The Manchester Tactical Society: Gaming in Nineteenth-Century Britain
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1969.tb00640.x |
| Author | Robert Boardman |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
226
NOTES AND REVIEW ARTICLES
authors. Some of these propositions are qualified, some are reconcilable; but if the editor leaves
the job to the reader, he should not be surprised if the main conclusion the latter draws is that
economists can eat their cake and have it.
Messrs. Benewick and Dowse offer excellent value; many of the articles they reprint (originat-
ing between
1950
and
1964,
and all still interesting) are ones to which pupils are frequently sent
-for instance Finer
on
Ministerial responsibility, Heasman on the Prime Minister and the
Cabinet, Hanson and Wiseman on committees-and none are makeweight. Professor Robson’s
collection is uneven, and gets in parts near the bottom of the barrel.
Essays
on
Reform
is what
might be expected of thirteen knowledgeable articles averaging seventeen pages: the reader will
learn little where he knows much, and
a
respectable amount where he knows little. Most helpful,
therefore, tolist thecontents-The
1867
‘Essays’
(H.
L.
Beales); Secrecy in Government (J. A. G.
Griffith); The Universities (Peter Laslett); Higher Education (Lord Annan); Secondary Educa-
tion (W.
H.
G.
Armytage); The Civil Service (W. J. M. Mackenzie); Local Government
(W.
A.
Robson); Town Planning (Peter Self); State Patronage of the Arts (Richard Hoggart); The
Legal
Profession (Michael Zander); Economic Reform (M.
V.
Posner); two articles on Parlia-
ment (Samuel
H.
Beer and the editor). Asked to describe and prescribe, the contributors have
obeyed in varying proportions. That on their proposals depends ‘Britain’s continuance as a
worthy place in which a good life can be led’ must surely be editorial whimsy. The omission of
trade unions and the social services is apologized for; that the omission of primary education, in
a collection said to concentrate
on
education and Parliament as the areas of reforms likely to
be
‘of the greatest beneficial consequences elsewhere and indirectly as well as directly’, is made in
silence seems to this reviewer both symptomatic and sad.
THE MANCHESTER TACTICAL SOCIETY:
BRITAIN1
GAMING
IN
NINETEENTH-CENTURY
ROBERT BOARDMAN
University
of
Surrey
IT
is unfortunate that in their article ‘Gaming and Simulation in International Relations’,z
Messrs. Banks, Groom and Oppenheim made
no
attempt to counter the hostility of those who
do see these tools as ‘dangerous, esoteric, pompous, behaviouralist and American’. Far from
being the ungainly offspring of American
empressement
and German and Japanese military
fanaticism, the study of simulation and gaming techniques has
a
long history in British uni-
versities, going back at least to the
1880s.
As
a
postgraduate at Merton College, Henry Spenser Wilkinson formed the Oxford
Kriegs-
spiel
club as early as
1875.
The motivation was more than a fascination with military tactics.
The Quakers’ moral stance of refusing to countenance involvement in preparation for war,
coupled with the widely publicized speeches
of
John Bright and others, had added a new dimen-
sion to the perennial issue of the avoidability of international strife. These ideas clashed with
Wilkinson’s own conclusions. The strength of the British Army, officers’ ignorance of contem-
porary theory, and the inadequacy of the literature available, compared very unfavourably with
the situation which, from a cursory acquaintance with Austrian military texts, he knew to
pertain in the rest of Europe.
I
am grateful to Michael Elliott-Bateman, University of Manchester,
for
help in the
Political Studies,
Vol.
XVI, No.
1
(February
1968),
pp.
1-17.
preparation of this Note.
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