Author: Sharon Murphy Publisher: Springer ISBN: 113755083X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
The British Soldier and his Libraries, c. 1822-1901 considers the history of the libraries that the East India Company and Regular Army respectively established for soldiers during the nineteenth century. Drawing upon a wide range of material, including archival sources, official reports, and soldiers’ memoirs and letters, this book explores the motivations of those who were responsible for the setting up and/or operation of the libraries, and examines what they reveal about attitudes to military readers in particular and, more broadly, to working-class readers – and leisure – at this period. Murphy’s study also considers the contents of the libraries, identifying what kinds of works were provided for soldiers and where and how they read them. In so doing, The British Soldier and his Libraries, c. 1822-1901 affords another way of thinking about some of the key debates that mark book history today, and illuminates areas of interest to the general reader as well as to literary critics and military and cultural historians.
Author: G. Daly Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1137323833 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 433
Book Description
Combining military and cultural history, the book explores British soldiers' travels and cross-cultural encounters in Spain and Portugal, 1808-1814. It is the story of how soldiers interacted with the local environment and culture, of their attitudes and behaviour towards the inhabitants, and how they wrote about all this in letters and memoirs.
Author: Nick Mansfield Publisher: Liverpool University Press ISBN: 1781383847 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
This book offers the first encounter between labour history and military history, with an analysis of the working lives of nineteenth British rank and file soldiers in the context of a developing working class industrial culture and in its interaction with British society.
Author: David Buttery Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1844685160 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
The first French invasion of Portugal in 1807 - which was commanded by Junot, one of Napoleon's most experienced generals - was a key event in the long, brutal Peninsular War. It was the first campaign fought in the Peninsular by Sir Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, yet it tends to be overshadowed by more famous episodes in the six-year conflict that followed.David Buttery, in this original and perceptive new study, sets the record straight - his tightly focused narrative covers the entire campaign in vivid detail.
Author: John Keegan Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1101174072 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 544
Book Description
Acclaimed military historian John Keegan’s anthology of war writing from 25 centuries of battle In The Book of War, John Keegan marshals a formidable host of war writings to chronicle the evolution of Western warfare through the voice of the most eloquent participants—from Thucydides’ classic account of ancient Greek phalanx warfare to a blow-by-blow description of ground fighting against the Iraqi troops in Kuwait during the Gulf War. Keegan gathers more than eighty selections, including Caesar’s Commentaries on the Roman invasion of Britain; the French Knight Jehan de Wavrin at the battle of Agincourt; Davy Crockett in the war against the Creek; Wellington’s dispatch on Waterloo; Hemingway after Caporetto; and Ernie Pyle at Normandy. “The best military historian of our generation.” –Tom Clancy “A monumental piece of literary military history.” –Chicago Tribune A brilliantly edited and comprehensive anthology."—The New York Times Book Review.
Author: Ray Hamilton Publisher: Summersdale ISBN: 1786854449 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 173
Book Description
From the heroes, regiments and famous battles of the British Army’s impressive history to the service people of today, this book celebrates the achievements and ongoing importance of the UK’s land force. It also explores the skills, weaponry and equipment necessary to keep the Army battle-ready and able to face any challenge.
Author: Stuart Fox Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers ISBN: 1398476137 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 499
Book Description
Having survived the Battle of Leipzig, the newly created Rocket Brigade has been split with Fin and Thomo briefly returning to England before heading back to the Duke of Wellington where they are to report on this new weapon. The new troop have to pass a series of tests and conditions before being allowed to take part in the invasion of France. Assisting partisans; discovering a wrecked ship: being isolated on the wrong side of a river with the garrison of Bayonne approaching: providing the only ordnance halfway up the hillside overlooking Toulouse, Fin and Thomo have to find a way out of the blunders created by those in command, leading them, as always, into plenty of adventures where they meet old and make new friends along the way...
Author: Jonathan Crook Publisher: Frontline Books ISBN: 1848325983 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 213
Book Description
Drummer Richard Bentinck of the 23rd of Foot (Royal Welch Fusiliers) was a rarity: he survived many sanguinary experiences and recorded his adventures. His writings provide an evocative portrait of an ordinary soldiers perception of living with one of the most experienced Napoleonic infantry battalions. He was discharged in 1823 for ill health, but lived a full life, dying in 1878 as an old man. Jonathan Crook has meticulously researched his ancestors life, finding unpublished first-hand accounts from Bentinck of desperate conflict across the globe, from Copenhagen to Martinique, throughout the Peninsular Campaign and culminating at the battle of Waterloo. These accounts are drawn from interviews that Bentinck conducted with a journalist just before his death. The title of the book is taken from the Battle of Aldea de Ponte: Wellington identified a tactical vulnerability and called for infantry to conduct an immediate manoeuvre. On being informed that the 23rd of Foot was best disposed, he smiled and said, Ah, the very thing, demonstrative of his hard-earned confidence.
Author: Gavin Daly Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108872808 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 327
Book Description
During the Peninsular War, Wellington's army stormed and sacked three French-held Spanish towns: Ciudad Rodrigo (1812), Badajoz (1812) and San Sebastian (1813). Storm and Sack is the first major study of British soldiers' violence and restraint towards enemy combatants and civilians in the siege warfare of the Napoleonic era. Using soldiers' letters, diaries and memoirs, Gavin Daly compares and contrasts military practices and attitudes across British sieges spanning three continents, from the Peninsular War in Spain to India and South America. He focuses on siege rituals and laws of war, and uncovering the cultural and emotional history of the storm and sack of towns. This book challenges conventional understandings of the place and nature of sieges in the Napoleonic Wars. It encourages a rethinking of the notorious reputations of the British sacks of this period and their place within the long-term history of customary laws of war and siege violence. Daly reveals a multifaceted story not only of rage, enmity, plunder and atrocity but also of mercy, honour, humanity and moral outrage.
Author: Edward M. Spiers Publisher: Edinburgh University Press ISBN: 074862726X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
The Scottish Soldier and Empire, 1854-1902 reflects upon the iconic role of the Scottish soldier as an empire builder from the Crimean War to the end of the nineteenth century. It examines how the soldier commented on this imperial experience, largely through letter, diaries and poems published in the provincial press, how his exploits were reviewed in Scotland and how military achievements contributed to both a growing sense of national identity and a deepening degree of imperial commitment.
Author: Sharon Murphy
Author: G. Daly
Author: Nick Mansfield
Author: David Buttery
Author: John Keegan
Author: Ray Hamilton
Author: Stuart Fox
Author: Jonathan Crook
Author: Gavin Daly
Author: Edward M. Spiers