There is this author, Myke Cole, who wrote Science Fiction and Fantasy but also had published one military history book when I stopped reading him (think he's up to two now). His military history book is about examining why the phalanx formation dominated ancient combat for so long and why/how the Roman Legions surpassed it. I never got around to reading that one, but I had read his Fantasy and SciFi stuff.
Anyway, this author was a big presence in the SFF author Twitter community until like July 2020. He was a funny, charismatic dude, always cracking jokes with fellow authors, and he made a big show about being woke. One of his things was debunking the Spartan myth. He made a lot of being a Coast Guard officer, which in retrospect should have been a red flag, but he was always dunking on navy policy whenever they were doing something stupid. He was always up in arms about racial injustices and anti-LGBT bigotry and he made this concerted effort to seem all right. Then it came out that he was a serial harasser of women. His entire public persona was a smoke show. Last I'd heard he stopped publishing SFF stuff, but he's still publishing Military History and I think he works in TV or something.
Anyway, that's my only personal knowledge of anyone who works in Military History in any respect, but it's not a flattering impression of the field.
speaking as a member of the field, military historians are as a rule the dumbest, chuddiest historians
David Glantz is pretty cool
glantz is the historian who has done the most to redeeming the image of the rkka, but a former us army colonel isnt exactly a conrad
You can like a historian's work while not agreeing with their personal politics or background
There is this author, Myke Cole, who wrote Science Fiction and Fantasy but also had published one military history book when I stopped reading him (think he's up to two now). His military history book is about examining why the phalanx formation dominated ancient combat for so long and why/how the Roman Legions surpassed it. I never got around to reading that one, but I had read his Fantasy and SciFi stuff.
Anyway, this author was a big presence in the SFF author Twitter community until like July 2020. He was a funny, charismatic dude, always cracking jokes with fellow authors, and he made a big show about being woke. One of his things was debunking the Spartan myth. He made a lot of being a Coast Guard officer, which in retrospect should have been a red flag, but he was always dunking on navy policy whenever they were doing something stupid. He was always up in arms about racial injustices and anti-LGBT bigotry and he made this concerted effort to seem all right. Then it came out that he was a serial harasser of women. His entire public persona was a smoke show. Last I'd heard he stopped publishing SFF stuff, but he's still publishing Military History and I think he works in TV or something.
Anyway, that's my only personal knowledge of anyone who works in Military History in any respect, but it's not a flattering impression of the field.
I took history classes in college and strongly agree w/ this take