Series Of Wars Research Articles

Edward Dicey, Mass Politics, and International Affairs

The journalist, Edward Dicey, made an original contribution to the mid-nineteenth century debate on the growing involvement of the mass of people in political affairs. He argued that political education initially encouraged nationalism, causing the series of wars on which he reported. Beginning as an enthusiast for Camillo Cavour, the Piedmontese statesman, and the unification of Italy, Dicey became increasingly aware of the destructive impact of Irish nationalism on Britain and the threat to the British Empire from the growth of nationalist feelings amongst colonial peoples. However, he forecast that in the end, the forces of what at present is known as globalisation would bring nations closer together. Dicey is not well remembered today, but his work is important for showing the way in which a well-travelled Briton reacted to the breakdown in European security in the mid-nineteenth century and the growth of extra-European nationalism.

Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih: Ottoman's Great Strategic Planner

This study discusses the war strategies of Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih throughout his rule from the year 1451 until 1481. Al-Fatih was an Ottoman leadership figure who was characterized as wise, of great fame and a leader to be reckoned with. His figure, leadership and wisdom can be seen in his successful war strategies against enemies in each and every military expedition. The objective of this article is to analyze war strategic planning undertaken by Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih in a series of wars and the opening of territories which led to Ottoman's victories and success. This study employed a qualitative method via historical research and content analyzes of primary and secondary sources in the studies of the Ottomans. This study argues that Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih's war strategies were formulated at two stages, namely war strategies formulated before the war and war strategies sketched while the war was on-going. The former was the 'grand strategy' involving political, economic and military manouvres while the latter were planned during war cabinet meetings in the battlefields.

Melusine: or, the Noble History of Lusignan by Jean d’Arras (review)

Reviewed by: Melusine: or, the Noble History of Lusignan by Jean d’Arras Glynnis M. Cropp Jean d’Arras, Melusine: or, the Noble History of Lusignan, trans. and intro. Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox, University Park, Penn State University Press, 2012; hardback; pp. 251; 2 maps; R.R.P US$69.95; ISBN 9780271054124. The medallion on the front jacket combines three significant components of Jean d’Arras’s late fourteenth-century prose romance: the mythical fairy–serpent [End Page 221] Melusine; the feudal fortress of Lusignan; and the arms of this once powerful dynasty. The love and marriage of Raymondin, son of Hervé de Léon, and the unknown lady Melusine, daughter of a king of Scotland, gave them ten sons, eight of whom became rulers of important lands in France, Western Europe, and along the Mediterranean to the Near East. Military aid to a ruler threatened by the Saracens, marriage to his daughter, and accession to supremacy over the territory gave splendid opportunities for the sons’ formidable exploits and the display of chivalrous and humane qualities. Integrated in this feudal context are features from legend and folklore: the fantasy and mystery of Melusine’s origins, wealth and passion for building (e.g., the Lusignan fortress), the condition she imposed on the marriage, and the superhuman strength, violence, and wrath of the sixth son, Geoffroy Big-Tooth, who eventually became Lord of Lusignan. The sons’ destinies and achievements are the main narrative focus in the series of wars forming the Lusignan dynasty. It had, however, nearly petered out when Jean d’Arras composed Melusine in 1392–93. The romance was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, a Lusignan descendant, who supplied the source chronicle or story. At that time he had just wrested Lusignan back from the English, and Léon VI of Lusignan, exiled king of Armenia, was living his last days at the French court. This enthralling story, which reflects contemporary preoccupations with both the war between France and England and the lingering idea of further crusades to the East, helps justify Jean de Berry’s rightful claim to Lusignan. The Melusine myth and its association with the history of Lusignan have had a long literary life, including Coudrette’s verse romance (c. 1401), and have generated much scholarship. In this, his only known work, Jean d’Arras has a lively prose style that is well conveyed in the translation. He frequently alerted readers to a shift from one place or action to another, and to coming events, thus achieving a clearly articulated narrative, with sustained pace. He regularly mentioned his use of the true story, his source. He described vividly the formation of armies and battle scenes, with certain traits of epic style, and more succinctly court festivities, sometimes fast-forwarding the story with a quick remark: ‘Let us not linger on this …’ (p. 35), or ‘Why give a long account?’ (p. 45). He commanded different styles, from the didactic and sententious to the abusive insults exchanged by adversaries on the battlefield. Authorial craftsmanship is evident. The Introduction is an excellent account of the background, the blending of history and fiction, Melusine and her mythical and human roles, Geoffroy Big-Tooth’s infamy and eventual inheritance, Jean de Berry’s claim, Coudrette’s verse romance, printed editions and manuscripts, the prose style and its translation. Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox have resolved problems of the kind faced by translators of medieval works and provided a [End Page 222] thoroughly readable text, expressing in places the élan, drama, and emotion of the story. Without loss of meaning, they have sensibly compressed needless repetition and reduced instances of wordiness, such as in passages on King Elinas’s death (p. 26) and Melusine’s bathing (p. 181). I noted with interest the different translations of French fantosme by ‘phantasm’ (p. 33), and by ‘phantom’ and ‘apparition’ (p. 189), and the expression ‘on God’s side’ to render ‘de par Dieu’. A curious textual discrepancy merits comment. Froimont is the seventh son, as listed on p. 71, but later, when the birth of Melusine’s last two sons is mentioned (p. 148), Froimont is named as the ninth...

Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815

This article investigates whether a military revolution took place in the German lands during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, with the potential to transform institutions and to alter contemporaries’ attitudes not merely to war, but to politics and diplomacy. The scholarly debate about a metamorphosis of warfare during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods involves three connected controversies: the meaning and timing of any ‘revolution’ in the conduct of war, the existence of a ‘total war’ in or after 1792, and the continuation of ‘cabinet warfare’ by the majority of the German states. Recently, historians have argued that the geographical and political diversity of the German states, in conjunction with popular criticism of the burdens and sacrifices of conflict in southern and western Germany, militated against a broad military revolution. This study contends that such reactions were themselves indicative of the transformation wrought by the conscription of more mobile and destructive mass armies in a seemingly unending series of wars, which ensured that military conflicts impinged more fully on civilian life.

The missing “fifth column”: the effects of North Caucasus resettlement and deportations in the late 1800s on North Caucasians’ participation in the First World War

At the outbreak of the First World War, Sultan Mehmet V of the Ottoman Empire issued two fatwas at Germany’s behest, calling for all Muslims to unite in global jihad against their Christian oppressors. Yet despite Russia’s designation as an “arch-enemy” after a series of wars spanning centuries, the Ottoman Sultan excused the Chechens, Dagestanis, and Circassians from conducting jihad against Russia. This was an extraordinary omission, especially given Ottoman concerns about a “Russian fifth column” (the Ottoman Armenians), and the general effectiveness of religion as a unifying and mobilizing mechanism in this era. Why did the Ottomans not attempt to foment the very same kind of unrest in Russia that they feared from Armenians in Anatolia? This article addresses the historical mystery of the “missing Ottoman fatwa” against the Russians, through exploration of the preceding 50 years of conflict in the Caucasus and the over-arching context of Russo-Ottoman military rivalry and war. The article argues that the devastation of the Russian deportations and resettlement of North Caucasus populations prior to the 1877–78 Russo-Ottoman War led the Sultan to believe that the Caucasus Muslims were too weak to be used as an effective fighting force. This resulted in their excusal from armed jihad, while the perceived effectiveness of such programs simultaneously influenced the Ottoman adoption of similar programs contributing ultimately to the Armenian Genocide.

The missing “fifth column”: the effects of North Caucasus resettlement and deportations in the late 1800s on North Caucasians’ participation in the First World War

At the outbreak of the First World War, Sultan Mehmet V of the Ottoman Empire issued two fatwas at Germany’s behest, calling for all Muslims to unite in global jihad against their Christian oppressors. Yet despite Russia’s designation as an “arch-enemy” after a series of wars spanning centuries, the Ottoman Sultan excused the Chechens, Dagestanis, and Circassians from conducting jihad against Russia. This was an extraordinary omission, especially given Ottoman concerns about a “Russian fifth column” (the Ottoman Armenians), and the general effectiveness of religion as a unifying and mobilizing mechanism in this era. Why did the Ottomans not attempt to foment the very same kind of unrest in Russia that they feared from Armenians in Anatolia? This article addresses the historical mystery of the “missing Ottoman fatwa” against the Russians, through exploration of the preceding 50 years of conflict in the Caucasus and the over-arching context of Russo-Ottoman military rivalry and war. The article argues that the devastation of the Russian deportations and resettlement of North Caucasus populations prior to the 1877-78 Russo-Ottoman War led the Sultan to believe that the Caucasus Muslims were too weak to be used as an effective fighting force. This resulted in their excusal from armed jihad, while the perceived effectiveness of such programs simultaneously influenced the Ottoman adoption of similar programs contributing ultimately to the Armenian Genocide.

Evaluation of Public and Private Schools Physical Environment Standardized Features in Kirkuk City

Background and aim: In the case of Kirkuk City and Iraq as a whole, the previous study concerns and guidelines become even more pressing , given that this Middle Eastern country has been subjected to years of neglect, damage, and deterioration, exacerbated and compounded by a series of wars. In fact, Iraqi researches state that prior to 1990, education was a thriving sector in Iraq. However, after two decades of war and deprivation, the quality and availability of learning deteriorated dramatically. Therefore, the present study conducted in order to evaluate the public and private schools' physical environment Standardized features in Kirkuk City and to compare between them. Materials and method: A descriptive comparative design is employed through the present study from April 1st, 2012 to May 20th, 2013. An instrument of (141) item is constructed for the purpose of the study.A purposive (nonprobability) sample is selected for the study which includes (44) school; (22) private and (22) public of Kirkuk Education Directorate. Data are analyzed through the application the approaches of descriptive statistical data analysis and inferential statistical data analysis ones. Results: The findings of the study present that the overall evaluation depicts the significant difference between public and private schools' physical environment standardized features. Conclusion: The overall evaluation presents a significant difference between public and private schools' physical environment standardized features. Keywords: public and private schools, physical environment, Kirkuk city

Turning Points of World War I: An Interview with Ian F.W. Beckett

Turning Points of World War I: An Interview with Ian F.W. Beckett Donald A. Yerxa AS WE APPROACH THE CENTENARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF World War I, there will be no dearth of books dealing with the conflict. And in these pages we will be highlighting some of the best of these, especially those that look at the war in a new light. In The Making of the First World War (Yale University Press, 2013) Ian F.W. Beckett discusses twelve pivotal moments that not only changed the outcome of the war, but also the global history of the 20th century. Senior editor Donald A. Yerxa interviewed Beckett in January 2013. Donald A. Yerxa: Would you provide our readers with a summary of what you are doing inThe Making of the First World War? Ian F.W. Beckett: I was asked to comment on a manuscript suggesting various turning points in the Second World War. While they were clearly significant, the chosen events were all either political or military, and of immediate impact. I suggested that one should look beyond purely political and military episodes. I was then invited, or rather challenged, to show what I meant in terms of the Great War. Accordingly, I am trying to illustrate a broad range of events between 1914 and 1919 that might be considered important turning points or pivotal moments, not just at the precise moment they occurred but also for the future unfolding of historical events. I also wanted to illustrate social and cultural themes, and to be consciously global rather than purely Eurocentric in my choices. Yerxa: How did you go about selecting the episodes you discuss in the book? Beckett: I began with a fairly long list and whittled it down in the end to twelve illustrative episodes. Some events of lasting global significance had to be included, such as the fall of the Romanovs, the division of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East—I deal with Turkish entry to the war in 1914 as well as the Balfour Declaration in 1917—and Woodrow Wilson’s impact on peacemaking. I felt that what might be termed “decisive battles”—and even more so the opening days of prolonged campaigns— were a cul-de-sac to avoid. Consider the continuing popular British obsession with July 1, 1916, the opening day of the battle of the Somme. This has had a cultural impact in Britain, but only since the 1960s; the Anzac landing on Gallipoli in April 1915 had a cultural impact at the time, and it continues to this day in terms of Australian perceptions. I also wanted to illustrate aspects of the “totality” of the war such as economic mobilization and the ways in which civilians became legitimate targets for attack. I wanted to choose some less obvious events, such as the Belgians opening the floodgates to close off the last open sector of what was to become the Western Front in 1914. The symbolism of the death of Emperor Franz Joseph also seemed an interesting case to examine. Above all, I wanted to provoke a debate on what constitutes historical turning points that might be useful for students as well as interesting to general readers. Click for larger view View full resolution A scene from the Somme in The Devil is Coming, episode 13 of the BBC's Great War series (1964). Yerxa: What prompted you to write this particular book on World War I? Beckett: I had more or less decided that I had written enough on the First World War after completing the second edition of my general text, The Great War, 1914–18, in 2007. But it is such a fascinating and complex conflict that I though it worth revisiting one more time, and it seemed a way perhaps of reaching an audience that would not have been necessarily exposed to some of the academic revisionism that has revolutionized historians’ views of the war in the last decade or so. In Britain in particular there is still this popular image of futility that needs to be challenged. Yerxa: What was the impact of the first true war documentary,The Battle of the Somme...

Sinistra e destra in Grecia dal XX al XXI secolo

Left and Right in Greece from the 20th into the 21st century The article explores the evolution of left/right division in Greece, drawing upon macro sociological theories regarding social and political cleavages. It analyses the major historical divisions that have given meaning to the left/right dichotomy and have structured Greek party system over a century. Among a series of wars, civil quarrels, economical and political crises, which have taken place throughout the Twentieth century, two civil conflicts have marked political rivalries and configured political identities: the National Schism (1915-1917) and the Civil War (1943-1949). They have established a three-camp party system, which had endured until the 1967-1974 military dictatorship. The democratization of the country and the liberalization of political institutions in the post-junta era gave birth to new coalitions and political formations, which established a two-party system on the basis of right/anti-right dichotomy. The outbreak of economic crisis in 2010 and the austerity measures that came as a consequence have divided society and politics in two camps: the advocates and opponents of the Memorandum. The political stances regarding the management of the crisis has magnified the significance of pro/anti-memorandum cleavage and, thus, weakened the importance of the left/right division.

American growth and Napoleonic Wars

Four years after the French Revolution, in 1793 a series of wars among France and other major powers of Europe began and they lasted until 1815. There is disagreement among economic historians about the effects of these wars on the trend of US economic growth. This paper aims to answer the following question. Did America as a neutral nation take advantage of economic possibilities caused by Europe at war through trade? To put it differently, this paper questions whether there was an export-led growth due to the war. To answer this question, we re-examined the export-led growth hypothesis for the period 1790-1860 using the ARDL methodology. Based on this methodology, a cointegrated relationship is found among the variables of real GDP, labor, exports and exchange rates. The results suggest that the economic growth of the US was not export-driven. In addition, parallel to the results of unit root tests with structural breaks, the coefficient of the dummy variable was statistically significant in the long run, implying that the war did have a significant effect on the economic growth trend of the US.

The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series

The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series

An Alternative Explanation for Anti-Japanese Sentiment in China: Shifting State-Society Interaction in China's Japan Policy

The historical turbulence between China and Japan started from the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, and culminated in Japan's invasion of China during World War Two (the Second Sino-Japanese War) between 1937 and 1945. A series of wars caused huge human and material losses in both countries, and both experienced comprehensive transformations during and after the wars. The impact of this historical turbulence is so long-lasting that it still influences both countries' social psyche. Moreover, it continues casting a long shadow upon the current Sino-Japanese relations. The recent turbulence in Sino-Japanese relations partly stems from the historical turbulence. It is much less violent but can also be emotional and worrisome. It started from the early 1980s (the Japanese history textbook controversy in 1982 and the 1985 anti-Japanese student protests in China), and culminated in the anti-Japanese mass demonstrations in multiple Chinese cities in 2005 (Bush 2010; Gries 2005; Reilly 2012; Stockmann 2010; Weiss 2008). In addition to dramatic demonstrations on streets, there are also other forms of movements, such as war reparations movements, in which Chinese war victims demand reparations from the Japanese state and companies (Rose 2005; Xu and Fine 2010; Xu and Pu 2010). Although the tension has existed for many years and surfaced from time to time, the eruption of the nationwide anti-Japanese movements in China in 2005 still shocked many outside observers. Many scholars have tried to explain the anti-Japanese sentiment within current Chinese society that underlies and drives these social movements. Through careful reexamination of the existing literature, this article proposes an explanation for the anti-Japanese sentiment from a perspective that stresses the shifting state-society interaction in China's Japan policy. Specifically, the totalitarian Chinese state's neglect and suppression of genuine social concerns regarding Japan in earlier years, followed by a relatively liberalized state that tolerates societal participation in Sino-Japanese relations, are an importance source of the anti-Japanese sentiment recently observed in China.

Toward Peace: Foreign Arms and Indigenous Institutions in a Papua New Guinea Society

In 1990, shotguns and M-16s were adopted into Enga warfare, setting off some 15 years of devastation as youths (~17 to 28) took charge of interclan warfare. In response, people called on elder leaders to adapt customary institutions to restore peace; subsequently, war deaths and the frequency of war declined radically. Data from precolonial warfare, 501 recent wars, and 129 customary court sessions allow us to consider (i) the principles and values behind customary institutions for peace, (ii) their effectiveness, (iii) how they interact with and compare to state institutions of today, and (iv) how such institutions might have shaped our human behavioral repertoire to make life in state societies possible.

The Black Hawk War of 1832 (review)

The Black Hawk War of 1832. By Patrick J. Jung. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. Pp. 275. Cloth $29.95.)Reviewed by Andrew K. FrankIn 1832, nearly 1,100 Indians in the trans- Appalachian West followed the elder Sauk warrior Black Hawk and defied a federal order to remain to the west of the Mississippi River and away from their recently vacated lands in Illinois. Black Hawk and the others did not necessarily intend a violent protest of this manifestation of the American policy of Indian removal, but anxieties within the United States made the war inevitable and divisions within the Native American communities made it disastrous. More than half of Black Hawk's followers died in the subsequent and short-lived war, and the resistance movement came to a crashing halt when the United States ruthlessly assaulted the remaining supporters near Bad Axe, Wisconsin. In this carefully researched volume, Patrick J. Jung contends that competing and overlapping dynamics - American expansion, rampant anti- Americanism, intratribal factions, and intertribal warfare - defined the path that led to the war and shaped its outcome.Jung begins his analysis in the decades that preceded the war, demonstrating a propensity of the Sauks and Foxes to resist political and cultural domination and their long history of resistance and mistrust of the United States and other imperial powers (13). Assaults on their culture in the name of civilization, a controversial treaty in 1804 with the United States, and forced land cessions further created the fertile ground for the nativist awakening that reshaped the region in the early nineteenth century. Drawing upon the work of Gregory Dowd and others, Jung explains how an ideology of millennialism and promises of a better future gave voice to the existing anti- Americanism for many Sauk and Foxes. Although the influence of Neolin, Tecumseh, and Tenskwatawa had long been diffused by 1832, intensely anti- American sentiments remained a powerful ideological force for Black Hawk and many others in the region (32).After 1815, anti- Americanism and nativism suffered from forces that created equally important intertribal enmities that privileged national or tribal identities. In this context, two alliance systems - one centered around the Ojibwas and the other around the Sauk and Fox - divided the region into competitive and violent intertribal groups. As a result, a series of private wars and raids became endemic among the Native Americans. The United States intervened in these disputes to prevent conflagrations between the Indians that threatened neighboring American communities. The Native American situation became more complicated as calls for Indian removal became louder in the late 1820s. This too divided Native peoples, with anti-removal and pro-removal factions vying for control of their people. In these debates, Native factions disputed the legitimacy of the Treaty of 1804 amongst themselves, with Black Hawk leading those (a so-called British Band) who opposed it.As the United States remained preoccupied with controlling intertribal disputes, Black Hawk declared that the Sauk and Fox retained the right to live east of the Mississippi River. After Black Hawk was compelled temporarily to move his people west, he led his followers back east on a path of diplomatic resistance. …

Legální a nelegální války v dnešním světě

After the year 1990 a total of 120 wars have taken place. The most appealing were those initiated by the USA, in which other friendly states´ve participated as well. No country has the right to invade its neighbour or over-run and annex another. There were many discussions in the world over the legacy of imposed interventions, under which conditions they are true and just. The study covers two dissimilar attitudes: the first one against Hussein's expansionist policy in 1991 and warfare after 9/11 2001. The legitimacy rests upon Resolutions of the United Nations Security Council that allow any nation to remove the aggressor by force. The author also mentions a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995, and then again from 1998 until 1999/2001.

Depression – The Global Crisis

Byline: M. Reddy With the backdrop, Depression - The global crisis, as the theme for the year 2012-2013, this is an attempt to compile some clinical pearls, a few loud thoughts, lingering dilemmas, myriad questions, current challenges, research questions, and tomorrow's optimism! WHO - Depression will be the second most common cause of disability by 2020, and the first by 2040! Sadness may be adaptive, in the evolutionary sense, by permitting withdrawal to conserve inner resources or signal the need for support from significant others. Hippocrates (460-357 BC) described melancholia. The first English text entirely devoted to affective illness was Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholia published in 1621…. described causeless melancholia. Sartorius, in 2001, predicted the prevalence of depressive disorders would increase in the years to come, citing various reasons. Did it really increase in the last decade? The international consortium of psychiatric epidemiology interviewed 37,000 adults in 10 countries (USA, South America, Europe, and Asia) using WHO composite international diagnostic interview and found the lifetime prevalence of depression for adults varied from 3% in Japan (the country ravaged by the series of war, earthquakes, tsunamis, economic slowdown, and with high rates of suicide) to 16.9% in USA. Fashion of the day will be to dismiss this difference due to methodological issues. Probing into the reasons for this striking difference in these two developed countries may offer useful insights, data invaluable for primary prevention of depression in the population . Depression is a risk factor for type II diabetes mellitus, and cardio vascular and cerebrovascular disorders, and a bidirectional positive association has been assumed. Depression is an independent risk factor, and the mediating factor could be hyper cortisolism / Dysregulation of HPA axis. DSM IV TR makes no provision for family history and history of past episodes. In clinical practice, these factors would strongly weigh in diagnosis of depression. episodes of behavioral abnormality - consider always the diagnosis of mood disorder as the first choice. Recurrent schizophrenia is described, but is an uncommon presentation. Is MDD with psychosis mostly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia? One-third of depressive patients fulfill the diagnostic criteria for a personality disorder, most commonly of obsessive-compulsive personality. 40% of patients with depressive disorders have anxiety disorders/alcohol abuse as co-morbidity. Kraeplin believed that no more than 5% of patients with mood disorders have chronicity, whereas the current figures show chronicity going up to 30% - ? Reasons Akiskal et al ., in 1978 - reported that in a 3-year follow-up of 100 patients diagnosed with neurotic depression, 18 developed bipolarity, 36 had revised diagnosis of endogenous depression, and 42 showed episodic course…. The classification into endogenous - reactive subtypes seems to be passe and mood disorders are best conceptualized as endoreactive, unitary model of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) . The increasing clinical diagnosis of depressive disorders should not be dismissed as mere therapeutic fad. External validating strategies, such as genetic and prospective follow-up studies, buttress the broadened concept. In dysthymic and cyclothymic disorders, representing milder forms/intense temperamental instability, impairment is not due to the severity of mood disturbance per se , but to the cumulative impact of the dysregulation beginning in the early years and continuing unabated or intermittently over long periods. The sub-threshold conditions appear to be fertile terrain for interpersonal conflicts and post-affective pathological character development that may ravage the lives of patients and their families. …

Star Wars franchise, fan edits, and Lucasfilm

Fan edits assert that fan authority is on par with that of a work's original creator; this authority is generated not only through the argument, but through the structure of the text itself. Fan edits adhere to classical filmmaking techniques, creating coherent plots and editing for continuity. These recut texts are emblematic of current ownership debates; they are the read/write culture brought to fandom. The Star Wars series of films are among the most frequently recut texts and are my focus here.

Here Comes the Fear—Again

Here Comes the Fear—Again Matthew Salafia (bio) Craig Thompson Friend . Kentucke's Frontiers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010. xxiv + 369 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. $34.95. Stanley Harrold . Border War: Fighting over Slavery before the Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010. xvi + 292 pp. Illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, and index. $30.00. Anne E. Marshall . Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. xiii + 233. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $35.00. "Lie still and go to sleep, or the Shawnees will catch you," Kentucky women warned their children at the start of the nineteenth century, using fears of Native American bogeymen to discipline their children (Friend, p. 256). In the antebellum period when Kentuckians' anger was "waxing warm," the Warsaw Patriot, in order to silence abolitionists' "demon spirits" (Harrold, p. 81), called for capital punishment for anyone convicted of circulating antislavery documents. Finally, in the postebellum South, with Kentucky wracked by violence, the New York Times stated "the peaceable people of Kentucky are to-day in more danger from outlaws and murderers of their own race than they were at the dawn of the century from hostile Indians" (Marshall, p. 79). Whether found in bedtime stories or on the pages of the New York Times, fear, with its unique combination of universality and divisiveness, plays a special role in Kentucky's history. Fear of external invasion and internal subversion haunted white Kentuckians from the settlement of the region to the emergence of modern Kentucky in the twentieth century. But, rather than let fear cripple them, Kentuckians embraced it to define themselves against their real and imagined enemies. Taken in sequence, Craig Thompson Friend's Kentucke's Frontiers, Stanley Harrold's Border War: Fighting over Slavery before the Civil War, and Anne Marshall's Creating Confederate Kentucky, provide a history of Kentucky from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth; yet at each stage of development, fear drives [End Page 73] Kentucky's history. White Kentuckians seemed to be constantly assailed by both real and perceived threats to their very existence, and they made this persistent state of conflict the foundation of their identity. White Kentuckians turned that fear of invasion and subversion into a call for vigilant defense; and in defining their internal and external enemies, however inchoate, they in turn defined what it meant to be a Kentuckian. In Kentucke's Frontiers, Craig Thompson Friend argues that the transition from a western Kentucky in the 1770s to a southern Kentucky in the 1800s was not a natural development but was instead a contested process that ended with the dominance of wealthy white male Kentuckians. Friend frames this transition, and Kentucky's early history more broadly, through the rise and fall of several frontiers. He uses the term frontier to unite Kentucky's history, from the "Indians' Frontiers" of the early eighteenth century to the "Old South frontier" that developed at the start of the nineteenth century. Even more than cultural conflict, Friend makes the argument that violence, fear, and terror defined these various frontiers. Violence between native people, between white hunters and native hunters, between white settlers and Native Americans and then between free whites and enslaved African Americans were all part of the settlement of Kentucky. Indeed, decades of violent conflict led white Kentuckians' to construct their identity in opposition to an "Other." Native Americans were colonial Kentuckians' negative reference point, but Friend argues that, by 1800, "African Americans became the dark, uncivilized Others" (Friend, p. xxi). According to Friend, both violence and fluidity characterized "Indians' frontiers" and the early colonial frontiers. A series of imperial wars both led to the depopulation of the trans-Appalachian West and its eventual repopulation by the Shawnee, Miami, and Mingo. Much of this material will be familiar to specialists on the early American West, but Friend offers a model that connects this early history of Kentucke with later periods in colonial American history. While this frontier ends with the conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763, it is only the beginning of a colonial...

A COUNTRY AT WAR, 1939-1945; THE MOOD OF A NATION

“A Country at War" is the tenth release in the South Africans at War series which is published under the Ashanti label. The book is an account of the attitudes and conditions which characterised South Africa as a nation during the Second World War. A quick glance at the contents pages will reveal that the publication covers a wide variety of aspects concerning South Africa's involvement in the conflict. The book comes in a hardcover edition and is illustrated with plenty of photographs, many of which have not been used in previous publications, as well as reproductions of the posters that were printed by the Union Government for recruitment, security and other war effort purposes. The book is ordered in a chronological fashion and runs from 1938 through to the, end of the war in 1945. The writer, Jennifer Cryws-WiIIiams, is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. Cryws-Williams has written three previous books and is the editor of numerous other publications.

CAPTIVES COURAGEOUS: SOUTH AFRICAN PRISONERS OF WAR WORLD WAR II

Captives Courageous; South African prisoners of war in World War II is the ninth work in the South Africans at War series published by Ashanti Press. Leigh has divided his book into two parts. In the first part, entitled "Into the bag", he details the capture of South Africans in the Western Desert and their rapid transition from efficient fighting men to often sickly and weak prisoners of war (POW). The Western Desert was an unforgiving environment in which to find oneself a prisoner of war. If passing fighters or bombers (of either side) did not "get" you the dysentry invariably did. The heat, lack of water and lack of compassion shown by Axis non-frontline troops towards South African prisoners of war are all documented by Leigh. He also highlights the differences South Africans experienced in the treatment meted out by Italians on the one hand and Germans on the other. Ironically this relationship was to change later in the war, when many South Africans were moved north into Germany after the collapse of Italy in mid-1943. The conditions in POW camps in Germany were much tougher than those experienced in Italy.Â