The Making Of The British Army

Jan 11, 2025 11:15 PM

Author:Allan Mallinson

Edgehill, 1642: Surveyingthe disastrous scene in the aftermath of the first battle of the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell realized that war could no longer be waged in the old, feudal way: there had to be system and discipline, and therefore - eventually - a standing professional army.

From the 'New Model Army' of Cromwell's distant vision, former soldier Allan Mallinson shows us the people and events that have shaped the British army we know today. How Marlborough's momentous victory at Blenheim is linked to Wellington's at Waterloo; how the desperate fight at Rorke's Drift in 1879 underpinned the heroism of the airborne forces at Arnhem in 1944; and why Montgomery's momentous victory at El Alamein mattered long after the Second World War was over . . .

From the British Army's origins at the battle of Edgehill to the recent conflict in Afghanistan, The Making of the British Army is history at its most relevant - and most dramatic.

Reviews

Fascinating... clear and concise... important. It is hard to see this book being bettered in the near future

—— Simon Heffer , DAILY TELEGRAPH

I learned a lot

—— Jeremy Paxman , OBSERVER

This is no mere paperback edition of Mallinson's acclaimed 2009 hardback. He presents a revised and updated version that no self-respecting defense commentator can risk being without

—— THE TIMES

A compelling history of the British Army

—— Emmanuelle Smith , FT

Mallinson is surely right to stress the one enduring quality of the British Army: 'operational resilience'

—— Saul David , SPECTATOR

Precise and profound

—— THE TIMES

Lucid, absorbing

—— DAILY EXPRESS

As with her previous book The Italian Boy, Sarah Wise is superb on statistical detail... In every respect this is a note-perfect work of social history, thoroughly researched, charitable in its sympathies, and sadly still embodying lessons for today

—— Independent

Carefully researched... a wide-ranging study

—— Sunday Telegraph

Her achievement is remarkable... This engrossing work shines a light not only on a turbulent period in London's history, but on humanity itself. Only the best histories can claim as much

—— Guardian

Spilling facts, lives, conditions, intolerable burdens and the spirit expressed by spontaneous dancing in the streets, The Blackest Streets is a little masterpiece

—— Herald

Extraordinary scholarship and rare sensitivity

—— Ophelia Field , Daily Telegraph

Sarah Wise mines the archives to bring the local inhabitants back to life, and makes particularly brilliant use of the interviews that historian Raphael Samuel conducted in the 1970s with Arthur Harding.

—— LRB

As in her wonderful book The Italian Boy, she explores a milieu that was hungry, dirty, threadbare and exploited

—— Christopher Hirst , The Independent

Sarah Wise animates the horrors in fascinating detail

—— Toby Clements , The Telegraph

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