Product Description

From the English Civil War to today's War on Terror: in this sweeping account of nearly 500 years of military history, former soldier Allan Mallinson looks at how the Army's dramatic past has made it one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today. He shows us the people and events that have shaped the 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 in Arnhem in 1942; and why Montgomery's momentous victory at El Alamein mattered long after the Second World War was over. This is the story of hard-won military experience. From the Army's birth at the battle of Edgehill in 1642 to our current conflict in Afghanistan, this is history at its most relevant - and most dramatic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1460 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 339 pages

Review
'A romantic history that stirs the blood'
--DAILY TELEGRAPH, 8 September 2009

'[A] lucid, absorbing book' --Daily Express, 25 Sept 09

'Thought-provoking and endlessly entertaining history...a romantic history, perhaps even unfashionable, and it's all the better for being just that' --The Herald, 21 Sept 09

'A compelling history of the British Army'
--FT, 28 Sept 09

'Mallinson shows us how the men fighting and dying in Helmand today are linked by the chain of history to those put under arms in the New Model Army more than 360 years ago. It is hard to see this book being bettered in the near future' --DAILY TELEGRAPH, 22 Sept 09

'This is an important book, because it shows how history had not just shaped the Army, its traditions and its ethos, but also how it has formed British strategy, for better and for worse'
--THE TIMES, 12 Sept 09

'Whether he is unpicking the close stitching of a battle or lyricising the hero of the book, the common soldier, his touch and judgment are compelling.' --David Edelsten, THE FIELD

'Mallinson is surely right to stress the one enduring quality of the British Army: 'operational resilience'.'
--Saul David, The SPECTATOR

'Must be read for the final chapter and epilogue -- as precise and profound an assessment as is imaginable of the British Army as it is today and as it must become.'
--THE TIMES, 26 November 2009

About the Author
Allan Mallinson is a former infantry and cavalry officer of thirty-five years' service worldwide. He is the author of the Matthew Hervey series, and of Light Dragoons, a history of four regiments of British Cavalry, one of which he commanded, and which has been recently revised and updated. As well as writing on defence matters for The Times and formerly for the Daily Telegraph, he is a regular reviewer for The Times, the Spectator and the Literary Review.