GENERAL 99

© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 The Historical Association and Blackwell Publishing.

What is Military History?

By Stephen Morillo with Michael F. Pavkovic.

Polity.2006. vi + 150pp. £12.99.

This is a worthwhile introduction to the subject that reflects its Americanorigins but that is far more wide-ranging than most work of this type by Americanscholars. There is too little non-western coverage in the book, for example ofwork by Indian and Japanese scholars, but there is a welcome engagement withpre-modern periods. This reflects Morillo’s background as a medievalist, andthat of Pavkovic in Roman military history. The authors chart the developmentof the subject, consider conceptual frameworks, assess current controversies,discuss the ‘doing’ of the subject, and include the future of military history.They argue that it is philosophically diverse and methodologically rich, andthat it is mistaken to see it as resistant to new conceptual perspectives. At thesame time, they accept that the question of causation in military history haslong been influenced by a particular view of structural constraints that stressesthe role of technology in shaping patterns of warfare. However, too often thevery visibility of weaponry has led military historians to over-emphasizetechnology. This has been accentuated by the focus of the subject on westernscholarship. The controversies discussed are military revolutions, the position ofthe west, Roman continuity into the middle ages, giving up the gun in Japan,and the origins of

blitzkrieg

. ‘Doing’ looks at forms, sources, programmesand journals, presses and associations. The book ends with an all-too-shortsection on the politics of military history, which argues that the subject cannotafford to accept the perception that it is part of the establishment, while liberalacademics should not dismiss it, for then they abandon a politically relevantfield to their ideological opponents. The pages are small and generously printedwhich makes this a short book. That is a pity as the authors have much ofinterest to say. Their work is of particular value for students, for whom it offersa clear introduction. The book also invites the reflection that the relevant contro-versies might look very different in the future. For example, it would be fascinat-ing to consider how the putative RMA and the ‘War on Terror’ will be viewedby future historians.

University of Exeter

JEREMY BLACK

The Past as Prologue: The Importance of History to the Military Profession

.Edited by Williamson Murray and R. H. Sinnreich.

Cambridge University Press.2006. x + 287pp. 14.99.

Based on conference papers, this collection argues for the importance ofhistorical awareness to successful command, not least in the face of contrarypressures including the cult of modernity and the sense of technological trans-formation. Each of the fourteen chapters is interesting, and, of the more his-torical pieces, Andrew Gordon’s examination of the Royal Navy from Trafalgarto Jutland helps explain how Jellicoe’s over-determined control style foolishlyneglected the historical lessons of command initiative that should have beenderived from Nelsonian conflict. Jonathan Bailey indicates how the lessonsof the Russo-Japanese War, not least the value of indirect fire, were neglected.J. Paul Harris praises the General Staff, but is critical of Liddell Hart, Fullerand Chamberlain, in his perceptive examination of the British army’s responseto challenges in the 1920s and 1930s, not least the issue of armour. Michael

100 REVIEWS AND SHORT NOTICES

© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 The Historical Association and Blackwell Publishing.

Howard’s more introductory piece affirms the central thesis of the book, and hassome interesting remarks to make about war and society and the need to focuson fighting. Colin Gray offers a brilliant defence of the relevance of Clausewitz,arguing that, as long as the future world remains a strategic world, Clausewitz’sgeneral theory of war will be apposite. In his discussion of history and thenature of strategy, John Gooch is not always as clear as he might be, writing that‘When we ascend to the highest rung of strategic activity, national or “grandstrategy”, history comes into its own – but almost by default – absent any size-able body of theoretical or normative literature written from a military point ofview’ (p. 143).

The genesis of the volume as an Anglo-American project focused on currentconcerns, the background to many conferences and collections, helps explain itscentral flaw, which is a lack of sufficient consideration of non-western militarytraditions. For these, it is more helpful to look at this reviewer’s

RethinkingMilitary History

(Routledge, 2004), while there are also reflections of interest inStephen Morillo and Michael Pavkovic’s

What is Military History

(Polity, 2006).Unfortunately, most writing on military history neglects this sphere or treats itin the misleading fashion of the diffusion of paradigmatic western patterns. Therelationship between strategic cultures and the role of historical imaginationalso requires more attention.

University of Exeter

JEREMY BLACK

Battlefield: Decisive Conflicts in History

. Edited by Richard Holmes and MartinMarix Evans.

Oxford University Press. 2006. 376pp. £17.99.This impressive collection of battles originated in ‘The Oxford Companion to

Military History’. In this advanced form, it moves well beyond a catalogue ofshort summaries, bundled together in alphabetical sequence viz. Caporetto,Capua, Carberry Hill. Professor Holmes is widely known within the field ofmilitary history, and beyond, as a masterly communicator, courtesy of twentysubstantial publications and a talent for visual presentation via several acclaimedBBC2 TV series. Whereas Winston Churchill called battles ‘punctuation marks’in history, Richard Holmes has turned this dismissal on its head. His narrativedraws initially upon campaigns in ancient Egypt; it closes with the Second GulfWar of 2003, visiting, en route, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and theAmericas. The book’s structure encloses this ambitious global coverage throughsections entitled ‘The Ancient World’, ‘Medieval Europe’, ‘Renaissance to theFrench Revolution’, Nineteenth Century Europe’, ‘World War I’, ‘World WarII’, ‘The Americas’, ‘Asia and the Middle East’, ‘Africa’. Individual accounts donot merely document events. Woven in are reflections upon political, social andeconomic development; the impact of technological change; tactical decision-making; the larger strategic frameworks which operated. Episodes in the earlyperiods, less familiar to most, have the capacity to surprise. Hannibal’s most famousvictory, at Cannae 216

, produced a massacre without parallel in the historyof western warfare, with the Roman army sustaining higher casualties than theBritish army on the first day of the Somme. Early weapons, too, might be fear-some in their operation, for example the powerful fifth-century

trebuchetused to project plague-ridden corpses into besieged cities. In all, some 300battles make their appearance and, in the process, Professor Holmes helpfully lays