About the Author

Constance McLaughlin Green, the principal author of this volume, holds a Ph.D. degree in history from Yale University. Before entering government service, first as Historian, Springfield Armory, and later as Chief Historian, Ordnance Historical Branch, she taught at the University of Chicago, Smith College, and Mount Holyoke College. Her extensive writings and lectures in American local, social, and economic history have won her widespread recognition as an authority in these fields both in this country and abroad. She is at present the historian of the Research and Development Board, Department of Defense. Harry C. Thomson received his doctorate in government from Harvard University. During World War II he was a historian with the Army Air Forces, serving both as an enlisted man and a commissioned officer. Since 1948 he has been a member of the Ordnance Historical Branch, which he now heads. Peter C. Roots has a B. S. degree in Foreign Service and a law degree from Georgetown University. Before joining the Army, in which he served with Ordnance units between 1942 and 1945, he was the production manager of a machine tool plant in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1948 he accepted employment in the Translation Section, Office of the Chief of Military History, and later transferred to the Ordnance Historical Branch. He is now practicing law.