Thursday 11 May, 17.15
Pichette Theatre, Pembroke College, Oxford, OX1 1DW
A wine reception will follow - All welcome, no booking necessary
CCW Annual Lecture: Peace is poor reading: The Postwar Army Experience
Professor Brian McAllister Linn, CCW and Texas A&M University
Thomas Hardy’s warning that “War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading” has guided the research agenda of historians, military personnel, and security studies scholars for over a century. In most analyses, postwar armies are of interest only as prologues to the next conflict or shift in national security policy. Yet viewed from a perspective stretching over a century, postwar armies exhibit distinct commonalities that are as apparent today as a century ago. These commonalties include how the perceived lessons of the last war influenced doctrinal, organizational, and materiel change. But they are also evident in such recurring challenges as enlisted recruitment and retention, officer professionalization, skeletonized tactical units, civil-military relations, and internal rivalries. By examining the postwar force as a distinct military entity, it is possible to not only arrive at a better understanding of history but a better appreciation of today’s forces.
Professor Linn is the Ralph R. Thomas Professor in Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He was born in the Territory of Hawaii and completed his graduate work at The Ohio State University. He is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and an Olin Fellowship at Yale University. He has been a visiting professor at the Army War College and a Fulbright Fellow at the National University of Singapore and the University of Birmingham. He is the past president of the Society for Military History and has given numerous papers and lectures in the United States and internationally. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at CCW.
