The history of the British army, from its foundation in the late seventeenth century to the present day.
This new concise history from one of Britain's leading military historians explores the British army from the creation of a permanent army to today. It addresses the institutional development of the British army and its often ambiguous relationship with the state and society, as well as the broader political, social, economic, and cultural role of the army within international, imperial, national, regional, and local contexts.
An army exists to fight, however, the history of the British army cannot be separated from the wars and conflicts that have marked its evolution. Consequently, attention is given to the army's commanders, operations, and battlefields from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the seventeenth century to Iraq and Afghanistan in the twenty-first.
Beckett traces the army's development through five chronological phases: the permanent army of the seventeenth century and its predecessors, the national army of the eighteenth century, the imperial army of the nineteenth century, the people's army of the two world wars, the era of national service, and the return to a small professional army fulfilling a global role as envisaged by successive governments in the twenty-first century, in a time of rapidly changing societal attitudes towards the utility of force, challenging the army's traditional values.
Pages: 240, Dimensions: 14x14cm
