Ty Seidule
Visiting Professor of History, Executive Director of Common Ground
Ty Seidule served in the U.S. Army for more than three decades, retiring in 2020 as a brigadier general. He is a professor emeritus of history at West Point and received its distinguished faculty award. His latest book is Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause. He is the author or editor of six other books, three of which won distinguished writing prizes.
He created and co-edited the award-winning West Point History of Warfare, the largest enhanced digital book in any field. His video lecture “Was the Civil War About Slavery” has 35 million views on social media.
He served as the vice chair of the Congressional Naming Commission, which renamed or removed Department of Defense assets that commemorated Confederates. He is a presidential advisor for the National World War II Museum, a member of the Scholar Advisory Board for the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, and an International Security Fellow at New America.
Recent Courses Taught
The American Civil War and Reconstruction
Monuments and Myths: American Civil War Memory
America in World War I and II
Common Ground: A Laboratory for Civil Discourse
Distinctions
- Best Book for Young Adults, Robert E. Lee and Me, “Shondaland” (Shonda Rhimes), 2023
- “Parents’ Association Resident Scholar Award,” The Park School, Baltimore Maryland, 2023
- Best Book of the Year List, Robert E. Lee and Me - NPR, Forbes, Washington Independent Review of Books, 2021
- Historian of the Year Award, National Preservation Trust, Historic Hotels of America, 2021
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Hamilton College, 2021
- Favorite OpEds of 2020, Washington Post, “What to Rename the Army Bases that Honor Confederate Soldiers”
- Distinguished Faculty Award, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, West Point, 2019
- Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society, Washington and Lee University, 2018
- Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, 2015, 2016, and 2018
- George C. Marshall Library/Society for Military History Digital Prize, 2016
Select Publications
- Ty Seidule and Connor Williams, A Promised Delivered: The Naming Commission, Nine Army Bases, and Ten American Heroes (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2025). (Forthcoming)
- The Naming Commission: Final Report to the U.S. Congress and Secretary of Defense, 3 Volumes, 2022.
- Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021). Paperback, 2022.
- West Point History of the American Revolution, editors Clifford J. Rogers, Ty Seidule, and Samuel J. Watson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017).
- The West Point History of World War II, vol. 2, editors Clifford J. Rogers, Ty Seidule, and Steve R. Waddell (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016).
- The West Point History of World War II, vol. 1, editors Clifford J. Rogers, Ty Seidule, and Steve R. Waddell (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015).
- Stand Up and Fight: The Creation of U.S. Security Organizations, 1940-2012, editors Ty Seidule and Jacqueline Whitt (U.S. Army War College Press, 2015).
- The West Point History of Warfare, editors Clifford J. Rogers and Ty Seidule, four volumes, 71-chapter enhanced e-book (New York: Rowan Technology Solutions, 2015).
- The West Point History of the Civil War, editors Clifford J. Rogers, Ty Seidule, and Samuel J. Watson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014).
- “’Treason is Treason:’ Civil War Memory at West Point,” Journal of Military History (April 2012).
College Service
Executive Director, Common Ground
Advancement Committee
Professional Affiliations
Organization of American Historians
American Historical Association
Society for Military History
International Congress of Military History
Appointed to the Faculty
2020Educational Background
Ph.D., Ohio State University
M.A., Ohio State University
B.A., Washington and Lee University
