The latest edition of the BJMH appeared on 28th September. It is a Special Issue in honour of the late Sir Michael Howard.
EDITORIAL*
We are delighted to present this Special Issue, edited by James Kitchen and Stuart
Mitchell in honour of the late Sir Michael Howard.
Sir Michael’s own studies were disrupted by war, serving with the Coldstream Guards
in the Italian theatre during the Second World War before returning to complete his
studies at Oxford. As Kitchen and Mitchell note, Howard’s experience of war was
formative in shaping him as a historian and this personal understanding of the
experience of war clearly informed the history that he later produced. As detailed by
the authors in this volume, Howard’s academic and institutional contributions were
many, but what bears repeating was Howard’s role in establishing the credibility of
military history as an academic discipline.
Finally, we are pleased to say that Howard was a key supporter when the BJMH was
first proposed, noting that the ‘birth of the British Journal for Military History will be as
welcome as it is long overdue’. This, perhaps, reflected his insistence that military
history must engage with broad debates on the study of war and involve the widest
range of authors: academic, military and ‘amateur’. We feel that he would be pleased
that the BJMH not only does this, interpreting military history in the widest possible
sense and publishing scholarly articles from authors of all backgrounds, but also
engages with an audience far beyond academia.
RICHARD S. GRAYSON & ERICA WALD
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK