Research Interests for Alex Roland

I study military history and the history of technology. My focus has ranged over all of Western experience, and I have recently converted my undergraduate course in military history to a comparative world military history course. I have written about chariots in the second millennium B.C., Greek fire in medieval Byzantium, and computers and aerospace technology in the twentieth century. While I study the history of technology in general, I also focus on the ways in which technology has shaped war and war has altered technology.

Current projects:

Separate from my scholarship and teaching, I am a student and critic of the United States civilian space program. I spent eight stimulating and rewarding years (1973-1981) as a historian with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but I have come to believe that the agency lost its way after the Apollo program. I have written extensively on this topic. My other extracurricular activities include running, tennis, mystery and historical novels, and occasional sailing when I can find my way to the sea.

Recent Publications

1. Roland, A, Da Vinci Medal Address: A Centrifugal Maelstrom?, Technology and culture, vol. 65 no. 4 (January, 2024), pp. 1349-1360 [doi] [abs]
2. Roland, A, Delta of Power The Military-Industrial Complex (August, 2021), pp. 304 pages, JHU Press, ISBN 9781421441818 [abs]
3. Roland, A, Is military technology deterministic?, Vulcan, vol. 7 no. 1 (January, 2020), pp. 19-33 [doi] [abs]
4. Roland, A, Craig L. Symonds, World War II at Sea: A Global History, Canadian Journal of History, vol. 54 no. 1-2 (September, 2019), pp. 269-271, University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) [doi]
5. Roland, A, The lonely race to mars: The future of manned spaceflight, in Space Policy Alternatives (January, 2019), pp. 35-49, ISBN 9780367288488 [doi] [abs]