War and history in world politics

This chapter begins by reflecting on war as a force which shapes knowledge about it, both in History and in International Relations (IR). It outlines distinctions between history, historicism, and historiography, pointing out that granular studies can lead to conceptual and paradigmatic change. It introduces the significance of amateur, public, and veterans’ history, looking at their role in reproducing war and at their critical potential. The chapter turns to the war and society tradition for new resources for thinking about war in IR, discussing the problems involved in putting war and society into the same analytic frame. It looks at how war experience shapes military history, and in turn at how military histories shape identities and ways of warfare in world politics. The chapter closes with the example of a white supremacist military imaginary, sustained in part through popular and military history, and shaping actual wars.