Biography
Ltc. (ret.) William J. Astore served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years, retiring in 2005.
He was professor of history, and has written extensively for TomDispatch.com, Truthout, History News Network (HNN), Alternet, Salon, Antiwar.com, and Huffington Post among other sites. He is the author or co-author of three books: Soldiers’ Lives through History: The Early Modern World (2007, co-written with Dennis E. Showalter), Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (2005, with Showalter), and Observing God: Thomas Dick, Evangelicalism, and Popular Science in Victorian Britain and America (2001). His numerous articles focus on military history as well as the history of science, technology, and religion.
He earned a BS (with distinction) in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University (history of science and technology), and a D.Phil. (doctor of philosophy) from the University of Oxford (modern history). He has taught at the Air Force Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Areas of Expertise
- Military history
- Defense applications of science, technology, and religion
- Police militarization and domestic implications of foreign wars
- Defense spending and the Military-Industrial-Complex
Recent News
- William Astore: Ukraine battles sky-high expectations ahead of counteroffensive“Sometimes, war is sold like a consumer product, where there’s a lot of hype and a lot of hope,” said Bill Astore, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran and a senior fellow with the Eisenhower Media Network. “That is contrary to the reality we often see.”
- William Astore: Are the Best Years of My Country Behind Me?It was, of course, not to be and today we once again find ourselves on an increasingly apocalyptic planet. To quote Pink Floyd, the child is grown and the dream is gone. All too sadly, Americans have become comfortably numb to the looming threat of a nuclear Armageddon. And yet the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist’s Doomsday Clock continues to tick ever closer to midnight precisely because we persist in building and deploying ever more nuclear weapons with no significant thought to either the cost or the consequences.
- William Astore: Learning Nothing from Iraq WarIn short, the U.S. view of the Iraq War remains insular and narcissistic. The focus is on what U.S. troops may have gotten wrong, and how the military could perform better in the future.