Paul D. Gelpi, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D. History, University of Alabama
M.A. History, University of New Orleans
B.A. History, University of New Orleans

Biography

Dr. Paul D. Gelpi is a Professor of Military History at the Command & Staff College. He joined the faculty of the Command & Staff College in 2007 and was promoted to Professor in 2010. He served as the Electives Program Coordinator from 2007 to 2009 and as the Operational Art Course Director from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, he became the Communications Program Coordinator. He has also held positions with a number institutions of higher learning and, since 2016, has served as an Adjunct Senior Professorial Lecturer in the School of International Service at American University.

Dr. Gelpi is a U.S. historian whose principal scholarly interests are U.S. military history, primarily aviation history and airpower theory, and the history of culture and ideas in the Early Republic and 20th-century America, especially the Cold War era. He has presented papers at conferences in the United States and abroad, as well as lectured at the University of Wolverhampton (UK). He has published articles, essays, and encyclopedia entries on U.S. and military history in Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early Republic: A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-Clio), EEncyclopedia of Modern Warfare (Amber Books), Encyclopedia of Chinese-American Relations (McFarland & Company, Inc.), The Seventies in America (Salem Press), and The Fifties in America (Salem Press) plus scholarly reviews.

 

Dr. Gelpi contributed an essay – “In Defense of Liberty: The Battalion d ‘Orleans and Its Battle for New Orleans” – to The Battle of New Orleans in History and Memory; and his book, Creating a “Flexible Response:” General “Opie” Weyland and the Resurgence of Tactical Airpower, is nearing completion while his article, “To Answer the Question of Power Projection: General O.P. Weyland, USAF and the Origins of ‘Flexible Response,’ 1954-1960,” is in revision.

 

Dr. Gelpi received his Ph.D. in history at The University of Alabama and earned his M.A. and B.A. in history at the University of New Orleans.

 

Selected Publications

“In Defense of Liberty: The Battalion d ‘Orleans and Its Battle for New Orleans” in The Battle of New Orleans, Real and Remembered, ed. Laura Lyons McLemore. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2016.

The Grand Strategy that Won the Cold War: Architecture of Triumph, ed. Douglas E. Streusand (contributing editor), Norman A. Bailey (contributing editor), Francis H. Marlo (contributing editor), and Paul D. Gelpi (chapter editor). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.

“Strange Fruit: Race and Murder in Small Town Louisiana,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association LII (Winter 2011): 80-95.

“Piney Hills Stalag: The Internment of Axis Prisoners of War in Camp Ruston, Louisiana,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association LVI (Summer 2009): 341-350.

“Mr. Jefferson’s Creoles: The Battalion d ‘Orleans and the Americanization of Creole Louisiana, 1803-1815,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association XLVIII (Summer 2007): 295-316.