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The article explores the ethical literary criticism approach in analyzing Tennyson's patriotic war poems, focusing on the ethical chronotopes within the texts. It delves into the interplay between the author, the reader, the text, and the real world, emphasizing the fluid nature of ethical elements in literary texts. The study examines specific poems like "Riflemen Form!" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade," highlighting the ethical choices made by Tennyson in shaping the texts and the impact on readers and society. The article underscores the complexity of ethical judgments in literary works and the evolving ethical norms reflected in Tennyson's writings. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the book "Bibliographical Records" from the International Journal of Military History & Historiography, which examines Alexander Querengässer's research on military uniforms from the late Middle Ages to the First World War. Querengässer challenges idealized views of military uniforms, highlighting their diverse appearances influenced by production methods, wear and tear, civilian fashion, and climatic conditions. The book offers a historically accurate analysis of military uniforms, correcting romanticized portrayals often found in popular literature. Additionally, the article mentions the book "Guerre ed eserciti in età contemporanea," edited by Nicola Labanca, which provides a comprehensive overview of Italy's military history from the mid-19th century to the early 21st century, though it may lack in-depth analysis and primary sources for the post-1945 period. [Extracted from the article]

In the early 1960s, as the Federation of Malaysia was being established, Britain joined Southeast Asian allies in an undeclared war in Borneo against Indonesia. This struggle was waged most visibly on the borders of Malaysian Borneo, notably in the state of Sarawak, but the British military was ever mindful of the internal threat from a growing communist network. This aspect of the 1962-1966 "Confrontation" has largely gone unstudied; historiography has focused on the external conflict. While the military was not central to the campaign against internal subversion, its assessment of the problem is central to a real understanding of the campaign as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the First World War, British soldiers and civilians wrote a sizeable number of letters to one another. The military mail censorship system of the British Army remains a major obstacle to understanding the epistolary practices of soldiers. Historians and literary critics claim soldiers concealed the true nature of their wartime experiences from civilians at home, resulting in the emotional isolation of soldiers and a rift in understanding the war between soldiers and civilians. This study argues that the British epistolary history of the conflict ought to be understood for the "mundane" communication it spawned between soldiers and civilians in wartime and asserts that the mundanity found within these letter-writing exchanges was a deliberate choice made by people at war. In essence, soldiers were far more invested in negotiating fragments of their nonmilitary identities through wartime than in sharing the horrors, trauma, and disillusion of their military lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians have argued that Britain lost its early lead in developing mechanized formations in the interwar period due to financial pressures, interarm rivalry, poor tank design, and the misjudgments of tank enthusiasts. A systematic examination of armor doctrine, however, demonstrates that British approaches were coherent and innovative until 1935. Progress was derailed by the suppression of the "Tank Training" (1935) manual and the decision to mechanize the cavalry rather than expand the Royal Tank Corps. Coordination between manuals of arms of service and the field service regulations was abandoned, moreover, in favor of multiple training pamphlets. The result was the "Great Doctrine Disaster," which compounded false assumptions about tank design, tactics, and future war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Rodolphe De Koninck's experiences with geography in 1960s Singapore and beyond. De Koninck's interest in Southeast Asia led him to conduct research on agriculture in Singapore, focusing on farming areas and populations. He encountered challenges in conducting fieldwork but managed to study the local agricultural scene. De Koninck's research in Singapore and Southeast Asia led to further exploration of territorial and social issues in the region, culminating in the publication of several atlases on Singapore's territorial transformation. [Extracted from the article]

Research on the British 'fiscal-military state' has placed great emphasis on the development of a financial infrastructure and professional bureaucracy in explaining Britain's rise to superpower status in the eighteenth century. This article argues instead that, to appreciate fully the extent of the British state's involvement in warfare, historians need to acknowledge the crucial and varied roles that local office-holders played in raising manpower for the army and supporting many of its requirements. Such an emphasis allows for a more nuanced understanding of the nature of the British fiscal-military state and the relations between centre and localities. This article illuminates the impact of war at a local level by examining how local office-holders, principally justices of the peace and parish constables, found and enlisted men into the army, secured deserters, intervened in mutinies, organised quarters for soldiers and transport for the army, and assisted former and injured soldiers and soldiers' families. This work added to their burdens of office, it could jeopardise their authority and create bitter tensions within communities. Nevertheless, there was a high level of co-operation from local office-holders. The article analyses why local office-holders complied with the demands of central government and stresses their importance within the British 'fiscal-military state'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British Army during Victoria's reign has been portrayed as an institution standing awkwardly next to British society. Legal authorities and academics have used military law as an example, noting the military's "capricious" legal processes in contrast to the predictable civilian experience. Rather than understanding military legal processes though, academics tend to focus on discipline or penalties foreign to today's mind. This article draws evidence from centuries of legal development and late-nineteenth-century sources to demonstrate a far greater commonality between civilian and military legal experiences. The military's legal tradition describes, in part, the military's position as a rare example of a truly "British" institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accusation frequently levelled at official history is that it is beholden to government and this relationship limits its honesty and impartiality. One example of this is the depiction of the introduction of the convoy system in the official British history of the First World War. According to one popular narrative, this came about only because determined, far-seeing politicians overrode reactionary senior admirals. The official history offered an account more favorable to the navy and, therefore, it has been characterized as a whitewash. This article shows that while individual naval officers and the Admiralty had a voice in the production of the text, their input led to a better, more balanced product, with fewer errors and a greater sense of the complexity of the issues. This furthers the argument that official history that incorporates such voices is generally better for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1914, the British Army was organized and trained in compliance with Field Service Regulations (FSR). Douglas Haig stated that 'a steady adherence" to their 'principles," had enabled success on the Western Front. Despite its impact on the British Army from 1902, however, FSR has been widely disregarded or misrepresented, partly due to a misconceived belief that Haig embodied these principles. Haig played no part in establishing FSR and did not, from 1909, reform his command and tactical principles in line with it. If Haig had adhered to the principles he extolled in 1918, the British Army of 1916 would have been in better shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In August 1916, in the aftermath of significant defeats in the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War, the British government faced a crisis of confidence in its military power. In Mesopotamia, it was under significant pressure to reckon with its perceived poor strategic decision-making and its treatment and resourcing of British troops. The Mesopotamia Commission was established to investigate and reassure the wider public that the same mistakes would not be made again. Scholarly explorations of the commission have focused on the commission's report published in July 1917. But this neglects what came before: the construction, performance, and repercussions of the commission as it unfolded. This article undertakes a forensic archival analysis of the commission 'in process', revealing the political character of the commission—how it presented itself, the commissioner's decision-making, and the intra-imperial conflicts it aggravated during the war itself—all while operating under (and benefitting from) an expert, impartial guise. This granular approach to inquiry analysis not only contributes to new understandings of British imperial politics during the First World War but also demonstrates that, as a selective process of knowledge production, the commission's outcomes and impact went well beyond just a published report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first text discusses a book by Heese that explores the experiences of South African National Servicemen in the 1970s and 1980s. The book includes interviews with various individuals involved in National Service, providing a range of perspectives on the topic. While the book is valuable for former National Servicemen looking to revisit their memories, it is also informative for those with limited knowledge of the subject. However, the author's subjective interpretations may detract from the objectivity of the book.The second text reviews a book by de Witt that recounts his experiences during his two years of military service in the South African Defence Force. The book provides a personal and detailed account of his training and deployment to Ovamboland and Angola. It offers insights into the South African Border War and is recommended for those interested in this period of history.The third text discusses a book by Labbate that examines Italy's involvement in the Lebanese peacekeeping mission in the early 1980s. The book analyzes Italy's foreign policy in the Mediterranean and Middle East during this time and highlights the challenges of peacekeeping in a complex regional context. It is a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in Italian foreign policy and Middle Eastern studies.The fourth text reviews a collection of essays that explore the evolving Western-centric Alliance and the changing Eurasian landscape. The essays provide historical and geopolitical perspectives on China's role in international relations, the Sino-Soviet alliance, Russian-Chinese competition in Central Asia, and [Extracted from the article]

Despite their importance, the role of pikemen in battle and the mechanics of pike combat during the seventeenth century have not received proper attention. Taking English armies of the period as a case study, this article uses contemporary sources and recent research on the warfare of other periods with the goal of redressing this. It examines several seventeenth-century battles involving English armies and concludes that pikemen played a far more critical part than previously assumed. It examines the limitations of previous models used to explain how pikemen actually fought and suggests a new model, based on a close reading of the sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing significance of the Solemn League and Covenant in the century and a half following its negotiation by the parliamentary regimes of England and Scotland in 1643. The Solemn League had three careers. Until the late 1640s, it was the basis for an Anglo-Scottish alliance. But by the 1660s, Scottish Presbyterians conceived of the Solemn League's religious commitments as binding particularly in Scotland, rather than across the three Stuart kingdoms. Well into the eighteenth century, the Solemn League continued to constrain the attitudes and behaviour of large numbers of conscientious Scottish Presbyterians. In its third career, however, Scots understood the Solemn League more historically than constitutionally. They revered its seventeenth-century adherents, even as they criticised the Solemn League's terms and objectives. Though previous scholars have explored each of the Solemn League's three careers, the transitions between them are not well understood. This article reconstructs the ways in which Scots rethought the Solemn League from the late 1640s to the early 1660s, to explain how its first career gave way to its second. The article then analyses a series of mid- and late eighteenth-century debates about the Solemn League. The more historical and critical perspectives on the Solemn League associated with its third career emerged from disputes within the Church of Scotland and rivalry between its ministers and members of new dissenting Presbyterian Churches. By tracing changes in how the Solemn League was understood, therefore, the article comments on the growth of religious diversity in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Journal of Military History & Historiography features articles on various historical topics, including the security relations between America and France, military revolutions and revolutions in military affairs, Swedish maritime studies, and the role of the military in peace-making efforts. In "Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars: The 'Christian Centurion'", Ismini Pells provides a comprehensive biography of Philip Skippon, a general in the New Model Army during the British Civil Wars, exploring his values and attitudes. "The Austro-Hungarian Army and the First World War" focuses on the army's experiences and fate during the war, highlighting its lack of preparation and challenges faced. "The Iberian Exception, 1: The Peninsula during the Cold War. The Pyrenean Curtain (1943–1949)" explores the relations between the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar during the Cold War. "Nautilus to Columbia: 70 Years of the US Navy's Nuclear Submarines" is a catalog of all nuclear submarines in the US Navy, providing insights into their history and significance. "The Battle of Bangui" provides a detailed account of the events in the capital of the Central African Republic in March 2013, exploring the political and financial contexts surrounding the battle. [Extracted from the article]

The First World War (1914-18) saw the role of sport in British military and civil society closely dissected and widely discussed. Popular journalism, memoirs, novels, and poetry provided the British public with a regular diet of war stories and reportage in which athletic endeavor and organized games featured prominently. A study of this contemporary literary material sheds light on how far the image of the sporting warrior, and the association between games and combat, survived the horrors of industrialized killing between 1914 and 1918. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an assessment of the British perception of Italy's reality during the period of non-belligerence and of British political, diplomatic, and military responses from September 1939 to June 1940. It analyses the alternative options available to British political and military officials and evaluates the decisions they took during the period under consideration. It concludes that British political and military officials accurately understood Italy's situation and Mussolini's desire to join the war on Germany's side. However, they rightly reasoned that Italy's entry into the war depended on the outcome of the Western campaign. It was only if and when that campaign had been decided that Mussolini would make his move. Given this, the choice to concentrate British forces against Germany rather than dispersing them by opening new fronts or expanding the existing battlefield was reasonable. Had the Anglo-French allies managed to repel the offensive in the West, the threat of Italy's intervention would have been averted. It can therefore be argued that London's decision to refrain from engaging Rome militarily was not due to a lack of awareness regarding Italy's vulnerability, but rather to a strategic doctrine aimed at defeating Germany through a long war of attrition. This decision showcased a shrewd understanding of the prevailing situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Diplomacy and Subversion in the Balkans: British Policy toward Albania during and after the Second World War" by Biser Petrov is a valuable addition to the literature on 20th-century Albania. The book explores British activities in the region during the war and the early years of the Cold War. Petrov discusses British clandestine operations and subversive activities in Albania, as well as their attempts to undermine the Communist regime led by Enver Hoxha. The book draws on declassified materials from the British Foreign Office and other sources, providing a comprehensive analysis of British policy in Albania. Despite some omissions, the book offers a well-researched and insightful account of this period in Balkan history. [Extracted from the article]

"Mountbatten, Cold War and Empire, 1945–79" by Adrian Smith is a book that explores the life and career of Lord Louis Mountbatten. The book delves into Mountbatten's royal connections, character flaws, and his violent death in 1979. It also examines his role in the Cold War, particularly his understanding of anti-colonial nationalism and his involvement in the partition of India. The book highlights Mountbatten's views on power and powerlessness, including his changing stance on nuclear weapons. Overall, the book offers a unique perspective on the challenges faced by the British state during this period. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a collection of references and citations from various sources about the role of German troops, known as Hessians, during the American Revolution. It provides information about the history, organization, and experiences of the Hessians, as well as specific individuals involved in their forces. The references serve as additional sources for further research on the topic. [Extracted from the article]

Previously in the Journal of Military History, Bruce Collins contended that military influences shaped the definition of victory in British colonial campaigns between 1860 and 1882. It is argued that Collins’s examples showed a greater degree of political achievement in their outcome than he suggested. Collins mostly selected successful campaigns for analysis, whereas there were also clear failures in the application of British military power. Even where soldiers defined objectives, they did not necessarily shape the agreements that terminated campaigns. In particular, the example of India’s North West Frontier demonstrated the difficulties of achieving lasting passivity where permanent military occupation was not the objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 9 September 1513 a Scottish army led by King James IV was decisively defeated by an English army, led by Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey. Most recent scholarship on the battle has concentrated on new European-style tactics of the Scots, part of James’s ultimately futile effort to introduce a “Renaissance-style” of kingship. This article reexamines the battle from the English perspective, arguing the English army was more “modern” in terms of its weaponry, tactics, and military organization and, second, that in the person of Thomas Howard they benefitted from the leadership of Britain’s first “Renaissance general.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gábor Ágoston has written a much-needed overview of Ottoman warfare from the early state along the Byzantine frontier to the empire's wars with the Holy League in the late seventeenth century. While Kuhle is correct that Clausewitz emphasised the centrality of battle and violence as a core aspect of war, from his early writings he also hypothesised that war had limiting factors and that the defence was the stronger form of war. This is an important book that radically rewrites the story of early medieval Italy in a convincing fashion and has major implications for the reading of early medieval historiography, state formation, inter-state relations, and warfare. Lambert believed that in August 1914 'strategically illiterate [British] statesmen allowed ambitious soldiers to join a continental war without imposing political control (p. 306); the upshot was that 'five years of mass European warfare would eviscerate the British seapower state' (p.306). Black is at his best when interweaving the various dimensions: while he devotes a separate chapter to the Napoleonic wars, he emphasizes that Russia was simultaneously fighting Persia and Sweden, while Britain was also at war in India and North America, and that the wars of the period had a specifically naval dimension. [Extracted from the article]

Although the plantation's London directors tended to resist the labourers' demands, Smart was again sympathetic to their grievances. By Linda Covill. [Extracted from the article]

The editorial team of the Israeli National Legislation Database endeavored to locate all the proclamations, ordinances, and 'Orders in Council' published from the beginning of the British military regime in Palestine to the last 'hidden laws' published in the waning days of the British Mandate. These documents complete the historical information on Israel state laws and shed light on the initial establishment of the legal and judicial system in Palestine, before the establishment of the State of Israel. In this paper, we describe the development of legislation under British regime, from 1917 to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. We introduce the three figures who played key roles in regulating the legislative system: Orme Bigland Clark, Norman Bentwich, and Sir Robert Harry Drayton, and describe the legislative process that was developed and the legislative procedures that prevailed at the time. The legal framework of this period, alongside the remaining Ottoman legislation, formed a solid basis for the legislative system and process for the Provisional State Council and subsequently, the Knesset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine" by Jim Downs explores the emergence of epidemiology as a result of colonialism, Atlantic slaving, and imperialist wars from the late eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century. Downs examines various locations worldwide to understand how these forces influenced physicians and scientists to consider disease at the population level. The book highlights the use of global networks, scientific journals, and communication between different empires to collect and analyze data on disease outbreaks. Downs also emphasizes the contributions of enslaved and colonized people to the development of epidemiological science, drawing on Black feminist approaches. The book covers topics such as the link between overcrowding and disease on slave ships, debates on contagion theory, the role of military physicians in studying diseases like yellow fever, and the impact of war on medical practices. Downs utilizes a range of evidence, including archival materials and medical journals, to explore transimperial networks of knowledge production. While the book's teleological frame of medical progress may be analytically questionable, it offers valuable insights for historians of medicine researching the intersection of health, slavery, war, and colonialism. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores recent literature on the often-overlooked Burma theatre of the Second World War. The brutal contest in Burma, which took place in the most hostile of climates, was never a priority for any of the belligerents in the global war. Despite this, a re-examination of the men who fought in the jungles, hills, and plains of Burma from myriad nations and cultures – and who bled and died in their thousands – adds a number of dimensions to our understanding of the war in the Far East. The twenty-first century has seen an expansion of the literature on the Burma theatre which has added both depth and colour to this truly unique arena of war. These contributions are invaluable in the realms of logistics, airpower, intelligence, politics, and soldiery. This fresh wave of literature includes the re-publication of certain first-hand examinations of some of the most disastrous moments in British military history; the longest fighting retreat conducted by the British Army; the reforging of that army into a victorious fighting force; and accounts of some of the greatest special operations units in history. Such accounts, in tandem with a number of recent scholarly monographs and edited volumes, argue strongly for the rediscovery of this 'forgotten' war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How military withdrawals are handled matters – they are no mere adjunct to military operations. Studies in such fields as history, strategy, conflict resolution, and policy-related analysis highlight the significant symbolic, political, and practical consequences of the mishandling of the withdrawal of military forces from a theatre of operations. The British military withdrawal from East Malaysia (Borneo) has never before been examined. But its significance as a case study extends beyond this. British military operations in East Malaysia were highly successful and so it might logically be supposed that the withdrawal of military forces at the cessation of the conflict would be a straightforward exercise worthy of little comment. This article demonstrates, however, that behind the scenes the withdrawal was for British decision-makers acutely problematic. In the end, Britain struggled to construct a withdrawal process that would reconcile often competing political and military imperatives. Borneo illustrates that military withdrawals therefore can also be extremely challenging even in the context of a successful military operation. As Borneo illustrates, military withdrawals are strategic acts, and even in apparently benign circumstances they are much more than just a postscript to a war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the impact of late Victorian cultural assumptions on the conduct of the South African War of 1899-1902, both at home and on the battlefield. It contends that three cultural values, intrinsic to late Victorian culture--cosmopolitanism, political egalitarianism, and race--shaped British soldiers' sense of justice at the outset of the war and, as a result, influenced their actions on and off the battlefield. This article emphasizes that the numerous "small wars" fought by British armies in the late nineteenth century, of which the South African War was the largest, were each unique and worthy of study not just as political history but as cultural military history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical significance of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) has traditionally suffered from the conflict's chronological proximity to the Great War. Compared to the industrial slaughter of 1914-1918, the military extremism employed in the South African conflict has gone largely unanalyzed. A close examination of British military policies during the Second Boer War shows that the resort to escalatory violence sprang from frustration at the elusiveness of decisive battle, deemed vital to shore up Britain's position as the world's sole superpower, and was sanctioned by a Western tradition of unrestricted violence towards peoples like the Boers who pursued unconventional battlefield strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]