Armed With Knowledge: the Wartime Schools at Harvard Business School, 1941-1946

Abstract

This thesis examines the experiences of the Army and Navy student-officers who attended the six Wartime Schools hosted at Harvard Business School during World War II, and seeks to answer the question, in what ways did the Wartime Schools students engage with, and become part of, the Harvard community? Drawing upon the official University records in the Harvard Archives, as well as thousands of letters and articles the Wartime Schools students wrote and published in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper between 1940 and 1946, it analyzes the student experience in a four-part framework of academics, athletics, extracurricular activities, and social life. When combined, the official records and the Wartime Schools students’ own writings clearly show a group of student-officers who were deeply engaged in all aspects of campus life; who became part of the HBS, University, and broader Boston community; and who simultaneously balanced their obligations to the military with the academic demands of Harvard Business School.