Thomas Fleming (historian)

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Thomas James Fleming (born 1927) is an American military historian.

[edit] Biography

Fleming began his career as an historian in 1960 with Now We Are Enemies, the first book on the battle of Bunker Hill for 90 years. Reviewers greeted it with enthusiasm. "It yields to no account for sheer readability," wrote the New York Times reviewer. "It should be read by everybody who believes in the greatness of America," declared the Chicago Tribune. The book was a main selection of the Literary Guild. Fleming's next book, Beat The Last Drum, the story of Yorktown, was praised by historian Allan Nevins in the New York Times as "assuredly one of the outstanding historical works of the year." The Chicago Tribune called it "a masterly historian at his masterly best."

The New York Times described Fleming's next book, West Point, The Men and Times of the U.S. Military Academy, "as the best book ever written" about the school. Fleming's next book, 1776, Year of Illusions, revealed the deeply flawed strategies of both the British and Americans, and George Washington's epochal decision to change America's strategy and "protract the war" in the crucial final months of the year. Henry Bragdon of the Christian Science Monitor wrote: "Seldom if ever have I reviewed a book I more unreservedly recommend than this." The Cleveland Plain Dealer called it "the best history of the American Revolution to appear in the bicentennial period." The American Library Association said it was "eye opening" and listed it among the outstanding books of the year.

Mr. Fleming's next history book, The Forgotten Victory, about the 1780 battle of Springfield, N.J., was cited by the American Association for State and Local History for "brilliantly illuminating little known aspects of state and local history." In a New York Times review George F. Scheer wrote: "Thomas Fleming's full length account of the political machinations and battlefield actions that make up the Springfield affair, replete with colorful details and characterizations, makes both compelling reading and a convincing case for the lasting significance of the victory." Around this time Mr. Fleming also produced two book-length essays for the National Park Service, The First Stroke, on the battles of Lexington and Concord, and Downright Fighting]] on the battle of Cowpens.

During these same years, Thomas Fleming wrote two novels about the War for Independence. Liberty Tavern (1976) was called by one reviewer "the Gone with the Wind of the American Revolution." It dramatized the struggle in New Jersey as a civil war. Dreams of Glory (1981, reprinted 2002) was praised by historian John Gardner of Delaware State University as "the best espionage novel of the Revolution, and that includes James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy." Set in 1780, the book deals with secret war between the British and American intelligence networks.

Mr. Fleming's next history book, Liberty! The American Revolution told the story of the nation's founding in conjunction with a prize-winning six part series on the Revolution that appeared on PBS in November 1997. Douglas Brinkley said it was "that rare essential book that belongs in every school and home." It was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and the History Book Club. The latter rated it one of the eight best books of the year.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fleming turned his attention to other periods of American history. In the 1980s he wrote two bestselling novels. The Officers' Wives, about three West Pointers and their wives in the Korean and Vietnam wars, was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club. The New York Times praised the "subtlety and intelligence" with which it "probed the heart of the American experience over the last thirty years." The Chicago Sun-Times compared his 1987 novel, Time and Tide, about a U.S. Navy cruiser haunted by her captain's purported cowardice in the Pacific during World War II, to Melville's Moby-Dick.

In his nonfiction mode, the Washington Post called Fleming's revisionist 2001 book on the domestic politics of World War II, The New Dealer's War, FDR and the War Within World War II "a gripping, controversial, informative...look at FDR's leadership." The New York Sun said The Illusion of Victory, America in World War I (2003) "made a powerful case" for Fleming's searing portrait of Woodrow Wilson's wartime presidency -- an administration whose missteps, Fleming argued, still haunt us.

Mr. Fleming wrote two highly praised novels linked to his research on these two wars. His 1992 novel, Over There, about American men -- and women -- in World War I was praised by New York Newsday as "a wonderfully readable story that blends breathless action and food for thought on every fascinating page...A woman's novel for men and a man's novel for women." Military History Magazine gave the book a full page unqualified endorsement -- the first novel they ever reviewed. Fleming's 1994 novel, Loyalties, focused on a Berlin woman involved in the German resistance to Hitler and the American intelligence officer who falls in love with her. One reviewer praised Fleming's "powerful ability to use fiction as a way of providing readers with astonishing new perspectives on world events."

Thomas Fleming is the only writer in the long history of the Book of the Month Club to have had main selections in both history and fiction.

Mr. Fleming has also devoted some of his many sided talent to military history in other mediums. He was consultant to the Discovery Channel's 2002 film on Valley Forge. In 2003 he wrote a series of short dramatic films for the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg. He has also written for young readers. His biography of George Washington, First In Their Hearts, stayed in print for 30 years. In 2006, he published Everybody's Revolution. The book describes the varied ethnic and racial groups -- Irish, Germans, Jews, African Americans -- who fought in the Continental Army. It was rated one of the ten best books of the year by the Washington Post.

In October 2005 Smithsonian Books, a division of HarperCollins, published Thomas Fleming's 17th nonfiction book, Washington's Secret War, the Hidden History of Valley Forge. It was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club and the History Book Club. Gordon Wood of Brown University called it "a superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth. Harlow Giles Unger, biographer of Lafayette, wrote: "Fleming's brilliant work strips away the mythology from this critical event in American history and exposes the profiteers, incompetents and ideologues who transformed an ordinary winter into a hell unwarranted by weather or supply shortages."

From 1970-1980 Mr. Fleming was chairman of the American Revolution Round Table and is currently its program director. He also serves as the senior scholar at the National Center for the American Revolution at Valley Forge. For many years he has been a contributing editor to MHQ, the Quarterly Journal of Military History. His MHQ article on West Pointers in the Mexican War won the annual award of the Army History Foundation in 2003. He has written frequently on military matters for American Heritage, Military History, History Today and other magazines.

In March 2007, the U.S. State Department invited Mr. Fleming to lecture on the Civil War in Vienna, Austria, as part of its "Distinguished Author" series. The New York American Revolution Round Table has given him its award for best book of the year three times, in 1975 for 1776: Year of Illusions and in 1997 for Liberty! The American Revolution and in 1999 for Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America. In 1992, the New Jersey Historical Commission gave him its Award of Recognition for "his unique contributions to the expansion of public knowledge about New Jersey history through the complementary roles of historian and novelist."

In 2003 Mr. Fleming received the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Union League Club of New York for his contribution to American literature. The previous year, Boston University gave him their Burack Award with similar praise for his lifetime's work. In 2006, The Society of the Cincinnati invited him to give their George Rogers Clark lecture at their annual dinner in Washington, D.C.

On May 7, 2007, the Society of American Historians, whose membership is limited to 250 authors notable for both historical scholarship and literary ability, named Mr. Fleming as its next president at its annual dinner in New York.

When asked to sum up his subject matter as a writer, Thomas Fleming replied: "I would say it all in one word: America. I will never tire of exploring in the past and present the tension between its ideals and its realities and the impact of this great dichotomy on individual men and women, on the conduct of America's wars and its politics and ultimately on the soul of this vanguard nation, to whom the world looks for leadership."