Ebook Holly Furneaux - Military Men of Feeling : Emotion, Touch, and Masculinity in the Crimean War in MOBI, TXT, DOC
9780198737834 English 0198737831 Military Men of Feeling considers the popularity of the figure of the gentle soldier in the Victorian period. It traces a persistent narrative swerve from tales of war violence to reparative accounts of soldiers as moral exemplars, homemakers, adopters of children on the battlefield and nurses. This material invites us to think afresh about Victorian masculinity and Victorian militarism. It challenges ideas about the separation of military and domestic life, and about the incommunicability of war experience. Focusing on representations of soldiers' experiences of touch and emotion, the book combines the work of well known writers--including Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Yonge--with previously unstudied writing and craft produced by British soldiers in the Crimean War, 1854-56. The Crimean War was pivotal in shaping British attitudes to military masculinity. A range of media enabled unprecedented public engagement with the progress and infamous 'blunders' of the conflict. Soldiers and civilians reflected on appropriate behaviour across ranks, forms of heroism, the physical suffering of the troops, administrative management and the need for army reform. The book considers how the military man of feeling contributes to the rethinking of gender roles, class and military hierarchy in the mid-nineteenth century, and how this figure was used in campaigns for reform. The gentle soldier could also do more bellicose social and political work, disarming anti-war critiques and helping people to feel better about war. This book looks at the difficult mixed politics of this figure. It considers questions, debated in the nineteenth century and which remain urgent today, about the relationship between feeling and action, and the ethics of an emotional response to war. It makes a case for the importance of emotional and tactile military history, bringing the Victorian military man of feeling into contemporary debates about liberal warriors and soldiers as social workers., Military Men of Feeling offers a new way of thinking about Victorian men and the Victorian military. Though the nineteenth-century soldier has been perceived as emotionally buttoned-up and stiff upper-lipped, this book explores the Victorian enthusiasm for military men of feeling. The book combines work by well known writers--including Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Yonge--with previously unstudied writing andcraft produced by soldiers in the Crimean War. It argues that published authors and soldiers typically rejected narratives of war violence in favour of accounts of nurturing, domesticated soldiers, home making,adopting children on the battlefield, and nursing the wounded. Throughout I focus on touch and emotion, looking, for example, at the experience of family feeling in regiments, and at how soldiers kept in touch with their families through the scraps of war material they sent home. The book considers how the figure of the gentle solider contributes to the rethinking of gender roles, class and military hierarchy in the mid-nineteenth century, and how this figure was used in campaigns for reform.It looks at the difficult mixed politics of the military man of feeling, who could also be used to make war more acceptable.
9780198737834 English 0198737831 Military Men of Feeling considers the popularity of the figure of the gentle soldier in the Victorian period. It traces a persistent narrative swerve from tales of war violence to reparative accounts of soldiers as moral exemplars, homemakers, adopters of children on the battlefield and nurses. This material invites us to think afresh about Victorian masculinity and Victorian militarism. It challenges ideas about the separation of military and domestic life, and about the incommunicability of war experience. Focusing on representations of soldiers' experiences of touch and emotion, the book combines the work of well known writers--including Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Yonge--with previously unstudied writing and craft produced by British soldiers in the Crimean War, 1854-56. The Crimean War was pivotal in shaping British attitudes to military masculinity. A range of media enabled unprecedented public engagement with the progress and infamous 'blunders' of the conflict. Soldiers and civilians reflected on appropriate behaviour across ranks, forms of heroism, the physical suffering of the troops, administrative management and the need for army reform. The book considers how the military man of feeling contributes to the rethinking of gender roles, class and military hierarchy in the mid-nineteenth century, and how this figure was used in campaigns for reform. The gentle soldier could also do more bellicose social and political work, disarming anti-war critiques and helping people to feel better about war. This book looks at the difficult mixed politics of this figure. It considers questions, debated in the nineteenth century and which remain urgent today, about the relationship between feeling and action, and the ethics of an emotional response to war. It makes a case for the importance of emotional and tactile military history, bringing the Victorian military man of feeling into contemporary debates about liberal warriors and soldiers as social workers., Military Men of Feeling offers a new way of thinking about Victorian men and the Victorian military. Though the nineteenth-century soldier has been perceived as emotionally buttoned-up and stiff upper-lipped, this book explores the Victorian enthusiasm for military men of feeling. The book combines work by well known writers--including Charles Dickens, Charles Kingsley, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Yonge--with previously unstudied writing andcraft produced by soldiers in the Crimean War. It argues that published authors and soldiers typically rejected narratives of war violence in favour of accounts of nurturing, domesticated soldiers, home making,adopting children on the battlefield, and nursing the wounded. Throughout I focus on touch and emotion, looking, for example, at the experience of family feeling in regiments, and at how soldiers kept in touch with their families through the scraps of war material they sent home. The book considers how the figure of the gentle solider contributes to the rethinking of gender roles, class and military hierarchy in the mid-nineteenth century, and how this figure was used in campaigns for reform.It looks at the difficult mixed politics of the military man of feeling, who could also be used to make war more acceptable.