I got a chance to look through my recently arrived copy of John Keegan’s book and I am already enjoying it. Some interesting comments just in his introduction alone he writes, “Had the battle [Bull Run] gone the other way, as it might so easily have done, the war might have been concluded more quickly and at a much lower cost both to North and South.” An interesting comment that I am not sure I agree with. But nonetheless, a great book thus far. For instance, Chapter One, Mr. Keegan starts off by discussing, of all things, American Exceptionalism! What, has he not been informed by some bloggers that there is no such thing?
Anyway, Keegan starts off by declaring, “America is different.” Gasp. Exasperation. Is this master historian an idiot or what? He is for sure not as smart as a lot of the bloggers in the historiosphere.
[Continued Part II]
So I get the response that something that is “different” is not necessarily Exceptional and of course. We’re all different. I left that there hanging expecting someone to hammer that point. Keegan himself continues stating, plainly, “Today American ‘exceptionalism’… is less exceptional than it was…” and I would have to agree. Since the1930s the character of America has slowly changed. We have devalued character, honor, virtue, and honesty to the point where we have become less exceptional. Remember, the Founders absolutely understood the importance of things like virtue in a Republic.We have lost that.
[Continued Part III]
John Keegan will always remain one of my favorite military historians, and indeed I start off with this caveat as I am sadly seeing the end of a career perhaps. This book which I started off enjoying soon turned south. Keegan never gets going in this book, his chapters on the “Military Geography” of the war and on “The Life of the Soldier” are sadly deficient and error prone. Keegan lists one source for his Soldier chapter, and that is Bell Irvin Wiley, and not both of his volumes, but only “Life of Billy Yank.”
Unfortunately this book is such a huge disappointment I doubt I will be able to finish it for some time. I simply do not know what Keegan, his handlers, agent and the publisher Knopf were thinking!?
I don’t think that the decline in our values began in the 1930′s. Americans showed massive civic virtue during World War II. I think our immense prosperity in the postwar era undermined our values. We also acquired massive expectations that can never be met. In addition, the 1960′s brought much-needed change but also undermined the concept of duty. We suddenly had a mass of rights but no obligations. Now, our national life is based on money, consumption and entertainment. The government, right or left, can do whatever bad things it wants so long as people have those three elements.