'Seeking the bubble reputation' : continuities in combat motivation in western warfare during the twentieth century with particular emphasis on the Falklands War of 1982
The subject of combat motivation continues to challenge historians, sociologists, psychiatrists and the military establishment. Despite a considerable body of research, the subject remains multifaceted and complex. Combat motivation is a cyclical process within which motivations to fight before combat, during combat and after combat, are subject to significant changes. The impelling forces for the cycle have been the myths of popular culture. These have shaped how potential combatants understood war and provided the intrinsic motivation to enlist. These attitudes were extrinsically reshaped by training but not removed, and soldiers carried into combat ideas from popular culture that suggested appropriate behaviour; actual participation in combat rapidly reshaped these attitudes. Post-combat, a personal composure was sought to make sense of fighting experiences, and some memoirists extended this into the public sphere. A bifurcation of memoirs reveals not only the perpetuation of traditional myths, but also revelatory attempts to dispel them and thus reshape the popular culture of warfare; specifically, past commemoration and future imagining. Three substantive sections of this thesis will analyse each part
Eyles, David Charles
U021 War. Philosophy. Military sociology
'Seeking the bubble reputation' : continuities in combat motivation in western warfare during the twentieth century with particular emphasis on the Falklands War of 1982. The subject of combat motivation continues to challenge historians, sociologists, psychiatrists and the military establishment. Despite a considerable body of research, the subject remains multifaceted and complex. Combat motivation is a cyclical process within which motivations to fight before combat, during combat and after combat, are subject to significant changes. The impelling forces for the cycle have been the myths of popular culture. These have shaped how potential combatants understood war and provided the intrinsic motivation to enlist. These attitudes were extrinsically reshaped by training but not removed, and soldiers carried into combat ideas from popular culture that suggested appropriate behaviour; actual participation in combat rapidly reshaped these attitudes. Post-combat, a personal composure was sought to make sense of fighting experiences, and some memoirists extended this into the public sphere. A bifurcation of memoirs reveals not only the perpetuation of traditional myths, but also revelatory attempts to dispel them and thus reshape the popular culture of warfare; specifically, past commemoration and future imagining. Three substantive sections of this thesis will analyse each part
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