MS-044: Stephen H. Warner Collection

In addition to hundreds of photographs and negatives, the collection contains letters, manuscript notebooks and notepads, drafts of articles, and copies of feature stories printed in army publications written by Warner during his time in Southeast Asia. Other supporting materials in the collection include army publications on a variety of topics, including travel guides and cultural studies. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1042/thumbnail.jp

Understanding Military Doctrinal Change During Peacetime

This study examines processes of military doctrinal change during periods of peace. Given the conventional wisdom of hidebound bureaucratic military organizations, why do these organizations innovate doctrinally? Rather than conduct competitive hypothesis testing between two or more theories of military innovation or pursue a heretofore undiscovered monocausal theory, I develop and test a theoretical framework that synthesizes more than one approach to military doctrinal innovation. I use this framework to conduct a structured, focused, case-study comparison of two military organizations - the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps - from the post-World War II period until 2001. The study yields seven findings. First, the systemic causes of military doctrinal innovation are best described by balance of threat theory. Second, contrary to the existing literature, civilian intervention is not a necessary or sufficient cause of doctrinal innovation. Third, militaries consistently strive to establish a monopoly over warfare in a particular jurisdictional domain. Fourth, the frequency of military doctrinal change is a function of the complexity of the strategic problem that doctrine is designed to solve. Fifth, the complexity of the cases studied supports the argument that monocausal explanations fail to account for the interaction of multiple variables that affect doctrinal innovation. Sixth, military doctrinal innovation during peacetime is not anomalous because military organizations constantly revise their theories of victory as threats change in the external environment. Finally, the existence of doctrinal institutions creates a norm for a reliance on military doctrine

From “Cowardice” to “Shellshock”: The Definition and Treatment of Mental Health in the United States Marine Corps During the Age of the Great War

The aim of my master’s thesis is to study how the United States’ Marine Corps recognized, defined, and treated mental health issues during the Great War and how this translated into the treatment of Marines by their peers and commanding officers. Similar to other countries that fought in the Great War, also referred to as World War I, the United States witnessed intense discussions about the psychological effects of war. The question of whether and how modern warfare affected troops’ mental health was addressed by all branches of the United States’ military. Yet, the issue of mental health in the Marine Corps has received little scholarly attention. To fill this gap, my thesis will analyze official Marine Corps’ documents such as protocols, orders, communiques, as well as medical reports, bulletins, and journals. In addition, it will gauge soldiers’ personal narratives such as diaries, letters, and memoirs. The analysis of these primary sources mirrors the approach taken by Joanna Bourke and is classified as a New Military History. I found a gradual shift within the Marine Corps towards acceptance of mental illness as an injury to be treated as opposed to cowardice. This was seemingly a gradual increase in recognition of mental illness as seen through various editions and publications of officer’s manuals, legislative actions, and medical journals and bulletins

Brass Bands of the World - a historical directory

Few records remain of the thousands of brass bands that have existed across the world over the last 200 years. This directory is an attempt to collect together information about such bands and make it available to all. This is a companion volume to Brass Bands of the British Isles – a Historical Directory. This volume covers all other overseas countries which have had brass bands similar to those that flourished in the UK. Over 9,500 bands are recorded here, with some 2,700 additional cross references for alternative or previous names