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Writing Horses into American Civil War History

Bibliographic Data

ID8065284
AuthorsGervase Phillips (0000-0002-6522-5417, Manchester Metropolitan University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume20
Issue2
Pages160-181
Publication date2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWar in History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0968-3445 • E-ISSN: 1477-0385
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0968344512471121
OpenAlexW2096234573
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Anthropomorphism has generally been considered a fitter device for poets and writers of sentimental literature than for historians. Yet mankind has largely moved beyond the arrogant dismissal of our fellow creatures as soulless machines, a divine gift for us to exploit without thought for their suffering or pain. Historians might now recognize that their, conventionally, most anthropocentric of disciplines needs to understand those animals that have contributed so much to shaping our past, to think with them and credit them with a perspective. Here, taking up the challenge laid down by the historian of the South African War Sandra Swart, an examination of the methodological issues surrounding the ‘writing in’ of animals into military history will identify an established tradition of ‘subaltern studies’ within the historiography of war, which has prepared the ground intellectually for the inclusion of non-human animals. Following this, a consideration of the experiences of horses during the American Civil War, informed by both contemporary records and modern equine science, will then demonstrate both the possibility, and the desirability, of according due attention to ‘animal soldiers’ in the writing of military history

Ancient history · Anthropocentrism · Art · Dismissal · Historiography · Military history · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Subaltern · Visual arts · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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Unique citing works5
Citations per year0,45
Citation span2015 - 2025 (11)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 5

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Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae