Writing History in the "End of History" Era - Reflections on Historians and the GWOT
Authors
Porch, Douglas
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2006-10
Date
Publisher
Language
Abstract
Military history can and should play a role, even a prominent role, in
debates over strategy and policy in wartime. The problem begins
when partisans, polemicists, and ideologues pluck examples from
past military campaigns or wars that are subsequently interpreted in
ways that support policy and strategy decisions. In the case of the
current “long war,” neoconservative and neoimperialist historians
construct and reconstruct interpretations of the past in ways deliberately
calculated to promote and sustain a policy agenda. The danger
is that history twisted by some partisans into an apologia for
contemporary American policy, and ultimately as a weapon of intimidation
to silence doubt, dissent, disagreement, and even debate,
serves neither the cause of history, nor of policy and strategy formulation,
nor even of democracy in a moment of national peril.
Type
Article
Description
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs
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NPS Report Number
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Format
Citation
The Journal of Military History, Volume 70, (October 2006), pp. 1065–80
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.