Experiences Of Soldiers Research Articles

The Russian army leisure activities during the First World War

The subject of the research is the problem of organizing the activities of soldiers and officers of the Russian Imperial Army on the fronts of the First World War in the periods between hostilities. The relevance of studying the problem is dictated by the fact that military conflicts accompany all periods of human development, and the results obtained can be rethought and transferred to modern times, taking into account existing realities. Within the framework of military-historical anthropology, the value of the quality of organization of army leisure is determined by the fact that it largely shaped the degree of psychological stability of combatants and their readiness to endure the difficult conditions of war. The objectives of the study include identifying the main aspects of the life of military personnel based on the study of historical sources. The methodological basis of the study is based on general scientific methods of synthesis, analysis, generalization and systematization. In accordance with the principles of historicism and objectivity, the authors widely use specialized periodicals of the war period, materials from historical sources, both of memoir origin, reflecting the impressions of more educated layers of society, and sources capturing the experience of ordinary soldiers. This approach allows us to comprehensively assess the degree of readiness of the army to organize the front-line life of a soldier as a most difficult task for any military command. The results of the study formulate conclusions about the characteristics of army life military personnel during the First World War, approaches to organizing leisure time are defined and the main components of army life are summarized.

Partners in Love/War: An Explorative Study of Ukrainian Soldiers’ Lived Experiences of Being in a Romantic Relationship in the Russo-Ukrainian War

This article explores the lived experiences of Ukrainian soldiers in a romantic relationship with another soldier in the same unit in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Contributing to scholarship on military couples, embodied experiences of war, human dimensions of warfare, and soldierly love, the study aims to understand how these soldiers are affected emotionally and as soldiers by having a relationship on the frontline. Drawing upon the Grounded Theory method, based on eight semi-structured interviews with soldiers from four couples, the findings visualize these experiences through four theoretical constructs. Having a relationship while serving on the frontline endowed these soldiers in Ukraine with an existential purpose that was protective and motivating, making them cautious and feel less dehumanized but also stressed from fear of loss. The findings have implications for how armed forces understand soldiers’ emotional needs and relations at war.

On a Bed of Frozen Stone

Abstract Adopting as theoretical framework Edmund Husserl’s ideas on memory and phantasms and the Derridean notion of ‘hauntology’, this article focuses on the spectral protagonist of Samuel Beckett’s “The Calmative” and on the tangle of memories he recounts from his bed of frozen stone. Resembling Dante’s pilgrimage in the underworld and the excruciating experience of soldiers in trenches, this novella presents a ghostly narrator that, persecuted by the rotting of his corpse and by the trauma of memory, is condemned to an indefinable state of deathlessness-in-death, in which he can only ‘revive’ the everlasting reminiscence of his own demise.

Shadows of identity: the experience of Jewish soldiers in the Ukrainian military

ABSTRACT This article delves into the study of Jewish identity within the Ukrainian army, providing a detailed exploration of the experiences of soldiers with Jewish backgrounds fighting at the front lines of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Considering the historical complexities and contemporary challenges faced by the Jewish community in Ukraine, the study investigates how military service transforms the national and ethnic self-identification of Jewish soldiers. Through interviews and comprehensive contextual analysis, we illuminate their personal narratives, ways of expressing identity, common features, inclusivity, and the adaptation of diverse cultural backgrounds within the Ukrainian army.‏ Our study contends that within the military landscape of the ongoing war, the perception of Jewish identity in Ukraine undergoes a significant shift, becoming more prominent and tangible. This transformation imbues the lives of Jewish soldiers with a profound sense of pride and uniqueness.

Qualitative case study on the disability acceptance experiences of soldiers with disabilities

ABSTRACT Purpose This study comprehensively examines the disability acceptance experience of individuals who become disabled following accidents in the military after enlistment. Methods In-depth interviews and participative observation of two soldiers with disabilities are conducted. Data sources encompass the transcripts from these interviews, relevant news videos, and articles on the participants. A qualitative case study approach is applied to conduct both “within-case” and “cross-case” analyses. Results Although the two participants survived a crippling accidents, their military units did not actively attempt to resolve the accident. They grappled with despair and found it challenging to accept their new status as individuals with disability. Over time, they noticed changes in their personal relationships and started considering themselves burdens on their caregivers. However, despite encountering psychological challenges, which were marked by repeated setbacks and disappointments, the soldiers consistently made determined efforts to realize their objectives. Moreover, they strove to lead purposeful lives despite suffering the adversities caused by their disabilities. Conclusions This study is the first in-depth examination of the disability acceptance experiences of soldiers with disability. The insights gleaned from our in-depth interviews will help formulate psychological and physical support systems for such individuals.

Distancing through peacekeeping: global peacekeeping assemblages and the Gambian armed forces

Abstract This article contributes to the understanding of incentives for peacekeeping contribution from non-democratic countries through the largely unexplored case of peacekeeping under authoritarian rule in The Gambia. It argues that President Yahya Jammeh (1994–2017) aimed to use peacekeeping to help keep himself in power, fitting a broader global pattern of peacekeeping for regime maintenance. However, the research also demonstrates that leadership's aims for peacekeeping can be misaligned with the experiences of soldiers. Rather than draw soldiers closer to the regime, the peacekeeping experience involved a distancing from the forces for Gambian soldiers when they returned home. The findings draw on interviews with returned peacekeepers and military decision makers in The Gambia, as well as publications from the armed forces and new public sources of information made available after the 2017 political transition. The article proposes that viewing the deployment experience as a global peacekeeping assemblage helps to understand the more subtle, yet significant, ways in which soldiers' views can shift following peacekeeping deployments.

Exploring traumatized soldiers: The intersection of War, theatre, and British Society in Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat

This research paper titled "Exploring Traumatized Soldiers: The Intersection of War, Theater, and British Society in Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat" examines the impact of the Iraq War on British soldiers, their families, and society as a whole. Utilizing theoretical frameworks from psychology, specifically the works of Sigmund Freud and Cathy Caruth, the study analyzes the concept of trauma within the context of war. By focusing on Mark Ravenhill's play Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, the research investigates how the play portrays the experiences of British soldiers affected by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent challenges faced by the British people. Through the analysis, the study aims to uncover the psychological and emotional consequences of war trauma on individuals and its broader societal implications. The utilization of psychological perspectives provides a deeper understanding of the complexities of war trauma. Drawing on Freud's and Caruth's theories, the research explores the lasting effects of trauma on soldiers and its intersection with theater and British society. By examining the portrayal of traumatized soldiers in Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat and analyzing the psychological dimensions of trauma, this study offers valuable insights into the interplay between war, theater, and British society. It contributes to a broader understanding of the long-term impact of war on individuals and communities, emphasizing the role of theater in addressing and representing collective trauma. In conclusion, this research paper provides a significant exploration of the experiences of traumatized soldiers, the effects of war on British society, and the capacity of theater to engage with and depict collective trauma.

Psychophysiological Responses in Soldiers during Close Combat: Implications for Occupational Health and Fitness in Tactical Populations.

This study explores the psychophysiological responses and subjective exertion experiences of soldiers in simulated hand-to-hand combat, aligning these findings with established physiological benchmarks. Active military personnel were monitored for heart rate, blood lactate levels, subjective exertion, cortical arousal, and muscle strength during combat scenarios. The results showed significant increases in heart rate and blood lactate, indicating intense cardiovascular demands and a reliance on anaerobic energy systems. Contrary to these physiological changes, soldiers reported lower levels of exertion, suggesting a possible underestimation of physical effort or individual differences in perception and mental resilience to stress. Notably, a decrease in cortical arousal post-combat was observed, potentially signaling cognitive function deficits in decision-making and information processing in high-stress environments. This decline was more pronounced than typically seen in other high-stress situations, highlighting the unique cognitive demands of hand-to-hand combat. Additionally, an increase in muscle strength was noted, underscoring the physiological adaptations arising from intensive combat training. These findings provide valuable insights into the psychophysiological effects of hand-to-hand combat, emphasizing the complex interplay between physical exertion, cognitive function, and stress response in military contexts. The study underscores the need for comprehensive training strategies that address both physical and psychological aspects to enhance combat readiness and decision-making under stress.

MEMORIILE UNOR EROI OLTENI DIN PRIMUL RĂZBOI MONDIAL

As Romania celebrates 100 years since the First World War, The National Archives organized research projects aiming at discovering diaries, memorialist writings, or other contemporary sources. Thus, new, particularly interesting and relevant documents were identified. Among them, two manuscripts from the Service of the National Archives in Vâlcea County are impressive: the Diary of the 1916-Campaign, of Captain Ioan Ciulei, from the Second Vâlcea Infantry Regiment, and the Daily Notes from the Romanian-Hungarian-Bulgarian War in 1916, August 15, recording the memories of sub-lieutenant doctor S. Demetrescu, from the 44th Infantry Regiment. I transcribed the manuscripts in the collection of documents entitled Life on the Front War in Personal Writings, published in 2021. These memorialist writings describe the beginning of the Romanian-Bulgarian-Hungarian hostilities in the Olt valley and in southern Transylvania, the battles at Tălmaci, Cisnădia, Șelimbăr, Poplaca – in the Sibiu area -, the route of doctor S. Demetrescu’s regiment, and the imprisonment of Captain Ioan Ciulei in the German camp on the island of Dänholm. Memorialists mention various military units, officers with initiatives (Brigadier Generals Ion Manolescu, Matei Castriș, Ioan Oprescu, Ioan Popovici, David Praporgescu, Colonel Traian Moșoiu, Lt. Col. Gheorghe Zizi Cantacuzino), the experiences of many soldiers, living or deceased, lists of German camp prisoners, sequences of military operations and their aftermath.

Interpretation of the war in Ukraine: ukrainian, polish, bulgarian, and lithuanian poetry (based on the anthology «Armed spring»)

The study analyzed the anthology «Vesna ozbroiena (Armed Spring)», initiated for publication by The National Writers’ Union of Ukraine. The book was published during the unfolding of a full-scale war in Ukraine, in the spring of 2022. The anthology is based on several principles — the coverage of regions with different levels of authorship is particularly noticeable, the principle of generational experiences is sporadically manifested, on the other hand — in the organization of anthology shows the consideration of the tendency to cover the phenomenon, especially how exactly the topic of war is highlighted in Western European poetry. The experimental nature of the anthology «Vesna ozbroiena (Armed Spring)» is that the editor, the author of the foreword, Mykhailo Sydorzhevsky, qualified it as an anthology of military lyrics and under one cover collected small selections (up to six works) of Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian and Baltic poets about the acute feeling-reflection of two stages Russia-Ukraine war (1st stage — 2014‑2022, 2nd stage — ongoing since 24.02.2022). The authors of the «Vesna ozbroiena (Armed Spring)» anthology belong not only to different artistic circles and generations, they are more or less known to the readership, but the fact is that their style palette is very diverse, from masterful maturity to imitative manners that are easy to follow by those who have already established themselves in the literature. Predominant in the anthology is the understanding of the helplessness of a peaceful person amid the tragic events of war. At the same time, the depth and knowledge of events and details differ — this is volunteer experience, and the experience of refugees, emigrants, the experience of mothers waiting for their sons and daughters from the front, the experience of soldiers and descendants of soldiers, the experience of orphans and those who covered these events in the media and in research, which provides sufficient discourse throughout the war and keeps the phenomenon visible, because it is the same age as the relayed disaster.

Insights of Infantry Soldiers: A Qualitative Exploration of Psychological Resilience and Stress

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is currently struggling with a retention crisis. Within the CAF, The Canadian Army (CA) experiences the greatest attrition rates. Staffing shortages lead to an increase in job demands subsequently leading to greater stress, burnout, and turnover intentions. Psychological resilience has been found to buffer the negative effects of workplace stressors. There is a need to understand resilience within specific occupations to better inform resilience building interventions. This study aims to enhance knowledge of how infantry soldiers in the CA define resilience and what challenges they experience within the workplace that contribute to stress and how they cope with such stressors. A qualitative approach was used, with 14 semi-structured interviews conducted with CA personnel employed as infantry soldiers. Data were analyzed using a deductive content-analysis. Four themes emerged from the interviews: the nature of resilience, challenges of the profession, resilience strategies (attitudes), and resilience strategies (protective practices). The study provides unique insights into the experiences of infantry soldier’s and the mechanisms they employ to facilitate and maintain resilience.

"I Just Have to Do What I Can": "Mobile Suit Gundam 0079" and the Burdens of War

The implications of the Asia-Pacific War persisted throughout the 20th century. Since 1945, Japan found itself in an endless conflict between various approaches at remembering the war and had to deal with the ways that these memories pervade public life. The 1970s saw a resurgence of pro-nationalist media, specifically in animation. As an entertainment medium, animation has proven itself to be a popular and receptive outlet for both creative and political expression. In 1979, Tomino Yoshiyuki's Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 first aired in Japan, which launched the Mobile Suit Gundam series. Gundam's historiography consists of analyses of the cinematic remakes of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, close examinations of later entries, and a thematic approach of the entire series. This paper builds upon the argument that Gundam is a critique of war, and that Tomino specifically criticizes Imperial Japan's policies in the Asia-Pacific War, unlike industry contemporaries. By analyzing selections from the original Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 television series, focusing on major and minor side characters, and connecting this analysis with the experiences of Japanese soldiers during the war, Tomino makes his views apparent to the audience. A conversation between Gundam 0079's protagonist's father and a soldier that would later become an important part of the show and an examination of the main cast of teenage characters as they begin their journey, reveal Tomino's opinions towards the use of child soldiers, a "filler" episode of a rogue soldier protecting a group of defenseless children he previously traumatized illustrates the power of war guilt, and a brief profiling of a major character in the show touches upon the agony of involuntarily participating in war.

Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox by Caroline E. Janney

Reviewed by: Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox by Caroline E. Janney Kurt Hackemer (bio) Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox. Caroline E. Janney. University of North Carolina Press, 2023. ISBN: 978-1-4696-7430-8. 344 pp., paper, $22.00. The current generation of Civil War scholarship has done much to blur the artificial boundary between war and peace that is so often represented by the surrender [End Page 96] of Robert E. Lee’s army at Appomattox Court House. An expanding literature makes it clear that the passions, ideological beliefs, and experiences of soldiers and civilians alike, but especially soldiers, played an important role in defining postwar politics, social constructs, race relations, westward expansion, and economics. For many, the war was omnipresent long after its final shots were fired in anger. Acknowledging the fluidity between war and peace is one thing, but it is quite another to demonstrate in some significant way exactly how the transition happened on a personal level for soldiers who were about to become veterans. Caroline Janney’s important new book uses the Army of Northern Virginia’s experience during and after the surrender at Appomattox Court House to do just that, and the end result interjects welcomed nuance into a conversation that has been more generalized up to this point. The surrender at Appomattox was hardly a complete surrender in two important ways, which immediately created ambiguity. First, in an effort to accelerate the reunion process, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant paroled Confederate soldiers so they could more quickly return to civilian life. Second, in the chaos associated with the pursuit and parole of the Army of Northern Virginia, Janney conservatively estimates that twenty thousand or more Confederate soldiers straggled, escaped, or otherwise avoided capture and therefore were never paroled. Paroled Confederate soldiers were still technically prisoners of war. As those soldiers returned home, or tried to return home—in the case of border states that never left the Union—concerns about their status and potential culpability for wartime actions revealed that “many of the legal, social, and political questions that had plagued the war from the beginning” had not, in fact, been resolved by the cessation of hostilities (3). The lack of a peace treaty, which would have required acknowledging the legitimacy of the Confederate States of America, resulted in the inconsistent treatment of parolees by military and government officials. Local officials who recognized there had been no formal end to the war feared what these parolees might do as they passed through communities or tried to restart their lives after reaching their home. They were even more fearful of those veterans who had never been paroled. The absence of an efficient pardon system kept the parolees in a state of limbo and presented resolution of those fears. As a result, local military and government officials often reacted harshly to maintain order and stability, driven by their immediate homegrown concerns rather than a unified national context that simply did not exist. The ambiguity and inconsistency of the parole and pardon process reinforced an emerging Lost Cause ideology built around the idea that the Confederacy had never truly surrendered and that its ideals remained intact. Acceptance of the Lost Cause was even easier for those Army of Northern Virginia veterans who avoided the parole process entirely. While that historical interpretation of the transition to the Lost Cause is nothing new, Janney’s unique contribution is to [End Page 97] better explain the chaos that catalyzed the transition. There was more to the surrender of Lee’s army than a stacking of arms and furling of the colors. The demo-bilization process took place over a much greater time and space than historians have hitherto appreciated. Because it extended well beyond Appomattox Court House, it also involved more than just Lee’s soldiers. Civilians of all types, including Union sympathizers, Confederate sympathizers, former slaves, and citizens who just wanted to be left alone, all found themselves caught up in the ensuing drama. Janney convincingly argues that “in surrender as in battle, the war proved to be as much about those at home as...

Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers by John M. Sacher

Reviewed by: Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers by John M. Sacher Kenneth W. Noe (bio) Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers. By John M. Sacher. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2021. Pp. 296. Cloth, $45.00.) Alas the poor conscript, we hardly know him. Forced into Civil War armies against his will, sometimes at bayonet point, he suffered and sometimes died for a cause that was never fully his. Succeeding generations shut their eyes to him in their urgency to depict every soldier-ancestor as a heroic volunteer worthy of veneration. In the avalanche of scholarly books about the Civil War soldier experience that ensued in the 1980s, historians ignore him too. Despite conventional estimates that perhaps 4 percent of Federal soldiers and 10 percent of Confederate soldiers or more were draftees, scholars hasten past the conscript’s embarrassing shade in favor of those eager boys of 1861. Often illiterate or nearly so, the conscript, to be sure, did himself no favors by leaving many fewer traditional sources for later students. Small surprise that Albert Burton Moore’s standard examination of conscription appeared almost a century ago.1 Like Moore’s venerable volume, John M. Sacher’s new study is more concerned with the policy of conscription and its top-down implementation than the draftees themselves. Unlike the older book, Sacher’s firmly rejects the familiar argument that conscription undermined the Confederacy from within. Embracing an “externalist” interpretation of Confederate defeat, the author contends that most white Confederates understood that they were outnumbered, grasped the need to field as many soldiers as possible, and supported the draft when volunteering failed to meet expectations. The first conscription laws of 1862 passed with little debate or opposition in Congress or in public. Only a few die-hard states’ rights proponents, hardly more than unpatriotic ideologues according to the author, attacked conscription’s constitutionality then and later. Where [End Page 261] most Confederate loyalists came to differ with the law, Sacher argues, was in the devilish details of conscription, in terms both of a community’s individual cases and of questions about which additional professions and trades deserved exemptions in order to feed and serve both soldiers and civilians. While such debates reflected real class and ideological fault lines in the Confederacy, as well as competing ties of loyalty to locality and the nation-state, Sacher insists that, as a rule, they did not indicate significant general opposition to conscription itself or to the government that mandated it. Soldiers resented the extension of their enlistments, disliked the rules of substitution, and damned the men at home who gained exemptions denied to volunteers already under arms, yet they too supported the overall concept and largely fought on. Richmond’s willingness to debate and amend the rules and practice of conscription several times won further support. Conscription constantly evolved, according to Sacher, reacting to civilian and military needs. Both Jefferson Davis and Congress demonstrated responsiveness to a supportive public that largely wanted the draft tweaked for fairness but not eliminated, as the 1863 congressional election results seem to indicate. Congress notably passed, and then later in the war tightened, the notorious “Twenty Negro Law,” first in direct response to complaints from the folks at home who feared starvation and violence in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation, then again later when citizens came to fear the evils allegedly wrought by stay-at-home speculators. Sacher adds that no more than 10 percent of planters ever took advantage of the law. Rich men fought the so-called rich man’s war. In a similar manner, Congress widened age limits for the draft as a direct reaction to the expressed needs of proconscription generals, such as Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, after Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. The lull before the Federal onslaught in 1864 brought similar calls for more men, resulting in the elimination of substitution and in the drafting of men who had hired substitutes. Lee’s need for more men at Petersburg likewise led directly to congressional debate over drafting the enslaved. Sacher admits that Bureau of Conscription officers still had their hands full when it came...

The Representation of War in Literature A Comparative Study of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'

This article presents a comparative study of the representation of war in literature through a analysis of two novels: "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway. The article explores the ways in which the authors depict the experiences of soldiers and civilians in the context of war, examining the themes of trauma, disillusionment, and the human cost of conflict. Through a close analysis of the literary techniques used in each novel, the article demonstrates how these two works offer distinct but complementary perspectives on the impact of war on individuals and societies. Ultimately, this comparative study highlights the power of literature to convey complex ideas about war and its effects on humanity. War has been a recurring theme in literature, and writers have used it to depict the horrors, tragedies, and human emotions associated with it. This comparative study analyzes two renowned works of literature that represent war- "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway. The analysis focuses on the similarities and differences in the representation of war in these works, the authors' perspectives on war, and their use of literary techniques. This article argues that while both authors portray war as a brutal and devastating experience, Hemingway emphasizes the political and ideological reasons behind the war, while Remarque emphasizes the human toll it takes on the soldiers. The literary techniques used by both authors, such as symbolism and irony, further highlight their differing perspectives on war.

“My Heart Is a Piece of Stone”: Anxious Separations and Emotional Dislocations in British Correspondence from the Long Second World War

AbstractHistorians who write about emotion in wartime focus mainly on the experiences of front-line soldiers and of civilians under bombardment exposed to life-threatening events. However, in Britain in World War II, conscription, mobilization, and evacuation inflicted hugely disruptive separations on a large proportion of the population, and the emotions that they provoked have been under-examined. This paper excavates emotion in an unusually complete set of letters written by a British working-class couple between 1941 and 1946. Interpreting letter writing as a technology of the self, it explores their letter-writing practices and uses psychoanalytic theory to comprehend the anxieties that their letters document. Wartime and postwar separation, enforced by conscription, challenged their aspirations to a companionate marital style and added to the complexities of pregnancy and parenthood. The sickness and hospitalization of their baby in 1945–46, in the era before the establishment of the National Health Service, introduced a new dimension to separation. Occurring at a time when the couple were even further apart geographically than during the war itself and letters were the only regular means of connection, this trauma imposed massive marital and, particularly, maternal strain. By analyzing and contextualizing the increasingly fraught exchanges between a mother on her own and a man at the front line, this article throws new light on epistolary constructions of anxious separations and emotional dislocations in the long Second World War.

Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War by Shay Hazkani

Reviewed by: Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War by Shay Hazkani Abigail Jacobson Shay Hazkani. Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021. 352 pp. In this fascinating and engaging book, Shay Hazkani takes the readers on a unique journey into the history of the 1948 War. Much has been written on the history of this war, which was probably the most significant and dramatic turning point in this history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, yet Hazkani’s book offers an unusual contribution to this scholarship. Based on hundreds of personal letters, diaries, army magazines, radio broadcasts, and pamphlets of Jewish and Arab soldiers who fought in the war, either in the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces or the Arab League’s Volunteer Army (ALA), Dear Palestine examines the ways ordinary soldiers experienced the war and their role in it. The book follows the preparation and indoctrination in the early stages of the war, and carefully analyzes the soldiers’ contemplations regarding the meanings and implications of the war and the violence they experienced and were part of. Moreover, and maybe most importantly, this rich account, based on the untapped corpus of soldiers’ letters, challenges and questions the Arab/Jew binary that is so prevalent in the historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict in general, and of the 1948 War in particular. In fact, the soldiers’ accounts during the war show that these nationalist categories are much more complex, diverse, and full [End Page 215] of internal contradictions than usually thought. In this, Hazkani’s book is part of a growing scholarship that follows the relational history approach to the study of the relations between Jews and Arabs, and that complicates these identities. Part of the important contribution of the book to the historical accounts of the war in particular, and the historiography of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, lies in the corpus of sources used by Hazkani, and the reflective way he incorporates them. As such, in the introduction, conclusion, as well in several points throughout the book, Hazkani critically discusses the sources he uses, their methodological limitations and advantages, and uses this sensitive and unique corpus in a smart and reflective way. Each of the book’s five chapters examines a separate stage in the journeys that Jewish and Arab volunteers who fought in 1948 went through. The first chapter focuses on the mobilization process of Jewish and Arab soldiers as they were conscripted, or volunteered, to take arms and join the war efforts in Palestine. Carefully scrutinizing the different groups and the processes that brought them to the front line, Hazkani exposes the different meaning of “fighting for Palestine” for various groups. Those include, for example, Moroccan Jews, Holocaust survivors, American Jews, as well as Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian Arabs of different ethnoreligious backgrounds. The second chapter continues to the next stage of these soldiers’ journeys, namely the propaganda, indoctrination, and preparations that the IDF and ALA utilized. The chapter follows the training of the soldiers, the use of propaganda mechanisms, and the depictions of the enemy. The comparison between the ALA’s and IDF’s propaganda and indoctrination mechanisms is fascinating and reveals many internal frictions and tensions within these two forces. The third chapter discusses the motivations and reasons that brought the Arab and Jewish recruits to fight in Palestine. Through a careful analysis of soldiers’ letters and accounts, Hazkani points to the ways in which different ideologies, such as Pan-Arabism, Pan-Islam, nationalism, and anticolonial struggle, all mixed together in soldiers’ identities and motivations to fight. He reveals how Moroccan Jewish volunteers were gradually exposed to racism and discrimination from their fellow Ashkenazic soldiers and how their experience was radically different from that of the Ashkenazic volunteers who came from the United States, for example. The experience of Moroccan soldiers complicates the national Zionist narrative regarding the role of the Zionist movement in saving Moroccan Jews and incorporating them into the Zionist and later Israeli “melting pot.” These very intimate reflections and contemplations are discussed further in chapter 4, which focuses on the actual experience of war and violence on the...

Leaving Comrades to Die: Shahadat, Soldiering and Accidental Death on the Siachen Glacier

The Siachen glacier, one of the longest non-polar glaciers in the world, turned into the world’s highest battlefield in 1984, when both the neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan, deployed their troops for control over the glacier. The nature of warfare since then has changed from active operations to one of low-intensity warfare. In this changing nature of warfare, the article explores how meanings of death are reconfigured in personal recollections and public representations, when the terrain continues to inflict injuries, high-altitude illnesses and death in the absence of any direct enemy confrontation. The article compares personal experiences of death with media representations. While personal experiences of soldiers and officers who have served on the glacier show their grievances about having left comrades to die after they fell into deadly crevasses, media representations reinsert the Indian soldier and depict death in the company of comrades and family to justify the expensive and extremely difficult war over the glacier.

Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction by Gordon C. Rhea

Reviewed by: Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction by Gordon C. Rhea Holly A. Pinheiro Jr. Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction. By Gordon C. Rhea. Southern Biography. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2021. Pp. xvi, 189. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8071-7626-9.) The American Civil War remains one of the most discussed and written-about historical periods, highlighting the relevance of the era even today. Additionally, the war has drawn generations of sustained interest from academics and the public in investigating the conflict’s multidimensional impacts. Thankfully, a bevy of scholars, including Gordan C. Rhea, remain committed to illuminating the lived experiences of Black soldiers during the Civil War era. Rhea, like other scholars, also recognizes that it is essential to explore Black soldiers’ lives in totality—before, during, and (potentially) after their time in the U.S. Army—while also including the perspectives of their [End Page 161] families and communities. Taking this approach provides nuanced avenues for historical analysis. As Rhea notes, even with the wealth of scholarship on the long Civil War era, there are still very few biographies in which a Black soldier is the central figure of the monograph. Rhea’s well-written and informative biography of Stephen A. Swails is an invaluable contribution to the historiography, as the author amplifies the historical voice of a Black servicemember and simultaneously disrupts the scholarly hyperfocus on white male figures (usually military officers and politicians). This approach allows readers to understand and discuss the lived experiences of Black soldiers like Swails, who composed 10 percent of the U.S. Army forces after 1862 and made profound and lasting impacts on American history. Sadly, despite these contributions, Black soldiers remain on the fringes in many historical examinations of this period. Throughout the book, Rhea details how Swails and other Black people experienced various forms of anti-Blackness that adapted over time and across regions. For Swails, those experiences included witnessing a large-scale race riot in antebellum Columbia, Pennsylvania, and dealing with racial discrimination (and fighting for his life) while holding political office in the Palmetto State after the Civil War. By tracing Swails’s life across an extended period, Rhea skillfully proves that Black soldiers fought for racial and social equality long before and long after they donned military uniforms. The book’s straightforward chronological structure spans eleven chapters that highlight how Swails’s and his family members’ lives intersected with numerous important historical events. For example, Rhea describes how Swails’s impressive rise from the rank of private to second lieutenant in the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry corresponded with an extended separation from his first wife, Sarah, and their two children. By including the familial experiences of Black soldiers, Rhea reifies the point that ignoring the home front silences the voices of important historical figures. The book touches on several historical topics, including an account of Swails’s fight against racial and political violence in South Carolina that many people should consider reading. In one of the most powerful portions of the book, Rhea details how Swails’s life remains important today to the numerous South Carolinians who continue to honor his legacy, including Congressman James E. Clyburn. For these and many other reasons, Gordon C. Rhea illustrates that scholarly attention needs to continue centering on the lives of Black historical figures to establish a more inclusive understanding of American history. Holly A. Pinheiro Jr. Furman University Copyright © 2023 The Southern Historical Association

Afro-Asian Intimacies Across Southern Cartographies: Race, Sex, and Gender in Toni Morrison's Home and Yusef Komunyakaa's Dien Cai Dao

Afro-Asian Intimacies Across Southern Cartographies:Race, Sex, and Gender in Toni Morrison's Home and Yusef Komunyakaa's Dien Cai Dao Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi (bio) In 1953, following the Korean Armistice Agreement that ostensibly ended direct U.S. intervention in Korea (but, in reality, merely led to a recalibration of the unending Korean War), African American soldier Clarence Adams was one of twenty-one prisoners of war who refused repatriation back to the United States and instead migrated to the People's Republic of China. His decision was influenced by the antiblackness that structured the segregated U.S. South, curtailing his chances of upward mobility, as well as his compassion for the Korean civilians devastated by U.S. military intervention, prompting recognition of the shared oppression of Third World peoples.1 Twelve years later, during the Vietnam War, he broadcast a message to Black soldiers via Radio Hanoi, urging them to return to the United States: "You are fighting the wrong war. Brothers, go home. The Negro people need you back there."2 According to Daniel Y. Kim, "Adams mobilize[d] a historiography of a race war to cast both the Korean and Vietnam Wars as ones waged by a white empire against a colored population," exemplifying what Bill Mullens terms "Afro-Orientalism": a phenomenon in which Black activists turned to idealized Asian subjects for anti-imperialist and antiracist inspiration.3 I begin with Adams' story for three reasons. First, it highlights continuities between Black narratives of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Whereas historians have elucidated the experiences of Black soldiers during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, respectively, few studies have grappled with these two Cold War fronts in relation, noting patterns and [End Page 97] particularities in Black subject formation across the two U.S. imperial conflicts.4 With the signing of Executive Order 9981 in July 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the U.S. military, exemplifying the United States' project of racial liberalism and bolstering the expansion of the liberal empire, vis-à-vis the Soviet Union, even as Jim Crow laws continued to delimit the mobility of African Americans on the home front. Whereas the Korean War was the first U.S. experiment in militarized integration, it wasn't until the Vietnam War that the question of Black–white tensions in the military, transposed from the continental United States to the battlefront in Asia, gained widespread visibility. As Martin Luther King, Jr., famously observed in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech of April 1967: "[We watch] Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago."5 Segregation at home was only interrupted by "brutal solidarity" abroad: the uniting of Black and white soldiers in a common project of racialized wartime destruction.6 But continuities between the Korean and Vietnam Wars also led to political mobilization: many civil rights and Black Power leaders active during the Vietnam War era, such as Bobby Seale, James Forman, Ivory Perry, and Robert F. Williams, were radicalized during their experiences as Black soldiers in Cold War Korea.7 Second, Adams' story stitches together three southern spaces that are rarely discussed in relation: the U.S. South, South Korea, and South Vietnam. To focus on the southern-ness of these three sites is to trace the convergence of white supremacy, antiblackness, imperialism, and anticommunism that cohere at the intersection of the U.S. Civil War and Cold War politics.8 Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, amid the structural antiblackness of the segregated U.S. South, Adams joined the U.S. Army to escape incarceration at the hands of white policemen. This military service brought him to South Korea: a decolonizing nation that the United States had taken upon itself to protect in the Cold War struggle against North Korea, Communist China, and the Soviet Union. These south-south relationalities—the transposition of a Black subject of the U.S. South to the southern warfront of a new...