Prof. Ian Isherwood: A Retrospective of His Life at Gettysburg College
Professor Ian Isherwood in his Weidensall Hall office. (Sofia Gutierrez/The Gettysburgian)
This article originally appeared on pages 8 and 9 of the No. 1 February 2025 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
By Nathaniel Swindell, Staff Writer
Professor Ian Isherwood ’00 is a professor of war and memory studies at Gettysburg College, where he works in the interdisciplinary studies department as well as the history department as an affiliate. His primary academic focus is the memory of the First and Second World Wars, specifically how those wars are remembered afterward and in the present day, though he has also taught courses on the American Civil War, and several other conflicts through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Isherwood recently released a new novel, “The Battalion,” which tells the story of Lieutenant Colonel Jack Piers and the service of the British Queen’s 8th Battalion during the First World War. He gave a presentation on the book in the Musselman Library, on Jan. 31, during which he spoke about his experience writing the novel and displayed photos and primary source documents he used in its research.
Isherwood began his work on this novel when he first received a number of documents related to the First World War from a former student of his. He and a team of students and employees at the Musselman Library converted the collection into the Jack Peirs digital history project. Having completed this project, Isherwood realized that the scope of the documents was substantial enough for a larger project, which became “The Battalion.”
Isherwood and his team spent several years researching the 8th Battalion, taking study trips to Europe to consult British archives. The primary focus of the novel was to represent the stories of individual soldiers that would have otherwise been lost to time.
“I want readers to understand that the First World War was a conflict in which real human beings, real flesh and blood human beings, had to adapt to a horrific environment. They were civilians before they were soldiers,” said Isherwood.
Isherwood’s academic career began as an undergraduate at Gettysburg College where he initially struggled as a student, eventually finding support from the College and his professors. He later earned his master’s degree at Dartmouth College in 2006. His professional career began with WQED Pittsburgh, a PBS radio station for which he worked as a researcher for the documentary “Something about Oakland” about the history of the eponymous Pittsburgh neighborhood. During this time he also worked as a legislative assistant for a state representative and did some local work for a local U.S. Congressman.
“It was official staff work, so I was working on things like transportation, local relations with fire departments, police departments, that kind of thing,” Isherwood recalled.
Isherwood began teaching at Gettysburg College in 2007 as an adjunct professor, originally hired to teach English composition for three semesters. At the time, he remained uncertain of his career goals and did not know whether he ought to consider pursuing a Ph.D. After a short time back at Gettysburg, he quickly became enamored with teaching and developed a passion for working with students. This inspired Isherwood to attend the University of Glasgow, where, in 2012, he earned his Ph.D in History at the Scottish Center for War Studies.
After writing his dissertation, Isherwood realized that he wanted to expand his reach by turning it into a book. After three years of writing and revising, this resulted in “Remembering the Great War,” which focused on the experiences of WWI and how the conflict was portrayed in memory.
“Of the books that I’ve written, I think that one certainly was the weirdest,” said Isherwood in reference to “Remembering the Great War.” “To try to take what was a Ph.D thesis, that I think was a little bit too sprawling, and to try and narrow it and look at specific themes that emerged out of war literature during the interwar period.”
After earning his Ph.D, Isherwood returned to Gettysburg College as an adjunct professor, and after another year of teaching, he was hired as the assistant director of the Civil War Institute. Four years after accepting this new position, a job opened up in War and Memory Studies under Interdisciplinary Studies, and Isherwood applied and was accepted into the position, where he has remained, working out of his office in Weidensall Hall.
(Sofia Gutierrez/The Gettysburgian)
The encouragement Isherwood experienced during his time as an undergraduate has developed into a passionate desire to help his own students both in and outside of the classroom. This passion has kept him motivated throughout his teaching career, as he has frequently participated in several student projects and activities.
“What I realized from the first week I taught was that I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else,” said Isherwood, reflecting on his first employment as an adjunct professor.
Isherwood maintains several long-lasting relationships with students he has taught over the years. This is attested to by his office that is full of various historical objects and memorabilia given to him by former students, many of which he uses while teaching classes.
“What I enjoy most about teaching is what we do best at a liberal arts college, which is directly engaging with and learning about and focusing on advising and mentoring people in a very specific time in their lives,” said Isherwood.
More recently, Isherwood went on sabbatical, which began in 2022 when he was selected as the Harold Johnson Chair of Military History at Army War College in Carlisle, where he stayed for a year educating officers in the U.S. Army. While there, he took the opportunity to work on his various literary projects, finishing “The Battalion,” and beginning work on a new novel called “Remembering America’s Wars.”
“I had some additional time to do research,” said Isherwood. “So I was finishing one edited book project, and then finishing a longer book that eventually became ‘The Battalion.’”
The novel Isherwood is working on at the moment, “Remembering America’s Wars”, is focused on war memory and commemoration in the United States. The book will begin with the memory of the American Civil War, and will then go into the First and Second World Wars, Vietnam, and finally the War on Terror. The novel will take some time to complete, possibly a few years, but Isherwood is confident that it will be comprehensive.
“What I’m focused on is the way in which a society memorializes and frames conflicts and violence in a particular way from a long historical perspective,” said Isherwood. “I’m seeing if we can tease out a way in which the themes that come from Civil War commemoration are then passed onward in American Society, enduring well beyond that conflict, possibly to the present day.”
Isherwood has expressed a great deal of gratitude toward the friends and colleagues he had met at Gettysburg College and has come to greatly appreciate the “uniqueness” of such an environment. He finds the College community, the interaction with students and fellow staff and the opportunity to teach to be incredibly valuable. He believes these are some of the greatest rewards of being an academic.
“I’ve really grown to appreciate the sense of community that comes with a place like this,” said Isherwood. “One of the things I think you don’t realize when you’re training to be an academic, and then cutting your teeth as a new teacher, is that you’re forming bonds with people at a liberal arts college that will last for your whole career.”
