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War has been a central feature of human history and requires study by historians from many different vantage points - from economic history to cultural history, from international history to the history of science and technology.

In the 1960s the distinguished historian Sir Michael Howard had a vision for a new kind of history of war; it would be studied in all its complexity and seek also to examine how the history of war affected history in general. The Sir Michael Howard Centre promotes the scholarly history of war in all its dimensions, trains research students and hosts research projects and conferences. We explore the history of war from the ancient world to the recent past, dealing not just with the history of armed services but also all involved in warfare. 

The contemporary policy relevance of historical sources, methods, and expertise is also reflected across the social sciences, in law and in other disciplines. The Centre foregrounds this applied dimension in its attention to the practicalities of documenting war as well as the analytical challenges of understanding it.

The Centre builds on existing strengths such as the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, the Hobson Library and Archive at the UK Defence Academy and a number of successful research sub-groups, such as the Second World War Research Group. At its heart is a resident community of over fifty nationally and internationally recognised scholars. They are authorities in military, naval, imperial and international history and related fields based in the Departments of War Studies, Defence Studies, History and indeed many others, for example the English Department.

Publications

Members of the Centre have written prize winning and best selling books.

  • Richard Vinen’s National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945-1963 (Allen Lane, 2014) won the 2015 Wolfson Prize for History
  • Andrew Stewart’s First Victory: The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign (Yale University Press, 2016) was runner up for the Templer Medal Book Prize.
  • Nick Lloyd’s Passchendaele: A New History (Penguin, 2017) was on the Sunday Times UK bestseller list.

Members of the Centre participate in national and international research projects.

  • Dr Jonathan Fennell and Prof Joe Maiolo have been awarded funding to launch the General Anders Research Fellowship in Anglo-Polish History, a three-year postdoctoral fellowship within the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War.
  • Ashley Jackson and Jean Smith collaborate on a Leverhulme Trust funded project, ‘Empire in Motion: Conflict and Co-Operation during the Second World War’.
  • Helen McCartney works on an AHRC funded project, ‘Our Place in the First World War’; and Lara Feigel is involved with an ERC funded project, 'Beyond enemy lines literature and film in the British and American zones of occupied Germany, 1945-1949'.

Research Centres

Stack of untidy papers
Conflict Records Unit

The Conflict Records Unit will promote the development, use and understanding of conflict records.

First world war trench
First World War Research Group

The First World War Research Group brings together a wealth of expertise on military, diplomatic, social, and cultural aspects of the conflict.

Laughton naval unit logo
Laughton Naval Unit

The Laughton Unit educates and researches in the field of naval history and maritime strategy to support and shape the evolution of naval history as a tool across a broad spectrum of disciplines and debates in the world around us.

The Blitz image
Second World War Research Group

The Second World War Research Group aims to promote innovative research on the conflict and its global aspects and act as a forum for bringing together new perspectives as well as encouraging collaboration across the scholarly community through conferences, seminars and other events.

Black and white image of soldiers on parade
Occupation Studies Research Network

The Occupation Studies Research Network promotes the exchange of ideas and sharing of information among the international community of scholars actively researching military occupation as a form of alien rule and as a dynamic power relationship between occupiers and occupied. The joint convenors of the Network are Dr Christopher Knowles, Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and Dr Camilo Erlichman, Assistant Professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Publications

Members of the Centre have written prize winning and best selling books.

  • Richard Vinen’s National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945-1963 (Allen Lane, 2014) won the 2015 Wolfson Prize for History
  • Andrew Stewart’s First Victory: The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign (Yale University Press, 2016) was runner up for the Templer Medal Book Prize.
  • Nick Lloyd’s Passchendaele: A New History (Penguin, 2017) was on the Sunday Times UK bestseller list.

Members of the Centre participate in national and international research projects.

  • Dr Jonathan Fennell and Prof Joe Maiolo have been awarded funding to launch the General Anders Research Fellowship in Anglo-Polish History, a three-year postdoctoral fellowship within the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War.
  • Ashley Jackson and Jean Smith collaborate on a Leverhulme Trust funded project, ‘Empire in Motion: Conflict and Co-Operation during the Second World War’.
  • Helen McCartney works on an AHRC funded project, ‘Our Place in the First World War’; and Lara Feigel is involved with an ERC funded project, 'Beyond enemy lines literature and film in the British and American zones of occupied Germany, 1945-1949'.

Research Centres

Stack of untidy papers
Conflict Records Unit

The Conflict Records Unit will promote the development, use and understanding of conflict records.

First world war trench
First World War Research Group

The First World War Research Group brings together a wealth of expertise on military, diplomatic, social, and cultural aspects of the conflict.

Laughton naval unit logo
Laughton Naval Unit

The Laughton Unit educates and researches in the field of naval history and maritime strategy to support and shape the evolution of naval history as a tool across a broad spectrum of disciplines and debates in the world around us.

The Blitz image
Second World War Research Group

The Second World War Research Group aims to promote innovative research on the conflict and its global aspects and act as a forum for bringing together new perspectives as well as encouraging collaboration across the scholarly community through conferences, seminars and other events.

Black and white image of soldiers on parade
Occupation Studies Research Network

The Occupation Studies Research Network promotes the exchange of ideas and sharing of information among the international community of scholars actively researching military occupation as a form of alien rule and as a dynamic power relationship between occupiers and occupied. The joint convenors of the Network are Dr Christopher Knowles, Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and Dr Camilo Erlichman, Assistant Professor at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

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To contact the SMH Conflict Records Unit email cru@kcl.ac.uk 

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