, 1998, Fritz Fischer, review of Guardians of Empire, pp. 441-442.

Parameters, autumn, 2000, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 158.

Publishers Weekly, January 24, 2000, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902, p. 307.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (November 25, 1997), Roger Dingman, review of Guardians of Empire; (January 11, 2007), T.R. Brereton, review of The Philippine War, 1899-1902.

Texas A&M University Web site,http://www.tamu.edu/ (December 17, 2006), author's curriculum vitae.*