Martin Van Creveld

A Tribute

I once had the good fortune to spend the better part of a semester in the company of Martin Van Creveld.  The year was 1990 (or was it 1991?) and the place was Quantico, Virginia.  Martin was a visiting professor at the recently-formed Marine Corps University.  I was teaching at the School of Advanced Warfighting, which was then in its very first year of operation.

I had long known that Martin was a scholar of the first rank.  Indeed, I already owed much of what I knew about military history to his books.  What I learned during that semester, however, was that Martin was also a European gentleman of the most genuine type, a person of character and kindness, and a teacher unfailingly attentive to the needs of his students.

All of these traits are very much in evidence in this article, which Martin wrote, nearly seven years ago, to mark his retirement from formal teaching.  (I stress the word "formal,” because, as I fully expected, Martin continues to teach, through his writings, his speeches, and, most of all, his example.)