Michael Howard (historian)

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Sir Michael Eliot Howard , OM , CH , CBE , MC , FBA (born November 29, 1922 in Ashmore near Salisbury , † November 30, 2019 ) was a British officer and leading military historian . He was instrumental in pioneering strategic studies in the UK .

Life

Howard attended Wellington College in Berkshire and studied from 1943 at Christ Church at the University of Oxford . During the Second World War he had to interrupt his history studies and was called up for military service in Europe. He was employed as a member of the Coldstream Guards in the Italian campaign , where he was wounded several times and for which he was later awarded the Military Cross . He reached the rank of captain in the British Army .

After demobilization he was able to continue his studies ( BA 1946 and MA 1948). In 1947 he became an Assistant Lecturer in History in the Department of History at King's College London . In 1950 he became a Lecturer, then Reader and Professor of War Studies . It was there that he co-founded the Department of War Studies (head from 1962 to 1968) and the Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives . In 1966 he held the Lees Knowles Lectures at the University of Cambridge (subject: “Conduct of British Strategy in the 2nd World War”) and in 1967 the Harmon Memorial Lectures in Military History at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado (subject : "Strategy and Policy in Twentieth-Century Warfare"). In 1968 he became a Fellow in Higher Defense Studies at All Souls College, University of Oxford. From 1977 to 1980 he was Chichele Professor of the History of War there and then moved to Oriel College as Regius Professor of History in 1980 . In 1985 he gave the Huizinga Lecture at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands (subject: "1945: End of an Era?"). From 1989 to 1993 he was the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1996 he was the Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor at Singapore National University .

He was co-founder and President Emeritus of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. He was also vice president of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defense and Disarmement (CCADD) , which he co-founded in 1963, and was president of the Army Records Society . He was also a trustee of the Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives. Howard served on the Advisory Editorial Board of War in History .

Howard maintained close contacts in politics through his origins and his scientific work. For example, he was closely associated with the Labor Party , but also acted as an advisor to the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .

In 2014, the Sir Michael Howard Center for the History of War was established at King's College London .

Since 2006 he lived in a registered partnership . Howard died in November 2019, the day after his 97th birthday.

plant

Howard incorporated military history into the social and political environment, extending it beyond the study of individual battles and campaigns. He is considered one of the leading Clausewitz researchers, so he translated the main work of Carl von Clausewitz and wrote his biography. One of his main works was a study of the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71).

In addition, he wore u. a. on the History of the Second World War (official history) and on The New Cambridge Modern History .

Awards

Awards and grants

Orders and decorations

Honorary doctorates

Honorary memberships

Memberships

Fonts (selection)

  • The Franco-Prussian War. The German Invasion of France . 2nd edition, Routledge, London a. a. 2001, ISBN 0-415-26671-8 .
  • The war in European history. From the Middle Ages to the new wars of the present (= Beck'sche series . 233). Translated from English [War in European History] by Karl Heinz Siber, 2nd updated and expanded edition, CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60633-5 .
  • Clausewitz. A Very Short Introduction (= Very short introductions . 61). Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 2002, ISBN 0-19-280257-7 .
  • The invention of peace. About war and the order of the world . Translated from English [The Invention of Peace] by Michael Haupt, Zu Klampen, Lüneburg 2001, ISBN 3-924245-98-3 .
  • Brief history of the First World War . Translated from English [The First World War] by Helmut Reuter, Piper, München a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-492-04588-X .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sir Michael Howard, distinguished historian, dies aged 97 The Guardian, November 30, 2019, accessed December 1, 2019
  2. ↑ David Curtis Skaggs: Michael Howard and the Dimensions of Military History . In: Military Affairs 49 (1985) 4, pp. 179-183.
  3. ↑ CBE for Principal , News Archive 2002 (King's College London), June 17, 2002.
personal data
SURNAME Howard, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Howard, Michael Eliot (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer and military historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Ashmore at Salisbury
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 2019