Enthusiasm For War Research Articles

French Feminists and Pacifism, 1889–1914: The Evolution of New Visions

This article addresses two main issues. First, in what ways did the development of a pacifist platform among French women working against the patriarchal assumptions of their world shape a different discourse than the dominant male‐managed peace societies—then the largest on the European continent before World War I. Secondly, how did the progressive members of the French feminist–pacifist community distance themselves from the presumably unchallenged, national enthusiasm for war in 1914, and what impact did that war have on postwar women’s movements.

‘Over by Christmas’: British popular opinion and the short war in 1914

That the British public thought that the First World War would be ‘over by Christmas’ in 1914 is such a common feature of war fiction, memoirs and histories that it has scarcely been questioned, let alone seriously examined. The phrase has become shorthand for naivety among a generation of young men who are supposed to have rushed to join the army rather than missing all the ‘fun’, the politicians and generals who sent them to the front and the journalists who cheered them on. This article investigates how common it really was and attempts to place it in the wide context of public reactions to the war, using newspapers, letters and diaries to uncover the feelings of the time rather than post-hoc reflections. As with former givens of 1914, such as ‘war enthusiasm’, what emerges is a more complex picture than simple naïve faith in the imminent success of British and Allied arms. Treating predictions of peace as part of a coping strategy for soldiers and civilians at war, we should not be surprised to find predictions of peace by various specific dates, and particularly by Christmas, throughout the Great War and beyond. This article questions the ubiquity of the idea of the war ending before Christmas in 1914 and the singularity of that year for optimistic predictions.

Spinning Out of Control

WAR MADE EASY: HOW PRESIDENTS & PUNDITS KEEP SPINNING US TO DEATH BY LORETTA ALPER AND JEREMY EARP PRODUCED BY THE MEDIA EDUCATION FOUNDATION AND THE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY 77 MINUTES, 2007 (DVD AVAILABLE THROUGH WWW.MEDIAED.ORG) War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, a documentary video directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp and produced by Media Education Foundation and Institute for Public Accuracy, is based on a 2006 book of same name by Norman Solomon (founder and executive director of Institute). Prominent footage of interview with him provides both physical structure and content focus of film. Solomon's central claim is that government of United States routinely withholds information about actual reasons for its involvement in wars and violent engagements around world as well as subsequent costs (in financial and human terms) of these actions. He acknowledges existence of complicated circumstances that surround these decisions but argues that public face of war does not reflect geopolitical considerations behind these actions. Instead, he argues, government provides only information intended to generate and maintain support for Solomon then moves to implicate news media in advancement of such spin. Solomon initially highlights decades of propaganda used by foreign governments to mobilize support for military actions. Designed to legitimize war by promoting nationalism and fostering fear and hatred toward perceived enemies, it is an easier version of war's reality ... designed not to inform but to generate and maintain support and enthusiasm for war. In his discussion of government's selective view of reality, Solomon references Aldous Huxley's contention that it is more powerful to leave things out than to tell lies, offering example of U.S. government's former support of and connections to such evil as Panama's Manuel Noriega and Iraq's Saddam Hussein. As Solomon argues, rhetoric regarding perceived need and desire for worldwide democratic advancement spins such actions as military strikes and invasions into acts of altruism. Military action then becomes moral way and propaganda machine works to convince civilian population (read: the audience) of this perspective. Clips include footage of last several U.S. presidents (Republican and Democrat alike) stating they did not want to get involved in violence, but were compelled to act in name of freedom, and democracy abroad, while fighting murderous dictators and ending tyranny. [W]ar becomes perpetual when used as a rationale for peace, says Solomon. Turning his focus to news media's collusion with governments, Solomon challenges values and practices of fourth estate in several ways, pointing out how networks' failure to question various administrations' claims have facilitated entry into violent conflicts. Two profound examples are offered. Solomon speaks of press's refusal to challenge story of U.S. warships being attacked by North Vietnamese in Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, which resulted in Congress's adoption of Tonkin Resolution and ultimately hastened escalation to a full-fledged war in Vietnam. The most recent example is former Secretary of State Colin Powell's dramatic 2003 presentation before United Nations Security Council regarding evidence of Iraq's concealed weapons of mass destruction. Powell's presentation was universally praised by corporate media. References by commentators to Powell's appearance as a performance that clos[ed] deal offer their own irony, furthered by Fox Network's admittedly conservative pundit Sean Hannity calling it lockstep, a seeming Freudian slip in its startling allusion to days of jackboots. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is here that narrative moves to a focus on rationale behind current war in Iraq, suggesting ideological connections to historical conflicts. …

The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914-1916 * Defending Albion: Britain's Home Army, 1908-1919 * Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain during the Great War

With the centenary of the First World War now fast approaching, it might seem that the writing of books about it, certainly on original subjects, had run its course. Concerning Britain, the output of diaries and memoirs and straight works of history—military, political, social—has been huge. Is there anything more to be said? Apparently the answer is yes. Here are three books exploring aspects of Britain's war not hitherto fully investigated. Each deals with an aspect of the war's impact on the ordinary rank and file. Sometimes the topic is of less than riveting importance: for example, that on the home army which would (with whatever degree of competence) have defended the nation against an invasion had one ever come. On other occasions the topic is quite crucial: for example, the response of the British working class to the conflict during its opening seventeen months of voluntary service. Up to now, David Silbey argues in his convincing account of The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914–1916, historians ‘have focused only on a small subset’ of Britain's volunteers: those of the upper and middle classes.

`For Kaiser and Reich': The Identity and Fate of the German Volunteers, 1914-1918

Historiography on the volunteers has maintained that most were young, aggressive, ‘war enthused’ men from the Wilhelmine educated elite, who quickly became disillusioned or broke down when faced with war’s ghastly realities. By analysing a sample of 2584 volunteers from 36 units, examining unpublished letters and diaries, and studying the volunteers’ battle performance, this article questions these beliefs. It argues that in fact volunteers came from a wide urban background, that most were motivated to enlist by defensive patriotism, not aggressive ‘war enthusiasm’, and that military ill-preparedness, not unrealistic combat expectations, accounts for the volunteers’ high psychiatric casualty rates.

The Restoration English History Plays of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery

The two English history plays written by Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery, during the first decade of the Restoration, The History of Henry the Fifth and The Black Prince, were instrumental in reviving the genre in the late seventeenth century. Although Boyle's Restoration plays have commonly been understood as inaugurating English heroic drama, this article situates them instead in an enduring tradition of seventeenth-century English history plays. Both complimentary and critical of court policy, these plays respond to the experience of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, from the early enthusiasm for war to the later disappointment with its disastrous outcome. The article aims to demonstrate how later seventeenth-century history plays, like their Elizabethan counterparts, continued to serve as vehicles for political critique and an important forum for the debate of pressing topical issues.

The United States, The United Nations and Iraq: ‘Multilateralism of a kind’*

Much is made of the need for any second war against Iraq (following Desert Storm of 1991) to be sanctioned by a resolution of the UN Security Council, approved necessarily by all five Permanent Members. Yet only two of the five, the USA and the UK, show any enthusiasm for renewed war in the Persian Gulf; and British policy is undeniably following rather than leading American actions on the diplomatic and military fronts. What are the sources of this American policy? Some critics say oil; the latest arguments of proponents invoke humanitarian concerns; somewhere between the two are those who desire ‘regime change’ to create the economic and political conditions in which so-called western political, economic and social values can flourish. To understand the present crisis and its likely evolution this article examines American relations with Iraq in particular, the Persian Gulf more generally and the Middle East as a region since the Second World War. A study of these international relations combined with a critical approach to the history of American actions and attitudes towards the United Nations shows that the United States continues to pursue a diplomacy blending, as occasion suits, the traditional binaries of multilateralism and unilateralism—yet in the new world-wide ‘war on terrorism’. The question remains whether the chosen means of fighting this war will inevitably lead to a pyrrhic victory for the United States and its ad hoc allies in the looming confrontation with Iraq.

Applied Social and Community Interventions for Crisis in Times of National and International Conflict

This article discusses the social, community, national, and international psychological implications of the great energy and movement in our country after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To determine ways that applied psychologists can have a positive effect on the crisis, Kurt Lewin's (1948; 1951) concept of locomotion at community and national levels is used to discuss the need for interventions that will produce driving factors to continue movement toward positive helping behaviors, and restraining factors when this momentum leads to potentially dangerous responses to the conflict (e.g., group think, an overextended enthusiasm for war, a sense of psychological immediacy or nonimmediacy for victims, and prejudice against Muslim individuals). The author offers ten approaches that applied psychologists could use to drive, restrain, and guide locomotion in this and similar crises both in the United States and abroad.

The Spirit of 1914: Militarism, Myth, and Mobilization in Germany

This book, first published in 2000, is a systematic analysis of German public opinion at the outbreak of the Great War and the first treatment of the myth of the 'spirit of 1914', which stated that in August 1914 all Germans felt 'war enthusiasm' and that this enthusiasm constituted a critical moment in which German society was transformed. Jeffrey Verhey's powerful study demonstrates that the myth was historically inaccurate. Although intellectuals and much of the upper class were enthusiastic, the emotions and opinions of most of the population were far more complex and contradictory. The book further examines the development of the myth in newspapers, politics and propaganda, and the propagation and appropriation of this myth after the war. His innovative analysis sheds light on German experience of the Great War and on the role of political myths in modern German political culture.

Conflict in the Southern Cone: The Argentine Military and the Boundary Dispute with Chile, 1870-1902

Conflict in the Southern Cone: The Argentine Military and the Boundary Dispute with Chile, 1870-1902

The Pity of War

Figures Tables Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on the Illustrations Introduction The Myths of Militarism Empires, Ententes and Edwardian Appeasement Britains War of Illusions Arms and Men Public Finance and National Security The Last Days of Mankind: 28 June4 August 1914 The August Days: The Myth of War Enthusiasm The Press Gang Economic Capability: The Advantage Squandered Strategy, Tactics and the Net Body Count Maximum Slaughter at Minimum Expense: War Finance The Death Instinct: Why Men Fought The Captors Dilemma How (not) to Pay for the War Conclusion: Alternatives to Armageddon Notes Bibliography Index.

Jungian approach to human aggression with special emphasis on war

Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary agreement as to the universality of aggressive behavior and warfare is compatible with Jung's [(1959): “The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol 9, Part I, Para 3.” London: Routledge] theory of archetypes functioning as components of the human collective unconscious. Jungian formulations involve a phylogenetic view of psychic phenomena since archetypes are conceived as neuropsychic entities which evolved through natural selection. It is argued that the banding together of young males for the purpose of aggressive pursuits such as hunting, intergroup conflict, and warfare is a biologically transmitted propensity mediated by archetypal structures in the human brain-psyche. Universally apparent patterns of affiliative and hostile behaviors are linked to Chance's [(1988): “Social Fabrics of the Mind.” London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] hedonic and agonic modes and seen as later ontological expressions of archetypal structures responsible in childhood for formation of bonds of attachment to familiars and avoidance and wariness of strangers. Erikson's [(1984): Yale Review 73(4): 481–486] concept of pseudospeciation is associated with Jung's concept of shadow projection to elucidate the phenomena of patriotism, xenophobia, national paranoia, Lorenz's [(1966): “On Aggression.” London: Methuen & Co.] “militant enthusiasm,” propaganda, and mobilization for war. Finally, it is argued that peace between nations can be promoted through conscious awareness of archetypally determined patterns of intergroup conflict and a collective resolve not to pseudospeciate our neighbors. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Prelude to a Conversation of Cultures in International Society? Todorov and Nandy on the Possibility of Dialogue

Despite post-Cold War enthusiasm about the universalization of values and social and political forms, the sense that the world is beset by a trend toward fragmentation or diversification is now widespread.1 As globalization is now challenged by fragmentation, it has been suggested that international society faces a problem of multiculturalism, even a threat to the idea of an international society itself.2 We see that the fear of multiculturalism is premised on the idea that an international society presupposes a set of common assumptions, values, ways of life, and modes of communication. Thus, in the absence of such conditions, the establishment of international the identification of rules and norms or pursuing various global purposes and projects will always involve either an imposed unity or a fragmentation disabling of that order and the assumed international society. This predicament evokes various responses from scholars. On the one hand, an intrinsic cultural diversity is seen to vitiate a common cultural basis for international society, eternally disabling the achievement of important purposes and the solution of critical global

Virginia Woolf's Matriarchal Family of Origins in Between the Acts

Virginia Woolf began writing Between the Acts in April 1938 at her country home, Monks House. As she was writing, bombers flew overhead, and a Nazi conquest of Europe seemed imminent. Her diaries during this period record her anger at the success of Nazi and Allied propaganda to arouse mass enthusiasm for war. As Patricia Klindienst Joplin notes, To achieve the goal of creating [the Nazi] folk community (identified with structure), the Third Reich redefined every occasion which used to offer the people a taste of communitas, or release from official structure: folk celebrations, religious ritual and art (93). Woolf witnessed Nazi demonstrations in spring 1935 when she traveled to Germany with Leonard Woolf (Bell 2: 189). The Nazi phenomenon and her observation of the hero-making rituals in England (Diary 5: 292), led to her study of ritual and formations in Between the Acts. Although the dynamics of formation became the particular focus of this novel, Woolf was long familiar with discussions of psychology. As Allen McLaurin notes, Ideas about a |group mind,' about |crowds'--in other words, notions about psychology--were very much in vogue at the time when Woolf began her writing career, and continued through the early decades of the century (34). In 1913 Woolf reviewed a book by Jules Romains, praising its ability to trace the mysterious growth, where two or three are gathered together, of a kind of consciousness of the in addition to that of each individual of the group (Essays 2:17), and she owned and referred in her diary to Wilfred Trotter's 1916 Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (Diary 1:80) Woolf's particular interest in psychology during the composition of Between the Acts is suggested by the fact that she was reading Freud for the first time and had selected his works on social psychology, Civilization and Its Discontents and The Future Of an Illusion to read (Diary 5: 250). In these works Freud, like Woolf in Between the Acts, tries to explain Hitler and the Second World War by analyzing formations. Both saw the as key to the origins of civilization and public acts and history as collective reenactments of roles. Freud posited a myth of the murder of an all-powerful father by his jealous sons as the origin of civilization, and he described past and contemporary history as a continuing struggle for power among guilty sons who wish to take the father's place and imitate his tyrannical behavior. Woolf also recognized the father-son struggles for power as the core of patriarchal history, but, unlike Freud, she did not accept patriarchal reality as the only possible model for human society.(1) Jane Harrison's matriarchal theories and Ruth Benedict's Patterns Of Culture were more important influences on Woolf's ideas about psychology. Adopting Benedict's configurational approach to the study of culture, and Harrison's research on matriarchies, Woolf identifies emotions which sustain patriarchal social groups by focusing on the unspoken loyalties, socially constructed sexual fantasies, and values that bind characters in the novel to Giles, and she represents our potential for a non-warlike, matriarchal society by highlighting and valuing the qualities which attract characters in the novel to Lucy. She contrasts patriarchal with matriarchal configurations in order to provide a model for an alternative family of origins--centered on women's values rather than on violent, dominating men. The patriarchal is represented by Giles--the quintessential man in this novel--and his co-conspirators Mrs. Manresa and Bart, and the matriarchal is represented by Lucy--the Great Goddess as Tragic Queen--and her family, Isa (Giles's wife) and Dodge.(2) Woolf read Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture at the time she was composing Between the Acts. Woolf writes, I'm reading Ruth Benedict with pressure of suggestions--about Culture patterns--which suggests rather too much (Diary 5:306). …

Nationalism, the visual arts, and the myth of war enthusiasm in 1914

Nationalism, the visual arts, and the myth of war enthusiasm in 1914