Scholars@Duke

• Background
• 

  Education, Training, & Certifications

  • Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University 2002
• 

  Previous Appointments & Affiliations

  • Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2019 - 2022
  • Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2015 - 2016
  • Assistant Professor of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2005 - 2012
  • Cordelia and William Laverack Family Assistant Professor, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008 - 2012
• Expertise
• 

  Global Scholarship

  • Expertise

    • Germany (Country) 
    • United States of America (Country) 

  • Research

    • Germany (Country) 
    • United States of America (Country) 

  • Teaching

    • Germany (Country) 
    • United States of America (Country) 
• Research
• 

  Selected Grants

  • MCEAS Richard S Dunn Dissertation Fellowship - Kristina Williams awarded by University of Pennsylvania 2021 - 2022
• Publications & Artistic Works
• 

  Selected Publications

  • Books

    • Bönker, D. Militarism in a global age: Naval ambitions in Germany and the United States before World War I, 2012.
    • Bonker, D. The Specter of Militarism: The United States in the Twentieth Century, book-in-progress, n.d.

  • Academic Articles

    • Bonker, Dirk. “Learning Empire: Globalization and the German Quest for World Status, 1875–1919 by Erik Grimmer-Solem.” German Studies Review 43, no. 2 (2020): 405–7. https://doi.org/10.1353/gsr.2020.0057.
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    • Bönker, Dirk. “Joshua E. Kastenberg. To Raise and Discipline an Army: Major General Enoch Crowder, the Judge Advocate General’s Office, and the Realignment of Civil and Military Relations in World War I.” The American Historical Review 123, no. 4 (October 1, 2018): 1334–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy077.
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    • Bönker, Dirk. “Michael G. Thompson: For God and Globe: Christian Internationalism in the United States between the Great War and the Cold War . Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2015; pp. xi + 250.” Journal of Religious History 41, no. 4 (December 2017): 550–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12474.
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    • Bonker, Dirk. “Violence: A Modern Obsession. By Richard Bessel.London: Simon & Schuster, 2015. Pp. vi+374. £11.99.” The Journal of Modern History 89, no. 2 (June 2017): 400–401. https://doi.org/10.1086/691478.
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    • Bonker D, Yiping. “Global Politics and Germany's Destiny “from an East Asian Perspective”: Alfred von Tirpitz and the Making of Wilhelmine Navalism.” Central European History 46, no. 01 (March 2013): 61–96. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938913000034.
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    • Boenker, Dirk. “Crisis at Sea: The US Navy in European Waters in World War I.” European History Quarterly 40, no. 2 (2010): 375–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/02656914100400020657.
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    • Bonker, D. “Military History, Militarization, and the "American Century".” Zeithistorische Forschungen 2, no. 1 (March 2005): 105–9.
    • Bonker, D. “Admiration, Enmity, and Cooperation: U.S. Navalism and the British and German Empires before the Great War.” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 2 (March 2001).

  • Other Articles

    • Bonker, D. “Preparedness.” Edited by E. J. Blum. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2016.
    • Bonker, D. “Naval Race between Germany and Great Britain, 1898-1912.” Edited by U. Daniel, P. Gatrell, O. Janz, H. Jones, J. Keene, A. Kramer, and B. Nasson. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, January 11, 2015.
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    • Bonker, D. “Maritime Force and the Limits of Empire: Naval Warfare, Commerce, and Law in Germany and the United States before the First World War (Accepted).” Edited by D. Eley, Geoff and D. Naranch, Bradley. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
    • Bonker, D. “Ein German Way of War? Deutscher Militarismus und maritime Kriegführung im Ersten Weltkrieg.” Edited by Sven-Oliver Müller and Cornelius Torp. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, April 12, 2011.
    • Bonker, D. “A German Way of War? Narratives of German Militarism and Maritime Warfare in World War I.” Edited by S. O. Muller and C. Torp. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2011.
    • Bonker, D. “Deutscher Militarismus und maritime Kriegführung im Ersten Weltkrieg.” Edited by S. O. Muller and C. Torp. Göttingen, 2008.
    • Bonker, D. “Matters of Public Knowledge: The Baltimore Jewish Times and Nazi Germany’s War Against the Jews, 1933-1942,” 2004.
    • Bonker, D. “Zwischen Bürgerkrieg und Navalismus: Marinepolitik und Handelsimperialismus in den USA, 1865-1890 [Between Civil War and Navalism: Naval Policy und Trade Imperialism in the U.S., 1865-1890],” 2003.
    • Bonker, D. “Maritime Aufrüstung zwischen Partei-und Weltpolitik. Schlachtflottenbau in Deutschland und den USA um die Jahrhundertwende [Naval Armaments between Domestic Politics and Global Diplomacy: Battlefleet Building in Germany and the United States at the Turn of the Century.".” Edited by Jürgen Heideking. Wvt Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1998.
    • Bonker, D. “Naval professionalism and the state in turn-of-the-century Germany and America.” Edited by W. M. McBride. New Interpretations in Naval History. NAVAL INST PRESS, January 1, 1998.
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  • Book Reviews

    • Bonker, D. “Germany and China: Transnational Encounters since the Eighteenth Century eds. Joanne Miyang Cho and David M. Crowe.” H German, October 13, 2015.
    • Bonker, D. “The Naval Route to the Abyss. The Anglo-German Naval Race 1895-1914, eds. Matthew S. Seligmann, Frank Nägler, and Michael Epkenhans.” H Soz Kult, September 14, 2015.
    • Bonker, D. “Power, Law and the End of Privateering by Jan Martin Lemnitzer.” American Historical Review. Oxford University Press, 2015.
    • Bonker, D. “To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War, eds. Vincent P.O. Hara, W. David Jackson and Richard Worth.” German Studies Review. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
    • Bonker, D. “From Isolationism to Neutrality: A New Framework for Understanding American Political Culture, 1919-1941 by Brooke L. Blower.” H Diplo, October 16, 2014.
    • Boenker, Dirk. “Maritime Industry in Germany: Shipping-Shipyards-Trade-Naval Power in the19th and 20th Century.” German Studies Review. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, October 1, 2014.
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    • Bonker, D. “Josephus Daniels: His Life and Time by Lee Craig.” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, July 2014. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537781414000280.
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    • Bonker, D. “The Royal Navy and the German Threat 1901-1914: Admiralty Plans to Protect British Trade in a War against Germany by Matthew S. Seligmann.” First World War Studies, 2014.
    • Bonker, D. “Maritime Wirtschaft in Deutschland, eds. Jürgen Elvert, Sigurd Hess and Heinrich Walle.” German Studies Review. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.
    • Boenker, Dirk. “A Duel of Nations: Germany, France, and the Diplomacy of the War of 1870-1871.” German Studies Review. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS, October 1, 2013.
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    • Bonker, D. “Warum Krieg? Die Sinndeutung des Krieges in der deutschen Militarelite 1871-1945.” German History. Oxford University Press (OUP), June 1, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghs116.
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    • Bonker, D. “Niklaus Meier, Warum Krieg? Die Sinndeutungen des Krieges in der deutschen Militärelite 1871-1945.” German History, 2013.
    • Bonker, D. “A Duel of Nations: Germany, France, and the Diplomacy of the War of 1870-1871 by David Wetzel.” German Studies Review, 2013.
    • Bonker, D. “Bellizismus und Nation. Kriegsdeutung und Nationsbestimmung in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten 1750-1914 by Jörn Leonhard,” 2010.
    • Bonker, D. “Crisis at Sea: The United States Navy in European Waters by William N. Still Jr.” European History Quarterly 40 (2010): 375 376, 2010.
    • Bonker, D. “Creating Good Neighbors? Die Kultur- und Wirtschaftspolitik der USA in Lateinamerika, 1940-1946 (Creating good neighbors? American cultural and economic foreign politics in Latin America, 1940-1946). By Ursula Prutsch. (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2008. 476 pp.  56.00, ISBN 978-3-515-09009-4.) In German.” Journal of American History. Oxford University Press (OUP), December 1, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/96.3.901.
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    • Bonker, D. “Creating Good Neighbors? Die Kultur- und Wirtschaftspolitik der USA in Lateinamerika, 1940-1946 by Sabine Prutsch.” Journal of American History, 2009.
    • Bonker, Dirk. “Jan Rüger. The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in the Age of Empire. Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 337. $95.00 (cloth).” Journal of British Studies. Cambridge University Press (CUP), July 2008. https://doi.org/10.1086/590307.
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    • Bonker, D. “Naval Intelligence from Germany: The Reports of the British Naval Attaches in Berlin, 1906-1914 edited by Matthew S. Seligmann.” H Soz Kult, June 27, 2008.
    • Bonker, D. “The Great Naval Game: Britain and Germany in an Age of Empire by Jan Rüger.” Journal of British Studies, 2008.
    • Bonker, D. “Kameradschaft.Die Soldaten des nationalsozialistischen Krieges und das 20. Jahrhundert [Comradeship. The Soldiers of the Nazi War and the 20th Century] by Thomas Kuehne.” H German, April 23, 2007.
    • Bonker, D. “Die Washingtoner Konferenz, das Deutsche Reich und die Reichsmarine: Deutsche Marinepolitik 1921 bis 1935 [The Washington Conference, the German Empire, and the Imperial Navy: German Naval Policy 1921-1935] by Peter Doepgen.” Nautical Research Journal, 2007.
    • Bonker, D. “Militär, Staat und Gesellschaft in der DDR: Forschungsfelder, Ergebnisse, Perspektiven [Military, State, and Society in the GDR: Fields of Research, Results, Perspectives], ed. Hans Ehlert and Matthias Rogg.” H German, July 2006.
    • Bonker, D. “Money and Security: Troops, Monetary Policy, and West Germany's Relations with the United States and Britain, 1950-1971 by Hubert Zimmerman.” European Review of History. Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2005.
    • Bonker, D. “Maritimer Imperialismus. Seemachtideologie, seestrategisches Denken und der Tirpitzplan 1876 bis 1914 by Rolf Hobson.” H Soz Kult, November 2004.
    • Bonker, D. “Ubi-sumus? The state of naval and maritime history.” Militargeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 1998.
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• Teaching & Mentoring
• 

  Recent Courses

  • HISTORY 114: Intro to the History of Modern Warfare 2023
  • HISTORY 701S: Research Seminar in History 2023
  • HISTORY 890S-05: Research Topics in Global Connections 2023
  • PUBPOL 160: Intro to the History of Modern Warfare 2023
  • HISTORY 476S: Capstone Seminar: American Militarism 2022
  • HISTORY 704S: Focusing on Preparing Portfolios for Preliminary Certification 2022
  • HISTORY 704S: Focusing on Preparing Portfolios for Preliminary Certification 2021
  • HISTORY 791: Reading Topics: Independent Study 2021
  • HISTORY 792: Reading Topics-Independent Study 2021
• Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
• 

  Presentations & Appearances

  • Co-Organizer and Discussant, Duke-Rice Workshop on Modern War and Society. November 21, 2013  2013
  • Commentator, Annual New Faces Conference. November 21, 2013  2013
  • Aneignung, Transfer, und Verwissenschaftlichung: Überlegungen zu einer transatlantischen Begriffsgeschichte von Militarismus im 20. Jahrhundert, Macht der Sprache: Workshop zur Historischen Semantik des 20. Jahrhunderts. September 13, 2013  2013
  • Die Republik in Gefahr? Nation und Militarismuskritik in den USA im 20. Jahrhundert. May 17, 2013  2013
  • Commentator, Panel on “Politics of Occupation and Memory in Post World War II Germany”. December 2, 2012  2012
  • “Germany’s Global Expansion ‘from an East Asian perspective:’ The Case of Alfred von Tirpitz,” Conference on "Globalizing Germany: Exploration, Emigration and Empire, 1848-1918”. December 2, 2012  2012
  • “Global Empire and Naval Ambitions in Wilhelmine Germany”. May 7, 2012  2012
  • Commentator, Panel on “Intellectual and Diplomatic History: A Fresh Look at Traditional Subjects”. March 17, 2012  2012
  • Chair & Commentator, Panel on “Civil(izing) Society: Public Opinion in American Foreign Relations,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Historian of American Foreign Relations. November 26, 2011  2011
  • “Professional Militarism in a Global Age: Naval Elites and the Remaking of the United States before World War I,” Annual Conference of the Organization of American Historians. November 26, 2011  2011
  • Chair & Commentator, Panel on Post-Colonial States and Nation Building, Annual Conference of the Historians of American Foreign Relations. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Commentator, Eleventh Annual New Faces Conference, Triangle Institute for Security Studies. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Paper, “Global Militarization and U.S. Pursuits of Force: Rethinking American Navalism in the Progressive Era,” Annual Conference of the Historians of American Foreign Relations,. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Paper, “Global Politics and German Destiny ‘from an East Asian Perspective’: Alfred von Tirpitz and the Making of Wilhelmine Navalism,” Thirty-Fourth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Chair & Commentator, Panel on “Transatlantic Conversations: Visions of Order and Conflict in the German-American Atlantic of the Nineteenth Century,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Historian of American Foreign Relations, June 25-28, 2009. December 4, 2009  2009
  • “A German Way of War? The Case of the Wilhelmine Navy,” North Carolina German Studies Workshop Series, Ways of War: Violence and the Culture of Conflict in modern Germany, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, April 17-18, 2009. December 4, 2009  2009
  • “German Military Culture in a Trans-Atlantic Perspective,” Triangle Intellectual History Seminar, January 11, 2009. December 4, 2009  2009
  • “Maritime Warfare in an Age of Global Empire: Revisiting German and U.S. Military Approaches” , Department of History, University of Iowa, April 9, 2009. December 4, 2009  2009
  • “Professional Militarism in a Global Age: The Politics of Naval Military Elites in the U.S. and Germany before World War I”. Department of History, University of Iowa. December 4, 2009  2009
  • Commentator, Ninth Annual New Faces Conference. December 1, 2008  2008
  • Commentator, Panel on “Perpetrators or Victims? Letters from German Soldiers at the Eastern Front, 1939-1945". December 1, 2008  2008
  • “German Militarism and Global Militarization: Rethinking Wilhelmine Navalism". December 1, 2008  2008
  • “Military History and Transnational History". 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington. December 1, 2008  2008
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  Service to the Profession

  • Member, 2010 Program Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. November 26, 2011  2011
  • Member, Graduate Student Grants & Fellowships Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. 2011  2011
  • Member, Steering Committee, North Carolina German Studies Seminar and Workshop Series. 2011  2011
  • Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. 2011  2011
  • Member, 2010 Program Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Member, 2011 Program Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Member, Steering Committee, North Carolina German Studies Seminar and Workshop Series. December 1, 2010  2010
  • Member, 2010 Program Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. December 4, 2009  2009
  • Member, 2009 Program Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. December 1, 2008  2008
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  Service to Duke

  • Executive Committee. 2016 - 2019  2016 - 2019
  • Director of Graduate Studies. Department. 2015 - 2016  2015 - 2016
  • Executive Committee. 2013 - 2015  2013 - 2015

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