Publisher:
University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, S.C
"In this groundbreaking examination of the symbolic strategies used to prepare troops for imminent combat, Keith Yellin offers an inter-disciplinary look into a mode of rhetorical discourse that has played a prominent role in warfare, history, and...
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"In this groundbreaking examination of the symbolic strategies used to prepare troops for imminent combat, Keith Yellin offers an inter-disciplinary look into a mode of rhetorical discourse that has played a prominent role in warfare, history, and popular culture from antiquity to the present day. In Battle Exhortation he focuses on one of the most time-honored forms of motivational communication, the encouraging speech of military commanders, to offer a pragmatic and scholarly evaluation of how persuasion contributes to combat leadership."--Jacket 1. Bracing for combat: Previous consideration ; Defining exemplar: Mantinea, 418 B.C.E. ; Auditory dimensions ; Encouraging directions ; Summary -- 2. Indoctrination: Recruits all ; Fraternal standing in Plutarch's Spartan Mother ; Fraternal standing in Shakespeare's Henry V ; Ethos matters: George C. Scott's Patton ; Bill Murray's Parody in Stripes ; Summary -- 3. Tensions: Managing reputation: George Washington vs. Daniel Morgan ; Managing distance at Second Manassas and San Juan Heights ; Managing violence in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts ; Managing love: Julius Caesar and the Tenth Legion ; Summary -- 4. Evolutions: Eisenhower on D-Day ; Ridgway's turn ; Slide into oblivion ; Return transformed: Schwarzkopf and Franks ; Differences by Combat Arm ; Summary -- Conclusion.
