Dr. Andrew Wiest from Southern Miss has earned the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, a lifetime achievement award that honors a lifetime of significant contributions to the field of military history.
Wiest is a Distinguished Professor of History in the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, who has been a faculty member at Southern Miss for over 30 years. His research interests include the Vietnam War, National Guard History, World Wars I and II in Europe, Modern Military Tactics and Strategy and Military History.
Wiest has published books for both the general public and other historians. He believes that it is very important for everyone to learn history.
“Historians have a couple of important jobs at this level, and one of them is to produce more knowledge,” Wiest said. “But that is limiting ourselves too much.”
Wiest was inspired by a U.S. veteran who he met at Southern Miss, named John Young. Meeting a veteran who had been affected by the war made Wiest want to switch from war strategies and generals to making the general public more aware of what war does to young people who were just living their lives and were suddenly thrown into war. Wiest also stated that his works showcasing the real tragedies of wars on an average veteran’s family can help stop the glorification of war.
“Showing what the war does to the soul of a 19-year-old is important,” Wiest said. “It’s too easy to forget what war does to people.”
Wiest explained that people have always been fascinated with war, and that fascination is what drew him to history in the first place. He stated that while people like the instant gratification of war, the truth is much more complicated than that. He revealed that he thinks it is his job as a historian to make people more aware of the reality behind the mystery and glorification.
Aside from educating the general public and adding more to the existing knowledge about history, Wiest is also helping train new historians. His two graduate students, Daniel Fratini and Brian Washam, commented on learning from Wiest’s mentorship.
“You can tell Dr. Wiest’s passion in his research and what he is doing,” Washam said. “What I have learned the best from him is that whenever you are tackling something, you need to be passionate about it.”
“Watching how Dr. Wiest handles the class is inspiring,” Fratini said. “It’s a big class and he handles it well and keeps the class going.”