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      'Soldiers and Shirkers': An Analysis of the Dominant Ideas of Service and Conscientious Objection in New Zealand During the Great War.

      Loveridge, Steven
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      Loveridge, S. (2009). ‘Soldiers and Shirkers’: An Analysis of the Dominant Ideas of Service and Conscientious Objection in New Zealand During the Great War. (Thesis, Master of Arts (MA)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2762
      Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2762
      Abstract
      During the First World War, ideas of duty and sacrifice were a dominant

      characteristic of public discourse in New Zealand. Specifically, concern centred on a

      perceived inequality of sacrifice, which saw brave soldiers die on the front lines,

      whilst other men remained on the home front, apparently avoiding duty. This thesis

      charts the prevailing and powerful ideas that circulated during wartime New Zealand

      around these two stereotypes; on the one hand there was the soldier, the ideal of

      service and duty; on the other, the conscientious objector, a target for the derogatory

      label of 'shirker'.

      While there are a few select critical works which examine the experiences of New

      Zealand World War One conscientious objectors, such We Will Not Cease (1939) and

      Armageddon or Calvary (1919), there is a near complete absence of studies which

      examine the home front and ask how conscientious objectors were perceived and

      consequently judged as they were. It is the contention of this thesis that ideas around

      the soldier and the 'shirker' were interrelated stereotypes and that both images

      emerged from the process of mass mobilisation; a highly organised war effort which

      was largely dependent for its success upon the cooperation of wider civilian society.

      In sum, the thesis examines and analyses the ideas within mainstream New Zealand

      society as they appeared in public sources (notably newspapers, cartoons and

      government publications), and in doing so, tracks how social mores and views

      towards duty, sacrifice and service were played out at a time of national and

      international crisis.
      Date
      2009
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Name
      Master of Arts (MA)
      Publisher
      The University of Waikato
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      All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
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