Ep5 – Classic books: John Keegan’s Face of Battle

08/02/23 • 47 min

Spencer interviews Gary about one of his favourite books, John Keegan’s Face of Battle. Published in 1976, it deals first with the structure of historical writing about battles, the strengths and weaknesses of the "battle piece," and then with the structure of warfare in three time periods—medieval Europe, the Napoleonic Era, and World War I - by analysing three battles: Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, all of which involved English soldiers and occurred in approximately the same geographical area. Gary talks about how he came to purchase this book in the late 1970s and how he worked with Keegan in the 1990s. Finally, Gary considers some of the weaknesses of the book in the light of nearly half a decade of histography.

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Ep4 – Exploring combat motivation with Dr Tom Thorpe

Gary and Spencer speak to the podcast producer and editor Dr Tom Thorpe about his research and interest into combat motivation and resilience. They discuss what is meant by combat motivation and what factors are most dominant in driving soldiers to fight and persevere on military service. A range of drivers are considered from small group cohesion, ideology and coercion. Tom is an independent scholar, tour guide, communications professional and podcaster. Tom holds a PhD from King’s College London that explored the extent, nature and impact of small group cohesion in British infantry units during the First World War. He is also a public historian and being involved in a range of local social and medical history projects such as the Ulster University’s Belfast Epidemic medical history learning resource, the Queen’s University Belfast Living Legacies programme and the Men Behind the Glass Project at Campbell College Belfast. He has been a Honorary Research Associate at both Ulster University and Queen University Belfast (QUB) and a Tutor on the QUB Open Learning programme. He is also a Trustee of the First World War history society The Western Front Association and am Secretary its Antrim and Down branch. Added to this, he is an avid podcaster, hosting and producing three history podcasts. These are the Western Front Association’s weekly Mentioned in Dispatches Podcast, the Epidemic Belfast podcast, and Combat Morale podcast.

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Ep6 – Classic books: Paddy Griffith’s Battle Tactics of the American Civil War

Gary interviews Spencer on one of Spencer’s favourite military history books, Paddy Griffith’s Battle Tactics of the American Civil War. Published in the 1980s, this volume reappraises the events, the weapons used, the men of the novice armies, their leaders and the strategies employed in the Civil War - which was fought with a new generation of weapons and trench systems similar to those of World War I. Spencer considers how the author argues that the conditions of combat were little changed from those of earlier times and far from being the birthplace of modern battlefield tactics, the Civil War was in reality the last Napoleonic-style war. He also talks about how the book influenced him as a military historian and his thoughts on where it has flaws.