British Military Spectacle
From the Napoleonic Wars Through the Crimea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19899863 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Scott Hughes Myerly (corresponding author), Scott Myerly |
| Year | 1996 |
| Pages | 303 |
| Publication date | 1996-12-31 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | British Military Spectacle (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.4159/harvard.9780674182608 |
| OpenAlex | W4239695667 |
| ISBN | 9780674182608 |
| Open Library | OL29682962M |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
In the theater of war, how important is costume? And in peacetime, what purpose does military spectacle serve? This book takes us behind the scenes of the British military at the height of its brilliance to show us how dress and discipline helped to mold the military man and attempted to seduce the hearts and minds of a nation while serving to intimidate civil rioters in peacetime. Often ridiculed for their constrictive splendor, British army uniforms of the early nineteenth century nonetheless played a powerful role in the troops' performance on campaign, in battle, and as dramatic entertainment in peacetime. Plumbing a wide variety of military sources, most tellingly the memoirs and letters of soldiers and civilians, Scott Hughes Myerly reveals how these ornate sartorial creations, combining symbols of solidarity and inspiration, vivid color, and physical restraint, enhanced the managerial effects of rigid discipline, drill, and torturous punishments, but also helped foster regimental esprit de corps . Encouraging recruitment, enforcing discipline within the military, and boosting morale were essential but not the only functions of martial dress. Myerly also explores the role of the resplendent uniform and its associated gaudy trappings and customs during civil peace and disorder--whether employed as public relations through spectacular free entertainment, or imitated by rioters and rebels opposing the status quo. Dress, drills, parades, inspections, pomp, and order: as this richly illustrated book conducts us through the details of the creation, design, functions, and meaning of these aspects of the martial image, it exposes the underpinnings of a mentality--and vision--that extends far beyond the military subculture into the civic and social order that we call modernity
Political science · Spectacle · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact · 1800-1815 · 1853-1856 · 19th century · Aesthetics · Aesthetics, British · British · British Aesthetics · Crimean war · Great britain · Military · Military history · Napoleonic wars · rites and ceremonies · The Spectacular
Impressed
The Rise and Fall of Political Orders
From soldier to spectacle
The Lure of Discipline
Galloping to the Crimea on old tunes
Romanticism and War
Saving an extraordinary expense to the nation”
Understanding militarism after the end of the Cold War
Analyzing nationalized clothing
Fashioning the Gentleman
Consumers to Combatants? British Uniforms and Identities, 1914–18
Lines of Flight
Women in Uniform
From Squalid Impropriety to Manly Respectability
Making history
The Cultural Politics of the Uniform
That sash will hang you”
Like a Devoted Army”
How the Army Became Accepted
The Short and the Tall
Military, Folklore, Eigensinn
British Military Music and the Legacy of the Napoleonic Wars
The New "New" Military History
| Citations per year | 0.88 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2000 - 2025 (26) |
| Highly cited | No |