Nearly a century has passed since the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Ferdinand, yet the repercussions of the devastating global conflict that followed echo still. In this provocative ...book, historian Ian Beckett turns the spotlight on twelve particular events of the First World War that continue to shape the world today. Focusing on episodes both well known and scarcely remembered, Beckett tells the story of the Great War from a new perspective, stressing accident as much as strategy, the small as well as the great, the social as well as the military, and the long term as much as the short term.
The Making of the First World Waris global in scope. The book travels from the deliberately flooded fields of Belgium to the picture palaces of Britain's cinema, from the idealism of Wilson's Washington to the catastrophic German Lys offensive of 1918. While war is itself an agent of change, Beckett shows, the most significant developments occur not only on the battlefields or in the corridors of power, but also in hearts and minds. Nor may the decisive turning points during years of conflict be those that were thought to be so at the time. With its wide reach and unexpected conclusions, this book revises-and expands-our understanding of the legacy of the First World War.
The Anglo-Zulu War, one of the shortest of the Victorian (South Africa) ‘small wars’, saw the Zulus score a notable victory over the British army at Isandlwana in January 1879. This defeat resulted ...in the worst single day’s loss of life suffered by British troops between the battle of Waterloo in June 1815 and the opening campaigns of the Great War in August 1914. Within months, however, the traditional Zulu way of war had condemned them to tactical and strategic defeat. Their reliance upon close-quarter hand-to-hand combat even when confronted by superior British firepower cost them 6,000 dead and subjected them to a post-war political settlement that dismantled the military system that underpinned the Zulu polity, led to fragmentation, civil war and, ultimately, to British annexation in 1887.
The growing military, political and socio-economic costs for all belligerents as the Great War entered its fourth year were increasingly evident, liberal democracies and authoritarian states alike ...having to remobilise public opinion for yet greater sacrifices. While the Western Front was facing these challenges, 1917 was also marked by the collapse of Tsarist Russia and by food riots resuting both from the Entente's blockade of Central Europe and the revival of unrestricted submarine warfare by the Central Powers. Ottoman Turkey was feeling the strain of war as well, as British forces advanced in both Palestine and Mesopotamia. For states as yet uncommitted to war, such as the United States and China, 1917 was a year of decision. This volume amply illustrates the significance of this crucial year in the global conflict.Contributors are Lawrence Sondhaus, Eric Grove, Keith Grieves, Matthew Hughes, Kaushik Roy, Vanda Wilcox, Laura Rowe, and Nick Hewitt.
What Rudyard Kipling called the 'campaign of lost footsteps' was the longest campaign fought by the Victorian army. The conquest of Upper Burma, an area of 140,000 sq. miles with a population of four ...million, took only three weeks in November 1885 and was accomplished with minimum cost. However, the removal and deportation of the Burmese King and dismantling of all traditional authority dismantled led to growing resistance to British rule leading to an increasingly difficult guerrilla war. Though the Burmese guerrillas were characterised by the British as mere bandits or dacoits, many were former soldiers along with Buddhist monks. The extremely difficult nature of campaigning in the terrain and climate of Burma was not sufficiently appreciated by the War Office, who viewed the conflict as a 'subaltern's war' and 'police' work. Intended regime change was also not accompanied by any consideration of the likely implications. Prolonged insurgency necessitated deploying a force far larger than originally intended; though order was finally secured by 1895, the campaign proved destructive of Burmese society while British recruitment of hill tribes into the police and armed forces sowed the seeds for future divisions.
This list features doctoral dissertations and research theses completed in the UK to 2012 and elsewhere to 2011, together with those previously omitted. The list includes, for example, Gary Bakers' ...dissertation on "The English Way of War, 1360-99: A case of Military Decline"; Gavin D. Brown's ""Dig for Bloody Victory": the British Soldier's Experience of Trench Warfare, 1939-45" and Gary Evans' "The British Cavalry, 1920-40".
In accordance with previous practice, this lists doctoral dissertations and research theses completed in the UK to 2019 and elsewhere to 2018-19, together with those previously omitted.
A volume of correspondence relating to the Curragh Incident of March 1914 published by the Army Records Society in 1986 illuminated the course of events. In particular, it revealed the deep divisions ...within the army as a result of the 'ultimatum' foolishly put to officers serving in Ireland by the General Officer Commanding, Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Paget. As is well known, led by Brigadier General Hubert Gough of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, officers threatened resignation rather than coerce Ulster into accepting Home Rue should such operations be ordered. No such orders were issued and a hypothetical ultimatum was met by a hypothetical answer which, nonetheless, paralyszd government policy. Further correspondence became available and another selection was published in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research journal in 1991.
It was not uncommon for ordinary soldiers of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to be commemorated on continental memorials. Commemoration of the war dead was markedly different from the situation ...in Britain where it was highly unusual for ordinary soldiers to be commemorated at all prior to the South African War of 1899-1902, let alone to be named. Just as the memorials to the South African War have been seen as foreshadowing those of the First World War, they have also been seen as the pre-history of war commemoration in Britain. However, Beckett argues, while it may mark a moment of transition in local war memorialisation in Britain, the South African War is not truly it's pre-history. The South African War itself was a logical extension of evolving national and local practice in which, prior to the Reformation, there was a recognition of the significance of the place where the slain had fallen, a practice which ceased with the Protestant Reformation. In the 18c, however, there was something of a revival, which has been ascribed to a combination of Protestant triumphalism and antiquarianism.
PDF
