Exploring Leadership and
Legacy in History Through
Military History
Jeffrey G. Hawks
Education Director, Army Heritage Center Foundation
I
not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.” —Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does
“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”
— Oscar Wilde
f there is one area in which military history stands above
reveals the essence of humanity, not as proof of an inherently
Armies throughout time have made a priority of identifying
only the framework to understand these relationships, and
the rest of the discipline, it is in the study and teaching
of leadership. The success or failure of military ventures
rises and falls upon the shoulders of leaders, good and bad.
the characteristics of good leaders, and of attempting to
impart those qualities to their soldiers. This vast tradition has
left to posterity a rich body of writing and training materials
that provide National History Day students with outstanding
resources to address the 2015 NHD theme of Leadership and
Legacy in History.
The value of military history can be illustrated through
a Japanese pun: “Heiho wa heiho desu.” Based on the
homophone “heiho,” it can be translated as “the rules that
govern human behavior on the battlefield are the rules
that govern human behavior in society.” What the ancient
Japanese sages were telling us is that war is a microcosm
of society, and the study of war leads to an understanding
of humanity. In practical terms, military history is an
outstanding tool for teaching students.
If the goal of history education is the development of an
understanding of the processes that drive society forward,
military history provides a uniquely powerful tool. War
violent human nature, but because war lays bare the process
of history. Students need to learn the relationships between
cause, effect, action, and reaction. Dates and names provide
novice students, awash in the minutia, sometimes fail to make
these connections. Often the over-emphasis of significant
historical events included in a required curriculum fails to
present clear examples of historical processes at work.
Government actions and social change, mired in webs of
competing [