Samuel Johnson's Military Writings

Abstract

This thesis contends that a consistent pattern of thought unites Johnson's moral and philological compositions (the Rambler and Idler essays, the Sermons) with his military writings--those works that have as their subjects soldiers or warfare. Specifically, the essay demonstrates how he embodies five moral concepts in his military pieces, most of which are periodical contributions such as The Bravery of the English Common Soldiers and The Life of Admiral Blake. Chapters one through three successively discuss the moral goods of charity, courage, and subordination. Chapter four examines the vices of pride and idleness. In each chapter, the given moral concept is defined by various citations from Johnson's works. His military writings are then shown to represent concrete expressions of each moral principle.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA254743

Entities

People

  • Brian J. Hanley

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Civil War
  • Concrete
  • Governments
  • Human Behavior
  • Humanities
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Militia
  • Motivation
  • New York
  • Periodicals
  • Social Problems
  • Societies
  • United States
  • Violence
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Systems Analysis and Design