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The third edition of What is Military History? has been thoroughly updated, and includes a new bibliography and new case studies on naval warfare and the origins of war, as well as expanded sections on historiography, environmental history and world history.
This popular textbook showcases a field that encompasses not only accounts of campaigns and battles, but includes a wide range of perspectives on all aspects of past military organization and activity. Its global and comparative analysis covers: the history of military history, showing how it has developed from ancient times to the present; the key ideas and concepts that shape analysis of military activity; the current controversies about which military historians argue, and why they are important; a survey of who does military history, where it is taught and published, and how it is practiced; and a look at where military history is headed in the future.
Ideal for any interested reader and for classes in military history and in historiography generally, the third edition of this popular book thoroughly explains the dynamics of this rich and growing area of study.
List of contents
Contents
1. An Introduction to Military History
Military History: Definitions, Topics, Scope
Who Studies Military History and Why?
Overview of this Book
2. Military Historiography
Classical Roots: Military History in Ancient Times Military History in the Traditional World: Histories, Manuals, and War Tales
Science, Nationalism, and General Staffs: Military History in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
New Military Histories: The Transformations of the Last 50 Years
3. Conceptual Frameworks
Military History and Philosophy of History
Military Art and Practice
War and Society: Interdisciplinary Influences
Global History and Comparative Methodology
Conclusions
4. Current Controversies
Military Revolutions
Counter-Insurgency: History and Policy
"The West": Exceptionalism and Dominance?
Is Naval History Military History?
War, Society, and Culture: Other Controversies
Conclusion: Revisionism and Reading the Process of History
5. Doing Military History
Forms
Sources
Programs
Journals, Presses, and Associations
6. The Future of Military History
Trends in the Field
The Politics of Military History
Notes
Further Reading
Index
About the author
Stephen Morillo is Professor of History at Wabash College.
Michael F. Pavkovic is Professor of Strategy and Policy at the United States Naval War College.
Summary
The third edition of What is Military History? has been thoroughly updated, and includes a new bibliography and new case studies on naval warfare and the origins of war, as well as expanded sections on historiography, environmental history and world history.
Report
"Already a classic, What is Military History? is further strengthened n this excellent third edition. While retaining its original strengths as an excellent introduction to the field, one that is wide-ranging, accessible and readable, this has been generally updated in order to keep up with a changing field and a changing world. There is also a significant new section on naval history and an expanded discussion of the intersection of gender and military history. Deserves praise."
Jeremy Black, University of Exeter
"The first edition of What is Military History? was a strikingly comprehensive summary of military historiography and quickly proved indispensable in many classrooms. This third edition provides some critical updates to what has become a rapidly evolving field, and again its comprehensiveness impresses. From culture to operations, from gender to technology, and from history to anthropology, Morillo and Pavkovic provide crucial starting points for students and researchers in the field to understand how the study of human conflict has developed and why it is where it is now."
Wayne E. Lee, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
