Flying Dutchmen and Drunken Irishmen: The Myths and Realities of Ethnic Civil War Soldiers

During the American Civil War, German- and Irish-Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy, serving their respective causes for a variety of reasons and comprising a large percentage of the Union armies, in particular. Anglo-Americans developed myths and misconceptions about these foreign-born soldiers, however, some of which persist today and unfortunately obscure the historical truth about ethnic participation in the war. This essay examines some of the most enduring stereotypes and exposes the realities that lay shrouded behind them.

Brian Holden Reid, "‘Young Turks, or Not So Young?’: The Frustrated Quest of Major General J. F. C. Fuller and Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, The Journal of Military History 73 #1 (January 2009): 147-175

This article has as its prime focus not the theories of J. F. C. Fuller and B. H. Liddell Hart, but their zeal to reform the British Army, 1918-39. It explores the strengths and weaknesses they brought to the task, and seeks to relate their aims to broader intellectual currents, especially the notion of a “conflict of generations” that the experience on the Western Front of the First World War heightened. The latter reached a peak of popularity in 1928-33. The article thus seeks to assess Fuller and Liddell Hart’s motives and aspirations in the light of a shared passionate desire not to sacrifice their intellectual freedom as critics.