ISBN: 9780785820239

Spanning more than two hundred years of martial adventurism, aggression, and outright blundering, Arrogant Armies chronicles the profoundly misguided and utterly calamitous military exped… Mehr…

Spanning more than two hundred years of martial adventurism, aggression, and outright blundering, Arrogant Armies chronicles the profoundly misguided and utterly calamitous military expeditions of the great empire builders and overconfident expeditionary forces. From colonial America to South Africa, from Mesopotamia to Khartoum, an extraordinary number of presumably superior armies grievously underestimated native forces. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, military memoirs, diaries of soldiers who fought in the battles, and other firsthand letters and papers, noted journalist James Perry brings a sense of urgency and immediacy to these historic defeats. At times devastating, at times hilarious, his vast panorama of human folly is peopled by frightened soldiers, zealous native resistance, and, of course, a colorful gallery of arrogant, often inept, officers. Many of them received their ultimate comeuppance in these battles: Generals Edward Braddock, Charles MacCarthy, William R. Shafter, Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, Charles "Chinese" Gordon, William George Keith Elphinstone, Manuel Fernandez Silvestre, and many others. What is most remarkable about Arrogant Armies is the cumulative power of these ironic encounters. Black humor, brutality, staggering incompetence, and genuine drama come together with devastating force. In Arrogant Armies, Perry casts a sharply critical eye on what he describes as the "small wars, what Kipling called the 'savage wars of peace.'" It is fascinating history and a compelling commentary on politics and "the dark side of the human race...its deadly preoccupation with war." Book jacket. Media >, [PU: Castle Books]<

1996, ISBN: 078582023X

[EAN: 9780785820239], [PU: Castle Books c1996, Edison, New Jersey], MILITARY HISTORY EUROPEAN AMERICAN BRITISH ENGLISH COLONIAL, Literary Collections|English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Hist… Mehr…

[EAN: 9780785820239], [PU: Castle Books c1996, Edison, New Jersey], MILITARY HISTORY EUROPEAN AMERICAN BRITISH ENGLISH COLONIAL, Literary Collections|English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, History|Military|General, Jacket, As New. Black-and-white illustrations. The dust jacket is protected by a Brodart mylar cover and is not price-clipped. Not an ex-library copy. No remainder marks. Most books shipped within 24 hours. All books mailed with deivery confirmation. This edition was published in 2005. Fine condition in fine dust jacket. ; B & W illustrations; 8vo.; 314 pages., Books<