Motivation in War: The Experience of Common Soldiers in Old-Regime Europe by Ilya Berkovich (review)

The dominant view of ancien régime armies is that the rank-and-file were recruited by compulsion and retained by brutal and frequently arbitrary discipline, and therefore sought to desert at every opportunity. This, it is assumed, contributed to the inflexibility of eighteenth-century tactics and strategy, since a principal aim of all commanders was necessarily to reduce the opportunities for any of these reluctant soldiers to run away from what are sometimes portrayed as little short of mobile prison camps. Such a negative assessment was rooted in the disdain of their own superiors, epitomised by Frederick the Great's famous aphorism that common soldiers should fear their officers more than they did the enemy. It was strengthened by the supposed contrast with French Revolutionary armies, highlighted at the time by France's new order, whose success was believed to rest upon freely recruited citizen-soldiers motivated by patriotism and the novel opportunity for advancement, rather than fear and resentment of their officers.

Ilya Berkovich's fine new study subjects these stereotypes to critical scrutiny, instead portraying eighteenth-century armies, and incidentally the societies from which they were drawn, in a far more nuanced and convincing light. The foundation of his revisionism is shrewd and insightful handling of the ego documents produced by soldiers themselves, rather than simple reliance upon a blend of their officers' testimony and the provisions of disciplinary codes. The core of his study consists of approaching 250 surviving narratives of military service—some of which he has himself discovered in archives scattered across Western and Central Europe—which are subjected to impressively close reading. His text is further strengthened by wide knowledge of the relevant secondary literature, by an awareness of the implications of recent studies of motivation in modern armies and, unusually, by personal experience of military service as a conscript in the Israeli armed forces.

The first half of Berkovich's study subjects the familiar themes of discipline and desertion to fresh and revealing scrutiny, overturning the extremely negative portrayal of both topics by earlier historians. While conscription was important in filling up the ranks, he demonstrates the plurality of recruitment methods, not all of which were coercive, and makes clear that volunteers were everywhere important and were particularly prized by captains. A notably fresh and discriminating account of desertion (chapter 2) produces a series of well-founded though paradoxical conclusions: that while it was relatively easy to desert, the numbers fleeing were far less than usually assumed; that desertion rates fluctuated widely over time; that harsh discipline was not the primary cause; that draconian punishments were far less commonly imposed upon soldiers who were caught than scholars believe; and—most notable of all—that the "overwhelming majority of deserters went unpunished" (70). It is followed by an equally iconoclastic account of discipline (chapter 3), here shown to be a matter of reciprocal obligation rather than harsh punishment and the resulting climate of fear it created.

The second half of Motivation in War builds a far more positive explanation for military service, identifying its real attractions and the reasons why men were willing to fight and die. Berkovich argues that armies were distinctive societies and must be understood on their own terms. Emphasising that a military career possessed real attractions, providing geographical mobility, adventure and—potentially—modest wealth (many soldiers enjoyed additional sources of income, given that service was not full-time), he suggests that most recruits came from respectable if poor backgrounds, rather than being prisoners and vagrants as often assumed. One interesting sidelight is that a surprisingly high proportion of the rank-and-file appear to have been literate, essential for promotion (39), and that military service provided an education as well as a career. Berkovich's most striking argument (chapter 5) is that common soldiers—like their officers—were inspired by a culture of honour, fostered from the very outset by...