ABSTRACT
This chapter’s main goal is to map and survey the researchers, facilities and methods in the field of defence history in the French case. As we will explain it, that there is no direct French equivalent to defence and war studies as understood in the UK. In fact, this is the reason why this project adopts a pluridisciplinary approach, highlighting the different ways of thinking and studying defence and war in France through a historical lens. This contribution is a global mapping of different methods used in the field of Military History, with a direct methodological application concerning archives of soldiers, enabling them to document their fighting experiences in the most recent conflicts (Afghanistan, Mali). Thus, the chapter explores a case study which will focus on the author’s own project of “collecting the men and women’s fighting experiences in the 20th and 21st Centuries’ conflicts”.
