Dr Graham Cross

Academic and professional qualifications

PhD, History (2010): University of Cambridge. Thesis: 'The Interationalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1933'

MA, American History (2004): University of East Anglia.

BA, History (1994): University of Durham.

Associate of the Higher Education Academy (2010).

Previous employment

2012-2013: Lecturer in War Studies (History), University of Glasgow.

2012: Teaching Fellow, University College Dublin.

2008-2013:Teaching Associate, Queens’ College, University of Cambridge.

Why study United States Military, Diplomatic and Political History?

Undergraduate courses

Unit Leader: The United States and the World: Themes in American Foreign Policy Since 1776 (Level 5, Y2).

Unit Leader: A Special Relationship? The United States and Britain in the Twentieth Century? (Level 6 Y3).

Postgraduate teaching

Unit Leader: A Friendly Invasion? The United States Military in Britain during World War II

Postgraduate supervision (completed/in progress)

My area of supervision is US military, diplomatic and political history, predominantly, but not exclusively, covering the twentieth century. I particularly welcome supervision discussions from potential postgraduate students interested in aspects of US air power history, presidential foreign policy and Anglo-American relations.

I have covered many broader topics in US history from Native Americans to the Comic Book culture of the 1950s and the Struggle for Black Equality.

Research expertise

I am interested in the way the United States has interacted with the world by military and diplomatic means throughout the twentieth century. My research focuses on the intersection of military operations, diplomacy and American politics during the first half of the twentieth century and the era of World War I & II. I am also particularly interested in the military and diplomatic relationship the US has with the United Kingdom.

My current research concerns the operations and culture of the United States Air Force (and its antecedents), the air campaigns of World War II and the relationship between the United Kingdom and the USAF. I am a leading expert on the operational history of the the US 8th Army Air Force that conducted a strategic bombing campaign from the United Kingdom during World War II. I am also interested in the relationship between the US presidency and the use of air power.

My previous research has covered the impact of World War I on the foreign policy of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and I retain an active interest in presidential foreign policy and particularly that of the FDR era.

Publications

• Books (authored/edited/special issues)

  WK. Blickenstaff (2022). Ace in a Day: The Memoir of an Eighth Air Force Fighter Pilot in World War II. G. Cross. Havertown PA: Casemate Publishers.

  G. Cross (2017). Slybirds A Photographic Odyssey of the 353rd Fighter Group During the Second World War.

  GE. Cross (2012). The Diplomatic Education of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1933. Palgrave Macmillan.

  GE. Cross (2001). Jonah's Feet are Dry The Experience of the 353rd Fighter Group During World War II.

• Journal articles

  G. Cross (2022). Correction to: The meaning of Madingley: Anglo-American commemorative culture at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery (Journal of Transatlantic Studies, (2022), 20, 1, (129-159), 10.1057/s42738-022-00086-5). Journal of Transatlantic Studies. 20(1), pp.160-160.

• Chapters in books

Invited papers

‘Command of the Sky: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Air Power,’ for the Manchester
Metropolitan University History & Politics Seminar December 2013.

‘The Meaning of Madingley: Continuity and Change in American Political Rhetoric at
the Cambridge American Military Cemetery,’ at the Transatlantic Studies
Association Conference July 2013.

‘United States Strategic Fighters in the European Theatre of Operations,’ University of
Glasgow War Studies Seminar May 2013.

‘FDR’s Jeffersonian Moment’ Cambridge International Relations Seminar 2009.

‘FDR and the Fight for the League of Nations’ Cambridge International Relations
Seminar 2008.

‘FDR as Assistant Secretary of the Navy’ Fredrik Logevall Conference, Cambridge 2006.

Expert reviewer for journals and publishers

Review of J. P. Clark, Preparing for War - The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917 American Historical Review (June 2018)

Review of Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt – A Political Life BBC History Magazine (January 2018)

Review of William J. Mann, The Wars of the Roosevelts BBC World Histories Magazine (2017)

Review of Sam Edwards, Allies in Memory for War in History (June 2017)

Review of James M. Scott, Target Tokyo for War in History (April 2017)

Review of Michael Carew, The Impact of the First World War on U.S. Policymakers American Historical Review (Dec, 2015)

Review of Christopher Rein, The North African Air Campaign for War in History (Apr, 2014).

Review of Sheldon M. Stern’s The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory published in War
in History (Nov, 2013).

Roundtable review of Tony Smith’s America’s Mission published in Argentia (Dec, 2012).

I have also acted as an expert reviewer of book proposals for Routledge and Ashgate.

Grants

2013: Carnegie Trust 2013 for ‘The Meaning of Madingley: Continuity and Change at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery.’

2012: University of Glasgow Research Fund.

2010: Board of Graduate Studies Research Grant, Cambridge.

2008-2009: Two research grants from the Sara Norton Fund, Cambridge.

2007: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, New York Research Grant.

Consultancy and advisory roles

Contributor to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History on the foreign policy of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Historian and archivist to the 353rd Fighter Group Association. This has resulted in the publication of two books:

Graham Cross, Slybirds - A Photographic Odyssey of the 353rd Fighter Group (Hitchen, 2017) 

Graham Cross, Jonah's Feet Are Dry - The Experience of the 353rd Fighter Group During World War II (Ipswich, 2001)

Community, charity and NGO links

I have strong links with the National Army Museum in Chelsea and have given two public talks connected to the centenary remembrances of American participation in World War I

'The World's Peace' - Woodrow's Wilson's Fourteen Points (5 Jan 2018)

'Too Proud to Fight' - How We Remember American Entry into World War I (7 April 2017)

I have strong links with the Second Air Division Memorial Library in Norwich and have given a number of public talks in recent years

'Too Proud to Fight' - How We Remember American Entry into World War I (20 March 2017)

'The 353rd Fighter Group During World War II' (3 June 2015)

'Long Reach or Down to Earth? - The Importance of 8th Air Force Fighters During World War II' (4 July 2013)

I was the invited speaker to the Wichita Downtown Rotary Club, Wichita, Kansas where I spoke on 'A Special Relationship - The Friendship Between the United States and Great Britain Since World War II' (11 September 2017).

Prizes and awards

2004: University of East Anglia MA Dissertation Prize.

Membership of professional associations

Transatlantic Studies Association (TSA)

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)

Society for Military History (SMH)