Paul Douglas Lockhart, Ph.D.

Department:
Sch of Humanities & Cult. Studies
Title:
Professor, History
Address:
Allyn Hall 437, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435-0001
Email:
paul.lockhart@wright.edu

Paul Douglas Lockhart, Brage Golding Distinguished Professor of Research and Professor of History at Wright State University, is a historian of early modern Europe and the author of seven single-author books. His research focuses on the political and cultural history of Scandinavia, the intersection of war and religion in the Reformation era, and the history of war from 1500 to 1945. His work explores monarchy, law, and culture in Denmark during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and situates those themes within broader debates about legitimacy, justice, and confessional conflict. He has also written extensively on military history, from the early modern era to the American Revolution and the history of military technology. 

Lockhart is the author of seven single-author books, including Denmark, 1513-1660: The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy (Oxford University Press, UK), The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army (HarperCollins), and Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare (Basic Books). Firepower has been translated into Korean (Hwa Ryeok: Yeoksarul Dwejeebun Game Changer, Red River, 2023), with a Chinese edition forthcoming in 2025. Together, these books cover a wide range of topics, from political culture in early modern Denmark, international politics in the age of religious wars, and the military history of the modern West. His current projects include a book-length study of the 1625-26 Vejlby murder case in Denmark (Days of Wrath: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Søren Jensen Quist) and a forthcoming project on royal assassination plots in the Reformation century, focusing on the Sabinus conspiracy in Denmark (1585). His record of public engagement extends to museum collaborations, media appearances, and frequent lectures to both academic and wider audiences. 

For enquiries relating to Lockhart's books and public appearances, please contact his literary representative, Lisa Adams, at https://garamondagency.com/ .

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7731-2238 

Curriculum Vitae

Lockhart public CV 2025.pdf 131.75 KB

Research Statement

My research explores the political and cultural worlds of early modern Scandinavia, especially Denmark and its affiliated lands, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I am drawn to what a friend once called the 'loser states' of early modern Europe: polities that once held sway and wielded great influence but eventually succumbed to the realities of power politics at the dawn of the modern age. In the case of Denmark - at this point, including Norway, Iceland, the Scanian lands, and the German duchies of Slesvig and Holstein - my interest lies not in the decline itself but in how a wealthy, territorially vast, and strategically located monarchy evolved politically amid the sweeping transformations of the Reformation century. 

Across my books and articles, I've examined the intersection of politics, war, and religion in the Oldenburg dynastic state, from the imposition of the Protestant Refomation to the partition of the monarchy in 1660. 

My current research project is a book-length microhistory of the notorious Vejlby murder case from 1625-26, which reveals much about the relationship between the monarchy, the state church, and Danish rural society in the age of Christian IV. The tentative working title is Days of Wrath: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Søren Jensen Quist. 

Publications

Scholarly Books

  • Denmark, 1513-1660: The Rise and Decline of a Renaissance Monarchy. Oxford University Press UK, 2007.
  • Frederik II and the Protestant Cause: Denmark’s Role in the Wars of Religion, 1559-1596. Brill, 2004.
  • Sweden in the Seventeenth Century. European History in Perspective (ed. Jeremy Black). Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2004.
  • Denmark in the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648: King Christian IV and the Decline of the Oldenburg State. Associated University Presses, 1996.

 

Trade Books

  • Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare. Basic Books, 2021.
    • Korean edition: Hwa Ryeok. Yeoksarul Dwejeebun Game Changer. Red River, 2023.
    • Chinese edition, forthcoming October 2025. 
  • The Whites of Their Eyes: Bunker Hill, the First American Army, and the Emergence of George Washington. HarperCollins, 2011.
  • The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army. HarperCollins/ Smithsonian Books, 2008.

Scholarly Chapters and Articles (selected)

  • 'War and Diplomacy'. In Morten Fink-Jensen and Arthur der Weduwen, eds. Brill Companion to the Nordic Reformation. Leiden: Brill, 2026
  • 'Denmark and Sweden: The Struggle for the Baltic, 1588-1624'. In Steffen Heiberg, Juliette Roding, Magriet Lacy-Bruijn, Rolof van Hövel tot Westerflier, and Poul Holstein, eds. Christian IV. Rex Splendens and Rex Humilis. Rotterdam: Karwansaray, 2024. 
  • 'Denmark'. In Peter Schroeder, ed. Ashgate Research Companion to the Thirty Years' War. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013. 
  • 'Political Language and Wartime Propaganda in Denmark, 1625-1629'. European History Quarterly 31 (2001), 5-42. 
  • 'Dansk propaganda under Kejserkrigen, 1625-1629'. Historie (Efterår 1998), 222-48. 
  • 'Religion and Princely Liberties: Denmark's Intervention in the Thirty Years War, 1618-1625'. The International History Review 17 (1995), 390-416. 

Articles in Popular Magazines and Journals (selected)

  • 'Gustavo Adolfo. El hombre y la leyenda.' Desperta Ferro: Historia militar y política del mundo moderno 27 (April - May 2017), 52-55. 
  • 'Attack on the White Mountain, 1620'. MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History (Winter 2016), 58-65. 
  • 'Bunker Hill. La derrota triunfal de la rebelión americana'. Desperta Ferro: Historia militar y politíca del mundo moderno 14 (February - March 2015), 60-65. 
  • 'Bicocca, 1522: The First Firefight'. MHQ (Summer 2013). 
  • 'The gun that should have changed everything'. MHQ (Winter 2013)

Awards, Honors, and Appointments

  • 2023 - Trustee's Award for Faculty Excellence, Wright State University
  • 2021 - Elected to Det Kongelige Danske Selskab til Fædrelandets Historie
  • 2020 - Ohio Distinguished Historian, The Ohio Academy of History
  • 2014 - Brage Golding Distinguished Professor of Research, Wright State University
  • 2014 - Outstanding Research Award, College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University
  • 2000 - National Endowment for the Humanities, Visiting Distinguished Professor, SUNY/ Potsdam College

Grants and Fellowships

  • 2025 - Bodtker Family Foundation Grant, Danish American Heritage Society
  • 2025 - College of Liberal Arts Seed Grant, Wright State University
  • 1996 - Sabbatical Year Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
  • 1996 - Travel Grant, The American Philosophical Society
  • 1988 - Travel Grant, Henrik Kauffmann Fund, The American Scandinavian Foundation
  • 1988 - Ludwig Kruhe Dissertation Fellowship, Purdue University
  • 1986 - Jacob Javits Graduate Fellowship, US Department of Education (through 1989)

Professional Affiliations/Memberships

  • Det Kongelige Danske Selskab til Fædrelandets Historie
  • The Sixteenth Century Society
  • The Society for Court Studies
  • The Ohio Academy of History
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