War and military events have forged the entire history of humankind throughout the 50,000 years of our known existence. Despotism, cruelty, and oppression, democracy, politics, nationhood, exploration, religions, social development, the spread of tyranny, prejudice, pestilence, tolerance, and ideals, the evil of slavery and its abolition, advances in medicine, technology, science, and the arts -- all came about as the result of warfare, and continue to do so.
This is not said to glorify war; quite the contrary. Nobody detests the pain, horror, and wholesale deaths of combat more than do warriors themselves. Yet, over the past few decades, public understanding of the importance of military history to our society today has become so eroded as to be virtually non-existent, and the armed services have fallen into disrepute. This change has come about over the past 30 years, largely because study of history in general, and military history in particular, is no longer taught by most schools and universities in English-speaking countries. Whenever military issues ever do happen by chance to be raised in academe, teachers' most common response is cliche-ridden scorn and pacifist distortion, born of their own personal lack of knowledge about actual political/military events of the past.
Print and broadcast media are also dominated by the new dogma of 'political correctness' that rejects the validity of patriotism and the harsh lessons of history that has proved time and again the necessity of democratic nations sometimes needing to go to war to protect their very survival. Press pundits and television anchor-persons habitually show an almost laughable ignorance of the historical background of the countries, conflicts, or disasters they gravely purport to be explaining. They rarely offer any historical perspective, but instead often perpetuate the widespread simple ignorance of past events that has brought about a sort of naive expectation of permanent universal peace.
Seldom mentioned now in the halls of academe or by TV and newspapers, is that the very freedom we enjoy in Western countries today was bought at the human cost of millions of men and women who fought and died to defeat oppressive regime. As a military historian myself, who has researched and written about military affairs for many years, I believe that more widespread understanding of the role of warfare in world history is the best possible weapon in the struggle for world peace.
From time to time, I intend to write on this 'blog' about the enjoyment and benefits of studying and writing military history, with excerpts from my own books and those of other authors. I intend this site to develop and grow gradually, with added helpful information about writing and reading military books, articles, theses, movie scripts, and Web sites. As part of a collective process, I cordially welcome comments from like-minded visitors about the topic and any other suggested readings in military history they care to share here.
Best Regards.
-- Sidney Allinson.
1 comment:
Very well said.
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