Author: Scott Manning
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Should the Hundred Years War have an apostrophe?
Melissa from Tennessee asks, “What is the standard among (medieval) military historians for naming the Hundred Years War? Should it have an apostrophe or not?” Great question, Melissa! I always leave it off. I saw one historian exclude the apostrophe and I had followed suit ever since. However, I understand why you would question the…
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Naming the American Civil War
The following was inspired by Jamel Ostwald’s question on who gets to name wars. Here are some battles with competing names from the Civil War. Using Google’s Ngram Viewer, we can get an idea of how often these phrases appear in books over the past 150 years. Antietam is a clear favorite over Sharpsburg. However,…
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If you Visited Agincourt Today…
Clifford J. Rogers believes the Battle of Agincourt (1415) is “probably the most richly documented of all medieval battles,” but nothing beats visiting the actual battlefield. Here is what you can expect if you visited Agincourt today. The people of Agincourt do not hide the fact that tourists streaming through their town are there for…
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12 War Lessons from the Movie Patton (1970)
There is no question that Patton (1970) is my favorite movie. Since I was a kid, I have seen it more times than I can count and this project took much longer than necessary, as I kept watching large chunks of the movie. Of course, the real person is much more complex than the Hollywood version…
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Martin Dempsey knows how to define war
Joint Chiefs Chair Martin Dempsey has read Clausewitz, even quoted him in speeches. He knows that when a state uses force to impose its will on an enemy, then that state is at war. Throughout the Senate Hearing on Syria earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry continually emphasized that he was not…
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Russian Interest in the Mediterranean before World War I
As many have learned recently, Russia has a naval base in Tartus, Syria. More importantly, we should understand that Russia’s interest in the Mediterranean is a tradition dating back before World War I, an interest that shaped Russia’s position in that war. When Russia was still an empire, Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917) saw the…
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“War is not some sort of hokey-cokey concept”
During the 10-hour debate in the UK Parliament over whether to use military intervention in Syria, MP Jim Sheridan from Scotland stood up and offered some wisdom. For those of you who without video or who may not understand Scottish accents: Does he agree with me that any reckless or irresponsible action could lead to…
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War is war. Stop rebranding it.
Although war has had many names over the years, never let anyone rebrand that which has had an unchanged nature throughout human history. Growing up, I recall my parents cynically tossing around the term “police action,” mocking its many uses to describe what eventually became known as the Korean War. Hundreds of thousands of troops…
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Before we go to war with Syria
I will admit that in 2003, I was young, uneducated, and easily caught up in the fervor for war with Iraq like some of our smartest (and not so smart) politicians. Clausewitz warned us that “war is no pastime; it is no mere joy in daring and winning, no place for irresponsible enthusiasts” (p. 86).…
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Forget August 1914, if you want to understand World War I
We are one year from the centennial of World War I, and by this time next year, there will be streams of articles and books on how the war started. Some believe it was “tragic and unnecessary,” others claim that the British sought a world war, and more recently, Christopher Clark theorizes that the participants…
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Bring Your Black Friends to Civil War Events
After several people recently lamented the lack of black people at Civil War events along with potential reasons why this is the case, Jimmy Price described an experience at the macro level that I have experienced on a micro level. Quite simply—black Americans, especially men, are just as interested in discussing the topic of war, especially the Civil War, like any…
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Counterinsurgency Prior to Clausewitz
We need to expand the literature and case studies we use to analyze counterinsurgency to include ancient and medieval periods. In the recent “Thinking and Writing about COIN,” John T. Fishel and Edwin G. Corr provide a great overview of counterinsurgency literature over the past century. Their point is obvious in that if we are…