Christopher H. Hamner

Christopher H. Hamner is a Professor in the Department of History at George Mason University and concentration head for the interdisciplinary MA program War and the Military in Society. His research focuses on U.S. military history, the individual experience of combat, and the intersection of technological change and warfare. He has received the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award (2013) and served as a Visiting Professor at the U.S. Army War College (2014–2016).

Hamner authored Enduring Battle: American Soldiers in Three Wars, 1776-1945 (University Press of Kansas, 2011) and is currently working on two projects: The Weight of War: American Soldiers in Post-Industrial Combat from Vietnam to Iraq and The Shoals of Defeat: Abraham Lincoln, Union Strategy, and the 1864 Overland Campaign. As Editor-in-Chief of the Papers of the War Department 1784-1800, he oversees a digital archive recreating destroyed early American military documents.

His teaching includes courses like War and American Society (HIST 370), The Civil War Era (HIST 373), and graduate seminars on military history. He has supervised doctoral dissertations on topics ranging from leadership in the U.S. Army (1880–1910) to the commemoration of Confederate burials at Arlington National Cemetery. Hamner has delivered presentations at major conferences, including the Organization of American Historians and the Society for Military History, on themes such as combat fear, military pensions, and digital teaching methods.

• Scientific Awards: George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award (2013).

• Editorial Role: Editor-in-Chief, Papers of the War Department 1784-1800.
• Program Leadership: Lead Historian for Teaching American History programs (Virginia and Maryland) and the American Battle Monuments Commission's Understanding Sacrifice program (2014–2019).