The first great literary work in the Western literary canon, the Illiad, has gradually declined in its use in American university and college courses, undoubtedly because it is about the murderous sharp end of war and makes no bones about the fact that it regards its heroes as representing the height in human achievement. 

During his wilderness years in the early and mid-thirties, Churchill wrote his masterful history of Britain’s greatest general, his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough. It is probably Churchill’s finest piece of historical writing, which is saying a great deal. 

In the 1990s, as a result of the overwhelming victory that U.S. military forces and those of their allies achieved over Saddam’s army in the war over Kuwait, a number of military pundits argued that a revolution in military affairs had occurred.

In describing France’s descent from the great Napoleon Bonaparte to his nephew, who had overthrown the Second Republic and replaced it with a totted up empire, Karl Marx commented that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”In describing France’s descent from the great Napoleon Bonaparte to his nephew, who had overthrown the Second Republic and replaced it with a totted up empire, Karl Marx commented that history repeats itself...