Chronicles of Arms: About

Is man a fighting animal? The doves among us like to think not. Perhaps in his far ancient past, man was not a fighter moreso than a hunter and survivor (check on hunter-gatherer, pre-civ fighting). As man emerged from the caves and built settlements however, war has been a defining, if not the most defining aspect of his character. The progress we would like to think we have made- the advancement in technology and the standards of living, and in the way we treat each other, has gone hand in hand with events on the battlefield. They are inseparable. It is as Sir Edward Creasy says in his seminal classic, 15 Decisive Battles of the World:

There are also some battles which also claim our attention, independently of the moral worth of the combatants, on account of their enduring importance, and by reason of the practical influence on our own social and political condition, which we can trace up to the results of those engagements. They have for us an abiding and actual interest, both while we investigate the chain of causes and effects by which they have helped to make us what we are, and also while we speculate on what we probably should have been, if any one of these battles had come to a different termination.

Like the Hindu god Shiva, modern man holds and is defined by the simultaneous exercise of the powers of creation and destruction.

Shiva, with destructive fire in the left hand and creative music in the right.

It was this knowledge, and the admiration that resonates when we think of the bravery of the soldiers charged and trusted with our defense and their commanders that lead them into battle, that led me to begin studying military history about ten years ago. The topic is at once both inspiring and jarring, and can take the student, however remotely, out of his comfortable life, letting him reflect on how it was possible for him to be where he is, for he is utterly dependent on the outcome of the actions of armed combatants.

This blog is meant to both educate and serve as an avenue for me to become more educated on the Chronicles of Arms, which has been an integral part of my life.