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The Great Mutiny: India, 1857
by: Christopher Hibbert

List Price: £14.99

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.0317
EAN: 9780140047523
ISBN: 0140047522
Label: Penguin Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
Number Of Pages: 472
Publication Date: March 27, 1980
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Studio: Penguin Books Ltd
Sales Rank: 120531

Related Items:

The Honourable Company: History of the English East India Company

The Indian Mutiny 1857-58 (Essential Histories) (Essential Histories)

Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750-1914

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Excellent book
I suppose the best way to describe it is to say that it gives a wonderful picture of the good and the bad sides of the British at the time. He discusses the change from India being run by people who understood the locals quite well, to a ruling class imported from India. In many accounts this is glossed over, as are the various attempts at correcting the mistakes made just prior to the rebellion.

As an account of the Great Rebellion itself it gives not so much a birds eye view, but more of a narrative view; anecdotes, narrative accounts of what happened, excerpts from letters, all help to draw a surprisingly detailed picture without losing sight of the overall situation. I think that is one of the best parts of the book, it has ... Read More:

Rating:

- Clear Look at Causes, Plus Great Telling
This is a gripping read of the events of the famous Indian Mutiny of 1857 in the India of the East India Company. The narrative of the actual famous sieges - Lucknow, Cawnpore, Dehli, etc, is fascinating and very moving. This book is also interesting for the depth it goes into of the causes, on both sides. I especially liked the look at the origins of the Mutiny, how certain Indian nobles were upset at the British putting a stop to their anarchic fleecing of the countryside - replacing it with their own, more organized taxation. Nothing is left out of the savagery of the Indians at Cawnpore when massacring the women and children who they had agreed to offer safe conduct to (a really harrowing tale), nor of the "Old Testament-style wrath" ... Read More:

Rating:

- Great narrative but a lame conclusion
As the other reviews say, it is good stuff. He pulls together different sources brilliantly and weaves it into a compelling narrative.
Mainly because of the extant evidence, though, it has got a totally British bias, and you don't get much sense of what it was like, say, to have been one of the people besieging Cawnpore, or mutinying at Meerut. Yes, you see first the paralysis and then the bloodthirstiness of the Brits from their own mouths, but what did the Indians think was happening?
More seriously, the last chapter is a great disappointment. So, the Indian Mutiny was "the swan song of the old India". What is that supposed to mean? Hibbert actually finishes the book by quoting someone else, which to me is a sign he hasn't ... Read More:

Rating:

- Extremely absorbing, balanced account of Indian Mutiny
This is an excellent account of the 1857 Mutiny; Hibbert manages to convey something of what it must have been like to have suffered through the siege of Lucknow and the massacre at Cawnpore, at the same time pulling no punches about the British response, and rejecting (quite convincingly, and while eschewing emotionalism) the attempts in modern times to turn the Mutiny into some sort of independance movement - the rapaciousness of the local Indian elite (eg, Nana Sahib), insensed at the British encroachment on their revenue/extortion rackets, he argues, fueled the fire of the rebellion, along with those awful pork cartridges.

This is a compelling read, both for the events themselves (the events/massacres of European women and children ... Read More:

Rating:

- A Frightening Victorian Epic
The Great Mutiny (or Sepoy Rebellion) of 1857-58 was the most dangerous threat to the Victorian Empire of the mid 19th century. The cause was complex and controversial and was based upon cultural ignorance, arrogance and a willful blindness. Hibbert is a good story teller and a very good popular Historian and he laces his book with many first hand anecdotes of the mutiny as well as a very vivid description of the Cawnpore massacre and the Siege of Delhi and the Relief of Lucknow. One gets the impression from reading this book that the British Army which ultimately put down the rebellion (only a part of the Sepoy army rebelled) was one of the most ruthless, bloodthirsty, and vengeful armies that England had sent overseas since the days of the Hundred ... Read More:

Books : The Great Mutiny: India, 1857