Review Essay : Old,Unhappy,Far-off Things: The New Military History of Europe

Abstract

Military history has tended to emphasize politics, chronology, and great men The narrative often represents attempts to analyze rulers and generals in order to understand the reasons behind their decisions. This traditional approach all too often descends to the level of 'a chronicle of one damn battle after another'. In recent years a 'New Military History' has emerged that eschews narration of events and is primarily interested in the social and institutional context of warfare Its attention is not focused on battles, tactics, and weapons systems, but on social structures, military attitudes, relationships between officers and the rank-and-file, and on the interrelations between military and civil society This essay adumbrates the background for this new historiography, reviews some recent volumes which seek to reinvestigate the military history of Europe and sketchily relates these books to the study of the modern world system.

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