Angelo State University Security Studies Prof Wins Research Grant

Dr. William A. Taylor, an assistant professor of security studies at Angelo State University, has been awarded a General and Mrs. Matthew B. Ridgway Military History Research Grant from the Ridgway Family Endowment through the U.S. Army Military History Institute.

The grant will fund Taylor’s research at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Penn., for his forthcoming book titled “In Defense of Democracy: American Military Service from World War II to Operation Enduring Freedom.” The book is due to be published in 2016 through University Press of Kansas.

Gen. Ridgway held numerous significant military commands, including the 8th U.S. Army, United Nations forces in Korea; Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; and U.S. Army Chief of Staff. The grants that bear his name are designed to support on-site research at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center on subjects that are of enduring or emerging value to the history of the Army. The center’s Ridgway Hall offers researchers access to unique and diverse archival collections, as well as one of the largest military history libraries in the world.

Taylor has now won a total of eight national research grants and fellowships for his books, including awards from the University of North Texas (2015), the Harry S. Truman Library (2013 and 2015), the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation (2014), the Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation (2014), the George C. Marshall Library (2012) and the Society for Military History (2010).

Taylor’s first book, “Every Citizen a Soldier,” was published in the summer of 2014 and was recently awarded a Crader Family Book Prize Honorable Mention by the Crader Family Endowment for American Values.

A former U.S. Marine, Taylor joined the ASU security studies faculty in 2011. He has also contributed to 10 other books, has published over 45 reference articles and book reviews in more than 15 journals, and was a featured speaker for ASU’s Civil War Lecture Series.

In addition to his academic credentials, Taylor served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for more than six years, holding posts in III Marine Expeditionary Force, Expeditionary Force Development Center and Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds a doctorate in history from George Washington University.