Ep7 – Deep dive: First Battle of Bull Run or Manassas

08/16/23 • 62 min

Gary interviews Spencer in a deep dive into the first Battle of Bull Run or Manassas. This was the first land engagement of the US Civil War was fought on 21 July, just 30 miles south of Washington—close enough for U.S. senators to witness the battle in person. Confederates called it the Battle of Manassas, after the closest town. Union soldiers called it Bull Run, after a stream running through the battlefield.

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Ep6 – Classic books: Paddy Griffith’s Battle Tactics of the American Civil War

Gary interviews Spencer on one of Spencer’s favourite military history books, Paddy Griffith’s Battle Tactics of the American Civil War. Published in the 1980s, this volume reappraises the events, the weapons used, the men of the novice armies, their leaders and the strategies employed in the Civil War - which was fought with a new generation of weapons and trench systems similar to those of World War I. Spencer considers how the author argues that the conditions of combat were little changed from those of earlier times and far from being the birthplace of modern battlefield tactics, the Civil War was in reality the last Napoleonic-style war. He also talks about how the book influenced him as a military historian and his thoughts on where it has flaws.

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Ep8 – Deep dive – The historiography of the Great War

In their comprehensive exploration of the historiography of the Great War from the end of the First World War up until the early 1960s, Gary and Spencer delve into the insights provided by several influential figures. Among them is David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister during the Great War, whose memoirs and writings shed light on the political decision-making and strategies employed during the war. Basil Liddel Hart, a renowned military historian and strategist and Sir James Edmonds' who wrote the official British history of World War One, based on official documents. Additionally, the works of Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser Cruttwell, Alan Clark and Cyril Falls are covered. Throughout their in-depth analysis, Gary and Spencer explore how these historians' work shaped the understanding of the Great War and influenced subsequent generations of scholars.