Dr Spencer Jones, Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, talks about the combat motivation of the various sides fighting in the 1899-1902 Boer War. This conflict was fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire’s influence in Southern Africa. The conflict lasted for three years and started off as a conventional conflict and morphed into an insurgency. It was bitterly contested with brutality on both sides that killed around 50k people. Spencer…

Dr Matthew Ford, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex, talks about his research into soldiers, guns and morale. He explores the relationship between soldiers, their personal weapons and their will to fight. Central to the discussion is what he calls the socio-technical relationship between a combatant and their weapon. He considers the implications of the work of S.L.A. Marshall, who wrote after the Second World War wrote that only one quarter of infantry soldiers in combat actually fired their weapon at the enemy, and the challenges this research posed…

Historian and author Prof. Ken Noe talks about his recent book on what motivated ‘late’ enlisting men to the Confederates Army during the 1861-65 US Civil War. In the interview, Prof Noe discusses those Confederate volunteers who were so-called ‘late enlisters’, those who joined the southern army after the initial surge of volunteers in 1861. He defined this group as enlisting from 1862 to the end of the war and estimated they numbered around 180,000 men. He aims to correct the stereotype that these men were hesitant non-slave owning farmers.…

Dr Linsey Robb, Associate Professor in Modern British History at the University of Northumbria, talks about the motivation of the British civilian worker in WW2. During the Second World War, The British government mobilised civilians more effectively than any other combatant nation. By 1944, a third of the civilian population were engaged in war work, including over 7,000,000 women. Linsey talks about what motivated these workers to contribute to the war effort and how this changed over the course of the war. She is a social and cultural historian of…

Recent doctoral graduate Dr Drew Ryder talks about the motivation and morale of the British Army combatant fighting in in Korea, 1950-53. In 1950, communist North Korea attacked its southern neighbour sparking a three year war that lasted until 1953 when an armistice was declared. Britain committed troops as part of a United Nations force and nearly 60,000 British combat troops saw action. They were both professional regular soldiers and conscript national servicemen of which 1,078 killed in action, 2,674 wounded and 1,060 missing or taken prisoner. Drew talks about what motivated soldiers…

Historian, lawyer and author Andrea Hetherington talks about her recent book on British Army deserters on the British home front during WW1.  During that war, more than 80,000 cases of desertion were tried at a courts martial on the home front. Andrea talks about the many motivations for absence or desertion from camps or barracks in Britain. Some soldiers couldn’t cope with what was thought as poor camp facilities, others had a problem with drink and a number were immature. No deserters were executed for desertion on the Home Front…

Dr Morris Brodie, Digital Intern at Aberystwyth University working with the IWM on the Holocaust and co-presenter of the @Historians_Cut podcast, talks about his doctoral research and the combat motivation of anarchist volunteers during the Spanish Civil War.

Historian and author Alex Clifford talks about the motivation and morale of International Brigade volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

Dr Joseph Ryan, a historian at the United States Army talks about his work on sociologist Samuel Stouffer the GI survey during the Second World War. Samuel Stouffer was a little-known sociologist from Sac City, Iowa. In his role of the Army Information and Education Division’s Research Branch, he spearheaded an effort to understand the American citizen-soldier, his reasons for fighting, and his overall Army experience during the Second World War. Using surveys and interviews, he transformed general assumptions about leadership and soldiering into a sociological understanding of a draftee…

Historian and author Dr Jeff Rutherford talks about the combat motivation of Wehrmacht soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front during WW2. The interview is based on Jeff’s recent book ‘Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front: The German Infantry’s War, 1941–1944’ (Cambridge: CUP, 2014) that explores the combat experience and the occupation policies of three frontline infantry divisions. The interview covers the role of Nazi racial ideology and how this provided a legitimizing context in which violence was not only accepted but encouraged and it was the Wehrmacht’s adherence to…