Historian,  Speaker, Educator, Storyteller, Writer, Podcaster, Veteran & Advocate, Professor,  Military History Curator, & Coach

Conducted major historical research on the fighting abilities, leadership, successes, and controversies of General George S. Patton at the Modern Military Archives, College Park, Maryland, the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, at Columbia University.  Rich worked under Professor Michael Barnhart was a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at Stony Brook University. 

 

A graduate of Northwestern University and his Ph.D. at Harvard.  Barnhart specialized in Japanese military, foreign policy, and political history and was known for his simulation World War II course that he presented to his students at Stony Brook University.  He was a guest lecturer at Kyoto University in Tokyo and published the following:

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• Barnhart, Michael A. (2021-06-15), Can You Beat Churchill?, Cornell University Press, doi:10.7591/cornell/9781501755644.003.0010, 

• Barnhart, Michael A. (2009). Japan prepares for total war: the search for economic security, 1919 - 1941. Cornell studies in security affairs Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. 

• Barnhart, Michael A. (1995). Japan and the world since 1868. International relations and the great powers. London; New York: Edward Arnold. 

• Barnhart, Michael A., ed. (1987). Congress and United States foreign policy: controlling the use of force in the nuclear age. Albany: State University of New York Press

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 At Norwich University Masters of Arts in Military History, this research was expanded on the fighting and leadership presence of Patton's efforts during World War II in North Africa, Sicily and Europe.  Within both endeavors, Rich worked with noted scholar, lecturer, writer, researcher, and military history advisor Professor Dennis Showalter, Ph.D.   He was a leading scholar at Colorado College.  Showalter was a notable professor at the United States Military, Air Force, and Marine Corp Academies, and was also a special advisor and instructor at Norwich University.   

 

Showalter was a specialist within German military history of Frederick the Great, Bismark and German Fighting Unification, World War I/II, and wrote a major book called Patton and Rommel, where he had discussions with Rich about his own research into this figure, when Rich was in the process of completing his mammoth thesis on Patton.  This scholar was a major figure in the military history academic community where he was the President of the American Society for Military History from 1997-2001 and was an advisor for the Barsanti Military History Center at the University of North Texas.

• "Manifestation of Reform: The Rearmament of the Prussian Infantry, 1806–13", The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 44, No. 3, September 1972

• Railroads and Rifles: Soldiers, Technology, and the Unification of Germany. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon/Shoe String, 1975.

• Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, 1914. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon, 1991.  2004. ISBN 978-1-57488-781-5

• The Wars of Frederick the Great. London/New York: Longman, 1996. 

• The Wars of German Unification. London: Arnold, 2004. 

• Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism. Military Profiles. Washington: Potomac, 2005. 

• Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century. New York: Berkley Caliber, 2005. 

• Armor and Blood:  The Battle of Kursk: The Turning Point of World War II. Random House, 2013.

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Rich's written research and his well over two hundred publications that focus on American and Global military, political, economic, sports, and social affairs have been tied to the mentoring of Barnhart and the late Showalter.  He is in the midst of writing a three book series on the military life of General Ulysses S. Grant.  It will cover the entire early life, military education, US-Mexico War, the hardships of Grant, the major Civil War leadership, successes, and controversies of President Abraham Lincoln's fighting general to help win this war, unify the nation, and end slavery.  Rich has written over 2,000 pages and has conducted research at the United States Military Academy Library and Archives, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.  

 

These two major scholars established the foundation of research, writing, initiative, and skills that has enabled Rich to build 9/11/01 Diamond in the Pines Town of Brookhaven VFW Post 6249 Learning Site, Specialist Joseph Dwyer PTSD statue, and a World War II and Military History Museum and two Veterans Wall of Honor's.

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  In proce on the military l Grant.