Armchairs, Coffee, and Authority: Eye-witnesses and Flesh-witnesses Speak about War, 1100–2000

Is it necessary to understand the experience of war in order to understand war? And is it possible to understand the experience of war at second hand? This article surveys how soldiers, scholars, and the general public approached and answered these questions from the eleventh century to the twentieth century. The article thereby offers a long-term history of war-witnessing, and of the authority it carried. It argues that the Middle Ages and early modern era were dominated by the eye-witness, who drew authority from the observation of objective facts. The late modern era is dominated by the flesh-witness, who draws authority from undergoing subjective experiences.