The 2010 Kemper Lecture was given by military historian and biographer Carlo d'Este on Sunday, April 18.
Carlo d’Este served in the United States Army from 1958-1978, including overseas tours of duty in Vietnam, Germany and England, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He graduated magna cum laude from Norwich University in 1958, was an Honor Graduate of the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS, in 1974 and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Richmond in 1974. In 1992, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by his alma mater, Norwich University.
His books include Decision in Normandy (1983); Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 1943 (1988); World War II in the Mediterranean (1990); and Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome (1991); as well as two biographies: Patton: A Genius For War (1995) and Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life (2002).
In addition to a number of television appearances on C-SPAN, Fox News Channel and the History Channel, he has lectured at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, the National War College, and is an annual visitor to the U.S. Army War College military history program. Carlo is the co-founder and executive director of the William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium at Norwich University, where he has served on the Board of Fellows and as President of the Friends of the Norwich University Library. He was a member of Legacy Committee of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission in 2002-2003 under the late Gen. Andrew Goodpaster and is a consulting historian, contributor and member of the Advisory Board of Armchair General magazine.
His latest book, Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, was published in the USA by HarperCollins in November 2008 and in the UK by Penguin/Allen Lane in April 2009.
“Leave the past to history especially as I propose to write that history myself.”
