The Victorians at War, and: Victorians at War, 1815-1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History (review)

Over the years, Ian Beckett has produced a number of excellent scholarly works of Victorian military history, including Riflemen Form, The Amateur Military Tradition, and the co-edited Politicians and Defence. With The Victorians at War, he aims at a more general audience. Avoiding a traditional narrative, Beckett presents a collection of essays taken largely from previously published (although sometimes substantially rewritten) articles, book chapters, and lectures. These essays are loosely arranged around three themes: public perceptions of soldiers and the army, military command and civil-military relations, and the application of force. Throughout, Beckett wants to show how the men and officers of Queen Victoria's armies lived and fought.

In Part One of The Victorians at War, Beckett presents such "eminent Victorians" as Garnet Wolseley, Frederick Roberts, Charles MacGregor, and Charles Warren, all figures whom their contemporaries could have easily identified on cigarette cards and biscuit tins, and, as the author laments, are virtually unknown today. These essays offer snippets from the lives of these officers. Some are wonderfully illustrated; others are brief and disjointed. The strongest include a discussion of Christian militarism in the essay on Henry Havelock's relief of Cawnpore, the difficulties in relying on non-British troops in the essay on William Hicks's failure in the Sudan, and, in the chapter entitled, "The Race for Peerage," the competition between Frederick Roberts and Robert Phayre to reach Kandahar in 1880.

In Part Two, Beckett shifts from military personalities to administration, a far harder topic to sell to a general audience. Furthermore, the scope of the book narrows to the ten-year period between the Second Afghan War and the Stanhope Memorandum of 1888. Beckett presents much of interesting material on Edward Stanhope's tenure at the War Office, the overly politicized process of making field appointments during Britain's many small wars, and the civil-military upheaval caused by the Suakin expedition. But in a few chapters, e.g., those on military administration in South Africa and the use of Indian troops outside of the Subcontinent, Beckett does not develop the material sufficiently even for a popular readership nor does he point the reader in a helpful direction: The Victorians at War lacks a bibliography and includes only a few footnotes.

Part Three focuses mostly on the Crimean and South African Wars. It is in these chapters that Beckett is at his best as an observer of a flawed military institution which was forced to undergo a major transition in an age of modern war. In essays on the impact of technology on British military thought, the development of Southampton as an imperial port, the use of auxiliary forces, and the South African War as "total war," Beckett provides the reader with critical insight into the mindset and structural limitations of the Victorian army.

While The Victorians at War is an enjoyable read, it lacks the in-depth analysis of a book like Edward Spiers's The Late Victorian Army, 1868-1902 or the color of Byron Farwell's Mr. Kipling's Army. The Victorians at War is probably best suited for the reader well-versed in the era who is looking for a new topic of research or simply wants a pleasurable diversion.

The similarly titled The Victorians at War, 1815-1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History, by Harold E. Raugh, Jr., is an excellent sourcebook for high school and college students. With over 350 entries, helpful maps, multiple cross-references and a solid, up to date bibliography, this encyclopedia could serve as a good starting point for any research project, particularly one examining British military history in the late...