Journal of Military History
Vol. 78, No. 4
October 2014
Articles
The 2014 George C. Marshall Lecture in Military History
James M. McPherson, “The Rewards of Risk-Taking: Two Civil War Admirals,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1225-1237
James M. McPherson, “The Rewards of Risk-Taking: Two Civil War Admirals,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1225-1237
The willingness to take risks made Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, victor at New Orleans in 1862 and Mobile Bay in 1864, the Union’s leading naval commander in the Civil War. Farragut’s boldness contrasted strongly with the lack of decisiveness shown in the failure in April 1863 to seize the port of Charleston, South Carolina, by Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, whose capture of Port Royal Sound in South Carolina in November of 1861 had made him the North’s first naval hero of the war. Du Pont’s indecisiveness at Charleston led to his removal from command and a blighted career, while the risk-taking Farragut went on to become, along with generals U.S. Grant and William T. Sherman, one of the principal architects of Union victory.
Derrick E. Lapp, “Did They Really ‘Take None But Gentlemen’? Henry Hardman, the Maryland Line, and a Reconsideration of the Socioeconomic Composition of the Continental Officer Corps,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1239-1261.
The socio-economic composition of the officer corps of the Continental Army has not received as much attention as that of the enlisted soldiers; the officers are generally assumed to have been members of America’s colonial elite. The need for large numbers of men to fill leadership positions in the nation’s first regular army presented an opportunity greater than at any time previous in America for the attainment of rank and status through an officer’s commission. Based upon research on the Maryland Line, this article argues that a larger segment of the Continental Army’s officer corps originated in a “middling” socio-economic range than currently thought.
Ian F. W. Beckett, “The Road from Kandahar: The Politics of Retention and Withdrawal in Afghanistan, 1880–81,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1263-1294
Liberal victory in the 1880 general election in Britain resulted in the decision to withdraw British and Indian troops from Kandahar following the messy conclusion of the Second Afghan War. An acrimonious public debate resulted on the future of a British presence in Afghanistan. It was not just a question of the assessment of any external Russian threat to British India, and the relationship with a seemingly unstable Afghan neighbour, but also of the security of the North West Frontier against tribal incursions, and the general sense that events beyond the Indus would have an impact on the potentially fragile acquiescence of ordinary Indians in continuing British rule of the sub-continent. In the process, the highly divisive issue of Kandahar also raised fundamental questions about imperial defence, strategic choices, the costs of exercising military options, and the difficulties of disengaging from a conflict that had a lasting impact on the balance of policy calculation in Victorian Britain.
Charles Forrester, “Field Marshal Montgomery’s Role in the Creation of the British 21st Army Group’s Combined Arms Doctrine for the Final Assault on Germany, The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1295-1320
This article empirically examines how British 21st Army Group produced a functional doctrine by late 1944. How much weight to give Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in the outcome remains unclear despite significant scholarly literature. This article shows his openness to the “bubbling up” of operational methods from subordinate commanders. He closely managed this process, actively promulgated its output, and determined when he had gleaned sufficient feedback from it. His doctrinal contribution to the British Army’s final push against the Germans developed into British doctrine for many decades, and many Commonwealth countries followed the British lead. This article examines its roots.
Robert W. Hutchinson, “The Weight of History: Wehrmacht Officers, the U.S. Army Historical Division, and U.S. Military Doctrine, 1945–1956,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1321-1348
From 1945 to 1961, the United States Army Historical Division collaborated with German officers to write a history of the Second World War. As relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated and the U.S. Army prepared for a war against the U.S.S.R., the Historical Division and other parties endeavored to exploit the operational knowledge of these German officers while ignoring their attempts at mythologizing the past. This article argues, however, that a substantial intellectual baggage of racist, Social Darwinist, and generally anti-Russian beliefs underpinned even the “purely operational” German lessons that shaped U.S. Army doctrine.
Kevin M. Boylan, “No “Technical Knockout”: Giap’s Artillery at Dien Bien Phu,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1349-1383
This article challenges the thesis that the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu was decided by the overwhelming firepower of the besieging Vietnamese People’s Army (VPA). This has been the prevailing narrative in Western accounts of the battle, and long went undisputed because Vietnamese historians wrote little on the subject. However, a flood of new Vietnamese works published around the fiftieth anniversary of the siege in 2004 reveal that the VPA had only a modest quantitative advantage in artillery and fired fewer shells than the French. Its victory therefore owed more to superior engineering, innovative tactics, and other factors.
Feature:
Philip Gioia, “When ‘The Institute was Heard From’ in World War II: VMI Alumni on the War Department General Staff, 1939–1945,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1385-1394
Philip Gioia, “When ‘The Institute was Heard From’ in World War II: VMI Alumni on the War Department General Staff, 1939–1945,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1385-1394
Review Essay:
Mark Edward Lender, “The Ever Controversial General Charles Lee,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1395-1405
Mark Edward Lender, “The Ever Controversial General Charles Lee,” The Journal of Military History, 78:4 (October 2014): 1395-1405
Reviews:
The Direction of War: Contemporary Strategy in Historical Perspective, by Hew Strachan, reviewed by Bryon Greenwald and by Kenneth J. Hagan, 1407-9
Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by Andrew K. Scherer and John W. Verano, reviewed by Patricia Seed, 1410-11
A German Third Crusader’s Chronicle of his Voyage and the Siege of Almohad Silves, 1189 AD/Muhwahib Xerlb, 585 AH: De Itinere Naval, by Dana Cushing, reviewed by Brian R. Price, 1411-12
The Ashgate Research Companion to the Thirty Years’ War, edited by Olaf Asbach and Peter Schröder, reviewed by William Young, 1412-14
The Ocean is a Wilderness: Atlantic Piracy and the Limits of State Authority, 1688-1856, by Guy Chet, reviewed by Douglas R. Burgess, Jr., 1414-15
Britain’s Soldiers: Rethinking War and Society, 1715-1815, edited by Kevin Linch and Matthew McCormack, reviewed by Ed Coss, 1415-16
Nobility Lost: French & Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians & the End of New France, by Christian Ayne Crouch, reviewed by Arnaud Balvay, 1417
All Canada in the Hands of the British: General Jeffery Amherst and the 1760 Campaign to Conquer New France, by Douglas R. Cubbison, reviewed by Frank Kalesnik, 1418-19
In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy in the Age of Nelson, by Sam Willis, reviewed by Kevin D. McCranie, 1419-20
The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century, by Jürgen Osterhammel, reviewed by Ralph Hitchens, 1420-22
Russian Eyewitness Accounts of the Campaign of 1814, compiled, translated, and edited by Alexander Mikaberidze, reviewed by James R. Arnold, 1422-23
Fred: The Collected Letters and Speeches of Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby, vol. 1: 1842-1878, edited by John W. Hawkins, reviewed by Harold E. Raugh, Jr., 1423-25
Missionaries of Republicanism: A Religious History of the Mexican-American War, by John C. Pinheiro, reviewed by James M. Woods, 1425-26
With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852-1855, edited by John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, and John J. McDonough, reviewed by Harold D. Langley, 1427-28
Gettysburg Religion: Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North, by Steve Longenecker, reviewed by John H. Matsui, 1428-30
Scouting for Grant and Meade: The Reminiscences of Judson Knight, Chief of Scouts, Army of the Potomac, edited by Peter G. Tsouras, reviewed by Clay Mountcastle, 1430-31
African Canadians in Union Blue: Volunteering for the Cause in the Civil War, by Richard M. Reid, reviewed by Kevin D. Greene, 1432-33
Trading with the Enemy: The Covert Economy during the American Civil War, by Philip Leigh, reviewed by David George Surdam, 1433-34
The Battle of the Greasy Grass/Little Bighorn: Custer’s Last Stand in Memory, History, and Popular Culture, by Debra Buchholtz, reviewed by Durwood Ball, 1435-36
A Lakota War Book from the Little Bighorn: The Pictographic “Autobiography of Half Moon,” by Castle McLaughlin, reviewed by Catharine R. Franklin, 1436-37
Cultural Construction of Empire: The U.S. Army in Arizona and New Mexico, by Janne Lahti, reviewed by William A. Dobak, 1438-39
Zulu Warriors: The Battle for the South African Frontier, by John Laband, reviewed by James O. Gump, 1439-40
War in the Shadows: The Irish-American Fenians Who Bombed Victorian Britain, by Shane Kenna, reviewed by David A. Wilson, 1440-42
Democratic Militarism: Voting, Wealth, and War, by Jonathan D. Caverley, reviewed by Ingo Trauschweizer, 1442-43
Home Squadron: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station, by James C. Rentfrow, reviewed by James B. Thomas, 1443-44
Forced Marches: Soldiers and Military Caciques in Modern Mexico, edited by Ben Fallaw and Terry Rugeley, reviewed by Michael D. Gambone, 1444-45
Killing in War, by Jeff McMahan, reviewed by David Hein, 1446-47
The Next War in the Air: Britain’s Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941, by Brett Holman, reviewed by M. Houston Johnson V, 1447-49
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher Clark, reviewed by Jonathan Gumz, 1449-51
Belgium and the First World War, by Henri Pirenne, trans. Vincent Capelle and Jeff Lipkes, reviewed by Jonathan A. Epstein, 1451-52
The Great War for Peace, by William Mulligan, reviewed by Ian Isherwood, 1452-53
The First World War in the Middle East, by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, reviewed by Nikolas Gardner, 1454-55
Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality, by Jeffrey T. Sammons and John H. Morrow, Jr., reviewed by Jeremy Maxwell, 1455-56
Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne, by Douglas V. Mastriano, reviewed by Lon Strauss, 1456-58
The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918-1924, by Bruno Cabanes, reviewed by Samuel Moyn, 1458-59
Belgium's Dilemma: The Formation of the Belgian Defense Policy, 1932-1940, by Jonathan A. Epstein, reviewed by Jeffery A. Gunsburg, 1459-60
The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, by Michael Alpert, reviewed by Geoffrey Jensen, 1461-63
Memory and Cultural History of the Spanish Civil War: Realms of Oblivion, edited by Aurora G. Morcillo, reviewed by Michael Seidman, 1463-64
The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur, by Mark Perry, reviewed by Kevin C. Holzimmer, 1464-66
Endurance and War: The National Source of Military Cohesion, by Jasen J. Castillo, reviewed by Jeffrey M. Shaw, 1466-67
Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War Against Germany and Italy, by Anne Sharp Wells, reviewed by Timothy K. Nenninger, 1467
Britain, Germany, and the Battle of the Atlantic: A Comparative Study, by Dennis Haslop, reviewed by Kevin Smith, 1468-69
Barbarossa Unleashed: The German Blitzkrieg through Central Russia to the Gates of Moscow, June-December 1941, by Craig W. H. Luther, reviewed by Richard L. DiNardo, 1469-70
Long Night of the Tankers: Hitler’s War against Caribbean Oil, by David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig, reviewed by Joel I. Holwitt, 1470-72
Palestine in the Second World War. Strategic Plans and Political Dilemmas: The Emergence of a New Middle East, by Daphna Sharfman, reviewed by Matthew Hughes, 1472-73
Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings, by Craig L. Symonds, reviewed by John C. McManus, 1473-75
Imperial Eclipse: Japan’s Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before August 1945, by Yukiko Koshiro, reviewed by David T. Fuhrmann, 1475-76
The War Has Brought Peace to Mexico: World War II and the Consolidation of the Post-Revolutionary State, by Halbert Jones, reviewed by Ian Roxborough, 1477-78
Change and Conflict in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps since 1945, by Anne C. Loveland, reviewed by Brad Carter, 1478-79
What Good is Grand Strategy? Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, by Hal Brands, reviewed by Charles F. Brower IV, 1480-81
Name, Rank, and Serial Number: Exploiting Korean War POWs at Home and Abroad, by Charles S. Young, reviewed by Steven Casey, 1481-82
So Much to Lose: John F. Kennedy and American Policy in Laos, by William J. Rust, reviewed by Richard A. Ruth, 1483-84
Reconstructing a Shattered Egyptian Army: War Minister Gen. Mohamed Fawzi’s Memoirs, 1967-1971, edited by Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, reviewed by David M. Witty, 1484-85
Failing Our Veterans: The G. I. Bill and the Vietnam Generation, by Mark Boulton, reviewed by Robert L. Goldich, 1486-88
The American Way of Bombing: Changing Ethical and Legal Norms, from Flying Fortresses to Drones, edited by Matthew Evangelista and Henry Shue, reviewed by Phillip S. Meilinger, 1488-89
Unconventional Warfare in South Asia: Shadow Warriors and Counterinsurgency, by Scott Gates and Kaushik Roy; Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia through a Peacebuilding Lens, edited by Moeed Yusuf, reviewed by John H. Gill, 1490-91
Culture in Conflict: Irregular Warfare, Culture Policy, and the Marine Corps, by Paula Holmes-Eber, reviewed by Ben Connable, 1491-92
MOTION PICTURE REVIEW
The Strategy of Truth: Documentary Goes to War (1933-1945), directed by David Van Taylor, reviewed by Frank Wetta, 1493-94
BOOKS RECEIVED: 1495-1498
RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES: 1499-1507
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: 1508-1510
INDEX TO VOLUME 78: 1511-1538
