ABSTRACT
The “new military history” is no longer new. A shift away from the “drum and trumpet” approach began as early as the 1960s. The discipline now integrates diverse methodologies and is more conversant with fields like social, cultural, political, and economic history. Military historians have begun to appreciate how geography, demography, race, and gender impact the armed forces about which they write. They have increasingly equipped themselves with the intellectual tools required to assess the impact of war on society and, conversely, a society’s role in determining how a nation prepares for and wages war. Modern narratives incorporate the stories of the individuals who fought for their hearth and home, for their small tribe or large nation-state, for territory or access to resources, or for abstract ideals, such as patriotism and nationalism. Combat history, an emergent subfield of the new military history, places primacy on the soldier’s experience.
