The Call to Battle!

In Words and Deeds

hroughout recorded military history, leaders have persuaded men to risk life and limb for God, country, unit, comrades, and families; for plunder, vengeance, glory, a lasting peace, or new conquests. Beginning with the holy wars of the Hebrew Bible and continuing to the present Iraq conflict, one constant motivator of men in war has been the battle speech: the exhortatory words uttered by commanders on the eve of invasions and before, during, after, and between battles.

Richard F. Miller offers the first systemic classification of battle speeches while exploring how their contents have changed over time. Speeches are classified based on their chronological relation to the battle or tactical circumstance the speaker seeks to address. In many situations, deeds accompany words in a continuum of action that renders both action and words inseparable. Thus, Miller often analyzes both components in a battle sequence.

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