HPU Professor Teaches Military History at West Point
Dr. Rick Schneid, High Point University’s Herman and Louise Smith professor of history, delivered the Ewing Chair lecture to 550 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Jan. 11.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Jan. 29, 2024 – Dr. Frederick Schneid, High Point University’s Herman and Louise Smith Professor of History, recently delivered the Ewing Chair lecture to 550 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point.
Schneid is the first HPU professor appointed as the Charles Boal Ewing Chair in Military History by a committee in the Department of History at the USMA at West Point. The residency appointment is invitation only and given to a leading scholar in military history.
Serving as the 16th Charles Boal Ewing Chair of Military History at West Point, Schneid explored the evolution of war and warfare from Napoleon to World War I. This was the introductory lecture for the core course for all cadets, History of Military Art from 1900 to the Present. Schneid’s lecture established the contextual foundations upon which the rest of the course is taught.
“It was a wonderful way to mark my 30 years as a military historian,” Schneid said. “It also reflects the quality of HPU’s History Department and the university’s commitment to educating future leaders.”
Dr. Joey Fink, interim chair of the HPU History Department and assistant professor of history, agreed that the department is honored that Schneid has this opportunity to educate the next generation of America’s military leaders. He will return to HPU in June.
“As part of a ‘God, family and country’ school, our department understands the important role we play in helping learners understand our shared past and envision a brighter future,” she said.
The Ewing Chair is a visiting senior professor who lives at the USMA at West Point and serves 11 months in a full-time capacity. In addition to giving the Ewing Chair lecture, the faculty member teaches two courses in their field each semester, directs senior seminar research and provides mentorship to junior faculty and advice to senior leadership.
The Ewing Chair also sits on a variety of scholarship and award committees and serves as an external member of any search committee for the Department of History. The Ewing Chair is often asked by colleagues to guest lecture in their respective courses.
In the fall, Schneid taught History of Military Art to 1900 and Historiography of the Napoleonic Wars, which was the first semester of a two-semester senior seminar project. This spring, he is teaching two sections of Warfare in the Age of Revolutions, which is a military history of the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon. Schneid is completing the last semester of research for the cadet he is advising. He has also given guest lectures in other courses on Weimar Germany, 1918-1933, and The Revolutions of 1848.