James Kirby Martin earned his Ph.D. in American History at the University of Wisconsin. He was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Houston. He held named visiting professorships at The Citadel and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Martin was the author of a number of books including the award-winning Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered (1997) and A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1783, the latter co-authored with Mark Edward Lender. In 2019 he published Insurrection: The American Revolution and Its Meaning (2019). Martin served as a historian advisor to the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.