Military History

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

This report reviews and categorizes the enormous corpus of knowledge produced by American academic and policy institutions about U.S. relations with the Middle East and other Islamic actors in the international arena. The report identifies five epistemic communities – conservatives, neoconservatives, realists, liberals and the left – and analyzes their discourses and policy recommendations. Finally, the policies that these epistemic communities recommended are evaluated and assessed. The author recommends a mixed-paradigmatic approach that will not only make the United States more effective in the Middle East but also underscore its continuing relevance to the security and the stability of the region and the global order.

This special issue addresses the possible connections and mutual benefits of examining together two analytic concepts – memory and periphery. These concepts receive much attention in various scholarly discussions, yet they have done so rather independently from each other. The potential applications and utilities of combining memory and periphery and the epistemic insights they provide for various disciplins are presented in the different contributions to this issue.

This paper seeks to synthesize descriptions of Roman infantry in the literary sources, in particular Polybius 18.30, with visual depictions of Roman soldiers in combat and on parade. Arguing that select visual representations of Roman soldiers confirm Polybius’ statements that Roman heavy infantry fought, at least part of the time, in an open order formation, it also claims that the relative positioning of soldier pairs in many examples of Roman military artwork reveals the tactical mechanism of transition from a defensive close-order to an open order spacing, simply by having every other man (or infantry file) step forward to create a matrix of soldiers arranged in a checkerboard formation.

Historians usually acknowledge the Ottomans’ successful early adoption of firearms, and some even term them a “gunpowder empire,” suggesting that firearms played a crucial role in the Ottoman wars of emergence. However, others maintain that the Ottomans soon lagged behind the paradigmatic states of the “military revolution” and became dependent on European military technology and weaponry. Based on a large body of unpublished source material, this essay challenges both views. It demonstrates the Ottomans’ continued flexibility in adapting and improving upon new weapons, and Istanbul’s self-sufficiency in weapons and ammunition production. Using selected sieges and battles, I argue that, in addition to firearms, factors such as good intelligence, resourceful leadership, a large and disciplined professional army, superior supply and logistics, the combined use of field artillery, infantry firepower, wagon fortresses, and cavalry charges were all important in Ottoman military successes. Regarding the possible relationship between firearms and the growth of the army, older Ottomanist literature explained the increase in the number of musket-bearing infantry janissaries with Istanbul’s need to counter Habsburg infantry volley-fire in the war of 1593-1606 in Hungary. New evidence indicates that the growth of the janissary corps was part of a general military expansion that started in the mid-sixteenth century and accelerated during the Ottomans’ “Thirty Years War” (1578-1611) against the Safavids and Habsburgs.  This expansion reflected both military and socio-economic changes, and cannot be explained simply by “the challenge of the European military revolution,” indeed a reductionist reasoning bordering on technological determinism.

Resumen

Se aborda el fenómeno del individualismo contemporáneo, las transformaciones de la intimidad y la fragilidad de los vínculos humanos. Se muestra cómo las sociedades telemáticas dan lugar a nuevas formas de fuga y ausencia del mundo, a un malestar cultural, donde hombres escindidos entre la agresión y el temor, experimentan derivas identitarias y zozobras existenciales ante la exacerbación del consumo, la alienación del trabajo y el terror difuso de las ciudades del pánico.

The most original and shocking interpretation of Lucretius in the last 40 years.

Thomas Nail argues convincingly and systematically that Lucretius was not an atomist, but a thinker of kinetic flux. In doing so, he completely overthrows the interpretive foundations of modern scientific materialism, whose philosophical origins lie in the atomic reading of Lucretius' immensely influential book De Rerum Natura.

This means that Lucretius was not the revolutionary harbinger of modern science as Greenblatt and others have argued; he was its greatest victim. Nail re-reads De Rerum Natura to offer us a new Lucretius--a Lucretius for today.

The appearance of the brailed rig and loose–footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous early appearance of this new technology is found in history’s first visual representation of a naval battle, on the walls of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In this monumental combat scene, both Egyptian and Sea Peoples ships are depicted with this new rig, as well as top–mounted crow’s nests and decking upon which shipborne warriors do battle. The identical employment of these innovative components of maritime technology by opposing forces in this battle suggests either some level of previous contact between the invaders and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war, or shared interaction with a third party, perhaps on the Syro–Canaanite coast. This article examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that at least one group of Sea Peoples, who may have comprised a key part of the international economy of the Late Bronze Age in their role as “pirates, raiders, and traders” (Georgiou 2012: 527) – Artzy’s “nomads of the sea” (1997) – played a similarly integral role in the transference of maritime technology between the Levant, Egypt, and the Aegean.

This most recent edition of the bibliography contains almost 21,200 titles in English (64%) and French (36%), with an introductory section on historiography. It deals with every aspect of Italian history and culture from the Late Renaissance to the French Revolution.

The Legacy of Iraq critically reflects on the abject failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. It argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world.

Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq war and denying their connection to contemporary events could means that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

Ever since Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, barbarian migrations have loomed large in popular perceptions and scholarly discus-sions concerning ‘the Fall of Rome’. In particular, the arrival of Gothic tribes into Roman territory, crossing the Danube in 376, has usually been interpreted as the starting point of the ‘Great Migration Era’, eventually culminating in the end of western Roman emperorship a century later. However, the exact nature, organization, and aims of the Visigoths have been fiercely contested in the renewed surge of literature over the past decade debating the end of the Roman Empire. This piece will look at the different phases of the ‘genesis’ of the Visigoths and their itinerary, from their origins in the Balkans, to their uprising under Alaric, their move to Italy, and their eventual settlement in southwestern Gaul and Spain. We will see that these various episodes cannot be seen as the long trek of an ever-wandering mass of barbarian hordes, but rather the movements of an army constantly changing in composition due to political circumstances. The Visigoths only came into being as a force because of Roman power games, and were only able to forge a kingdom when the Empire became a failed state in its transalpine provinces long after their settlement.

The Roman imperial army recorded the name and origin of each and every soldier in lists. The few surviving scraps of such lists as well as a significant number of inscriptions on stone and bronze (including military diplomas) provide a rich source for determining the ethnic composition of the Roman army. Yet, to which extent did military administrative procedures or individual feelings of ethnic identity determine the way in which soldiers' homes were registered, and how, therefore, can we make historical use of such indications? This contribution comments on recent interpretations of the relevant surviving data and explores its meaning in the wider context of the Roman Empire.

NOW OUT OF PRINT 

Title: Prussian Napoleonic Landwehr Infantry and Cavalry 1813-15: Landsturm, Volunteer Cavalry and Streifkorps
Publisher: Partizan Press
Pages: 224 pages and over 380 colour illustrations.

This is the companion volume to the successful two volumes on the Prussian Infantry 1808-1840.

The Landwehr and volunteers were essential in the success of the Prussian Army during the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815) against Napoleon. Their participation permitted the army to quadruple in size by August 1813 and become the cutting edge of the Allied Armies.

This unique work is the companion to the author’s two volume reference on the Prussian Infantry 1808-1840. It documents the campaign history, organisation, uniforms, horse furniture and their commanders, whether Landwehr (infantry and cavalry), Landsturm, Civil Guard, National Cavalry or Volunteers (Freiwilliger Jäger, Freikorps, and Streifkorps). For the first time in one volume the great diversity of their uniforms are lavishly illustrated and explored in detail, not previously attempted even in German.

The work draws upon all the essential sources on Prussian uniforms, including the contemporary works of Elberfeld and Genty. The 380+ colour illustrations include 331 of uniforms after Hans, Brauer, Woldemar Friedrich, Herbert Knötel, Richard Knötel, Bob Marrion, Carl Röchling and Moritz Ruhl plus 18 tables, 12 order of battles, 110 uniform details, saddlecloths and lance pennants.

The chapter examines the democratic mechanisms of governance evident in the various civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq). The chapter draws on examples from extant literature such as the earliest myths and legends, through the foundation of the world's first city states and onto the expansion of grand empires such as the Babylonians and Assyrians. This analysis reveals that collective models of governance and a lively political culture existed across the broader region at various junctures. While it would be unwise here to over-state the extent of these political developments or their influence, they nonetheless indicate just how long the will towards democracy has been alive in Iraq.

Though Odysseus’ tales to Eumaios and Aninoos in Odyssey 14.199–359 and 17.417–44, respectively, are presented as fictional tales within Homer’s larger myth, some elements have striking analogs in Late Bronze–Early Iron Age reality.

This article examines these portions of the hero’s false ainoi within their fictive context for the purpose of identifying and evaluating those elements. Particular focus is given to Odysseus’ declaration that he led nine successful maritime raids prior to the Trojan War; to his twice–described ill–fated assault on Egypt; and to his claim not only to have been spared in the wake of that Egyptian raid, but to have spent a subsequent seven years in the land of the pharaohs, during which he gathered great wealth.

Through a comparative examination of literary and archaeological evidence from the Late Bronze–Early Iron transition in the Eastern Mediterranean, it is shown that these aspects of Odysseus’ stories are not only reflective of the historical reality surrounding the time in which the epic is set, but that Odysseus’ fictive experience is remarkably similar to that of one specific member of the ‘Sea Peoples’ groups best known from 19th and 20th dynasty Egyptian records: the ‘Sherden of the Sea.’

This dissertation examines the military and social roles of centurions in the Roman legions during the Republic and Principate.  It combines textual accounts of centurions from such authors as Caesar, Tacitus, and Cassius Dio, as well as epigraphic and archaeological evidence for centurions themselves, including funerary monuments, dedicatory inscriptions, and the physical remains of legionary camps.  I evaluate this evidence, moreover, with reference to contemporary military and critical social theory (which integrates concepts of civil-military relations, performance, and symbolic systems), considering the centurion not only in the context of the Roman legions, but in broader Mediterranean warfare and society.

I argue that centurions were at once the linchpin of the legions’ social and military, hierarchy and the chief representatives of the Roman Emperor’s power at the periphery of the empire. By showing the critical functions of the intermediate members of Rome’s legions, this research challenges scholarship that assumes the supremacy of elite military and political values in shaping Roman attitudes towards warfare and imperialism. I show, moreover, that military authority in the Roman army was often quite fluid, and I identify various contexts in which it was disputed or redefined.

The dissertation is organized into six chapters.  The first chapter describes the centurion’s disciplinary role in the Roman army.  Centurions were responsible for both discipline and punishment in the legions, and by analyzing their reputation for severity, I reassert the significance of corporal punishment in developing Roman military culture.  Chapter Two investigates the centurion’s idealized behaviour in warfare, and how it affected views towards leadership and personal authority in the Roman legions.  The third chapter demonstrates how these seemingly contrasting ideals of severe discipline and outrageous aggressiveness in combat were complementary rather than contradictory practices in Roman attitudes towards warfare, and that this perceived balance was crucial to the development of the legion’s ranks and organization during the Principate.

Chapter Four evaluates legionary centurions’ rank and social status in the legions, including their career paths, military expertise, and training.  Using papyrological and epigraphic evidence in particular, I show how centurions identified themselves as part of a corporate body, distinct from both the rank-and-file and aristocratic leadership.  The fifth chapter explains their intermediate position in the legion’s social hierarchy between soldiers and aristocratic commanders, and how this position was important to integrating new soldiers into the Roman military community.  Finally, Chapter Six assesses the political and administrative roles of centurions in imperial administration, arguing that they were the chief representation of Roman power among local populations at the periphery of Rome’s empire.

In organizing the chapters according to the centurions’ various statuses and functions (e.g., combat, institutional discipline, camp management, diplomacy, regional administration), the dissertation concomitantly traces the social, political, and institutional development of the centurionate from Republic to Principate, including its cultural representations.  I demonstrate that although the centurions’ traditional role on the battlefield increasingly gave way to more bureaucratic duties, they conversely became more emblematic of Roman martial traditions in their vestments, equipment, and cultural image – a military anachronism, and reflective of a broader trend in which the vestiges of an idealized Republican army endured in the professional legions of the later Principate.  This dissertation, therefore explores not only the functions, but the identity and self-image of these officers.

This dissertation contributes to scholarship in two fundamental ways.  Primarily, it is the first study that combines and analyzes such a broad array of textual, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence for centurions, including duties, characterizations, and expectations. In doing so, the dissertation offers the first comprehensive, scholarly study of legionary centurions in the Roman Empire. Second, the dissertation demonstrates that this analysis of Roman intermediate ranks and social positions is crucial to understanding how attitudes towards discipline, violence, masculinity, and personal authority were manifested both within the Roman military community and throughout the Roman Empire.

Augustus, it is generally held, reshaped the auxilia of the Roman army by replacing the traditional auxiliary forces by newly established, standardised and permanent formations named alae, cohortes, and cohortes equitatae. Together with the legions he then moved these forces to the outer provinces. However, there is no direct evidence for a single measure or coherent reform of Augustus’ to establish a unitary auxiliary system. The pertinent sources rather suggests that his measures consisted of reducing (but not completely replacing) traditional military structures in favour of formations that had been developed during the Late Republic. Thus, both old-style (viz. ‘irregular’ or ‘ad hoc’) contingents, paid and supplied by their tribes and communities from within provincial territory and from beyond, and new-style (viz. ‘regular’ or ‘professional’) auxiliary units that were paid and supplied by Rome and subjected to disciplina Augusta, continued to make up the auxilia of the Roman imperial army, albeit in revised orders of magnitude. The Augustan reorganization of the auxilia necessarily entailed a review and in many cases also adjustments of the existing relations between Rome and its subjects and allies. The present paper argues that in the light of the extant evidence this is most likely to have taken place in the aftermath of the battle of Actium. Service conditions, however, were changed only in 13 B.C.

Yannis Stouraitis LEIDEN | BOSTON 9789004355514_Stouraitis_text_proof-03.indb 3 8/1/2018 11:58:56 AM iv Cover illustration: Folio 73v of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes, XIVth century; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, matritensis graecus, Vitr. 26-2. With kind permission of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

The paper provides a detailed theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between contingency and necessity, and applies it to major schools of thought in the social sciences.

Key words: social theory; cultural theory; political theory; legal theory; political economy;  historiography; social sciences; historical institutionalism; epistemology; gender studies;

How to cite:
Simandan, D. (2010) Beware of contingency. Environment and planning D: Society and Space, 28(3), pp. 388 - 396.