>resolutely failed to learn the obvious lessons of the American Civil
>War. Or the Boer War. Or the Russo-Japanese War. Or, indeed, any
>armed conflict in which rapid-fire weapons were employed, up to and
>including most of the Great War itself.

I once took a course on the the the military history of World War I that, on the first day of class, began with the Battle of Petersburg. My professor was absolutely adamant that we couldn't properly contextualize it without that.

Your academical writing style reminds me a lot of my own. (I intend that as a compliment, although you may not receive it as one.) It also reminds me a little of David Halberstam. (Again: compliment.) You eschew a carefully neutral, high-minded professorial tone for a more conversational, engaged one, addressing the reader directly as if speaking to them in a lecture hall or, indeed, across a table in a comfortable pub. But at the same time, you avoid coming off as a raging polemicist. It's personal without being sloppy, which is a real hard balance to strike.

(I should note that I have no inherent problems with either a studiously neutral form of writing or raging polemics. Both have their place.)

For a man who professes not to have a lot of patience with serious literary types, Ben, you sure do write like one when the need arises. :)

-Merc
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