Profile
A native of the New York City area, Dr. Vitarbo attended Drew University in Madison, N.J., where he majored in history and received his B.A. in 1990. He did his graduate work at the University of Michigan and received his Ph.D. in Russian/Soviet history in 1999. After one-year teaching positions at Franklin & Marshall College and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Dr. Vitarbo joined the Meredith faculty in the fall semester of 2001. He teaches in the fields of Russian/Soviet history, Western Civilization and modern World History, Modern European history, the history of warfare, and the history of technology. He has also directed the Meredith in Italy summer program for the past several years. Dr. Vitarbo’s recently published book, Army of the Sky: Russian Military Aviation Before the Great War, 1904-1914, examines the military, social, and cultural impact of the new technology of the airplane on the Russian Imperial army in the decade before the first world war. He has also published essays and articles on such issues as Russian aviation, nationality policy in the Russian officer corps, and modernization within the Russian Imperial officer corps, as well as numerous book and textbook reviews.
Academic Credentials
Ph. D: History University of Michigan, 1999
B.A.: History (Summa Cum Laude), Drew University, 1990
Professional Credentials
Fall 2013- Full Professor Meredith College
Fall 2007- Spring 2013 Associate Professor Meredith College
Fall 2001- Spring 2007 Assistant Professor Meredith College
Fall 2000- Spring 2001 Visiting Assistant Professr University of Nevada- Las Vega
Fall 1999- Spring 2000 Visiting Assistant Professr Franklin & Marshall College
Publications
Army of the Sky: Russian Military Aviation Before the Great War, 1904-1914. (New York: Peter Lang, 2012).
Contributor, “Gen. Billy Mitchell Gave the Air Force its Wings” Investor’s Business Daily, March 11, 2013.
Contributor, “Eddie Rickenbacker was World War I Top Gun” Investor’s Business Daily, January 28, 2013.
Review of Marina Soroka, Britain, Russia, and the Road to the First World War, European History Quarterly. 43:1 (January 2013): 183-84.
Contributor, “Clausewitz,” Investor’s Business Daily, February 12, 2012.
Review of Dominic Lieven, Russia Against Napoleon (New York, 2009) and Janet Hartley, Russia 1762-1825: Military Power, the State, and the People (Westport, CT, 2008)
European History Quarterly 42:3 (July 2012): 511-15.
“Gakkel, Iakov,” in The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, forthcoming.
Review of Yohann Petrovsky-Shtern, Jews in the Russian Army, 1827-1917: Drafted into Modernity (New York, 2009), European History Quarterly 40:3 (July 2010): 550-52.
Historical Consultant, Marching Once More, documentary film of Battle of the Bulge, WetBird Productions, Wrightsville Beach, NC, 2010.
Review of Steven Norris, A War of Images: Russian Popular Prints, Wartime Culture, and National Identity (DeKalb, 2006), David Schimmelpennick van der Oye and Bruce W. Menning, eds., Reforming the Tsar’s Army: Military Innovation in Imperial Russia from Peter the Great to the Revolution (New York, 2004), and Pavel P. Shcherbinin, Voennyi Faktor v Posvednoi Zhizni Russkoi Zhenshiny v xviii-nachale xx vekov (Tambov, 2004), Kritika 8, 4 (Summer 2008): 668-78.
“Nationality Policy and the Russian Imperial Officer Corps, 1905-1914,” Slavic Review 66, 4. (Winter 2007): 682-701. Also published as “Rahvuspoliitika ja vene keiserlik ohvitserkorpus, 1905-1914,” in Tõnu Tannberg and Bradley Woodworth, eds. Vene impeerium ja Baltikum: venestus, rahvuslus ja moderniseerimine 19. sajandi teisel poolel ja 20. sajandi alguses II [The Russian Empire and the Baltic: Russification, nationality and modernization in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, volume II]. Acta et Commentationes Archivi Historici Estoniae 16 (23). (Tartu: Eesti Ajalooarhiiv, 2010).
“Kutuzov, Mikhail,” in Europe 1789-1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire, ed.John Merriman and Jay Winter (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006).
“Military Aviation, National Identity, and the Imperatives of Modernity in Late Imperial Russia.” In Russian Military History & Society, edited by Marshall Poe and Eric Lohr (Boston: Brill Publishers, 2002).
Conference Papers~
“World War I Reconsidered” Panel Discussant, Southern Conference on Slavic Studies 51stAnnual Conference, March 2013
“Technology, Aviation, and the Russian Imperial Officer Corps: Assessment, Evaluation, and Exploitation, 1904-1914” Conference Paper, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 44th National Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2012.
“Integrating Russian History into the Western and World Civilization Curriculum” Organizer & Chair, Conference Roundtable American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 41st Annual Convention, Boston, Massachusetts, November 2009
“Visions of Empire and Methods of Rule Among Tsarist Officers, 1865-1914” Conference Paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 39th National Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2007.
“Honoring the Nation: Heroes, the Fallen, Public Spectacles, and Russian Military Aviation, 1907-1914” Conference Paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 34th National Convention, Denver, Colorado, Nov. 21-24, 2002.
“Law and Order?: Circumventing the Legal Code in Tsarist Russia” Conference Panel Chair, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 33rd National Convention, Arlington, Virginia, Nov. 15-18, 2001.
“Defining Nationality and Legislating Loyalty in the Russian Imperial Officer Corps, 1905-1914” Conference Paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 32nd National Convention, Denver, Colorado, Nov. 9-12, 2000.
“Peter the Great & Flying Machines: Russian Military Aviation & The Petrine Legacy, 1908-1914” Conference Paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 31st National Convention, St. Louis, Missouri, Nov. 18-21, 1999.
“Military Aviation & National Identity in Late Imperial Russia” Conference Paper, Midwest Russian History Workshop University of Michigan, Oct. 15-16, 1999.
“Prizes, Profits, Patriotism: Anti-Capitalist Sentiment & the Rise of Russian Military Aviation, 1908-1914”
Conference Paper, Graduate Conference in Military History The Ohio State University, Oct. 31- Nov. 2, 1997.
Textbook Reviews~
Europe in the 20th Century manuscript (Prentice Hall).
Frank Kidner, Maria Bucur-Deckard, et al. Making Europe: The Story of the West. (New York: Wadsworth), forthcoming.
John P. McKay, Bennett D. Hill, et al., A History of Western Society 10th ed. (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011)
Robert Paxton and Julie Hessler, Europe in the Twentieth Century 5th ed. (New York: Wadsworth, 2010)
Pamela Crossley, Lynn Lees, and John Servos, eds., Global Society, 2nd ed. (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008)
William Keylor, The Twentieth Century World and Beyond: An International History Since 1900, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)
William Duiker, Twentieth Century World History, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth, 2006)
David MacKenzie and Michael Curran, A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond, 6th ed.(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002)
Daniel Brower, The World in the Twentieth Century: From Empires to Nations, 5th ed. (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002)
Carter Findley and John Rothney, Twentieth Century World, 5th ed. (Boston & New York: HoughtonMifflin, 2002)
Clayton Roberts, David Roberts, and Douglas Brisson, A History of England, vol 2:1688 to the Present, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001)
