Journal of Military History
Vol. 70, No. 4
October 2006
Articles
Ciro Paoletti, "Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Toulon Expedition of 1707, and the English Historians-A Dissenting View," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 939-962.
This article uses recent English-language historical accounts of the 1707 siege of the French naval base of Toulon by the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy as a case study of the distortions that can occur when the authors of these accounts have not made full use of works written at the time of the events they treat and, in particular, are ignorant of the historical literature on the subject in languages other than their own (in this case, works in French, German, and Italian). The author believes that these shortcomings in the English-language literature on the military history of the 1688-1748 period, which currently dominates the field, demonstrate how much work remains to be done on every aspect of this crucial period, addressing once again problems that everyone believed had been closed for good.
Mark C. Hunter, "The U.S. Naval Academy and Its Summer Cruises: Professionalization in the Antebellum U.S. Navy, 1845-1861," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 963-994.
The rise of professionalism in the U.S. armed forces has been a hotly debated topic. Some, like Samuel P. Huntington, believe that it emerged in the postbellum era. Others, like William B. Skelton, assert that the U.S. Army had the ingredients of a profession before the Civil War. This study contends that the U.S. Navy also exhibited professional qualities before the Civil War. Beginning in 1845, it had a centralized school for selecting and training officers at Annapolis, Maryland. Then, at sea, as students progressed from year to year, the navy assessed almost scientifically their abilities as officer-trainees.
THE 2006 GEORGE C. MARSHALL LECTURE IN MILITARY HISTORY
Drew Gilpin Faust, " 'Numbers on Top of Numbers': Counting the Civil War Dead," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 995-1010.
Drew Gilpin Faust, " 'Numbers on Top of Numbers': Counting the Civil War Dead," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 995-1010.
The assumption that the government has an obligation to name and count the military dead only emerged in the United States as a result of the Civil War experience. A massive postwar reburial program dedicated to identifying and reinterring every Union soldier was paralleled by intensive public and private efforts accurately to number the war's losses, which had not been carefully compiled by either North or South during the conflict. In an era of increasing preoccupation with statistics, an enumeration of the dead came to seem imperative to understanding the Civil War's unanticipated scale and destructiveness.
Vincent Orange, "The German Air Force Is Already 'The Most Powerful in Europe': Two Royal Air Force Officers Report on a Visit to Germany, 6-15 October 1936," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1011-1028.
In October 1936, two exceptional Royal Air Force pilots flew privately to Germany to see what they could discover about the Luftwaffe. Their report, now in Britain's National Archives, has never been published, but was used by Winston Churchill in his efforts to alert the British government to the danger of aerial attack. The airmen were well received everywhere and permitted to fly on their own over Berlin. They examined and even flew the latest bombers and met members of the élite Richthofen Squadron, Ernst Udet, and Heinrich Koppenberg. Greatly impressed by German air power, they urged the British Air Ministry to focus on a Wellington-Blenheim strike force, backed by Hurricane and Spitfire fighters.
HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Michael Alfred Peszke, "An Introduction to English-Language Literature on the Polish Armed Forces in World War II," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1029-1064.
Michael Alfred Peszke, "An Introduction to English-Language Literature on the Polish Armed Forces in World War II," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1029-1064.
This article reviews all dedicated English-language studies of the Polish military in World War II. It follows a chronological order subdivided by separation into Land Army, Air, Naval, Underground, and Clandestine and Intelligence Services. The review begins with the September 1939 Campaign, and follows the European war as it pertained to the Polish cause. This bibliography is supplemented by references to specific campaign studies, where Polish contributions are discussed in more than just a passing reference. Finally, it includes references to archival material when the discussion of the bibliography in its historical context requires such clarification.
Douglas Porch, "Writing History in the 'End of History' Era-Reflections on Historians and the GWOT," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1065-1080.
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.
Roger Spiller, "Military History and Its Fictions," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1081-1098.
The conception and practice of military history, once regarded as the foundation for any understanding of war, has responded cautiously to the momentous intellectual and contemporary developments of the past half century. While our conservative habits have encouraged a degree of professional maturity as a field, military history's intellectual authority has declined as other disciplines have taken more adventurous approaches to the study of war and assumed a more prominent role in contemporary military criticism. Yet because of military history's intellectual progress, the power of military history to range beyond its conservatism and to address contemporary military problems is greater than ever.
NOTES AND COMMENTS, The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006): 1099-1103.
Reviews:
Kenneth P. Werrell, Sabres over MiG Alley: The F-86 and the Battle for Air Superiority in Korea, reviewed by Stephen Budiansky, 1104-1105; and reviewed by Conrad Crane, 1105-1106.
Robert K. Brigham, ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army, reviewed by Lewis Sorley, 1106-1107; and reviewed by Dale Andrade, 1107-1108.
Frank L. Holt, Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan, reviewed by Anthony J. Papalas, 1109-1110.
Rose Mary Sheldon, Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods, but Verify, reviewed by Robert Dise, 1110-1111.
D. J. B. Trim and Mark Charles Fissel, editors, Amphibious Warfare, 1000-1700: Commerce, State Formation, and European Expansion, reviewed by K. A. J. McLay, 1111-1113.
Jochen Burgtorf and Helen Nicholson, editors, International Mobility in the Military Orders (Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries): Travelling on Christ's Business, reviewed by John France, 1113-1114.
William Urban, The Teutonic Knights: A Military History, reviewed by David S. Bachrach, 1114-1115.
Margaret Sankey, Jacobite Prisoners of the 1715 Rebellion: Preventing and Punishing Insurrection in Early Hanoverian Britain, reviewed by Edward M. Furgol, 1116-1117.
Martin Winter, Untertanengeist durch Militärpflicht? Das preußische Kantonverfassung in brandenburgischen Städten im 18. Jahrhundert, reviewed by Peter H. Wilson, 1117-1118.
David Dixon, Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America, reviewed by Scott N. Hendrix, 1118-1119.
David Scott Daniell, Cap of Honour: The 300 Years of the Gloucestershire Regiment, reviewed by W. Robert Houston, 1119-20
Joseph Callo, John Paul Jones: America's First Sea Warrior, reviewed by John Buchanan, 1121-1122.
David G. Chandler, editor, in collaboration with Christopher L. Scott et al., Military Miscellany II: Manuscripts from Marlborough's Wars, the American War of Independence, and the Boer War, reviewed by Harold E. Raugh, Jr., 1122-1123.
Charles J. Esdaile, editor, Popular Resistance in the French Wars: Patriots, Partisans, and Land Pirates, reviewed by John Lawrence Tone, 1123-1124.
Frederick C. Leiner, The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War Against the Pirates of North Africa, reviewed by David Curtis Skaggs, 1124-1125.
Rafe Blaufarb, Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835, reviewed by Owen Connelly, 1126-1127.
Andrew C. A. Jampoler, Sailors in the Holy Land: The 1848 Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Search for Sodom and Gomorrah, reviewed by James C. Bradford, 1127-1128.
Robert Wooster, Frontier Crossroads: Fort Davis and the West, reviewed by Thomas W. Cutrer, 1128-1130.
Jerome A. Greene, Fort Randall on the Missouri, 1856-1892, reviewed by M. John Lubetkin, 1230-1131.
Joseph G. Bilby, A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles, reviewed by Mark Barloon, 1131-1132.
Brian D. McKnight, Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia, reviewed by R. Ray Ortensie, 1132-1133.
Harold Holtzer and Tim Mulligan, editors, The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, reviewed by Spencer C. Tucker, 1134-1135.
Edmund J. Raus, Jr., Banners South: A Northern Community at War, reviewed by Barry M. Stentiford, 1135-1136.
Lesley J. Gordon and John C. Inscoe, editors, Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas, reviewed by Susannah U. Bruce, 1136-1137.
Jane Schultz, Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America, reviewed by Judith Ann Giesberg, 1137-1138.
Nina Silber, Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War, reviewed by Kara Dixon Vuic, 1139-1140.
Gary W. Gallagher, editor, The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, reviewed by James I. Robertson, Jr., 1140-1141.
Frank J. Merli, edited by David M. Fahey, The Alabama, British Neutrality, and the American Civil War, reviewed by Kevin J. Weddle, 1141-1142.
Peter S. Carmichael, The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion, reviewed by John Selby, 1142-1143.
Wayne R. Kime, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge: The Life and Times of a Career Army Officer, reviewed by Robert Wooster, 1143-1144.
John Dunn, Khedive Ismail's Army, reviewed by Jonathan Grant, 1144-1145.
Mike Snook, Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke's Drift, reviewed by James B. Thomas, 1146.
René Pélissier, Les Campagnes Coloniales du Portugal 1844-1941, reviewed by John P. Cann, 1147-1148.
Rotem Kowner, Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War, reviewed by John W. Steinberg, 1148-1149.
Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I; Sophie de Schaepdrijver, La Belgique et la Première Guerre mondiale, reviewed by Wim Klinkert, 1149-1150.
Karl Hack and Tobias Rettig, editors, Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia, reviewed by Kim Munholland, 1151-1152.
Tan Tai Yong, The Garrison State: The Military, Government, and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947, reviewed by Kaushik Roy, 1152-1153.
Michel Gobat, Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua Under U.S. Imperial Rule, reviewed by Jason M. Colby, 1153-1154.
Chris Ealham and Michael Richards, editors, The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, reviewed by Geoffrey Jensen, 1154-1156.
Wolfram Wette, translated by Deborah Lucas Schneider, The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality, reviewed by Lee Baker, 1156-1157.
Richard L. DiNardo, Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse, reviewed by M. W. A. Axworthy, 1157-1158.
Marc Milner, Battle of the Atlantic, reviewed by William F. Trimble, 1158-1159.
Mark A. Stoler, Allies in War: Britain and America Against the Axis Powers, 1940-1945, reviewed by Priscilla Roberts, 1160-1161.
Brian P. Farrell, The Defence and Fall of Singapore, 1940-1942, reviewed by Peter Dennis, 1161-1162.
John M. Beebe, Prisoner of the Rising Sun: The Lost Diary of Brig. Gen. Lewis Beebe, reviewed by Peter Clemens, 1162-1163.
Robert Franklin, Medic! How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs, reviewed by Robert J. T. Joy, 1163-1164.
Neil Roos, Ordinary Springboks: White Servicemen and Social Justice in South Africa, 1939-1961, reviewed by Ian van der Waag, 1164-1166.
Martin F. Auger, Prisoners of the Home Front: German POWs and "Enemy Aliens" in Southern Quebec, 1940-46, reviewed by Yves Tremblay, 1166-1168.
Richard Harding, editor, The Royal Navy, 1930-2000: Innovation and Defence, reviewed by Raymond W. Westphal, Jr., 1168-1169.
Peter Schrijvers, The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge, reviewed by Hal Elliott Wert, 1169-1171.
Thaddeus Holt, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War, reviewed by John R. Schindler, 1171-1173.
Theodore A. Wilson, editor, America and World War II: Critical Issues, reviewed by Steven S. Minniear, 1173-1174.
Paul Jackson, One of the Boys: Homosexuality in the Military During World War II, reviewed by Ryan O'Connor, 1174-1175.
Robert Harvey, American Shogun: General MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito, and the Drama of Modern Japan; Grant K. Goodman, America's Japan: The First Year, 1945-46, reviewed by Michael Schaller, 1175-1177.
Bob Ward, Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun, reviewed by Rainer Eisfeld, 1177-1178.
Curtis Peebles, Twilight Warriors: Covert Air Operations Against the USSR, reviewed by Benjamin F. Tuck, 1178-1179.
Hew Strachan, editor, Big Wars and Small Wars: The British Army and the Lessons of War in the 20th Century, reviewed by Ian F. W. Beckett, 1179-1180.
John Schofield, Combat Archaeology: Material Culture and Modern Conflict, reviewed by Lisa M. Budreau, 1180-1181.
Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey, editors, The Australian Army and the Vietnam War, 1962-1972: The Chief of Army Military History Conference; Christopher Pugsley, The Anzac Experience: New Zealand, Australia, and Empire in the First World War, reviewed by Allan Converse, 1181-1183.
Seth Jacobs, America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, reviewed by Matthew Masur, 1183-1184.
Benjamin Weiser, A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid To Save His Country, reviewed by Mark M. Lowenthal, 1184-1185.
Uri Bar-Joseph, The Watchman Fell Asleep: The Surprise of Yom Kippur and Its Sources, reviewed by Ralph Hitchens, 1185-1187.
Christopher Hubbard, Australian and U.S. Military Cooperation: Fighting Common Enemies, reviewed by Jeffrey Grey, 1188.
Mary Fullbrook, The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker, reviewed by Antony Clayton, 1189-1190.
Jeffrey T. Richelson, Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea, reviewed by J. Kenneth McDonald, 1190-1191.
Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War, reviewed by Jeremy Black, 1191-1192.
Thijs W. Brocades Zaalberg, Soldiers and Civil Power: Supporting or Substituting for Civil Authorities in Modern Peace Operations, reviewed by Roy McCullough, 1192-1193.
Barton C. Hacker with the assistance of Margaret Vining, American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Technology, reviewed by William J. Astore, 1193-1194.
Jonathan B. Tucker, War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda, reviewed by John Ellis van Courtland Moon, 1194-1195.
Other:
BOOKS RECEIVED, 1196-1203.
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES, 1204-1207.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, 1208-1210.
INDEX TO VOLUME 70, 1211-1234.