20th Century U.S. History, U.S. and the World, Military History, War Crimes, The World Wars, Imperial Japan
Benjamin M. Schneider received his PhD from George Mason University in 2019. He received his B.A. from the University of Rochester, and an M.A. from The George Washington University. His dissertation No Law Except the Sword: American War Criminals and the Failure of Military Justice, 1942-1945, examines the trials of U.S. troops tried for close order killings of Axis prisoners and civilians in the European Theater of Operations during the Second World War. He argues that these crimes were both substantially more common than previously supposed, and that while the army was aware of the problem it did not pursue or punish these crimes as the law demanded. His research has been supported by the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation, and appeared in the Journal of Contemporary History. He was a post-doctoral Fellow in the Strategy and Policy Department at the U.S. Naval War College, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Massacre at Tambach: American War Criminals and the Limits of Military Justice, 1945. War in History, forthcoming.
Making Killers: Hate Training and the U.S. Army's War in Europe, 1942-1945. Journal of Contemporary History, April 2020.
Review of Stephen A. Bourque, Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France, in The Strategy Bridge, June 2018.
Review of Kenneth D. Alford, American Crimes and the Liberation of Paris: Robbery, Rape and Murder by Renegade GIs, 1944-1947, in H-War, January 2018.
Review of Walter M. Hudson, Army Diplomacy: American Military Occupation and Foreign Policy after World War II, in H-War, March 2017.
Dissertation Fellowship, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 2018-2019.
Dissertation Year Fellowship, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2017-2018.
Presidential Scholar, George Mason University, 2013-2016.
Sole Responsibility Courses
The Digital Past
Topics in American Military History
Introduction to World History
Teaching Assistant
Introduction to World History
U.S. History: 1877 - Present
U.S. Diplomatic History
Hitler's Germany
Ph.D George Mason University, 2019
M.A The George Washington University, 2010
B.A. University of Rochester, 2008
“American War Criminals and Military Justice in the Second World War.” The Judge Advocate General’s Office, 2019.
“A Country Where Everyone is the Enemy: Hate Training and the U.S. Army’s War Against Germany.” Society for Military History Annual Meeting, 2019.
“Killing is the Object of Our Efforts: Combat Training, International Law, and War Criminals in the U.S. Army during the Second World War.” James A. Barnes Graduate Student History Conference, 2019.
“Legal Implications of the Tambach Killings.” Army Legal Services Agency, 2019.
“A Dirty War: American War Criminals and the Failure of Military Justice, 1942-45.” U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2018.
“I Didn’t Consider Them as Prisoners: Law, Culture, and the Refusal of Quarter in the U.S. Army during the Second World War.” Society for Military History Annual Meeting, Spring 2018.
Consultant, “Take No Prisoners: Inside a WWII American War Crime,” Reveal, NPR, July 28, 2018.