Book description
The Crimean War is full of resonance - not least, the Charge of the
Light Brigade, the Siege of Sevastopol and Florence Nightingale at
Scutari with her lamp. In this fascinating book, Clive Ponting
separates the myths from the reality, and tells the true story of the
heroism of the ordinary soldiers, often through eye-witness accounts
of the men who fought and those who survived the terrible winter of
1854-55.
To contemporaries, it was 'The Great War with Russia' - fought not
only in the Black Sea and the Crimea but in the Baltic, the Arctic,
the Pacific and the Caucasus. Ironically, Britain's allies were
France, her traditional enemy, ably commanded (from home) by Napoleon
III himself, and the Muslim Ottoman Empire, widely seen as an infidel
corrupt power. It was the first of the 'modern' wars, using rifles,
artillery, trench systems, steam battleships, telegraph and railways;
yet the British soldiers wore their old highly coloured uniforms and
took part in their last cavalry charge in Europe. There were over
650,000 casualties.
Britain was unable fully to deploy her greatest strength, her Navy,
while her Army was led by incompetent aristocrats. The views of
ordinary soldiers about Raglan, Cardigan and Lucan make painful reading.
Clive Ponting is a Reader in the Department of Politics and
International Relations, University of Wales, Swansea. His
Green
History of the World
was an international bestseller, and his revisionist biography of
Churchill raised a storm of controversy. He is the author of
Armageddon
, an analysis of the Second World War,
The Pimlico History of the
Twentieth Century
,
World History: A New Perspective
and
Thirteen Days: The Road to the First World War
.
