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

During the First World War, the Royal Navy faced a challenge to its position within British national identity and service ethos. Laura Rowe's book explores issues of morale and discipline by examining how the service was able to absorb indiscipline through a web of loyalties, history, ethos, traditions, and customs.

Format: Hardback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 30 August 2018
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 230 x 180 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108419055