A haunting past: British defence, historical narratives, and the politics of presentism

Abstract

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.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 The First World War came second with 43 percent.

2 The Army Heritage Strategy states that ‘Heritage is displayed in its most visible form in many formal and informal ways including, but not exclusively: music; ceremonial and public activity; individual and collective traditions, actions and behaviour, institutions like RMAS (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst); museums; homecoming parades and regional engagement activities’.

3 Lord Roberts was appointed to the NAM’s council in 2020.

4 Such official histories post-1945 have included the Korean War, the Falklands, the D-Notice system for relations with the press, the Joint Intelligence Committee, the nuclear deterrent, and defence economic intelligence (Hoskins and Ford 2017; Newson 2015; Whitehall Histories website).

5 For an insider’s account, see Anderson 2015.

6 The Changing of the Guard was published by Scribe instead in 2021.

7 On 6 September 2023, the UK House of Commons passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill, which will stop new prosecutions and inquests being opened into killings on all sides of the conflict.

8 The inquiry’s terms of reference were published in December 2022 (see Ministry of Defence 2022).

9 This report—‘Protecting those who protect us: Women in the Armed Forces from Recruitment to Civilian Life’—was published on 25 July 2021. https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/343/defence-subcommittee/news/156892/report-protecting-those-who-protect-us-women-in-the-armed-forces-from-recruitment-to-civilian-life/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Morgan-Owen

David Morgan-Owen is a Reader in the History of War at King’s College London. He is author of The Fear of Invasion: Strategy, Politics, and British War Planning, 1880-1914 (OUP, 2017), and has written widely on the history of war and strategy.

Aimée Fox

Aimée Fox is a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. She is the author of Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Huw Bennett

Huw Bennett is a Reader in International Relations at Cardiff University. He is the author of Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency (2012), and Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975 (2023), both published by Cambridge University Press.