Victorians at War

Description

The men of the Victorian army ruled a large part of the world. As the visible power behind the greatest empire there had ever been, they were involved in wars and policing wherever British interests demanded it, whether in Canada, the Crimea, Afghanistan or the Sudan. Very small by continental standards, the Victorian army combined a strong sense of tradition with growing professionalism. The variety of tasks it had to undertake gave its officers and men an extraordinary range of challenges and experiences: putting down the Indian Mutiny, fighting in the jungles of West Africa, facing a Zulu impi and Boer sharpshooters, or garrisoning the many outposts of the empire. In The Victorians at War Ian Beckett looks at the men and their leaders from a variety of angles, using particular incidents and battles to show how the army lived and fought.

Ian Beckett is Professor of History at the University of Northampton and Chairman of the Army Records Society. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he has taught in both in Britain and the United States. His publications include Ypres: The First Battle, 1914 (2004) and The Great War, 1914-1918 (2001).

"...despite some thought-provoking and insightful analysis, The Victorians at War is a missed opportunity. Beckett has assembled a large corpus of material that could have been fashioned into a major and welcome analysis on the politics of command in the Victorian army. Moreover, it could have taken the debate forward by providing a useful counterfoil to Edward M. Spiers's The Late Victorian Army, 1868-1902 (1992). This book instead remains a collection of essays that needed more editorial care and closer linkages. Despite the modern advances in electronic publishing, the book is littered with spelling mistakes and typographical errors. Some unnecessary repetition signals that despite the claim that many of the chapters were substantially rewritten, they may have been done so in haste-however enjoyable they are to read." - Kent Fedorowich, Victorian Studies, Winter 2008 -- Kent Fedorowich