Morale and Discipline in the Royal Navy during the First World War

Download or read book Morale and Discipline in the Royal Navy during the First World War written by Laura Rowe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contrast to the voluminous literature on trench warfare, few scholarly works have been written on how the First World War was experienced at sea. The conditions of war challenged the Royal Navy's position within British national identity and its own service ethos. This challenge took the form of a dialogue, fuelled by fear of civil unrest, between the discourses of paternalism from above and democratism from below. Laura Rowe explores issues of morale and discipline, using the contemporary language of discipline to shed light on key questions of how the service was able to absorb indiscipline with marked success through a subtle web of loyalties, history, ethos, traditions and customs, which were rooted in older notions of service but moulded by the new conditions of total war. In so doing, she provides not only a new methodological framework for understanding morale, but also military discipline and leadership.