Product Description

This is the story of ordinary men and women involved in the Rebellion, who were described on the gaol registers and regimental rosters of the time as 'Common Men'. There is little in this book about Bonnie Prince Charlie and other principals of the last Jacobite Rising of 1745. Culloden recalls them by name and action, presenting the battle as it was for them, describing their life as fugitives in the glens or as prisoners in the gaols and hulks, their transportation to the Virginias or their deaths on the gallows at Kennington Common. The book begins in the rain at five o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, 16 April 1746, when the Royal Army marched out of Nairn to fight the clans on Culloden Moor. It is not a partisan book, its feeling is for the 'Common Men' on both sides - John Grant charging with Clan Chatten and seeing the white gaiters of the British infantry suddenly as the east wind lifted the cannon smoke, and Private Andrew Taylor in a red coat waiting for Clan Chatten to reach him, likening them to 'a troop of hungry wolves'. Culloden reminds us, too, that many of the men who harried the glens as ruthlessly as the Nazis in Occupied Europe were in fact Scots themselves. It recalls the fact that many men in Prince Charles' army had been forced to join him. It shows that a British foot-soldier's wish for a sup of brandy on a cold morning before battle is as much a reality as a Prince's pretensions to a throne. The detail for the story told in Culloden has come from regimental Order Books and manuals, from contemporary newspapers and magazines, from the letters and memoirs of soldiers and officers, eye-witness accounts of atrocity and persecution, and the personal stories of the victims themselves. Culloden is the story not of a Prince, but of a people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27359 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
John Prebble was born in the UK in 1915 but spent his boyhood in Canada. He became a journalist in 1934 and went on to become an historian, novelist, film-writer and the author of several highly praised plays and dramatised documentaries for BBC TV and Radio. He became interested in Culloden when he was a boy in a predominantly Scottish township in Canada. He died in January 2001.

Customer Reviews

Classic
Footnotes would certainly help here - and there are still contemporary histories with authors too lazy or unwilling to provide them. Interpretations differ, out of context use can alter opinion, and the ability to go to source is often invaluable. But it becomes easier to access period details. More information and further reading is only a few clicks away. A name and date will often do. Prebble provides many of those, and spares us ill-informed argument and opinion. Culloden is still the most comprehensive, accessible and readable 'list' of those involved. For further study, it's a starting point, a good first read. For lay-readers, it's an excellent account - brutal and clear though a mite overcrowded, with the impact of a novel. Definitely a must-read, it's good to see it still in print. There are more informative studies now but, for me, this is the classic Culloden text.

Culloden Reviewed
Culloden by John Prebble is probably the best known book about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 and has not been out of print since it was published forty years ago. There is also a film based on the book, too. The book concentrates on the moorland battle on 16 April 1746 and on the counter-insurgengcy operations carried out by the British Army thereafter.

The book is a very emotive one - tales of slaughter of wounded men and civilians feature regularly, as does the treatment of prisoners taken thereafter. Prebble's sympathies are neither with the Jacobite cause nor with the British government, but with the common man, often the rebel clansmen and their families, occasionally the British soldier.

It is a lengthy account and probably the only one to cover this period in such detail. The two main issues with it concern the lack of context and the lack of footnotes. Their absence, of course, does not detract from a reading of the book in any way, but they do pose problems.

Firstly, the reader is certainly going to be shocked and outraged about the activities carried out in 1746. But then, most of eighteenth century life would shock the modern reader. The real question is to consider how similar (or different) they were to activity carried out by eighteenth century states against their rebel populaces. Prebble does not make any reference to similar activity, and therefore, the reader is unable to see the wider picture in which the events he describes took place in.

Secondly, there is the question of the lack of footnotes. There is a brief list of sources used, but as to where individual facts comes from, there is no clue. This is highly irritating to anyone who wants to follow up Prebble's work, or who wants to see the sourc of information used - how biassed is it? Atrocity tales are often from dubious sources and composed for propaganda purposes, so the origin of such a story is crucial.

A good book - but limited.

Older is better
Most seem to agree that this is the classic piece on the Battle of Culloden and as far as eye-witness accounts and detail goes this book is unsurpassed.Gives the first-time reader the a solid base to further study of the subject in a wider context.
Although Prebble's model of events during the battle is generally accepted to be outdated, the author's skill in building up the atmosphere from the nerves and cautious manouverings beforehand to the ensuing carnage keeps the reader gripped throughout.Prebble has an extraordinary ability to see through the eyes of the soldier-British regular or Highland clansman- and it is this 'common man's view' which makes this book stand out from other pieces.
Generally speaking Prebble writes with a respect for both sides whilst showing sympathy and sorrow for the defeated Highlanders in the atrocious aftermath of the battle which amounted to ethnic genocide.A more thorough account of the sufferings of the local population and the cowardice of the British army following Culloden I am yet to come across.