The New Military History
The Making of the Modern World
Rob Johnson
The Face of Battle
‘Since we appear to know a great deal more about generalship than we do about how and why ordinary soldiers fight, a diversion of historical effort from the rear to the front of the battlefield would seem considerably overdue. All the more does it seem desirable in the light of what little reliable information we do have about what goes on at the place soldiers call “the sharp end”.’ John Keegan, The Face of Battle, (London, 1976).
1970s/80s growth of new military histories – social and individual experience
… Challenged the orthodox military history: generals’ perspective, unit designations, weapons, and map movements
US Army Historical Teams• Post-1945 advocacy of small group tactics as most
efficient fighting level; interest in unit cohesion
• Marshall, Men against Fire (1947): ‘In an average experienced infantry company in an average day's action, the number engaging with any and all weapons was approximately 15 per cent of the total strength. In the most aggressive companies, under the most intense local pressure, the figure rarely rose above 25 percent of the total strength from the opening to the close of the action.’
• Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers (1997): thesis that US conscript troops more democratic than totalitarian troops (politicisation); inspiration for Spielberg’s ‘new realism’.
Popular Cultural Representations
This shift is mirrored in:• Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg,
1998), with 20-minute Omaha beach scene
• Band of Brothers (HBO, 2001)Use of handheld cameras
for point-of-view shots; camera shake for authenticity
Heightened levels of gore (cf more sanitised The Longest Day, 1962)
• Medal of Honor (2002, Electronic Arts): ‘first-person shooter’ use virtual reality to recreate a safe substitute experience of battlefield.
Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998)
Medal of Honor (2002)
Popular Representations of War
Re-enactors Militaria Collectors
War gamers
Portrayal: War Art
Napoleon at the St Bernard Pass, 1801, Jacques-Louis David
‘Stonewall’ Jackson Memorial, Manassas, Virginia
The Thin Red Line at Balaclava, by Caton Woodville
Menin Road, IWM, Paul Nash
Otto Dix Otto Dix
C.R.W. Nevinson, Machine Gun
Soldiers as Natural Born Killers?• Human nature versus environmental factors• Brutalising effects of warfare; Bartov’s study of German
troops on eastern front• ‘Numbness of killing’ (Lifton) aided by distancing from
killing by focus on weapons technology• Male psychology of latent aggression manipulated by
training regimes (Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing, 1999).
Massacre in Warfare• Irregular warfare & counter-insurgency:
large part of 20th-century wars Examples: Ukraine, 1941-44; Algerian
War, 1954-62; Vietnam & Iraq)Controversial: Nanking, Armenia
• Civilians as ‘soft’ targets for troops seeking revenge; rural population targeted for aiding guerrillas
• Capacity to kill increased by peer group pressure, permissive hierarchy, hostile environment
• Countered by discipline, a strong legal ethos, & affinity with the local population
Victims of the My Lai massacre, south Vietnam, March 1968
Police Battalion 101 in occupied Poland, 1941
Casualties of War• Disease: biggest killer of
18/19th-century troopsCrimean War:
25,600 Anglo-French battle deaths 38,000 disease deaths
American Civil War:Ratio 1:2
• Battlefield casualties, c. 1/3 killed: 2/3 wounded; -High mortality rates after amputations
• 1944+ Combat casualties exceeded diseased in Western theatres
• Aids: the new vectorAmerican Civil War amputee
americansforsharedsacrifice.org
Casualties of War: Nuclear Potential
Military and Civilian Deaths in the Two World Wars
WWI military
WWI civilian
WWII military
WWII civilian
Nuclear predicted casualties (1958 estimates):
1st day of a nuclear exchange: USA would have suffered 42 million dead,
16th day, would rise to 83 million dead
1960s, introduction of the cobalt-coated ‘doomsday’ bombs and higher yield weapons:
the nuclear option threatened mass extinction
Shell Shock and Battle Fatigue• American Civil War:
diagnosed as ‘nostalgia’• First World War:
prolonged shelling led to nervous disorders …
• …initially diagnosed as shell concussion, but later as psychiatric breakdown
• Treatments ranged from electrotherapy and ‘talking cures’
• 1941-45, psychoactive drugs prescribed
• ‘proximity’ treatment now favoured.
Social History and New Military History
British Museum
http://www.library.miami.edu/archives/shedd/sutler.jpg
Thomas Sjoerup © /Kosovo-marts.1999
Cultural History
• Soldiers’ beliefs and military ideas
• Service life: songs, humour, routine, women, training
• Impact of garrisons and ports on civilians
• Civil-military relations – vocabulary, fashion, ideas, reforms, behaviour
• The military in idealised forms: heroes, values, icons
• The media and war• Identities: ‘place’, class
systems, gendering• Loss, memorialisation.
Sources for Experiential History
• Written sources• Conscription leads to
higher proportion of educated, literate soldiers
• Diaries• Letters home• Unit histories• Oral history
Memorialisation
Oral History Skills: Memory• Lived memory versus historical memory• Lived memory evolves over time• Repression of painful memories• Life stories: culture of narration• Body language• Historical memory: influence of the state in creating
official memory Pierre Nora, ‘lieux de mémoire’, focuses on official monumentsLynn Macdonald, Malcolm Brown, weave veterans’ remarks into a narrative history
• Gordon Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock
Memorialisation of War
War is used to reinforce existing narratives
... or create new ones
The Ossuary of Verdun
New Military History
• Broader approach to the study of war (war in history, not just military history)
• Utilises more material and techniques
• Is in danger of a lack of clarity and rigour• Is still too Euro-centric, telological, and technologically-
determinist or ‘emotional’.
