Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

154 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
and wrong. 80 Second, over two decades have passed since richard e. Neustadt and
ernest r. May published their important Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for
Decision Makers. It is time to update that classic with lessons for the 21st century.
Let me end by returning to Mazlish’s statement that “In short, we are
really attempting to set up a new branch of comparative history: the study of
comparative or analogous social inventions and their impact on society.” Judged
by this goal, did he succeed? after all, there is no school of history analogy. But
perhaps his words should be thought of as another way of describing the history
of technology and of urging historians to expand their theoretical tool chests.
80. For a sense of the extensive military programs and their challenges, see pat harahan and Jim
Davis, “historians and the american Military: past experiences and Future expectations,”
Public Historian 5, 3 (Summer 1983): 55-64; richard h. Kohn, “the practice of Military
history in the U.S. Government: the Department of Defense,” Journal of Military History
61, 1 (January 1997): 121-147. For specifc applications of history, see andrew J. Bacevich,
preserving the well-bred horse,” The National Interest (September 22, 1994): 43-49; Conrad
C. Crane, Avoiding Vietnam: The U.S. Army’s Response to Defeat in Southeast Asia (Carlisle, pa:
army War College, 2002); Brian Mcallister Linn, The Echo of Battle. The Army’s Way of War
(Cambridge, Ma: harvard University press, 2007).