What is Military History?
Just what is military history? This is a complex question to ask and just as complex to answer. To know what military history is, one must first examine what military was before the advent of new historical studies took its place post World War Two. The study of military history and how it relates to changes in society, and how society views war will reveal just what military history is.
People have been writing accounts of war since pre-biblical times up until the present day. It is in these writings that historians, writers, journalists, teachers, students and the every day person find the basis of what we could call military history. But we must be careful not to think that all accounts of war are the same or should hold the same weight.
John Keegan states that a simplistic view of military history is nothing much more than, “the study of generals and generalship.” This tends to be the focus of many people including writers and scholars. This trend to hold the upper echelons of power in war in higher overall regard was exemplified by a simple example done by University of the Fraser Valley professor Chris Leach during a class presentation. Asking the students to name people who have gone to war, all responses put forth highlighted only generals and high-level statesmen of warring nations. This is a narrow view of what military history is and can trap one’s further thinking towards the larger picture of what military history is. This type of historical account dominated military history pre-World War Two.
Military history also encompasses battles, places, weapons and tactics of war. Military history is also an encapsulation of the society it was born out of. Each period of history brings not only wars fought and lost, but the underlying causes of war, and the technology and means of war as well. Each period also brings with it highly regarded writers and historians – each of whom bring their own style, prose and insight. With this in mind, we must see and acknowledge their own particular slant to the military history of their period. Some may write accounts completely devoid of the human aspect of war while focusing solely on the events themselves. Others may write military history to serve more as propaganda than to serve as a true historical account. This is what Keegan cites as a “deficiency” of military history.
What has changed military history more than anything is the change in society over time. As society moved away from models dominated by King or Queen and absolute rulers to those governed and dominated by civilians, military history also changed. Citizens of the society now shaped war as much as war shaped the citizens of a country. For this reason military history began to change as well. No longer would accounts of war be dominated solely by those on top and the generals in the field, but shared more equally between the rulers, soldiers, officers and society at large. This trend only accelerated with the advent of total war in the late 18th century and culminated with the two world wars.
Martin van Creveld says of the change, “much of the best work on military history has been done not by experts on the history of war as such but by historians whose primary interest was in political science, sociology, economics, psychology, and administration… These men have produced much outstanding work and considerably deepened our understanding of those factors.” These new accounts of military history really bear witness to the changing face of war. Or as Richard Preston says, “Military history is no longer the interest only, or primarily of soldiers. Just as war has been more and more affected by other aspects of society’s evolution, so it in turn has affected the course of events far and wide. Therefore, general history cannot be understood without a knowledge of military history, nor military history without knowledge of general history.” What we see is a hand in hand transformation of society and military history and how we account and transcribe both.
In simple terms military history is just that, the history of militaries and war. War and military history though is also a creation of the society that created it. As society has changed through war and on its own, the study and accounts of military history have changed with it. No longer are generals and rulers the sole guiding principle of what constitutes military history. Military history is a compilation of events, people, influences, technology, tactics and more; and the societies that it shapes and in turn helps shape it.