Academe (well, some at Yale at least)embraces Richard Sharpe: For many years historians studied the “great men”..Wellington and on. More recently analysis of the “common people” came into vogue. The new focus is on the middle ground…the people who actually make things happen. For example, the mid-level air force bureaucrats and test pilots who put the Merlin engine in the P-51 and arguably won the air war in l943 and 44. In this approach the Sharpe/Wellington sagas are cited as prime examples. Sharpe represents the crucial, and often unstudied and unappreciated link between the grand strategies and the grunts…the Saving Private Ryan stuff. Somewhere on this site there is a tribute to the way historical fiction leads one to reading the “real stuff.” With Sharpe you have gone one better and pointed the way toward a whole new way of looking at history. The lead in all of this is coming from Professor Paul Kennedy at Yale. In any case, thank you for the many hours of entertainment and education you have provided me!
Terry Holcombe