Oct 4, 2006

More Nonsense About Military History From National Review Online

by Cliopatria

Cross-posted from Blog Them Out of the Stone Age

My new amigo, John J. Miller, is still grasping at straws to defend his misinformed -- to put it kindly -- article on the demise of academic military history.

In NRO's Phi Beta Cons on September 29, he trumpets the arrival of "Reinforcements":

From a military-history professor:
Your article on the demise of military history as a discipline is right on the mark, except it doesn't go far enough. Grimsley seems blinded by the fact that Ohio State has about the only viable program at a first tier school. Duke and UNC are only shadows of their former selves. Senior military historians are not being replaced and once vibrant programs are dying or are already dead...
Much of the rest of the profession simply loathes military history and has little respect for those who toil in the field.

Note if you please the near complete lack of specifics, including even the name of the military historian who wrote this drivel. The sole exception is the mention of the Duke-UNC program, and here the anonymous military historian is dead wrong.

Duke and UNC are only shadows of their former selves.

What's this guy been smoking?

The UNC military history web site notes the existence of a collaborative military history program with Duke and lists the names of SIXTEEN faculty members who are either full-time military historians (six) or historians with an interest in specific wars (e.g., the War for American Independence and the American Civil War) or military affairs more broadly.

See for yourself.

More Comments:

Bill Heuisler - 7/19/2004

Mr. Gomez-Sjoberg,
During my enlistment I was technically AWOL four or five times - returning late from 72-hour liberties in Virginia Beach, waking up in a TJ lockup six hours after reville and other punishable offenses. Captain's Masts were the result; each was on my page 12. Still are in the records archives in Augusta Georgia. My honorable discharge hangs on the wall, but when I decide to run for Congress or Governor of Texas my disciplinary records can be accessed by any person with FOI, Service connections, or any Law Enforcement authority.

Which leads to unavoidable conclusions:
1) AWOL is a specific charge used for regular service and has little relevance to a committment entailing attending and making-up meetings and filling week-end duty rosters.
2) Disciplinary actions in Armed Services are accessible to Police Departments' personnel offices for obvious reasons. Any person rushing to assume AWOL should have a piece of paper in his hot little hand. That records clerk should know better. He probably does, but needs to vent.
Bill Heuisler