Two posts ago I asked, a bit flippantly, when did Military History go out of fashion? I then received loads of great, entirely serious comments debating this, particularly in reference to the teaching of it in schools on both sides of the Atlantic and the influence of ‘political correctness’ and the rise in social history.
Now I was sitting reading this at Historicon surrounded by huge numbers of amateur and professional historians, all with encyclopaedic knowledge of their particular period(s). All of them overflowing with enthusiasm and commitment. And it didn’t feel out of fashion at all. So when I got back here I started to look again at the subject.
Now while commentators both on the original post here and elsewhere have already hammered the academic establishment I was struck by something much more heartening. There is, and my experience at Historicon bore this out, a vibrant Military History community discussing the subject with intellectual rigour and great enthusiasm, recognising that war is a bloody business but recognising as well the lessons it teaches. The latest exponents of this are blogging and podcasting on diverse topics, making me think that it hasn’t really gone out of fashion at all.
Anyway here are just some of the ones I picked up on. If you know of anymore why not drop them in so we can all share them.
http://militaryhistorypodcast.blogspot.com/ - George Hageman. 15 years old and bringing you “the strangest anecdotes, most innovative technology, and most significant events in Military History."
http://airminded.org/2007/03/18/state-of-the-military-historioblogosphere-march-2007/ - state of military history blogging.
http://www.battlefieldbiker.com/home - “a fortysomething guy who loves military history and riding motorcycles.”
http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/ - "Failing better at understanding the past."
http://warhistorian.org/wordpress/ - "Blog Them Out of the Stone Age is the finest example of the application of a historian's passion and tradecraft in the new medium of blogging. It combines research, analysis and pedagogy issues with a keen desire to engage with the broader public." -- from the Cliopatria Award Citation."