Key texts for a bibliography

[Kevin Linch]

As part of this site I'm going to build up a resources section, so a starter for ten is what key texts should we list in a bibliography?

 

Three to get us started:

• Conway, Stephen, The British Isles and the War of American Independence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Western, John Randle, The English militia in the eighteenth century : the story of a political issue, 1660-1802 (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1965)
• Cookson, J. E., The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997)

 

 

[Dr Matthew McCormack]

From the cultural studies end, two books that aren't about British soldiers as such, but which offer fascinatingly different views of the process of military training:

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975), part 3.

Yuval Noah Harari, The Ultimate Experience: Battlefield Revelations and the Making of Modern War Culture (2008).

[Steve Tamplin]

Whilst a student at Aberystwyth I found Christopher Duffy's The Military Experience in the Age Reason (1998) a wonderful resource, particularly the sections that compare the military ethos and cultures of the major Europeans players during this period.

[Kevin Linch]

Yes, that is a good text; I'll add in a section to cover this sort of material.

[Katrina Navickas]

Are we including the volunteers in this? If so, then here's some obvious ones to throw into the mix:

- Colley, Linda Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (Yale, New Haven, 1992)
- Gee, Austin, The British Volunteer Movement, 1794-1814 (Oxford, OUP, 2003)
- various chapters in Philp, Mark, Resisting Napoleon: the British Response to the Threat of Invasion (Ashgate, 2006)

[Kevin Linch]

Definitely including volunteers, and any other forms of military service that we have come across.

[Professor Ian Beckett]

I will not pre-empt my chapter on the amateur military tradition in the forthcoming book being edited by Matthew and Katriona, but in terms of the British regular soldier then key texts for the eighteenth century with significant consideration of social and cultural aspects (as well as military aspects) would include John Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-95 (OUP 1981), Stephen Brumwell, Redcoats: The British Soldeir and War in the Americas, 1755-63 (CUP 2002), and Matthew Spring, With Zeal and Bayonets Only (Univ of Okalahoma Press, 2010), a major re-assessment of British performance in the American War of Independence. There is also the older work by Sylvia Frey, The British Soldier in America (1981). Nor should we forget, Stephen Conway, War, State, and Society in Mid-Eighteenth Century Britain and Ireland (OUP, 2006). Ian

[Moira Bonnington]

I have read Matthew Hasler Spring's PhD Thesis at Leeds and found it a fascinating study. I'm glad it is now available in book form as it is very readable. I also like Silvia Freybut I found John Houlding rather dry.

[Rosalind Carr]

Two good texts on the Scottish experience are:

Steve Murdoch & Andrew Mackillop (eds), Fighting for Identity: Scottish Military Experience c.1150-1900 (Brill, 2002)
&
John Robertson, The Scottish Enlightenment and the Militia Issue (John Donald, 1985)

[Kevin Linch]

Many thanks for all your contributions. I've created a resources pages which collates this information and links to worldcat entries.

If you have further items for the list, then please reply to this message.

[Danielle Coombs]

I'm going to fly the flag a little for the Soldiers' family experience here;

John A. Lynn II, Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: CUP, 2002):
looks at the changing experience of camp women and their relationships with soldiers and military systems, from 1500-1815. Very useful book for a British and European perspectve.

[Danielle Coombs]

Can't figure out how to edit: so adding this as a reply :P

There's a fascinating section in this book about masculine identities within the camp culture and how camp women challenged and confirmed them. Also some lovely details of camp life for both soldiers and their families/dependents.

[Kevin Linch]

Only a couple of us have the 'rights' to edit pages. Thanks though, I've added it in.