Missouri S&T professor receives Thomas Fleming Award for Outstanding Military History Writing

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On October 30, 2018

Dr. John C. McManus, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of history and political science at Missouri S&T and one of the nation’s most distinguished military historians, has won the Thomas Fleming Award for Outstanding Military History Writing for his upcoming journal article on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s stealth campaign for the 1944 Republican presidential nomination. A $5,000 cash prize accompanies the award.

McManus’s article, “The Man Who Would Be President,” is the cover story of the Winter 2019 issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, the sponsor of the Fleming Awards.

Dr. John C. MaManus, photo by Sam O’Keefe.

The award is the product of an international competition where MHQ editorial judges conduct an extensive blind review to select the winner. It honors the legacy of Thomas Fleming, a gifted and prolific historian who died in July 2017. Fleming’s remarkable career as a writer spanned more than 50 years. He was a valued contributor to MHQ from its inception in 1989. He went to great lengths to encourage young writers and to advance his profession in the public eye.

McManus is a visiting professor for the 2018–19 academic year at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, as the Leo A. Shifrin Distinguished Chair of Military History. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Dead and Those About to Die—D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach (2014) and the forthcoming Fire and Fortitude: The United States Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943, the first of a two-volume series.

“Tom Fleming was my dear friend and mentor for over 25 years,” McManus says. “He was always available to lend a helping hand, a kind word, a supportive word, or just some sage advice. He had a passion for helping other writers, something that isn’t necessarily universal in our profession. To me, he embodied true greatness as a writer, a historian and a man.”

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