Off The Bookshelf UK - Books Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket New & Used Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket

Search Books - select a category

Buy Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket online at Discounted New and Used prices. Delivered to your door with Off-The-Bookshelf.

Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket
by: Richard Holmes

List Price: £9.99

Off The Bookshelf's Price: £6.99

You Save: £3.00 (30%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: £0.33
Collectible Price: £3.59
Third Party New Price: £2.99

Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 941
EAN: 9780006531524
ISBN: 0006531520
Label: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: August 05, 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Studio: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Sales Rank: 93992

Related Items:

Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front

Rifles: Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters

Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750-1914

Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
The battlefield museum of Waterloo, Richard Holmes comments in Redcoat, tells us much about Napoleon, Wellington and their senior commanders but far less about the men they led. Holmes aims, in this massively researched history, to redress the balance. He does so by piling up facts, information and anecdotes, many of them culled from memoirs of the period, to illustrate the everyday life of British soldiers in the 18th and 19th centuries, from the Battle of Blenheim to the Crimean War. In the hands of a less gifted historian this might have made for a dry, daunting and overpowering text. Holmes, however, has a sharp eye for the telling details and the memorable stories that bring the past to life. He pays as much attention to the small-scale as to the larger picture: a soldier is promoted because "his beautiful black eyes and whiskers had attracted the notice of his colonel's lady"; Crimea-bound infantrymen play cricket in "what the scorebook calls Sultan's Valley, Asia Minor"; black musician-soldiers enrich the repertoire of a regimental band; a respected military surgeon is revealed, after death, to have been a woman dressed as a man. Yet Holmes is always aware of that larger picture and of the hardships and dangers of the military life. His chapters on the floggings and punishments inflicted on the common soldier and on the terrible wounds that battle could bring--which again make vivid use of period memoirs--are often very moving. Anyone wanting to find out how the ordinary soldier of the 18th and 19th centuries was recruited, how he was drilled, how he fought, how he lived and (often) how he died, need look no further than this impressive work of popular history. --Nick Rennison

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Very Good
After a shaky start, this book rewards perseverence. It leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of army life in the 18th and 19th centuries (with an emphasis on the latter). I got mine in a second hand bookshop but won't be getting rid of it like the original owner did.

Rating:

- Delightful
For anyone even remotely interested in one of the most glorious periods of the British army and/or lovers of historical novels (think of Sharpe for one) this should be a real treat! Richard Holmes is not only an expert but knows how to write a compelling book, and in 'Redcoat' he's outdone himself.

Virtually every aspect of army life 'in the age of horse and musket' is treated in detail and often comes with eyewitness accounts or comments from contemporaries. Thoroughly enjoyable, I wish there were more of the kind!

Rating:

- Hard going
First things first. Richard Holmes is a meticulous researcher who obviously loves his subject, and full marks for him to that. Having put so much work into this book, he hardly deserves criticism from amateurs such as myself.
Yet, sadly, I found my love of History of Empire started to falter as I ploughed through page after page of exhaustive (and exhausting) detail.
The guy who wrote the "Turgid" review had it spot on.

Rating:

- A sociology of the British soldier 1700-1860
Professor Holmes has written a thematic sociological history of the British redcoated soldier in the age of the Brown Bess musket, i.e from the time of the First Hanoverian kings to the Indian Mutiny, with a focus on their experiences during the main conflicts, i.e the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny. It is built as a narrative. The style is very fluid and the text is full of quotes and anecdotes, it is well structured in chapters on specific themes.
It covers:
-the nature of warfare in Europe and the colonies
-weapons and their effect on tactics, injuries and casualties
-recruitment, command and discipline
-attitude under fire and towards the enemy
-life in ... Read More:

Rating:

- Accurate, but Turgid
I'm going to break the mold a little here, I don not think this book deserves the 5 stars it has been gratuitously granted. Sure, it is very accurate, and at times interesting, crammed full of facts, quotes and painstakingly researched.
My problem is with how Holmes writes. He is a scholar, and as such he writes as one would expect. There is little attempt to bring history to life with anecdotes and few in depth descriptions of battles. It is just like reading a manuscript, lifeless, turgid, bogged down in facts and not really accessible to a casual reader.
So if you read Holmes, you can expect historical accuracy, but don't expect a ripping yarn in the same vein as the brilliant Giles Milton. Expect a slow pace, an overwhelming glut ... Read More:

Books : Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket