An article of mine has just been published by the journal Historical Research. Entitled ‘Military Music and Society during the French Wars’, it examines the reach and reception of British martial music between 1793 and 1815. Drawing on a wide range of diaries, memoirs, newspapers and regimental archives, it interprets military music as an intrusive symptom of large-scale mobilization that was central to the civilian experience of war. The performances of regimental bandsmen and drummers proved a sought-after form of public entertainment, a spur to patriotism, and even a cause of traffic accidents and noise complaints. While primarily focused on Britain and Ireland, the article also considers the role of military music overseas, arguing that it functioned as a form of soft power that helped to aid diplomacy and legitimize imperial authority.
A version of this article was presented to the British History in the Long 18th Century seminar at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) in London in January 2020. It subsequently received the Pollard Prize, awarded annually for the best paper presented at an IHR seminar by a postgraduate student or a researcher within one year of completing a PhD. The judging panel described my work in the following terms:
The paper consisted of a sonic history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). Whereas previous historians have written social and cultural histories exploring the nature of civil-military relations in Britain during the period, O’Keeffe breaks new ground by considering the role of military music during the French Wars. O’Keeffe persuasively argues that martial music served multiple functions, as propaganda, entertainment, nuisance, and a spur to social conflict. Using a wide range of source material, O’Keeffe reconstructed an aural history of the British Army and the auxiliary forces, in both Britain and in British overseas colonies. The key argument was that, in a time when access to instruments and musical instruction was relatively limited, military bands provided the British state with a potent form of ‘soft power’.
The article is available to read for free via the Historical Research website here: https://academic.oup.com/histres/advance-article/doi/10.1093/hisres/htad027/7444939
For those interested in learning about this research in a more auditory format, I should mention that I recently delivered a version of this article as a talk for the Society for Army Historical Research. A recording of the lecture has now been posted on YouTube:
1812 and all that 