Class offerings in military history are disappearing from college campuses across the country. An article on the issue in this week’s U.S. News includes UNC-CH professor Wayne Lee’s reaction.
Beyond war studies’ inherent value, some historians point out that it
is also one of the few humanities disciplines that actually train
real-world practitioners. Most of the officers who teach history at
West Point, for example, get their military history Ph.D.’s at civilian
institutions. “It is up to us to teach people good history,” says UNC’s
Lee, whether students are voters in an upcoming election or ROTC
members who will be serving abroad in a few years. “This is something
that history departments should offer as part of a liberal arts
education. The better educated we are historically, the less likely we
are as a country to make stupid mistakes.”
One wise man (and I say that not just because he signs my paychecks) agrees about the importance of military history.
