The Writing of Official Military History:

by Robin Higham

This book provides students, faculty, and general readers with specific information and insights into the ways in which official military history has been written and why. Coverage is international in scope. The volume serves as an introduction to two forthcoming Official Military Histories Since 1967: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India and Official Military Histories Since 1967: The Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Rim . Together, the three books will provide the only comprehensive source of information on historical offices and official histories since Robin Higham's classic book, Official Histories , was published in 1970.

Together, the three books will provide the only comprehensive source of information on historical offices and official histories since Robin Higham's classic book, Official Histories , was published in 1970.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1999

About the author

Robin David Stewart Higham was a British-American historian, specializing in aerospace and military history, who also served as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll say right off that this book was not what I was expecting, I was expecting a book about how to write military history. What I got was a series of essays about to the writing of official (i.e. government) military histories. Even though it wasn't what I was expecting I found most of it quite interesting. The essays were mostly on one of two topics. The first and too me less interesting was differences of opinion between different historians, as in Historian A says X, Historian B say Y, Historian A says Historian B is an ass, and so on. The second and more interesting type of essays dealt with the differences between the official histories of different nations regarding the same topics. Probably the most interesting of the essays was about Italian service histories. It caused me to rethink my opinions regarding the Italian war effort. Also the Italians were apparently not as enamored with Rommel as the British generally were, which isn't that surprising considering popular belief about the Italian war effort in North Africa, however according to the official South African history of the war, they did not think too highly of him either. British war histories tended to minimize Italian efforts, sometimes neglecting to mention losses attributed to Italian forces, incorrectly attributing them to German forces, or attributing them to Axis forces without a specific nationality. The British POV has become the predominate way of thinking about Rommel. While there is some interesting stuff in here, I can't really recommend it to any but the most hardcore military history fan.