Alex Roland, Professor Emeritus

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.

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Education:

Ph.D.	Duke University	1974
M.A.	University of Hawaii, Manoa	1970
B.S.	United States Naval Academy	1966

Research Interests:

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.

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.

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Roland, A, :Knowledge Regulation and National Security in Postwar America, Isis, vol. 116 no. 3 (September, 2025), pp. 619-620, University of Chicago Press [doi]
2. Roland, A, TECHNOLOGY AND WARFARE: Agents of change, Metode, vol. 15 no. 8 (January, 2025), pp. e30508-e30508, Universitat de Valencia [doi]  [abs]
3. Roland, A, Da Vinci Medal Address: A Centrifugal Maelstrom?, Technology and culture, vol. 65 no. 4 (January, 2024), pp. 1349-1360 [doi]  [abs]
4. Roland, A, Delta of Power The Military-Industrial Complex (August, 2021), pp. 304 pages, JHU Press, ISBN 9781421441818  [abs]
5. Roland, A, Is military technology deterministic?, Vulcan, vol. 7 no. 1 (January, 2020), pp. 19-33 [doi]  [abs]

Harold K. Johnson Professor of Military History, Military History Institute, U.S. Army War College, 1988-1989 Fellow, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994-1995 Dr. Leo Shifrin Professor of Naval-Military History, U.S. Naval Academy, 2001-2002