H-War, a member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online. H-WAR encourages scholarly discussion of world military history and makes available diverse bibliographical, research and teaching aids.
Comments
Thanks for the link. I should note that H-War was founded in 1995, and so has been discussing military history for over 20 years. We have an active book review program, a regular digest of military history, and quality discussions of a range of historical events and issues. Everyone's welcome.
Happy 4th!
David Silbey
H-War List Editor
The trend to make war a subject of the Humanities is at best controversial.
I attempted to access the site to leave a comment and its too much in the rough yet. But I acknowledge its potential.
They have a discussion on the Civil War and the role of CSA Guerrillas, I did not note a reference to Union Guerrillas in border regions.
It seemed to be based on a book Thunderbolt, Wizard and ? Which had some interesting notes in the appendix, Mosby's Rules being a good short list of how to wage a partisan war.
What I find lacking in Southern accounts of General Custer's response to his men being shot by guerrillas and hangings in response. (The people of Bangladesh last week experienced a similar event after hanging a Taliban leader convicted of war crimes specifically genocide, resulting in a response of murder and terrorism.). What some historians ("Lost Cause"?) gloss over is that Mosby's men would don union uniforms and ride up on unsuspecting union soldiers and officers and basically assassinate them. Under the articles of war if caught in uniform they could be hung, yet in account after account the issue was never broached. The same historians will often spend pages describing union excesses but never make account of slaves, when detailing "property", in many of those accounts it is as if the slaves were simply invisible. And seldom when these historians emphasize union excess in "confiscating" CSA war material to include food and other goods ignore or minimize the fact Rebel soldiers were capable committing abuses of the southern population born of need.
The problem with socializing war under the banner of the humanities is it is a lot of smoke and mirrors.
The Humanities are not a science.
It seems like a bold attempt to reform the discussion, On War, for some insidious political purpose serving an "anti-war" agenda. Actually the site should be studied as a good example of some of the causes ending the Roman Empire.