Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856

by Trevor Royle

Overview

The definitive history of the Crimean War from world-renowned historian Trevor Royle.

The Crimean War, one of history's most compelling subjects, encompassed human suffering, woeful leadership and misadministration on a grand scale. It created a heroic myth out of the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade and, in Florence Nightingale, it produced one of history's great heroes. The war was a watershed in world history and pointed the way to what mass warfare would be like in the twentieth century. New weapons were introduced; trench combat became a fact of daily warfare outside Sebastopol; medical innovation saved countless soldiers' lives that would otherwise have been lost. Ultimately, by failing to solve the Eastern Question, the war paved the way for the greater conflagration which broke out in 1914 and greatly prefigured the current situation in Eastern Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403964168
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/21/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.32(d)

About the Author

Trevor Royle is Associate Editor of the Sunday Herald and a regular commentator on international affairs for BBC radio. He is the author of Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856.

Table of Contents

Preface * Prologue: 1851 * Part I * A Churchwardens' Quarrel * Menshikov's Mission * Getting into Deep Waters * The Thousand and One Notes * Phoney War * The Affair at Sinope * Drifting Towards War * "Our Beautiful Guards" * Uneasy Partners * Opening Shots * Varna Interlude * Hurrah for the Crimea! * Part II * Advance to Contact * The Alma: The Infantry Will Advance * Missed Opportunities * Ladies with Lamps * Balaklava: A Cavalryman's Battle * Inkerman: An Infantryman's Battle * Arrival of General Winter * Muddle in Washington, Progress in Vienna * "Pam Enters the Fray" * Spring Stalemate * Todleben's Triumph * Spring Cruise, Summer Success * Trench Warfare: Massacre in the Redoubts * Sebastopol Falls * The Forgotten War: Kars and Erzerum * A Second Winter * Part III * Peace Feelers * Tying Up Some Loose Ends * Peacetime in Paris * The New World Order * Learning the Lessons the Hard Way * Epilogue: 1914

Editorial Reviews

Trevor Royle, a very well-respected military historian, has written a new and up to date account of [the Crimean] war, giving proper attention to the Russian side. His book is gripping . . .” —Norman Stone

“Thorough and informative, this scholarly book will interest readers of history and military history alike; for the present, it also stands as the definitive treatment of the Crimean War.” —Publishers Weekly

“Trevor Royle's achievement is to have skillfully encompassed and explained the complexities of his subject in a single volume of no excessive length.” —New York Review of Books

“a well-written, thorough study of what can be considered the first modern war.” —New York Times Book Review

“...a sound and solid description of the Crimean War.” —Victorian Studies

From the Publisher

In the century between Napoleon and WWI, only one major international war was fought among the European powers. Faintly understood, the Crimean War--which pitted Britain and France with the Ottoman Empire against Russia--was the war that made Florence Nightingale famous. But although it was arguably the hinge upon which much subsequent history turned, little is known about it, or remembered--except for the charge of the Light Brigade. (Indeed, two of the British commanders who served there--Lords Raglan and Cardigan--are known more for their contributions to fashion than for their military deeds.) In Crimea, Royle (Winds of Change: The End of Empire in Africa) remedies this situation. A writer and journalist specializing in military history, he covers not just the Crimea, but also the entire Black Sea region in his beautifully written study. He describes the diplomatic maneuverings that passed between the belligerents and their potential allies (like the United States), and he thoughtfully considers the causes, conduct and consequences of the war. And although he provides a massive amount of detail, it is a testament to his skill that the details never overwhelm the narrative. Thorough and informative, this scholarly book will interest readers of history and military history alike; for the present, it also stands as the definitive treatment of the Crimean War. Illus. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mighty wars spring from unusual sources. Four major powers (Britain, France, and Turkey vs. Russia) went to war in 1854 over who should hold the front-door keys to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Scottish historian Royle (Last Days of the Raj) shows how this spark ignited smoldering European political tensions. Huge armies battled for two years over a single Russian city, Sevastopol, on the Black Sea. Once it fell to the allies, a peace was quickly engineered that failed to resolve the underlying tensions. The war's chief significance was its innovations: it introduced trench warfare, mined harbors, battlefield nursing, and up-to-the-minute press coverage. Royle's narrative is clear and readable, balancing battle descriptions and political maneuvering. The only flaw is the lack of a large-scale map, though smaller maps appear. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.--Bob Persing, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

A thorough, engaging account of the causes, events, and consequences of the Crimean War by Sunday Herald journalist and popular historian Royle (Precipitous City, 1980, etc.) Royle acknowledges in his first sentence that the war, so often chronicled, is "either one of history's bad jokes or one of the compulsive subjects of historical writing." He covers not just the military, but also the political, social, and even religious aspects of the war that pitted Russia against the allied forces of France, England, and the Ottoman Empire. Royle does a splendid job of handling his complex subject and succeeds in fairly representing all sides. The war featured a cast of characters stunning in their subsequent celebrity: Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria, Czar Alexander II. They all figure in the horrors that began as a dispute over the key to the main door of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and ended with the loss of thousands of lives on the Black Sea peninsula. Less well known, though ably animated here, are the various military leaders involved in the cause, principally Lord Raglan (a Waterloo veteran who died of illness during the conflict), the Earl of Cardigan (who led the Charge of the Light Brigade), Omar Pasha (an Ottoman leader), Gen. Saint-Arnaud (a French commander), and Gorchakov and Paskevich and Menshikov (the principal Russian commanders). Royle is especially effective at demonstrating the effects of the press on the conflict (for this was the first war in which newspaper correspondents figured prominently), and at identifying the rapidly changing technology ofwarfare(telegraph, semaphore, railways, and balloons emerged as important tools of battle). Royle has fashioned what will be the standard popular work on the subject. (16 pages b&w photos, 8 maps)

Kirkus Reviews