Morale: A Modern British History

Arguably no nation is as closely associated with the term morale as Great Britain. Yet this concept that seems so innate to the British people was carefully cultivated within many spheres of modern national life.In this first critical history of morale, Daniel Ussishkin asks how is it that modern Britons have come to regard morale as a category of conduct, vital for the success of collective effort in war and peace, and a mark of good, modern, and human managerial practice, appropriate for a democratic age. He narrates the intellectual, cultural, and institutional history of morale in modern imperial Britain: its emergence as a new concept during the long nineteenth century, its changing meanings and significations, and the social and political goals those who discussed, observed, or managed morale sought to achieve. Formalized as a new military disciplinary problem during the long nineteenth century, morale came to permeate nearly every civilian sphere of life during the era of the two world wars as a new way of managing human conduct. This book traces how it gradually emerged from a problem that was regarded as residual at best to one that was seen as the epitome of proper managerial practice, its institutional manifestations and promotion by myriad organizations and the social-democratic state, and its emergence as a potent political concept from Britain's social-democratic moment until the ascendancy of the New Right. Daniel Ussishkin's Morale tells the history of concept central to the management of war, business, and civic society not just in Britain but in modern culture writ large.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Morale, Modernity, and British Social Imaginaries 2. The Reformation of Conduct: Transforming Military Discipline in Nineteenth-Century Britain 3. The Sources of Collective Action: The Emergence of Morale as a New Military Problem 4. New Wars: Morale and Democratic Mobilization 5. The Techno-Politics of Consensus: Morale at the Workplace Epilogue: Morale in a New (Neo-Liberal) Key? Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Daniel Ussishkin is Associate Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Review :
"Morale: A Modern British History skillfully charts the concept's history as both a disciplinary and political issue. It is meticulously researched and lucidly written, and takes a bold approach to its subject. Ussishkin provides a compelling account of morale's historical development from the late nineteenth century to the modern day, and deploys many interesting historical examples to enrich it. ... As the ?rst detailed study of the history of morale in modern Britain, this book is a major addition to intellectual, military, political and socio-cultural history. It deserves to attract a wide readership." -- Robert James, Journal of Contemporary History "In Morale: A modern British History Daniel Ussishkin narrates, with success and sophistication, this 'history of a concept' in modern Britain, charting its emergence in military theory, followed by its percolation into social theory, its fundamental importance in social sciences and industrial relations, and finally its reinterpretation in the Thatcher years... An accomplished piece of scholarship... it offers many insights that are invaluable not only to historians of morale, the military, or labour. This is at once an intellectual, military, and social history that will provide an important reference point for any scholar of modern Britain and its cultural, economic, military, social, and political patterns. It also shows how the insights offered by focussing on the definition and interpretation of a concept as it ripples through time can offer new insights on the past." -- Alex Mayhew, Twentieth Century British History "Ussishkin has set himself the ambitious task of historicizing a concept without a clear or stable meaning. Rather than offering a unitary definition himself, he catalogs a variety of definitions in the past... In tracing this genealogy, Ussishkin makes a valuable contribution to a growing body of work on the history of social science and visions of social order more broadly. He also reminds us that even familiar, ubiquitous, and seemingly commonsensical concepts often arrive at that destination by the most circuitous of routes." -- Erik Linstrum , Journal of Modern History "In Morale: A Modern British History, Daniel Ussishkin ... masterfully explains the rise and fall of morale in lucid and engaging prose, deftly illuminating the intellectual, cultural, and institutional growth of an idea central to British conceptions of democratic management and to its unraveling. This powerful and engrossing book is of central importance to the intellectual history of British democracy and the modern state." -- Nicoletta F. Gullace, American Historical Review "Once upon a time morale was primarily the preserve of military figures concerned with the fitness of Britain's fighting forces. But in this boldly original study of the meanings, mutation, diffusion, and migration of this all too slippery concept, Daniel Ussishkin offers a compelling analysis of the ways in which the management of morale came increasingly to permeate modern British society. Ranging broadly and effortlessly across the vast terrains of military history, industrial psychology, and the politics of citizenship in Britain's postwar welfare state, Morale is a conceptually daring book that takes a fresh look at the logic of governance in modern democratic societies."--Chris Waters, Williams College "Morale, its management, its meaning, and its impact, has long been considered as central to collective democratic effort in wartime Britain. This original and provocative study provides a 'long history' of morale, tracing the concept back to the late nineteenth century and forward to the late twentieth century. Drawing on wide-ranging historical research, Ussishkin shows us how morale moved out of the military sphere to influence almost every aspect of civilian life, in peacetime, as well as in war."--Lucy Noakes, University of Brighton "In Morale, Ussishkin takes a big, amorphous and undeniably significant concept and offers a transformative way of understanding its history. A study of great originality and merit."--Deborah Cohen, Northwestern University "This bold and compelling book offers an insightful and illuminating history of a topic of ongoing importance to citizens of our modern world. Moving easily between the highly abstract and the deeply material, Ussishkin brings the lofty concept of morale if not down to earth, then vividly to life. A fascinating history as well as a historically grounded meditation on how civilian and military authorities--whether in the trenches or the workplace-have grappled with the mysteries and vagaries of human behavior."--Jordanna Bailkin, University of Washington "Morale is a powerfully-argued, sophisticated, and compelling history of the birth, mutation, salience, and demise of a potent, enigmatic concept. Ussishkin skillfully traces morale's genealogy, from its later nineteenth-century military origins to its disintegration in the age of neoliberalism. Combining brilliant research, pellucid prose, and conceptual sophistication, Morale will be a major contribution to social, cultural, military, and political history."--Chris Otter, author of The Victorian Eye: A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain, 1800-1910