Rethinking Military History [Paperback]

Bottom line: this book fills a much needed gap in reviewing the state of military historiography and its themes. This alone makes it worthwhile for military historians to read this book.

If you're familiar with Black's work, you're already familiar with many of the themes in the book. However, the book captures all of them and then some. He basically addresses six "problems" he sees in "the state of military history as generally consumed by the public at large:" too much of a Eurocentric (and American) focus; a technological bias in explaining military capability; a focus on leading powers and dominant military systems; a separation of land and sea conflict; a focus on traditional state vs. state conflict; and a lack of focus on "political tasking" in the setting of force structure, doctrines and goals, and in the judging of military success. His argument isn't necessarily that these aspects of military history are wrong, only that they ignore other aspects that lead to a fuller understanding of the world -- it skews the perspective.

Black also reviews how military historians have treated warfare since the beginning of the early modern period with chapters on 1500-1815, 1775-1918, and 1914 to today. Although I've read his opinions on many of these themes, there's enough new in the book to make it interesting, and he pulls it together in a more thoughtful manner. In fact, Black refers to it as a "thought book" with a global perspective.

The book is not an easy read and it's not because of differences between American and British writing styles. Black is always a difficult read, as anyone who has read his other books can attest. As an American who has lived in the UK for seven years, and who earned his Masters in War Studies at King's College London, I can tell you there are plenty of other British military historians who are easier to read (Such as Michael Howard, Brian Holden-Reid, Max Hastings, and Colin S. Grey.) Having said that, he may be tough to read, but he's worth it...especially with this book.

Jeremy Black accomplishes exactly what he intends to do - he helps the reader to reframe & rethink many long-standing, taken-for-granted, assumptions and myths about military history. This book is a true innovative gem about military history that sparkles in a droll sea of otherwise banal commonality. This book should be on the shelf of every professional military careerist - especially those who believe that good military policy, theory, strategy, operations, and tactics begin with a solid grasp of good military history. This is a book for those who actually understand the essence of good military history - or those who want to learn about it. Afterwards, you will think about new concepts and perspectives regarding military history in ways you never dreamed of.

This book captures a variety of salient issues that all affect how we assess military effectiveness: an over-reliance upon 'junk' history, heavy technology bias in military thinking, Eurocentricness & American-centricity, a dysfunctional separation of land-vs-sea combat, preoccupation with nation-state conflicts -vs- the general continuum of conflict, a generally unfocused "political" guidance for a very wide range of highly important military issues, and our all-too-often cultural 'myopicness' in military understanding and approach.

You should disregard any myopic 'scholarly' critique that falsely purports to know exactly what the vast majority of military history readers want. Instead, you should focus on what you know you want. You should disregard any myopic 'scholarly' critique that would falsely degrade a book simply because it is written in a culturally different style of English than one is normally use to. For without doubt, there are numerous foreign writers whom average Americans as well as highly regarded academics find their foreign style of writing a bit rough in reading. ( And "Herr Clausewitz" is surely at the top of that long list.) Instead, you should focus on the content of new concepts and perspectives - not miniscule nuances in writing style.

If anything, this book may overwhelm the average (or below average) reader only because it is heavily laden, page-to-page, with a plethora of new concepts and perspectives by a master military historian - who has looked at military history from every side of a military Rubik's Cube - and knows exactly what he is talking about.

You cannot read this book only once - for if you love military history, this book WILL captivate you.

Professor Black has written an interesting and useful survey of military history. It is not a book for the casual reader but it will make those people with an interest in the study of military history think about that subject. He has a constant theme throughout the book about the Europe-centric nature of military history. This is not the only line of argument that he writes about, although it did seem to be the major recurring point. Professor Black founded his argument on a very good understanding of non-western military history. He did not just use the common examples like the Mongolians or Samurais but looked further afield to back up his arguments.

He started the book with a comprehensive survey of works about military history. I found this chapter to be very critical of a number of other prominent military historians, such as Sir John Keegan. Maybe other readers would view it differently to me but that was the feeling that I finished the chapter with. He is also critical of non-academics who write military history in that they can not devote the resources nor understanding that academics can to research. He examines popular military history and notes the way that sensationalism is used in packaging military history.

He made some very good points about the technology focus of military history where some historians become obsessed with the technology used in conflicts and look no further. The problem with that approach can be that different cultures use technology differently or that the technology was not key to the issue but a focus on technology is blind to those criticisms.

I was a little lost in his chapter that discussed using the theme of military objectives as a way to view and understand military history. I am not sure what this chapter was trying to say as a whole but that may have been me missing the point.

The final three chapters appear to return to a conventional chronological approach to military history but even here Professor Black is making a point. There are few easy and clear chronological lines out there to divide history along. This absence is even clearer when military history is viewed globally and not just from a Western Europe or USA aspect.

The book was often not the easiest book to read but it was full of ideas and views that made me think about the study of military history. It would be hard to write a book about military history and not cause controversy but Professor Black is one writer who can stand behind the impressive amount of work that he has produced on military history to prove that he is no light weight on the subject. I thoroughly recommend the book to anybody who is serious about military history and wants to consider how it should be approached.