General & Miscellaneous Military History, Communism - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous - Politics & Government, Military Sociology

Soldiers, Commissars, and Chaplains

Name: Soldiers, Commissars, and Chaplains
Author: Dale R. Herspring
ISBN: 9780742511064

by Dale R. Herspring

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Overview

This innovative study offers the first-ever comparison of the military roles played by commissars, political officers, and chaplains in military settings ranging from the armies of Cromwell, the Jacobins, the Nazis, the Soviets, and the United States. Despite the stark differences in the political systems of the countries of these disparate armed forces, Dale R. Herspring argues that there are certain critical functions that must be fulfilled in every military, regardless of its ideological orientation. Most vital are motivation, morale boosting, and political socialization. In addition, Herspring's comparative historical analysis decisively demonstrates that the roles of commissars, political officers, and chaplains alike have evolved in ways that are crucial yet rarely understood either by policymakers or scholars.

About the Author, Dale R. Herspring

Dale R. Herspring is University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State University.

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Editorials

Choice

Herspring’s thesis is interesting and important. . . . This work provides a good foundation for more focused studies of military responsibilities to civilian political authority.

Journal of Church and State

To Herspring's credit, we finally have a ground-breaking treatment of military chaplains alongside their apparent Cold War counterparts of the Warsaw Pact. The reader is left with a very clear picture of how each type operated, not only within a historical context, but a political and operational ambient. Especially usefull is Herspring's use of comparison, his research in the original languages and primary source documents, and, above all, his excellent treatment of American military chaplains in chapter one. This chapter, if not the entire book, should be read by all who contemplate military ministry, and it should be required reading for all who take the oath as chaplains of the US Armed Forces.

Journal of Military History

Professor Herspring covers a large piece of historic ground here, but he is a keen observer. This is a most worthwhile study, not only of the often overlooked role that political officers, commissars, and chaplains play in military organizations, but of their value as institutional weathervanes for understanding nature of the civil-military relations of a nation.

Journal Of Slavic Military Studies

A valuable tool for the understanding of the underlying processes of change in Communist or totalitarian states, through the observation of their armies.

Booknews

As a policy maker in the US Department of State, Hersping (political science, Kansas State U.) came into contact with Soviet political officers and wondered if they served the same function he himself had many years earlier as a chaplin in the Navy. After developing a framework of chaplains in the American military, he examines six case studies ranging from Oliver Cromwell to East Germany. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)