TY - JOUR
T1 - A haunting past
T2 - British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism: Part of the special issue entitled Stories of world politics: between history and fiction
AU - Morgan-Owen, David
AU - Fox, Aimée
AU - Bennett, Huw
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/10/23
Y1 - 2023/10/23
N2 - This article examines historical fictions as social processes by which ideas about conflict and warfare are constructed and narrated within society. Focusing on Britain, it explores ‘truth telling’ about the past in an applied context, examining efforts to construct and sustain narratives about Britain’s military past and their role in upholding forms of political and societal consensus that underpin the development and use of military power. We offer a typology of the ways in which Western liberal states shape and mobilise historical fictions within their distinctive forms of militarism and civil-military relations: ‘Telling Stories’—curating and sustaining social understandings of military power through public displays, museums, and ceremonies; ‘Hiding Pasts’—using state power to shape academic research and to occlude aspects of the military past; and ‘Knowing War’—legitimating the state and armed forces’ claims to a monopoly of authoritative knowledge about war and security.
AB - This article examines historical fictions as social processes by which ideas about conflict and warfare are constructed and narrated within society. Focusing on Britain, it explores ‘truth telling’ about the past in an applied context, examining efforts to construct and sustain narratives about Britain’s military past and their role in upholding forms of political and societal consensus that underpin the development and use of military power. We offer a typology of the ways in which Western liberal states shape and mobilise historical fictions within their distinctive forms of militarism and civil-military relations: ‘Telling Stories’—curating and sustaining social understandings of military power through public displays, museums, and ceremonies; ‘Hiding Pasts’—using state power to shape academic research and to occlude aspects of the military past; and ‘Knowing War’—legitimating the state and armed forces’ claims to a monopoly of authoritative knowledge about war and security.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174600833&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09557571.2023.2273375
DO - 10.1080/09557571.2023.2273375
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85174600833
SN - 0955-7571
JO - Cambridge Review of International Affairs
JF - Cambridge Review of International Affairs
ER -
