John W Lemza

Dr. John Lemza’s work focuses on the political, social, and cultural aspects of Post-1945 American history. He received his PhD from George Mason University, his MA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also served more than 20 years in the US Army including tours of duty in Asia and Europe, and the Pentagon. He currently teaches history at VCU.

His most recent work is “The Big Picture: The Cold War on the Small Screen” (University Press of Kansas, September 2021). It discusses the Army’s early Cold War efforts to shape the public’s thinking about the military and ideals of Americanism through the emerging technology of television. To accomplish that, the Army developed a weekly syndicated show titled “The Big Picture” that aired from 1951 to 1971.

John Lemza’s first book, “American Military Communities in West Germany: Life in the Cold War Badlands, 1945-1990” (McFarland Press, 2016), explores the social, political, cultural and economic consequences of the network of military communities that developed in post-1945 West Germany.