War Campaign Research Articles

Review: The London Square: Gardens in the Midst of Town, by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan

Todd Longstaffe-Gowan The London Square: Gardens in the Midst of Town New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2012, 348 pp., 88 color and 202 b/w illus. $65 (cloth), ISBN 9780300152012 In the illuminated distance of Elias Martin’s 1769 View of Hanover Square , Trinity Chapel sits on the horizon line. A Protestant edifice situated at the end of a long axial view across this new London square, it is a counterpoint to the imposing facade of St. George’s Church. This painting suggests that streets were designed to converge perspectivally on this diminutive chapel, a fact borne out by contemporary maps. Trinity Chapel was a recent addition to London’s cityscape and was made to replace a temporary wooden chapel on wheels. The wooden structure was replaced by a “chapel of ease,” shown in Martin’s image, and was designated as such by the Parish of St. Martin’s in the Fields. Its parish church was overflowing with new members after the construction of sophisticated London squares in the West End.1 Trinity Chapel was hence a product of the city’s expanding population and the new geography of parish life responding to the construction of London’s ubiquitous squares. Martin’s image serves as the cover for Todd Longstaffe-Gowan’s The London Square: Gardens in the Midst of Town , and although the image is briefly described for its representation of the new Hanover Square, Trinity Chapel is nowhere mentioned in the text. Longstaffe-Gowan’s book is not about painting, nor is it about London’s myriad churches, and yet not discussing a central aspect of the book’s cover image—a chapel so implicitly woven into the narrative of landscape, urban development, and the outcomes of London’s rampant square-building—is the sort of omission that occurs too often in this large and well-illustrated text. For many images, the author provides little interpretation, and there are contradictions, especially in the early chapters, between images and text. Within the text itself, each chapter has its own host of loose threads: topics never fully …

Memorialization on War-Broken Ground

Memorialization on War-Broken Ground: Gallipoli War Cemeteries and Memorials Designed by Sir John James Burnet focuses on the problems posed by the endeavor to memorialize the Gallipoli campaign of World War I and the memorials designed by the principal architect of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, Sir John James Burnet. The commission’s work in Gallipoli is different from the memorials on the western front not only because its location is on “enemy” land but also because Burnet’s modifications of the commission’s design principles were developed to represent a coherent imperial identity around the world. AhenkYılmaz analyzes these modifications and the motives behind them to demonstrate the process by which the landscape and the stories of the campaign shaped the techniques of commemoration on this war-broken ground.

Commemoration reconsidered: Second World War Veterans’ reunion as pilgrimage

This article recognises the crucial role cultural and social contexts play in shaping individual and collective recollections. Such recollections involve multiple, intertwined levels of experience in the real world such as commemorating a war. Thus, the commemoration practised in a particular context deserves an empirical investigation. The methodological approach taken is naturalistic, as it situates commemoration as remembering and recollection in the real world of things and people. I consider the case of a war veterans’ reunion as an analogy for a pilgrimage, and in that pilgrimage-like transformative process, we can observe the dynamics of remembering that is mediated with artefacts and involves people’s interactions with the social environment. Furthermore, remembering, recollection and commemorating the war can be approached in terms of embodied interactions with culturally and historically organised materials. In this article, I will review the relevant literature on key topics and concepts including pilgrimage, transformation and liminality and communitas in order to create a theoretical framework. I present an analysis and discussion on the ethnographic fieldwork on the Burma Campaign (of the Second World War) veterans’ reunion. The article strives to contribute to the critical forum of memory research, highlighting the significance of a holistic and interdisciplinary exposition of the vital role context plays in the practice of commemorating war.

In Search of the ‘X’ Factor: Morale and the Study of Strategy

A functional conceptualisation of morale is proposed, which focuses its meaning on motivation and the willingness to act rather than mood and group dynamics. Morale, it is argued, emerges from the subtle interrelationships of the many factors known to affect military means. It can be assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively, allowing the interaction between morale and policy to be explored in a manner that facilitates insight into the strategic process. A case study from the North African campaign of World War II is presented to explore in detail the relationship between morale and the art of war – strategy.

The Chattanooga Campaign by Ed. Steven E. Woodworth, Charles D. Grear (review)

Reviewed by: The Chattanooga Campaign by Ed. Steven E. Woodworth, Charles D. Grear Carl C. Creason The Chattanooga Campaign. Ed. Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8093-3119-2, 256pp., cloth, $29.95. In April 2009, the Southern Illinois University Press began publication of the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series, a collection of works focused on providing fresh interpretations and analyses of the most important battles and campaigns in the West. Two books have already been released—The Shiloh Campaign 2009 and The Chickamauga Campaign 2010—and this latest volume continues the trend by providing a quality and substantial study of a decisive campaign that occurred during the third year of the war. The Chattanooga Campaign consists of ten chapter-length essays written by several previous contributors to the series. In the opening chapter, Alex Mendoza describes a “perfect storm of ineffectiveness” that plagued the First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia’s leadership in late October 1863 (18). By directing equal responsibility to Longstreet’s brigade and division commanders, Mendoza corrects the misconception that James Longstreet alone should receive blame for the Confederate defeat in Lookout Valley. Stewart Bennett’s essay focuses on the fighting in Lookout Valley as well; however, his essay details the battle through a Union lens. Although the “small [End Page 218] yet intense fights within Lookout Valley”—Wauhatchie, Smith’s Hill, and Tyndale’s Hill—have been overshadowed by the fighting on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Bennett’s essay establishes their significance in setting the stage for a Union victory during the campaign (48). On November 24, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant, the newly appointed commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, initiated his plan to drive the Confederates from their positions surrounding Chattanooga. The chapters authored by Steven E. Woodworth and John R. Lundberg examine William T. Sherman’s assault on Tunnel Hill, which served as the primary attack against the Confederate right on Missionary Ridge. Similar to the first two chapters, these explore the fighting from opposing perspectives—Woodworth probes Sherman’s assault and Lundberg surveys Patrick Cleburne’s defense. Both authors view Tunnel Hill as a tactical achievement by Cleburne, who remained proactive and utilized the terrain to his advantage. Correctly described in the introduction as “a tour de force of historical investigation,” Brooks D. Simpson’s essay scrutinizes the documented accounts of events that transpired on November 25, 1863 (3). Ultimately, Simpson determines two significant details regarding Union strategy that day. First, Sherman’s advance against Tunnel Hill remained the primary Union attack—not a diversion to draw Confederate troops away from the center, and second, the Union attack against the center of Missionary Ridge “was always part of the discussion, not a spur-of-the-moment decision undertaken in haste” (100). On November 24, 1863, Joseph Hooker obtained personal redemption by capturing Lookout Mountain for the Union army. As Sam Davis Elliot indicates, historians—and even Hooker himself—have viewed the capture as the commander’s greatest contribution during the campaign. Elliot’s essay argues that Hooker’s capture of Rossville Gap on the following day, which “had the potential for much greater results” than the capture of Lookout Mountain, proved equally significant (127). Justin S. Solonick’s essay examines Cleburne’s victory on November 27, 1863, at the Battle of Ringgold Gap, where once again the commander employed battlefield terrain to his advantage, this time to save Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Solonick’s essay also serves as an important assessment of the effectiveness of Civil War rearguards, units the author justifies as having “contributed to the longevity of the American Civil War” (147). In a study of Civil War–era media, Ethan S. Rafuse analyzes the coverage of events from the Union defeat at Chickamauga to their victory on Missionary Ridge within three Cincinnati newspapers. The newspapers “fulfilled their role of providing a connection between the battlefield and the home front well” (177). Charles D. Grear’s provocative scholarship on the increase of desertions by trans-Mississippi Confederates serves as an important study of the priorities and motivations of Civil War combatants. For many...

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign. By Roger Peace. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Pp. 307. Notes. Index. $28.95.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign. By Roger Peace. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Pp. 307. Notes. Index. $28.95.

Reflecting on the Latest Drug War Fronts

A criminal justice response to drug use in the United States has a long and dynamic history, and many advocates for significant reform of current drugs laws reasonably suggest that today's criminal laws are comparable to alcohol Prohibition a century ago. The modern era of federal drug prohibition arguably began when President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s first embraced war metaphors and rhetoric to describe and justify domestic policies to combat drug use and abuse. Despite persistent concerns and criticisms about the tone and tactics used in the so-called war on drugs, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and William Clinton all continued, and often escalated, the national drug war campaign through repeated emphasis on social problems created by drug use and through persistent support for extensive criminal justice responses to these problems. The most tangible and consequential federal facets of the modern drug war find expression in the modern federal sentencing structure for drug crimes. Congress greatly increased the criminal penalties for drug trafficking through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and subsequent legislation; these statutes created severe mandatory minimum drug sentences triggered by the quantity of drugs involved in an offense, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission has built even more severe guideline sentencing provi- sions atop these statutory minimum prison terms. As a result of these statutory and guideline provi- sions, the average prison term for every federal drug crime, as well as the total number of federal prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses, increased dramatically. By at the start of the 21st century, after decades of drug war rhetoric and lengthened prison terms for drug offenses, local and national politicians starting voicing some of the social and economic concerns

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign. By Roger Peace. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Pp. 307. Notes. Index. $28.95.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign. By Roger Peace. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Pp. 307. Notes. Index. $28.95.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

RogerPeace. A Call to Conscience: The Anti‐Contra War Campaign. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

RogerPeace. A Call to Conscience: The Anti‐Contra War Campaign. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

Działalność gabinetu Leopolda Skulskiego w świetle protokołów posiedzeń Rady Ministrów (13 XII 1919 – 9 VI 1920) i rola rządu w okresie przygotowań do „wyprawy kijowskiej”

SUMMARY Activities of the cabinet of Leopold Skulski on the basis of the minutes of the Council of Ministers’ Meetings (13th December 1919 – 9th June 1920) and the role of the government in the period of preparations for the Kiev offensive The government of Leopold Skulski had been active under the pressure of war preparation but was mainly occupied by internal issues. Foreign policy was under the control of the country’s leader, Marshal J. Pilsudski. The cabinet of Leopold Skulski had little roomfor maneuver, the expenses connected with the war campaign represented 60% of the country’s total budget. Even though war orders had a very positive influence on industrial and agricultural output growth, the bulk of that output had been absorbed by the army, which automatically created problems in the open market. Similarly, the country’s foreign trade balance was significantly overloaded by the burden of military expenditure with inflation providing a source of solid reven ue income for covering war expenses. The Skulski government tried to stabilize the internal balance; on 1 April 1920 it unified the various state treasury and taxation systems and on 29 April, it unified the country’s five currencies into a single currency. On 1 June, a unified railway tariff covering the whole country was introduced. During the activity of this government, parliament had to agree an eight hour working day and a 46 hour working week for the workers, as well as providing them with a social security system.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign by Roger Peace

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign by Roger Peace

LICE I NALIČJE JEDNOG VLADARA: PORTRET MATIJE KORVINA U ISTORIOGRAFSKOM SPISU ITALIJANSKOG HUMANISTE

U radu se posmatra lik i delo ugarskog kralja Matije Korvina iz vizure italijanskog humanista rodom iz Askolija, Antonija Bonfinija. Prvih osam knjiga dela Rerum Ungaricarum Decades, tomus IV, učeni pisac posvetio je vladaru Ugarske. Hronološki, rad obuhvata period od Matijinog svečanog krunisanja krunom ”sv. Stefana” 1464. do njegove smrti 1490. godine. Kazivanje italijanskog humaniste poredi se sa drugim raspoloživim izvorima. Mnogi istraživači iznose konstataciju o Bonfinijevoj pristrasnosti kada piše o Matiji. Međutim, pažljim iščitavanjem dela lako se uočava da on podjenako iznosi mnogobrojne vrline, ali i mane ugarskog vladara. Kralj Matija bio je izuzetno hrabar vojnik koji se nije štedeo u ratnim pohodima. Bonfini navodi brojne primere njegove ratničke neustrašivosti, što potvrđuju i drugi izvori. Ugarski kralj je, prema kazivanju Bonfinija, bio po prirodi slobodouman i velikodušan, željan slave i poštovanja. Svestrano obrazovan, snažno je podržavao razvoj humanizma i renesanse u Ugarskoj. Iako pobožan, pre svake vojne kampanje obavezno je konsultovao astrologe. Vojskovođe i prijatelje bogato je darivao. Međutim, sa neprijateljima se surovo obračunavao.

ARGUING THE JUST WAR IN ISLAM

One of the magnitude effect of the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent war against terror campaign is a political rhetoric that divides the international world into two rigid poles,” the evil terrorist” in one side and the “righteous, just enlightened victim” in the other. The United States administration has succeeded in placing itself as the protagonist side and its rally for retaliatory war campaign has not only gained international support but also affirmed its position as the leader of the ‘the key-holder of freedom, liberty and humanity’, who waged war against the barbaric evil terrorists. By calling ‘either with us or against us’, the US leaves no room for the rests of the world to be in ‘grey’ area. Those who are not in favor will be considered as enemy and therefore deserve to be punished.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

The study of transnational solidarity movements is a relatively new field of historical inquiry. Roger Peace’s recent book is an important contribution to this endeavor. A Call to Conscience examines the US government’s secret war against Nicaragua and the debates within the United States over this policy. This is one of the few works that explores at length the opposition to the Contra War that developed within the United States and the effects that this movement had and did not have. (Disclaimer: I was an active participant in the anti – Contra War movement.)Following the Vietnam War, there was little support within the American public for new US military interventions. When Ronald Reagan came into the presidency he saw the world through the lens of the Cold War. However, the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome” put a limitation on the possible use of overt military force. The answer to this problem was covert wars, the backing of proxy armies to fight our enemies. Thus, from Afghanistan to Angola, secret wars were fought with US money, equipment, and advice but without US troops. However, it was in Nicaragua where this policy was exposed and hotly debated by the American people.While Peace’s book focuses on the 1980s, it does give a short background to the development of US-Nicaraguan relations. Peace briefly describes the Sandinista-led revolution and the response of the US government to it. As he states, “Reluctant acceptance . . . by the Carter administration gave way to vehement rejection” (p. 19). The new Reagan administration was determined to defeat the Sandinistas and supported the formation of the counterrevolutionary armed forces, nicknamed the contras.The main body of the book discusses the development of what Peace defines as the “anti – Contra War campaign” (ACWC). As he notes, the movement was not unified within one organization but “emerged out of progressive U.S. sectors with connections to Latin America along with the post – Vietnam War peace movement” (p. 53). Various organizations, from progressive religious networks like the American Friends Service Committee to peace groups such as the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy, joined with newer organizations like the National Network in Solidarity with the Nicaraguan People (Nicaragua Network) to form the component building blocks of the very decentralized ACWC.Peace gives a year-by-year description of both the Reagan administration contra policies and the ACWC responses. He examines all aspects of the campaign, from the demonstrations and lobbying efforts in Washington to local actions across the United States, from 1981 to the end of the war in 1990. Thus the ACWC is presented with all its strengths and weakness. While it is clear that the ACWC was able to limit some of the US activities against Nicaragua, it was never able to stop the war.Another important point analyzed by Peace is the distinction between those who opposed the Contra War and those who actively supported the Sandinistas. While some organizations and individuals represented a more traditional opposition to war and US military intervention abroad, other organizations, such as the Nicaragua Network and its committees, were active supporters of and had close contacts with the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas worked to develop these ties and encouraged US citizens to visit Nicaragua. Thousands went there to work, to live in the war zones as witnesses, or just to briefly experience revolutionary Nicaragua. Many of these individuals became important activists.However, these political differences meant the existence of many, many different organizations, both on the national and local levels. Across the country hundreds of groups and committees developed. Despite the differences between all these organizations, Peace argues that “the loose construction of the ACWC allowed these networks to coexist and work in the same direction” (p. 116).While he mainly focuses on national organizations and national campaigns, Peace also examines several local committees and campaigns. The move to look beyond Washington is essential in order to show the deep roots this movement was developing. Committees from Florida as well as cities such as Buffalo, New York, and Portland, Oregon, are just a few of the cases he discusses. This is one area of the book that I feel could have been expanded, since local grassroots organizing was the base of the ACWC.A Call to Conscience is not heavy on theory, but it is an excellent narrative on one of the major social movements of the 1980s. It is very well researched and relies on an abundance of sources, ranging from government documents to interviews with over 80 different individuals. All readers, from specialists to the general public, will find it is a very useful book. It is certainly worth consideration for use in any appropriate undergraduate course.

Eksplorasi Simbol Konvensional dan Universal dalam Penciptaan Video Art Kampanye Anti Perang dan Kekerasan “WARKAHOLIC” dengan Teknik Animasi 3D

At The End of 2010 to 2011 there has been a political crisis in MiddleEastern countries and parts of North Africa. The movement called "JasmineRevolution" caused by poor socioeconomic situation in the region, while itspresidents has been living rich in power for decades. It was raised the anger of the people and cause lot of protest to raising down the Presidents. Most of the presidents refused to resign and against the protester violently. The thousands of people have been killed and injured due to the demonstrations and civil war during the conflict. The Indonesian people must be wary to prevent leadership crisis's revolution. They need to be aware that the war and violence conflict caused suffering continously and harmfull for both of them."Warkaholic" is a manifestation of the artist's social responsibility to deliver the message through their artworks. It formed into the video arts and the topic of its art works are stop war and violence campaign. This video arts does not emphasize the personal subjectivity aspects as a fine art works. It will be more objective and easily understood for the public in general and can be seen by peoples through any audiovisual media.The methods of art works's realization are narrative style approach andapplying universal symbol, iconic, connotative to the visual and sound elements of the object. Visual storytelling content can be understood by peoples as a representation of the impact of war and violence. The Supers or text is to be the key of the public's message to stop war and violence. The computer 3D animation technique is used to create realistic visualization and to make something impossible in live action technique can be relatively possible.

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

Exploring the Conceptual Boundaries of Diaspora and Battlefield Tourism: Australians' Travel to the Gallipoli Battlefield, Turkey, as a Case Study

Historical tourism resources associated with diasporic communities and battlefields would at face value appear to have little in common. On closer inspection, however, diaspora and battlefield tourism share several elements in common. These commonalities are explored in greater detail, with an eye to investigating battlefield tourism sites indelibly linked to the birth of modern nations, where it is argued that there is a particularly blurred boundary between these two forms of tourism that must be recognized. The Gallipoli battlefield, Turkey, provides the contextual anchor for this discussion in suggesting that a key reason Australians travel to this foreign place to is to find out what it means to be an Australian. The prominence of this battlefield in the psyche of Australians is borne out of the involvement of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) in the First World War campaign that commenced at what is now known as Anzac Cove at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. This campaign was the first united action of the fledging Australian nation bought together through federation in 1901. Qualitative data collected from Australians visiting the Gallipoli battlefields in Turkey during 2010 is used to explore whether the experiences of those traveling to battlefields strongly associated with nation building legends and stories resemble those of diasporic tourists in seeking to return to their homeland. Emerging from the analysis, the confines of the blurred boundary between diaspora tourism and battlefield tourism is discussed in detail and an associated research agenda is proposed that aims to further clarify the scope of these concepts in relation to the broad spectrum of heritage tourism resources.

Review: A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign, by Roger Peace

Review: <i>A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign</i>, by Roger Peace

Dermatological conditions in military conscripts

Published studies regarding skin conditions in the military are mainly cross-sectional studies from clinical encounters during war campaigns and military training. To determine the incidence and spectrum of dermatological conditions in a cohort of military conscripts in Singapore. Soldiers diagnosed with contact dermatitis (CD) were further analysed for body area involvement, possible occupational and/or environmental causative agent and restrictions issued. Retrospective cohort study. Subjects' diagnoses and demographic variables were extracted from electronic medical records. Medical records of CD cases were reviewed to characterize the nature of exposure and operational impact on training. The incidence of reporting of new dermatological complaints was 24.5 per 100 military conscripts per year. Dermatological conditions with the highest incidence over the period of full-time military service included fungal skin infection (6.7/100 conscripts/year), non-specific dermatitis (4.9/100 conscripts/year) and insect bite reaction (1.8/100 conscripts/year). The annual incidence of contact dermatitis over the same period was 0.4/100 conscripts. In a military population based in the tropics fungal skin infections, non-specific dermatitis and insect bite reactions were the commonest reasons for dermatological consultation. CD incidence was 0.4 per 100 conscripts per year.