]> ms.22 Greenfield (Kent Roberts) 1893-1967 Papers 1900-1966 Ms. 22 Margaret N. Burri Special Collections, The Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 USA Phone: (410) 516-8323
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Diwakar Bhandari Finding aid written in English Greenfield (Kent Roberts) 1893-1967 Papers 1900-1966 Ms. 22 Special CollectionsThe Milton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University Contact Information Special Collections The Milton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University 3400 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-8323 Margaret N. Burri December 1987 Diwakar Bhandari

©2003 The Johns Hopkins University

 Descriptive Summary Ms. 22 Greenfield (Kent Roberts) 1893-1967 Papers 1900-1966 Greenfield, Kent Roberts, 1893-1967 Johns Hopkins University. Special Collections 7 document boxes, 2 photograph boxes (3.75 linear feet) English The collection consists of correspondence, lecture notes, student notes, student papers, writings and research notes, Army Ground Forces Reports, David L. Greenfield material, personal, printed material, and photographs and postcards. The bulk of the material covers his work as an army historian (1942-1945, 1946-1958). The correspondence, arranged chronologically, is primarily letters from the army, and to and from colleagues, about his work. The correspondence documents Greenfield's ideas about how the ground historians should work and how the subsequent histories should be structured. There are also letters to his mother, penned on a 1929 research trip to Italy. These form a travelogue of his work and recreation. Greenfield's lecture notes from courses he taught at Hopkins form the largest series. He offered instruction in Italian history, Italian reunification, and the History of Occidental Civilization. The Occidental Civilization notes are especially interesting since the course was a four semester, rather than two semester, survey, and has traditionally had the largest enrollment of any history course since its inception. In 1938, Greenfield began writing a popular history of Italy. Manuscript and typescript drafts of this unpublished work form the bulk of the writings series. Greenfield approached this project with a great deal of planning and thought. The series contains his work plans and chapter outlines as well as the drafts. The typescripts contain handwritten corrections allowing the researcher to follow Greenfield's creative process. There is also a partial draft of a work on Army Air-Ground Forces, four reprints, and 2 loose manuscript pages. Greenfield delivered a number of public lectures between 1933 and 1942. The majority of them focused on the historical background of Fascism and its influence in Italy under Mussolini. Greenfield was particularly interested in how the new regime would influence the balance of power in the Mediterranean. Copies of these lectures form the speeches series. In 1942, Greenfiled was appointed assistant to the Historical Officer in the Army Ground Forces. The printed reports he worked on form the Army Ground Forces series. Originally classified, they were made public after the war at Greenfield's suggestion (see The Historian and the Army, p. 8) The reports were the forerunners of the official United States Army History of the Second World War. The collection partially illuminates Greenfield's personal life. He kept some material of his father's, the Reverand David L. Greenfield. The series includes a notebook kept by the Reverand on "Studies of Words", and a scrapbook filled with clippings about his sermons. Also, there is a small series of personal material-- newspaper clippings, invitation to social affairs while at the College of Delaware, and playbills from the Wilmington Playhouse. The printed material series contains only a few items. It consists of a Ph.D thesis and a few articles by colleagues inscribed to Greenfield. The student papers series is similarly small, containing only 1 item: a paper written by Walter H. Buck. Finally, when Greenfield was abroad on research trips, he took photographs of his stops. These were labelled by him and arranged geographically. He also purchased post cards, and they too are arranged geographically. The second world war was the first to come under intense historical scrutiny by the United States Government. The 80 volume work produced by the Army Historical Section was the product of the first sustained effort to produce a systematic history of military services in the war, and is a reminder of the monumental work done by people like Greenfield. Although he began his career in academics, he devoted the most time and energy to the official history. His papers, primarily the correspondence during 1942- 1956, offer a look at the mechanics of this important historical undertaking. Administrative Information Provenance

The papers of Kent Roberts Greenfield were received in 1970 by the library as a bequest of Professor Greenfield.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from this collection must be requested in writing from the Manuscripts Librarian, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Md. 21218.

 Preferred Citation

Kent Roberts Greenfield Papers Ms. 22 Special CollectionsMilton S. Eisenhower Library The Johns Hopkins University

Biographical Note

Kent Roberts Greenfield, Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and chief architect of the official United States Army history of World War II, was born in 1893 in Chestertown, Maryland. He received his bachelor's degree from Western Maryland College in 1911 and his Ph.D in history from Johns Hopkins University (1915). He taught at Delaware College, now the University of Delaware, from 1915 to 1920, and was an assistant professor of history at Yale University from 1920 to 1930. In 1930, he came to The Johns Hopkins University as professor of modern European history and chairman of the History Department. He was a leading authority in the field of Italian history, particularly the Risorgimento, the movement for political unity in late 19th century Italy. His best know work on the subject was Economics and Liberalism in the Risorgimento: A Study of Nationalism in Lombard, 1814-1848, published in 1934 and later translated into Italian. The work was reissued in 1966 by the Johns Hopkins Press. In 1960 Greenfield was knighted by the Italian government for his work in Italian history and for his "important scientific and historical studies of Italy."

Greenfield was chairman of the History Department from 1930-1946. During this time, he took a leave of absence (1942-1945) to serve as the assistant to the Historical Officer in the Army Ground Forces. This laid the groundwork for his being named to the position of Chief Historian of the Department of the Army in 1946. This involved directing the writing of the history of World War II which became a series of 80 volumes. Professor Greenfield was largely responsible for selecting numerous historians to work on the project, and before his retirement he edited 51 of the volumes. The monumental project covered every aspect of the second world war--planning, strategy and tactics, complex activities of the staff and technical services, as well as the command at all levels and the campaigns and battles themselves. Greenfield, in collaboration with others, wrote the first two volumes, but confined himself to editing and guiding the staff writers in the later volumes. In 1958 after his retirement as Chief Historian of the Department of the Army, Greenfiled returned to Baltimore to write American Strategy in World War II: A Reconsideration, which was published by The Johns Hopkins Press in 1963.

Kent Roberts Greenfield died suddenly on July 25, 1967. He was unmarried and left no surviving family members.

 Description of Series/Container List Series 1: Correspondence Correspondence, 1916-1959

The letters are arranged chronologically. The bulk are between Greenfield and the Army and reflect his work on the history of World War II. There are also letters to his mother, written while on a research trip to Italy in 1929.

 Box Contents 1 Correspondence, 1918-1959 , 8 folders Series 2: Lecture Notes Lecture Notes, 1930-1942

Notes from courses given while at Hopkins. The notes cover Italian history, Chinese history, Italian reunification, and the history of occidental civilization.

 Box Contents 1 History B, 4 folders 1 History of Italy, 6 folders 2 History of Italy, 4 folders 2 History of Occidental Civilization, 11 folders 3 Italian Area. Historical Aspects from Roman Times to 1919,1 folder 3 Italy Since Unification, 1 folder 3 Italy in the Modern Age: The Risorgimento, 3 folders 3 The Risorgimento, 1 folder Series 3: Student Notes Student Notes, 1910-1915

Greenfield studied Chinese history as one of his fields at Hopkins. This series consists of his notes from the course.

Box Contents 3 China, 3 folders Series 4: Speeches Speeches, 1933-1942

Greenfield's speeches on Italian history, fascism and life in the Mediterranean. For a complete list, see container list.

Box Contents 3 Naval Academy Lectures, 1933 3 The Fruits of Nationalism for Italy, 1934 3 The Mediterranean Way of Life, 1934 3 Pre-War Italy: The Historical Background, 1934 3 Some Heroes of Modern Italy, 1934 3 The Background of Italy's Interest in the Mediterranean, 1938 3 Italy and France in the Mediterranean, 1938 3 Italy's Mediterranean Imperium, 1938 3 Some Mediterranean Observations, 1938 3 The War in Ethiopia and the Construction of the Suez Canal, 1938 3 Cavour: The Realist Abroad, 1939 3 Italy and the Mediterranean Balance, 1940 3 The Mediterranean, 1815-1940: A Historic Revolution Reviewed , 1940 3 Shadow Over the Mediterranean, 1940 3 The Mediterranean in Retrospect and Prospect, 1941 3 The Mediterranean: Our Stake in It, 1942 Series 5: Writings and Research Notes Writings and Research Notes, 1917-1944

Manuscript and typescript drafts of Greenfield's unpublished work on the history of Italy, research notes for the project, and miscellaneous writings on various topics. For a complete list, see container list.

Box Contents 4 Research Notes: 3 folders 4 Chapters I-V of unpublished ts., 7 folders 4 Work outlines for unpublished ts., 1 folder 4 The Mediterranean Comes Back c. 1939-1941 Ts., 1 folder 4 Army Ground Forces and the Air Ground Battle Team Ts. draft and comments, c. 1944, 1 folder 4 The Man Who Made Italy and The Mediterranean Way of Life, reprints, 1 folder 4 Der Zweite Weltkrieg und die zeitgenossische Geschichtsschreibung and La Storiografia Americana e l'Italia, reprints, 1 folder 4 Taking Stock of Student Government and Report of the Student Secretary to the Student Council of Delaware College, October 15, 1917,1 folder 4 Bawdy story and untitled poem, 1 folder Series 6: United States Army Ground Forces Historical Reports United States Army Ground Forces Historical Reports, 1946

Printed reports of the Army Ground Forces historical wing. See container list for a complete list.

 Box Contents 5 Study 1: Origins of the Army Ground Forces; General Headquarters, U.S. Army, 1940-1942. 5 Study 3: Ground Forces in the War Army. 5 Study 4: Mobilization of the Ground Army. 5 Study 5: Procurement of Enlisted Personnel for the AGF. 5 Study 6: The Procurement and Branch Distribution of Officers. 5 Study 7: Provision of Enlisted Replacements. 5 Study 8: Reorganization of Ground Troops for Combat. 5 Study 9: Organization and Training of New Ground Combat Elements. 5 Study 10: Principles and Methods of Training Army Ground Forces. 5 Study 12: The Building and Training of Infantry Divisions. 5 Study 14: Problems of Nondivisional Training in the Army Ground Forces. 5 Study 15: The Desert Training Center and C-AMA. 5 Study 16: History of the Second Army. 5 Study 17: History of the Third Army. 5 Study 18: History of the Fourth Army. 5 Study 19: History of the Fifteenth Army. 5 Study 21: Preparation of Units for Overseas Movement. 5 Study 22: The Amphibious Training Center. 5 Study 23: Training in Mountain and Winter Warfare. 5 Study 24: The Mountain Training Center. 5 Study 25: The Airborne Command and Center. 5 Study 26: The Antiaircraft Command and Center. 6 Study 27: The Armored Force Command and Center. 6 Study 28: History of the Tenth Light Division (Alpine). 6 Study 29: The Tank Destroyer History. 6 Study 30: Wartime Training in the Schools of the Army Ground Forces. 6 Study 31: Training of Officers Candidates in AGF Special Training Schools. 6 Study 32: Major Developments in the Training of Enlisted Replacements. 6 Study 33: The Replacement and School Command. 6 Study 34: The Role of the Army Ground Forces in the Development of Equipment. 6 Study 36: The Training of Negro Troops. 6 Study 37: The Role of Army Ground Forces in Redeployment. 6 Study 38: Redeployment Training. 6 Study 11: Training in the Ground Army 1942-1942. 6 Study 13: Activation and Early Training of "D" Division. 6 Study 24: History of the Mountain Training Center 6 Study 35: Army Ground Forces and the Air-Ground Battle Team 6 Chapters I and II of A Short History of the Army Ground Forces.(c. 1948) 6 Descriptive List of the Studies in the History of the Army Ground Forces. Series 7: David L. Greenfield David L. Greenfield, 1908-1917

D.L. Greenfield was Kent Roberts's father, and served as a Methodist minister in Chestertown, MD. This series contains two notebooks, one entitled "Studies of Words," and the other containing newspaper clippings about his sermons.

 Box Contents 7 Volume entitled Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War... in which are pasted newspaper clippings relating to David L. Greenfield and his sermons. 7 Composition book with notes by Greenfield entitled Studies of Words. Series 8: Personal Personal, 1920-1962

Newspaper clippings, invitations to social functions.

 Series 9: Printed Material Printed Material, n.d., 1900, 1966

Articles written by colleagues and inscribed to Greenfield.

 Box Contents 7 A Little Book of Maryland Verse by Kenneth Rede 7 Governor Thomas C. Hicks of Maryland and the Civil War Ph.D dissertation by George L. P. Radcliffe, 1900 7 Refighting the Last Battle by Stephen E. Ambrose, from Wisconsin Magazine of History, 1966 Series 10: Teaching Teaching, n.d.

A paper entitled "The Travel Diary of a Philosopher," by Walter H. Buck, and a Ph.D thesis by George L. P. Radcliffe.

 Box Contents 7 The Travel Diary of a Philosopher, by Walter H. Buck Series 11: Photographs and Postcards Photographs and Postcards, 1929, 1937

Two boxes of photos and postcards, taken and purchased on his European trips, arranged geographically.

 Box Contents 7 Clippings, awards, invitations and a photograph, 7 folders