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Combining oral and visual history, this description of the Crimean War is compiled with the use of extracts from a considerable number of eye-witness accounts in the form of letters and diaries of soldiers, sailors, doctors, nurses, artists and reporters. They include views from all sides of the conflict - not only British, but French, Russian and Turkish. The war was the first to be photographed (by Roger Fenton and his colleagues), and the first to which professional war artists were assigned, and the book is extensively illustrated with images created by those photographers and artists. ... Read more

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This study reveals the Crimean War as Europe's first object lesson in the challenge that war presents to a state committed to political, social and economic liberalism. The text deals with issues of war and finance, monetary policy and economic warfare: the strains imposed on constitutional government, the wartime role of publicity and the press, and the impact of military disasters on class, radical ideas and reform. ... Read more

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Chapters: History of the Russo-Turkish wars, Yevpatoria, Azov, Muravsky Trail, Russo-Austrian-Turkish War, Battle of Podhajce, Bakhchisaray, List of Crimean khans, Ochakiv, Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, Crimean campaigns, Bilohirsk, Giray dynasty, Russo-Crimean War, Battle of Kletsk, Bunchuk, Yeni-Kale, Tugay Bey, Treaty of Bakhchisarai, Khan Temir, Treaty of Jassy, Izyumsky Trail,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 95. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire during the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest conflicts in European history. After having captured the region of Podolia in the course of the Polish-Ottoman War (1672-1676), the Ottoman government strived to spread its rule over all of the Right-bank Ukraine with the support of its vassal, Petro Doroshenko (1665-1672). The latter's pro-Ottoman policy caused discontent among many Ukrainian Cossacks, which would elect Ivan Samoilovich as a sole Hetman of all Ukraine in 1674. In 1679-1680, the Russians repelled the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and signed the Bakhchisaray Peace Treaty on January 3, 1681, which would establish the Russo-Turkish border by the Dnieper river. Russia had joined the European Holy League (Austria, Poland, Venice) in 1686. During the war, the Russian army organized the Crimean campaigns of 1687-1689 and the Azov campaigns of 1695-1696. The Russian involvement marked the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars. In light of Russia's preparations for the war with Sweden and other countries' signing the Treaty of Karlowitz with Turkey in 1699, the Russian government signed the Treaty of Constantinople with the Ottoman Empire in 1700. After the Russians had defeated the Ukrainan Cossaks and Swede...http://booksllc.net/?id=3105120 ... Read more

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Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past and can't be restored."  Well, over recent years, The British Library, working with Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collection of 19th century books.

There are now 65,000  titles available  (that's an incredible 25 million pages) of material ranging from works by famous names such as  Dickens, Trollope and Hardy as well as many forgotten literary gems , all of which can now be printed on demand and purchased right here on Amazon.

Further information on The British Library and its digitisation programme can be found on The British Library website. ... Read more

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Volume 2 of a special edition

This is the second volume of Leonaur's special two volume edition created by dividing Cope's expansive work on the green coated sharpshooters-the famous Rifles. Where Volume 1 concentrated on the birth and early years of the regiment as it fought all over the globe against the Spanish, the Danes, the Napoleonic era French and the emergent American nation, this volume takes up the regimental story immediately after the destruction of the French First Empire on the bloody fields of Waterloo. The nations of Europe were about to enter an extraordinarily long period of peace-compared to its recent history-and it would be some forty years before another major conflict came the way of the British Army. Great Britain was now about to create her own empire and this would involve soldiering in many small conflicts to the end of the Victorian period. Cope's history considers the activities of The Rifles-soon to be The Rifle Brigade-up to 1876; so the reader will join them in the early 19th century struggles against the native tribes of South Africa in what became the Kaffir Wars. War against Russia drew them towards the Crimea where disease and privation killed more than battle. The turbulent 1850's also brought the horrific outburst of violence that was the Indian Mutiny, during which The Rifles shouldered their share of the fighting-including an interesting experiment as camel borne troops. Rebellion in Canada called them to colder climes but their services-always in demand-propelled them, in complete contrast to the final campaign covered by this book, into the steaming jungles of West Africa against the Ashanti. This is an indispensable history for anyone interested in this famous regiment and it is available to soft cover or hard cover with dust jacket for collectors. ... Read more

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Crimean War. Siege of Sevastopol (1854?1855), Siege ofTaganrog, Siege of Petropavlovsk, Fort Queenscliff,Historyof the Balkans, List of Crimean War Victoria Crossrecipients, Mary Seacole ... Read more

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Regulamentul Organic. History of the Russo-Turkish wars,Phanariotes, Crimean War, Moldavian Revolution of 1848,Wallachian Revolution of 1848 ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: London, S. Sonnenschein and co., lim; Publication date: 1897; Subjects: Crimean War, 1853-1856; Eastern question (Balkan); History / Military / Other; History / Europe / Eastern; Business ... Read more

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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.
Amazon.com Review
The mid-19th-century Crimean War, pitting England, France, andless powerful allies against Russia, was one of the first majorinternational wars in history. In the execution, it was none tooinspiring. As TrevorRoyle writes in his sweeping study of the conflict, "itencompassed maladministration on a grand scale and human suffering, ifnot without parallel then at least minutely recorded by the watchingwar correspondents"--the war being the first as well to have beenwidely reported. It was, a contemporary British journal put it, a warof "lions led by donkeys," young men commanded by doddering veteransof the Napoleonic campaigns who served in an unlikely alliance. TheEnglish officers, Royle writes, could never shake the habit of callingtheir French comrades "the enemy," and never quite trusted them,either.

The result was carnage: not only the loss of a good portion of theLight Brigade in the most famous--but not the most inept--incident ofthe war, but also the destruction of whole regiments left to blunderabout in the fog and smoke, thanks to their commanders' inadequateintelligence-gathering efforts. Not much changed at war's end. In theeventual peace treaty, France and England and Russia kept theirterritories more or less intact, and the struggle for power betweenRussia and the neighboring Ottoman Empire, in whose defense France andEngland had ostensibly gone to war, stretched out for anothergeneration. It ended with a Russian victory that allowed Russia toassume control of Turkish holdings in the Balkans, which, Royle notes,lay the seeds for still another international conflict, World WarI.

Royle does a fine job of negotiating through the many complexities,diplomatic and military, of the Crimean War. His descriptions ofbattlefield tactics (or the lack thereof) are among the best in theliterature. More comprehensive than RobertB.Edgerton's Death or Glory: The Legacy ofthe Crimean War, Royle's Crimea is likely to stand asan enduring work on this strange, wasteful conflict.--GregoryMcNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Back to The Crimea
Trevor Royle does a bang-up job in this book of covering the Crimean War in all its aspects - diplomatic, military, technological, cultural - in as thorough a manner for any armchair historian to be left quite satisfied with the information, but, perhaps, a touch deflated in the end.True, it's unmistakably an Anglo-centric book, but, really, I don't think the war has much interest to historians of other countries, such as France. For the French, anyway, the Franco-Prussian War - in which Paris itself fell in January, 1871 - takes precedence in the nation's narrative, and the tricolour now flying over Alsace-Lorraine is still a source of national pride after that war's blow to French amour-propre and territorial integrity.As for Turkey and Russia, the war has been, respectively, eclipsed by the end of the Ottoman Empire and the demise of Tsarist rule. It is only in the UK that schoolboys - I speak from experience - are still forced to memorise such things as Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of The Light Brigade" which Royle rightly takes to task not only for getting it all wrong regarding the soldiers' mindset, but also for simply being a bad poem. The war, in general, is also portrayed inthe UK as some sort of moral victory for the Brits, when, in point of fact, as Royle makes exhaustively clear, rather the opposite was the case.

So, to summarise, the account is an extremely well-informed and very readable account of the conflict.But I don't find myself as sanguine as does Royle in the final chapter entitled "Epilogue: 1914" in the final sentence of the book in which he declares, "...war between the great nations of Europe might just have become the stuff of history books."Perhaps, in context, this notion is correct in that there simply are not, at present, any "great" nations of Europe such as there were in the 19th Century. But, to the contrary, statements such as this one - nearly verbatim - were being made on the brink of the advent of WWI.Indeed, Royle cites them in this concluding chapter.

The overall impression one takes away from the book is that wars, such as the one in the Crimea, are always unexpectedly arising, bringing with them all the carnage, mismanagement, disease, petty rivalries among allies etc. that form their inherent accompaniment.

Perhaps Royle needs to reread his own very engaging book.

Crimea - The Great Crimean War
This book lived up to my approximate expectations. The actual fighting accounts
are mixed interminably in with the political machinations of the period.
Sketch and map plans are very limited but do give a distant idea of what
the author is attempting to portray. For me, taking a section at a time
was enough for my somewhat limited powers of mental digestion.

Crimea
The prime players are Russia, Turkey, Britain, France. The issue is world power, or at least a strategic piece of the world's power puzzle. At issue in disguise were the holy prizes, masked in Russia's need to save '' the Christians '' in a Muslim ruled Turkey. It was a land within the Ottoman Empire in decline. ( a sick old man was the phrase of the time). With the battlefield looking like it should be Turkey, the Russian Crimean peninsula and actually the city of Sevastopol becomes the scene of the siege. There was an air of arrogance and possibly hubris amongst the European powers specifically amongst the people at large. Hubris spilled over into the leadership of each country as they were actually giving considerable thought to their strategic interest. England had concerns over an encroachment of influence immediately on their Indian colony. Russia was in search of a warm water port in the Mediterranean. France...well its not quite clear what she wanted outside of an influence in the Middle East as other than the Christian prizes there were no outside strategic interests. The one possible rationale for the French may have been the mood of the French where a convincing victory would remove the 1815 international shackles.

The Affair at Sinope is history's lesson in poetic justice. Russia took advantage of their naval supremacy over Turkey. In proactive reaction to ward off the deployment of additional Turkish troops in Maldivian front, Russian ships sank the Turkish ships while still in harbor. They annihilated the fleet with a first in the use of solid shells. The burning fleet caught the harbor on fire. Turkey's loss of 2000 soldiers and as many sailors. It gave the impression of a massacre to the rest of the world. Up to this point the world leaders were not anxious to war with Russia. That all changed as England and France took notice.

So one can look at the power strategic of military victory versus the power of the free press and ask which is most effective in terms of winning the long lasting minds of men.

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The hearlding of World War 2
The Crimean war shattered the peace of Europe that had been established since Napoleon and set the course for World War 1. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the advances of Russia are prominent in the war. The famed charge of the light brigade occurred during this war and the trench warfare of World War 1 can be seen. This was really fought over a very small amount of land and in hellish terrain.The book is very well written and does an excellent job of discussing how the war progressed.Overall an excellent book and one that I would recommend.

Surprisingly good history...
Were it not for Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, it is arguable whether the Crimean War would have much notoriety.It wasn't overly long, there were very few set-piece battles and no individual heroes of note.It was, among european wars of history, a middling confrontation.How much better, then, is Trevor Royle's treatment with the excitement he brings to it.

Sensing Ottoman dissolution, tsarist Russia makes a play to position itself for benefit.Alarmingly, this could include access to the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles.Having none of it, Britain and France combine to contest Russia's territorial ambitions.Negotiations rapidly break down and Sevastapol is invested.What follows is a story of British incompetence, French duplicity, and Russia's teetering access to military means.

Royle weaves throughout the event the high intrigue behind the scenes where unilateral diplomacy, oneupmanship, and the perfidious maneuvering of supposed allies rules the day. On the war front, he portrays the sad lot of the British soldier.In stark contrast to the French, the British military was grossly underfunded, medical care was appallingly poor, conditions were squalid, and soldiers died of disease in droves.The comparatively healthy ones simply starved.

With Sevastapol fallen, Russia was compelled to consider armistice while conniving diplomats in Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna and London brokered an inadequate peace. Accordingly, the relatively minor Crimean conflict set the table for future hostilities and presaged the disintegration of the Ottoman empire.Indeed, it was in a corner of the splintered Ottoman empire that a single shot rang out to begin a world war. Trevor Royle does an exemplary job in bringing Crimea to us and, in so doing, prepares the inquisitive reader for the explosive century to come.4+ stars. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Informative But Limited
This is a decent narrative of the Crimean War.Ponting is concerned with rescuing the Crimean War from the popular impression of a minor conflict.As he points out, this was arguably the largest European war between the Napoleonic wars and WWI.It involved most of the major European powers and some minor powers, had a global scope with combat in the Black and Baltic Seas and even in the Pacific, and involved large casulties with an estimated 650,000 deaths.Ponting's narrative of the conflict, its origins, and the final settlement is solid.He makes an attempt to provide a broad perspective on the war.Defects, however, are significant.Written mainly for a British audience, this book focuses disproportionately on the British experience.The great majority of Ponting's primary and secondary research sources are British.He makes a decent effort to cover the French effort, crucial since they provided the bulk of the Allied armies, but his coverage of the Russians and the Ottomans is limited.In contrast to his discussion of British politics and its role in decision making, there is no discussion of French, Russian, or Ottoman decision making.For example, he states correctly that one of the origins of the war was Napoleon III's desire to break out of the stranglehold imposed on France by post-Napoleonic war settlement but never explains why this was Napoleon III's preference.The narrative can be a bit confusing as Ponting has a tendency to cut back and forth from the battlefield to diplomatic events in a non-chronological way.As an account of folly, this topic has a lot of potential.The amateurish nature of the British effort, in particular, is remarkable and Ponting clearly enjoys skewering a variety of 19th century figures.On the other hand, not all of his judgements are apposite.In his conclusions, he attacks the British government for withdrawing into relative isolation after the fiascos of the Crimean War.But this and subsequent decisions kept Britain out of European entanglements and contributed to over 2 generations of relative peace, prosperity, and low military expenditures.Not necessarily a bad course of action.

Non-experts, start here
For non-experts who want to know the basic facts about this little-studied but central event, this is the book for you.It is precise, detailed, cleanly written.Be advised, it is also highly opinionated.The author does not hesitate to dispense blame.I happen to prefer this kind of writing, but if you do not, then stay away.

Also, bring your own maps.Those provided (it is not clear by whom) are incomplete, lacking basic information (like which way is North, which you can figure out, but it's nice to be told), lots of important stuff left out: a complete map of the Crimea would have been helpful.

Other than that, highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
When this book was first published in 1971 the opening paragraph of the blurb read:

"You could fill a library with books about the Crimean War, and that, paradoxically, is why this book has been written.For in this library you would find exhaustive histories, some reaching to several volumes; you would find biographies, commentaries, diaries and treatises written from this angle and from that - but you would not find a single concise volume, a straightforward and objective account of the war covering the peripheral theatres as well as the Crimean itself, giving all the fundamental facts, yet pleading no special cause.This book aims to fill that gap."

Now, over thirty years later, that remains substantially true.The next paragraph began:"The battlefields round Sevastopol are at present inaccessible, even to Russian tourists."Happily this is no longer true, and a number of agencies take tours to the battlefields of the Crimea.As the illustrations in this book were originally selected with the intention of making the reader familiar with the topography of the siege and the battles of Balaclava, Inkerman and the Chernaya, it will prove an invaluable asset to anyone visiting the Crimea. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A summary of the Crimean War from the military stand point.
Blake's book is a good overview of the war.Where other books have related the exploits of the Light Brigade or the heroism of Forence Nightengale, this book deals strictly with the military progress of the war.Campaigns also covered were those in Asia Minor and the Baltic Sea.Blake's book is also well illustrated with an overview of the ground, so one can visualize what the soldiers had to go through in order to accomplish the battlefield objectives.
With the battles in mind, I only rated this four stars because some of the writing is rather dry.In one chapter, Blakes gives the viewpoint from both the Russian and Allies standpoint.Rather than help the reader, I think this confused those trying to understand the battle.Overall a good summary of the war.

A concise, objective account of the Crimean War.
If you are interested in learning about the Crimean War, this is a good volume to start with. Includes 16 illustrations (drawings and photographs), 11 maps, the Orders of Battle for British, French and Russian forces. ListsBritish Cavalry and Infantry regiments invovled. A chronological table isgiven, starting March 2, 1853 and ending April 27, 1856. Events leading tothe war are given first. Background on the war on the Danube, in Asia Minorand in the Baltic are provided. Balaclava, Inkerman and Sevastopol aredetailed. Administrative difficulties are discussed and the Naval campaignsin the Baltic, the White Sea and the North Pacific are covered. I found thevolume very easy to read and most enjoyable. ... Read more

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Edgerton, an anthropologist, is interested in exploring culturaldifferences among the combatants--how a Sardinian soldier might haveresponded, for instance, to the smell of gunpowder differently from aTurkish or Russian or French trooper, or what soldiers on all sidesthought as they prayed to their gods for safekeeping anddeliverance. Those anthropological explorations, along with otherintriguing asides (for instance, on the customary drunkenness ofFlorence Nightingale's nurses), add to the best part of Edgerton'snarrative, which is a straightforward history of the Crimean Waritself. He turns in a lively, well-researched account of a conflictthat merits better understanding. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An overview of the Crimean War as compared with the American Civil War.
This was an OK read.I learned something about the Crimean War.Although I am no expert, the first review seems rather harsh.I enjoyed the book for the view from the Ottoman, Russian, French, and British perspective.I think the author does justice to all sides.The Civil War examples are out of context when one is reading about the Crimean War.The author was trying to do a comparison, but it didn't appeal to me.I read the author's previous book about the African Gold Coast (Ghana) and I found that a better read.This book is a good overview of this war.

An average read about the Crimean War.This is an interesting book from a different perspective.

The Legacy of the Crimean War
A rather disjointed recounting of the gore and hazards of war. It seems that the legacy was not covered as well as what begat the legacy. Could have been a little more organized. Some interesting facts were included but read like a rehash of known information.

Fine Book.
Edgerton's book about the Crimean War does not just cover the battles.It covers the British society of that time who thought a war would be a fine thing because they hadn't had one in 40 years.It covers the stupidity ofthe British high command, both on the spot and in Britain, and thesuffering that this stupidity caused those fine British soldiers who didtheir duty.Kipling would approve of this book.

Disasters of War
Death or Glory contained so many errors that I found it difficult to read. Edgerton's discussion of the Ottoman Turkish involvement in the war proved abysmal. He glossed over and distorted the accounts of British and Frenchofficers and soldiers who served in the Ottoman army. In addition, he paidno attention to Polish and Ottoman sources relating to the Ottoman part inthe war. Edgerton informs us that the staffs of the Bodleian Library,Oxford and the Public Record Office translated all works in French andother languages for him. Since he could not read in French himself, hemissed many crucial points. Distressingly, Edgerton has misunderstoodVictorian English. William Howard Russell's "rapine" [meaningpillaging, looting] at Kertch became "rape" for Edgerton - afabulous misinterpretation that led to the incorrect conclusion that alliedtroops raped innumerable women. On another occasion, Edgerton totallydismissed the major scandals surrounding the Ottoman Turkish generals atKars in 1855 - publicized at great length in published English sources byLake, Williams, and Sandwith - with the facile comment that the OttomanTurkish general was only too glad to turn command of the Ottoman Turkisharmy over to General Williams. It didn't quite happen that way! By far theworst conclusion in this book was Edgerton's unwillingness to findpost-traumatic stress disorder in the various letters, diaries, and memoirsof soldiers in the war! He simply did not look. Perhaps his inability tounderstand Victorian English prevented him. Death or Glory is a HUGEdisappointment. Anyone attempting to find out about the war's realitieswill merely end in unknowing and confusion.

Not your typical military history book!
Robert Egerton did a wonderful job of expressing what it was like for soldier and civilians who lived (and died) during the Crimean War. Thehardships that the soldiers, sailors and civilians endured was trulyamazing! Mr. Egerton's description and antedotes really drove this home. Imust admit that the book would have been more enjoyable if I had had anyknowledge of the Crimean War before I read the book. My ignorance made thebattle references somewhat hard to follow. I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

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Day Two: See Day One
This volume is based on letters written back home from the period of time following Balaclava Battle of 1854.You get a quick idea of the rampant illness and boredom of life of being on the front lines in a police action of keeping an eye on the Russians in Turkey. ... Read more