Books by Jonathan Fennell
Fighting the People's War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the U... more Fighting the People's War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, the core of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War. Drawing on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, Jonathan Fennell fundamentally challenges our understanding of the War and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change. He uncovers how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies and he traces how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the socio-political changes of the postwar era. Fighting the People's War transforms our understanding of how the great battles were won and lost as well as how the postwar societies were forged.
Military professionals and theorists have long understood the relevance of morale in war. Montgom... more Military professionals and theorists have long understood the relevance of morale in war. Montgomery, the victor at El Alamein, said, following the battle, that 'the more fighting I see, the more I am convinced that the big thing in war is morale'. Jonathan Fennell, in examining the North African campaign through the lens of morale, challenges conventional explanations for Allied success in one of the most important and controversial campaigns in British and Commonwealth history. He introduces new sources, notably the censorship summaries of the soldiers' mail, and an innovative methodology that assesses troop morale not only on the evidence of personal observations and official reports but also on contemporaneously recorded rates of psychological breakdown, sickness, desertion and surrender. He shows for the first time that a major morale crisis and stunning recovery decisively affected Eighth Army's performance during the critical battles on the Gazala and El Alamein lines in 1942.
Papers by Jonathan Fennell
British Army in World War II
Military History
There is a very extensive volume of literature on the British army and World War II. This is not ... more There is a very extensive volume of literature on the British army and World War II. This is not solely down to the iconic status of the war in British memory, or its role in shaping British identity. The debates surrounding the causes of great victories and defeats still fire the imagination. The role of the army in the collapse of the British Empire provokes controversy, as indeed does the part played by citizen soldiers on the “road to 1945”—Labour’s unexpected landslide election victory at the conclusion of hostilities. The great generals—Montgomery, Slim, Auchinleck, and others—were remarkable characters, who closely guarded their reputations; their interventions in the decades following the Axis defeat provoked much rancor. A pervasive desire to understand “what it was like” has led to an upsurge of personal memoirs and “experience” books and analyses of how the war, and the institution of the army, impacted individuals in terms of their mental and physical health, their polit...
Conservatism, radicalism, and global conflict
The Routledge History of the Second World War
'Give Me a Man That Knows What He Fights For and Loves What He Knows': The Will To Fight
Military History Matters, 2011
'They Can’t Kill Us All': Morale and the Study of Strategy
Defence in Depth, 2014
The British Army and the Northwest Europe Campaign of the Second World War
Defence in Depth, 2015
A Statistically Robust Way to 'Measure' Military Morale!
Defenece in Depth, 2015
Strategy and Combat Effectiveness
Defence in Depth, 2015
The Relevance of Conflict History in 2017
Defence in Depth, 2017
Soldiers and Social Change
Defence in Depth, 2017
War in Historical and Contemporary Perspective Conference Report
Defence in Depth, 2017
Combat Cohesion to Social Cohesion
Defence in Depth, 2017
A Social Class Survey of the New Zealand Army in the Second World War
Defence in Depth, 2017
Command, Leadership and Morale: The Eighth Army in North Africa
Warfare Magazine, 2017
The Sir Michael Howard Centre in 2018
Defence in Depth, 2018
The Changing Employment of British and Commonwealth Artillery During World War II
R. Clayton (ed.), The Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Historical Society, Vol. 18 (December), 2018
5 Facts About the British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War
History Hit, 2018
The Second World War Research Group – The Next Step
The Second World War Research Group, 2019
The Defect that Brexit and MAGA Share
History News Network, 2019
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Books by Jonathan Fennell
Papers by Jonathan Fennell