I Witnesses

Soldiers, Selfhood and Testimony in Modern Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID11480348
AuthorsMark Hewitson (0000-0003-2249-3005, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume28
Issue3
Pages310-325
Publication date2010-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGerman History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0266-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-089X
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/gerhis/ghq060
OpenAlexW2092705502
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This article examines the difficulties involved in interpreting the ego-documents of combat. Modern wars are notoriously complex and unpredictable, with critical events depending on the morale of individual soldiers and civilians as well as on the policies of governments and the strategies of general staffs. Eye witnesses of the campaigns of 1812–1815, 1870/71, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 claimed to have a special knowledge of war, yet their accounts were profoundly subjective, often neglecting to comment on broader explanations or narratives of conflict. How are historians, therefore, to make sense of—and to use—such accounts? The article considers some of the principal objections to ego-documents as historical evidence—concerning the nature of fiction, narrative, memory and language—and it assesses cultural historians’ attempts to overcome them. It argues that the interpretative methods of intellectual history and the explanatory strategies of Weberian—and post-Weberian—sociology suggest ways in which the personal testimony of combat might be used.

Epistemology · Id, ego and super-ego · Linguistics · Narrative · Political science · Principal (computer security) · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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