War and Society/Culture Flashcards
Where does John Keegan think the focus should be in military history?
On the experience of battle and combat - namely, what is it like to participate the rigors and often horrors of combat.
Why does Keegan argue for the primacy of battle/campaign history?
He argues it’s the oldest historical form, subject matter is of primary importance, and it demands rigourous historical treatment and attention.
Does ‘small scale’ action qualify as battle?
For Keegan, no. Battles obey laws of time, place, and action - especially action. (So, his colleagues in decolonial skirmishes? Soldiers who haven’t been through battle).
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In War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, does anthropologist Brian Ferguson think there is much difference between pre-state and state warfare?
No.
What is Victor Davis Hanson’s emphasis on in his answer to Ferguson?
Stresses the connections between war and agriculture; stresses the free citizenry angle of Greek and Roman warfare and the value of heavy infantry.
How did warfare and society tend to interact in the pre-modern world, per the authors of War and Society in Ancient and Medieval Worlds?
Continuous warfare or threat of it influenced internal social structure and culture, which then, in turn, drove military policies towards aggression and expansion.
What are the hallmarks of pre-modern military oriented societies per the authors of War and Society in Ancient and Medieval Worlds?
Societies are hierarchical and stratified (with exceptions such as Athens), states willing and able to exploit peasants for purposes of wealth extraction and social order, society on the whole concentrated on mobilizing resources for war at the cost of other societal priorities, state control over land and its food which would support a growing population which would, in turn, fuel armies which would expand the state.
What is Roseinstein’s argument, in Rome at War, about the decline of the peasantry following the Punic Wars?
Rosenstein argues that steep population growth in the second population BC was the cause of hardship among Rome’s peasant classes.
What previous explanations for the decline of the peasantry does Rosenstein challenge?
1) devastation of Punic wars 2) heavy burden of conscription 3) expansion of latifundia (large estates)
What was the main engine for population growth?
High wartime mortality led to the institution of a fertility regime in which girls married younger and had more children to ensure an heir survived.
What does Grimsley identity as the three stages of Union attitudes towards Southern Civilians?
Conciliatory (first fifteen months), pragmatic (summer 1862-1863), and “hard war” of 1864-1865 focused on demoralization through seizing or destroying property.
How does Grimsley’s interpretation of the conciliatory phase differ from other historians?
They have seen it as a sentimental gesture; Grimsley sees it as historical military precedent from the Revolution and the Mexican-American war.
Who does Grimley believe were the agents who pushed back against the conciliatory approach?
Confederate guerillas and - this is key - the Union Commanders who had to deal with these irregular fighters.
What factors led to the development of the more pragmatic policy?
Union commanders became unable to tell who among white southerners were loyal or actively or passively disloyal.
What does Grimsley have to say about military necessity and the Emancipation Proclamation?
Argues it had very little to do with emancipation; most military men happy to wait for Lincoln to act; army was extremely ambivalent about slavery and the war.
What battle was the transition point between the pragmatic and the “hard” approach?
Vicksburg.
How does Grimsley argue that destruction of civilian property was still mediated during this latter stage?
Soldiers often targeted plantations, not small farms, even if they had stereotypes about poor southern whites.
What is John Lynn’s position regarding a so called ‘universal soldier?’
No such thing. The experience of being a soldier is historically contingent on a number of factors.
Who is Lynn most explicitely challenging in Battle? And how?
Victor Davis Hanson. Where Hanson sees a continuity, Lynn sees a multiplicity of ways of war. Lynn argues there has been no one way of fighting in the Western World (for example, citizen soldier shows up in Greece - then in Revolutionary France). Also agrees what Hanson sees as irregular war in the East happens in the West too.
Why does Lynn think we need cultural approaches to the study of war?
To study the sometimes significant gap between how a society thinks about war (its discourses) and how it wages it (reality).
How does Habeck think that the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, despite their differences, developed incredible similiar doctrines on tank warfare?
They both had shared assumptions about war, including admiration for British tank warfare, abandonment of conservative prejudice against mechanized war thank to improvements in the 20s, and key individuals: Guderian in Germany and Tukhachevskii and Triandafillov in USSR.
