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A British Profession of Arms - The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian Army (Hardcover)
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A British Profession of Arms - The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian Army (Hardcover)
Series: Campaigns and Commanders Series
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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You offer yourself to be slain,"" General Sir John Hackett once
observed, remarking on the military profession. ""This is the
essence of being a soldier."" For this reason as much as any other,
the British army has invariably been seen as standing apart from
other professions - and sometimes from society as a whole. A
British Profession of Arms effectively counters this view. In this
definitive study of the late Victorian army, distinguished scholar
Ian F. W. Beckett finds that the British soldier, like any other
professional, was motivated by considerations of material reward
and career advancement. Within the context of debates about both
the evolution of Victorian professions and the nature of military
professionalism, Beckett considers the late Victorian officer corps
as a case study for weighing distinctions between the British
soldier and his civilian counterparts. Beckett examines the role of
personality, politics, and patronage in the selection and promotion
of officers. He looks, too, at the internal and external influences
that extended from the press and public opinion to the rivalry of
the so-called rings of adherents of major figures such as Garnet
Wolseley and Frederick Roberts. In particular, he considers these
processes at play in high command in the Second Afghan War
(1878-81), the Anglo-Zulu War (1879), and the South African War
(1899-1902). Based on more than thirty years of research into
surviving official, semiofficial, and private correspondence,
Beckett's work offers an intimate and occasionally amusing picture
of what might affect an officer's career: wealth, wives, and family
status; promotion boards and strategic preferences; performance in
the field and diplomatic outcomes. It is a remarkable depiction of
the British profession of arms, unparalleled in breadth, depth, and
detail.
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