R. M. (Robert Matteson) Johnston

Born in Paris on April 11, 1867, Robert Matteson Johnston was educated at Eton and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He went on to teach at Harvard University and Mount Holyoke College, and he was also part of the early faculty of Simmons University.

Johnston built his reputation as a historian of war and politics. He wrote on the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era, and military leadership, with works including The Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy, The French Revolution, and Leading American Soldiers. He is often remembered as an important early American scholar of military history.

During World War I, he served as chief of the Historical Section of the U.S. Army General Staff in the field, holding the rank of major. He died on January 28, 1920, leaving behind a body of work that helped shape the study of modern European and military history for English-language readers.