On Military Memoirs

A Quantitative Comparison of International Afghanistan War Autobiographies, 2001-2010
XVI, 386 Pp. with 100 Illustra Auflage
ISBN: 978-90-04-32253-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 388 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 696 g

Reihe: Egodocuments and History Series

Winner of the Caforio prize for the best book in armed forces and civil-military relations published between 2015 and 2016

In On Military Memoirs Esmeralda Kleinreesink offers insight into military books: who were their writers and publishers, what were their plots, and what motives did their authors have for writing them. Every Afghanistan war autobiography published in the US, the UK, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands between 2001 and 2010 is compared quantitatively and qualitatively.

On Military Memoirs shows that soldier-authors are a special breed; that self-published books still cater to different markets than traditionally published ones; that cultural differences are clearly visible between warrior nations and non-warrior nations; that not every contemporary memoir is a disillusionment story; and that writing is serious business for soldiers wanting to change the world.

The book provides an innovative example of how to use interdisciplinary, mixed-method, cross-cultural research to analyse egodocuments.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kleinreesink

Kleinreesink, L.H.E. (Esmeralda)

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Konflikt- und Friedensforschung, Rüstungskontrolle, Abrüstung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Besondere Kriege und Kampagnen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Preface
Glossary
List of Figures and Tables

PART I: SETTING THE STAGE
Chapter 1 Introduction: Who, What and Why
Chapter 2 Theory: Egodocuments and the Military
Chapter 3 Methodology: Quantitative & Qualitative Methods for Autobiographical Research
Chapter 4 Context: The Missions in Afghanistan

PART II: RESULTS
Chapter 5 Who Writes and Publishes Soldiers’ Stories?
Chapter 6 What Do Soldier-Authors Write About?
Chapter 7 Why Do Soldier-Authors Write?
Chapter 8 Conclusion: Profiling the Soldier-Author
Chapter 9 Reflections: Some Personal Notes on How to Proceed
Chapter 10 The Fifty-Four Books

Appendices
References
Author Index
Subject Index

Über Autor(innen)

Esmeralda Kleinreesink, Ph.D. is a lieutenant-colonel with the Royal Netherlands Air Force. She obtained her doctorate at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication in 2014. She is also a certified interpreter Dutch-English. Her own military memoir on Afghanistan is called Officier in Afghanistan (Meulenhoff, 2012).