Robert J. McMahon
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Robert J. McMahon (born 1949) is an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
of the
foreign relations of the United States The United States has formal diplomatic relations with most nations. This includes all United Nations members and observer states other than Bhutan, Iran, North Korea and Syria, and the UN observer Territory of Palestine. Additionally, the U ...
and a scholar of the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. He currently holds the
chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...
of Ralph D. Mershon Distinguished Professor at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
.


Career

McMahon received his B.A. from
Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...
in 1971 and PhD from the
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
in 1977. He taught at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
from 1982 to 2005, when he moved to Ohio State University. He has held visiting positions at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
and
University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
. McMahon holds a joint appointment with the
Mershon Center for International Security Studies The Mershon Center for International Security Studies is a research institute at the Ohio State University. The current director is Dorothy Noyes. History The Mershon Center was founded in 1952 upon the death of Ralph D. Mershon, an alumnus o ...
at OSU. McMahon served as 2001 president of the
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) was founded in 1967 in order to "promote excellence in research and teaching of American foreign relations history and to facilitate professional collaboration among scholars and s ...
.


Reception


The Cold War on the Periphery: The United States, India, and Pakistan

Noel H Pugach from the University of New Mexico, in ''Pacific Historical Review'', calls the book an "excellent monograph" tracing the US-India-Pakistan relationship and a "solid and sound study". Pugach observes that McMahon has "exhaustively" researched primary sources from the United States and comments that the book will serve as a model reference point for studies of US-Third World relations during the Cold War. According to Kenton J. Clymer from the University of Texas in ''The American Historical Review'' it is a "superb" study of the relations between the US, India and Pakistan, which makes use of the best ''available'' archival documents. Clymer calls it an excellent work which will be a "definitive account" of American policy in South Asia during the Cold War. Richard Ned Lebow in ''The American Political Science Review'' calls it a "careful historical study" while Rafique Kawthari notes in ''Current History'' that the professor of history, Robert McMahon, has relied mainly on recently declassified documents and calls the historical study timely. Warren I. Cohen, from the University of Maryland's Department of History, states in ''Reviews in American History'' that Robert McMahon had already established himself as one of the best diplomatic historians and this "magnificent" book delivers "far more than its title promises". Cohen further comments that McMahon has written the best book on American relations with South Asia during the 1945-1965 period.


Works


Books

* Editor. * Co-editor with Thomas W. Zeiler * * * Editor. * * Co-author with Thomas G. Paterson. * *


Articles and chapters

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Notes


External links


Robert J. McMahon
Ohio State University Department of History
"Turning Point: the Vietnam War's Pivotal Years"
McMahon's lecture for the OAH Distinguished Lectureship Program * {{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, Robert J. 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Florida faculty Ohio State University faculty Living people Fairfield University alumni University of Connecticut alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American male non-fiction writers Presidents of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations