December 4, 2015

Colloquium Topic: How the Navy Learned to Fly in World War I

Drawing on his book, The Millionaires' Unit, and the new award-winning documentary the book inspired, Marc Wortman, PhD, will share the forgotten story of a privileged group of college students whose dreams of starting a school flight club resulted in them becoming war heroes. The young aviators formed the founding squadron of the Navy Air Reserve and became the nucleus of the Navy’s air service during World War I. The survivors went on to serve as leaders in the rise of US air power and victory in the Second World War and beyond.

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Colloquium Speaker: Marc Wortman

Marc Wortman PhD is a freelance journalist, independent historian, and life sciences industry analyst. He is the author of two critically acclaimed general audience historical narratives, The Millionaires' Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power (2006) and The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta (2009). (See marcwortmanbooks.com and  facebook.com/marcwortmanbooks).

The Millionaires' Unit was the inspiration for a documentary of the same name, soon to be broadcast and distributed nationally. (www.millionairesunit.org) His forthcoming book, 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, about the period prior to American entry into World War II, will appear in spring 2016.

As a freelance journalist, his articles have appeared in The Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, Technology Review, The Daily Beast and other general audience and specialized publications and online media. He has spoken to audiences around the country and appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN BookTV, History Channel and many other radio and television outlets.

He holds a doctorate from Princeton University and lives in New Haven.