Second World War British Military Camouflage: Designing Deception [Hardcover]

Second World War British Military Camouflageoffers an original approach to the cultures and geographies of military conflict, through a study of the history of camouflage. Isla Forsyth narrates the scientific biography of Dr Hugh Cott (1900-1987), eminent zoologist and artist turned camoufleur, and entwines this with the lives of other camouflage practitioners, to trace the sites of camouflage's developments. Moving through the scientists' fieldsite, the committee boardroom, the military training site and the soldiers' battlefield, this book uncovers the history of this ambiguous military invention, and subverts a long-dominant narrative of camouflage as solely a protective technology. This study demonstrates that, as camouflage transformed battlefields into unsettling theatres of war, there were lasting consequences not only for military technology and knowledge, but also for the ethics of battle and the individuals enrolled in this process.Isla Forsythis Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham, UK.

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Acknowledgements
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Introduction: A Genealogy of Camouflage
1. Dazzling and Disrupting Conflict
2. Hiding in Plain Sight
3. The Politics of Position
4. Tricksters Transformed to Soldiers
5. Fleurs on the Offensive
Conclusion: Afterlives

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