Britain's Part-time Soldiers

Britain's Part-time Soldiers PDF Author: Ian F. W. Beckett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848843950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Revised edition of: The amateur military tradition 1558-1945. Manchester: Manchester University Press, [1991]

Britain's Part-time Soldiers

Britain's Part-time Soldiers PDF Author: Ian F. W. Beckett
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848843950
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Revised edition of: The amateur military tradition 1558-1945. Manchester: Manchester University Press, [1991]

Britain’s Soldiers

Britain’s Soldiers PDF Author: Kevin Linch
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1781385548
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Britain’s Soldiers explores the complex figure of the Georgian soldier and rethinks current approaches to military history.

Part-Time Soldiers

Part-Time Soldiers PDF Author: Andrew Lewis Chadwick
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700635874
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
In Part-Time Soldiers, Andrew Lewis Chadwick offers the first in-depth historical study of the development and evolution of modern army reserve forces. In doing so, he explores how a confluence of military, political, and socioeconomic developments since the First World War has forced armies preparing for major war to increase their dependence on reservists (part-time soldiers who reinforce or augment professionals or conscripts in wartime) for critical and routine military tasks. At the same time, he shows how these developments placed tremendous stress on the industrial-era reserve policies and structures that armies continue to use today. For example, reservists training for less than thirty days a year have struggled to keep up with the increasingly high-skilled character of modern warfare, as evidenced by the poor performance of reservists in the world wars and, most recently, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. Chadwick primarily examines these developments in the cases of the US Army National Guard and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Army Reserve, given that unique geopolitical conditions have forced the United States and Israel to frequently employ reservists in combat over the past century. These cases, which Chadwick explores using archival and secondary sources, reveal how armies using two different reserve models—the former built around volunteers and the latter around discharged conscripts—have attempted to mitigate the challenge of maintaining combat-ready reservists in the era of high-tech and high-skilled warfare. By doing so, Chadwick identifies an enduring and often overlooked problem facing contemporary defense policymaking: how does one build and maintain effective army reserve forces at an affordable cost without causing undue stress on reservists’ civilian lives?

Redcoats to Tommies

Redcoats to Tommies PDF Author: Kevin Linch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783276029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
An examination of the lifecycle of soldiers, including enlistment, experiences of military life, the soldier's place in society and in politics, and military identity, memory and representation.

A Guide to British Military History

A Guide to British Military History PDF Author: Ian F. W. Beckett
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473856655
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
What exactly is military history? Forty years ago it meant battles, campaigns, great commanders, drums and trumpets. It was largely the preserve of military professionals and was used to support national history and nationalism. Now, though, the study of war has been transformed by the war and society approach, by the examination of identity, memory and gender, and a less Euro-centric and more global perspective. Generally it is recognised that war and conflict must be integrated into the wider narrative of historical development, and this is why Ian Becketts research guide is such a useful tool for anyone working in this growing field. It introduces students to all the key debates, issues and resources. While European and global perspectives are not neglected, there is an emphasis on the British experience of war since 1500. This survey of British military history will be essential reading and reference for anyone who has a professional or amateur interest in the subject, and it will be a valuable introduction for newcomers to it.

All for the King's Shilling

All for the King's Shilling PDF Author: Edward J Coss
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806185457
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.

Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750–1914

Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750–1914 PDF Author: Richard Holmes
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007370342
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 856

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Book Description
Sahib is a magnificent history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of Empire, making full use of personal accounts from the soldiers who served in the jewel in Britain’s Imperial Crown.

The Changing of the Guard

The Changing of the Guard PDF Author: Simon Akam
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781922310279
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the British military today. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Britain has changed enormously. During this time, the British Army fought two campaigns, in Iraq and Afghanistan, at considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers. Composed of assiduous documentary research, field reportage, and hundreds of interviews with many soldiers and officers who served, as well as the politicians who directed them, the allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and -- on occasion -- lost them, it is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of one of our pivotal national institutions in a time of great stress. Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today -- their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about Britain, and about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.

Losing Small Wars

Losing Small Wars PDF Author: Frank Ledwidge
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300229097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
This new edition of Frank Ledwidge’s eye-opening analysis of British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan unpicks the causes and enormous costs of military failure. Updated throughout, and with fresh chapters assessing and enumerating the overall military performance since 2011—including Libya, ISIS, and the Chilcot findings—Ledwidge shows how lessons continue to go unlearned. “A brave and important book; essential reading for anyone wanting insights into the dysfunction within the British military today, and the consequences this has on the lives of innocent civilians caught up in war.”—Times Literary Supplement

Absent-Minded Beggars

Absent-Minded Beggars PDF Author: Will Bennett
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473811619
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The British Army suffered one of its greatest crises when in December 1899 the Boer irregulars inflicted three reverses in South Africa in 'Black Week'. A nation grown accustomed to success was stunned. Part of the answer was a very British blend of patriotism and pragmatism. For the first time civilian volunteers and part-time soldiers were allowed to fight overseas to the horror of traditionalist professional soldiers. Yet, by the end of the Boer War, almost 90,000 men had volunteered to serve the Colours. Much of sporting high society joined the newly formed Imperial Yeomanry. The Volunteers sent infantrymen to serve alongside the regulars and the City of London financed the raising of the City Imperial Volunteers. Men also came forward from the colonies. This book tells the story of these volunteer units.