The subtitle of this latest study of British generalship, ‘Ten British Commanders Who Shaped the World’, sets the bar exclusively high. Perhaps this is why in the introduction we are given three other criteria for the selection of subjects. The author seeks to illustrate military success or failure in the context of the political control of the generals, to describe men who have left a legacy applicable today, and to describe how the factors affecting the conduct of commanders have developed over the last three centuries.
Onto this complex and broadly defined parade ground Mark Urban marches ten British generals, each of whom is exposed to us through entertainingly written episodes from careers that take us from the siege of Stirling in 1651 (Monck) to VE Day in 1945 (Montgomery). In between we find Marlborough, Howe, York, Wellington, Gordon, Kitchener, Allenby and Fuller.
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