The Last Word? Essays on Official History in the United States and British Commonwealth

Subjects:

• Military Studies » Military History
• History » World War II
• History » European History (General)

Reviews:

• Grey's interesting collection of essays conveys great appreciation for official military history in the English-speaking world. It is a revealing survey of how various nations recorded and comprehended their experiences of war in the last century. It also exemplifies two problems common to the authors's work:fidelity and policy. The official historian owes fidelity to the documents, to soldiers, to commanders, to the government, and to the public. In explaining what happened, official history suggests roads not taken, thereby contributing to policy debates. These challenges sustain tension in the field. Grey encourages official historians to manage this tension by offering work that is as preliminary as it is earnest.
  —Army History Winter 2007
• [T]he book delivers more than it promises, offering a glimpse into the subtle cultural factors that influence how nations address the art of war and illuminating the shortfalls of institutions that rely too heavily on themselves for understanding their own nature....[p]rovides a worhtwhile collection of readable and informative essays on the state of official historical writing over the course of the 20th century.
  —Joint Force Quarterly 2005
• This book represents the efforts of editor Jeffrey Grey and a distinguished group of official and ex-official military historians to bring into focus a significant but not much studied or appreciated field: official military history. Grey is to be congratulated for organizing and editing this collection. Each chapter is well done and substantially advances our knowledge and understanding of the field. All are recommended reading.
  —The Journal of Military History 2004

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction by S. F. Wise
• National Traditions
• Canadian Official Military History: The End of and Era? by S. F. Wise
• Contested Histories: Official History and the South African Military in the Twentieth Century by Ian van der Waag
• 'Something of Them Is Here Recorded': Official History in New Zealand by Ian McGibbon
• Continuity and Change in the Australian Official History Tradition by Peter Edwards
• Aspects of Official Histories of the Second World War
• Change Becomes Continuity: The Start of the U.S. Army's 'Green Book' Series by Edward J. Drea
• Gavin Long and History at the Australian War Memorial by Peter Stanley
• Exploiting Enemy Records: The Enemy Documentation Section and the Official Histories of the Second World War by Jeffrey Grey
• British Official Histories of the Air War by Christina J. M. Goulter
• Setting the Historical Agenda: Webster and Frankland and the Debate over the Strategic Bombing Offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 by Sebastian Cox
• Index