Why does military history generate so many myths? Is it because easily digestible myths make the subject easier to teach and study? Or because such myths help to paper over the simple but depressing fact that mankind has, since its very origins, permitted the slaughter of millions, often for the most minor of reasons? While such questions are difficult if not impossible to answer, in bringing together seven of the world’s finest military historians to dispel seven of these myths, John Hosler provides a great service in laying bare the myths’ origins. 

Contents:

Editor’s Preface

Introduction: Myths too Convenient to Fade away

1. War and the Divine: Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?

Andrew Holt

2. The Western Way of War: Battle, Imperialism, and Ethnocentrism

Everett L. Wheeler

3. The Myths of Feudalism and the Feudal Knight

Richard P.Abels

4. Military Revolutions: An Academic Party Game

John France

5. Strategic Air Power: An Elegant Idea Fallen Short

John Curatola

6. New Asymmetric Warfare: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed

William Kautt

7. Technological Determinism: Explaining Success and Failure in War

Rob Johnson

Epilogue: To Bravely Go…