So, I realized belatedly that a major portion of my thesis is tackling a more or less unspoken assumption among many American military historians that centralization of power was both inevitable and desirable; it's one of the gross assumptions that much of the criticism of the militia comes from.

Is there a name or historiographical category that expresses this view, or is it just good old fashioned Whiggishness?

Any other fans of Giambattista Vico's New Science on here? Wondering what you guys think of his style, specifically how he organizes his work into logical parts.

On the philosophy of history/history in the academy: I think it is strange to give preference to written documents over oral history because of the belief that memory is infallible. Many of the primary documents, such as journals or reports, are simply recounting of events that were written down- sometimes long after the event.