This Seat of Mars: War and the British Isles, 1485-1746
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Shakespeare was not exaggerating when he defined being a soldier as one of the seven ages of man. Over the early modern period, many millions of young men from the four corners of the present United Kingdom went to war, often—and most bloodily—against each other. The almost continuous fighting on land and sea for the two and one-half centuries between Bosworth and Culloden decimated lives, but created the British state and forged the nation as the world's predominant power. In this innovative and moving book, Charles Carlton explores the glorious and terrible impact of war at the national and individual levels. Chapters alternate, providing a robust military and political narrative interlaced with accounts illuminating the personal experience of war, from recruitment to the end of battle in discharge or death. Carlton expertly charts the remarkable military developments over the period, as well as war's enduring corollaries—camaraderie, courage, fear, and grief—to give a powerful account of the profound effect of war on the British Isles and its peoples.
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Charles Carlton finishes this wonderful and easy to read book with a final sentence that says “Here I have tried my best to get it into a book by telling the story—as much as possible in their own words—of how during the early modern period war affected the people and nations of the British Isles. In doing so, I hope that I have shown how profoundly the hand of war has shaped this Seat of Mars.” I would be interested indeed to find a better book than this on the subject.
This is the 2nd book I have read by Carlton, the other being the brilliant Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651. Going to the Wars is one of the best books I have read and I was intrigued to see if this one would be as good. Well maybe not but only by the width of half a hair.
Carlton may just be one the preeminent historian in early modern British warfare and I can do no more than say that anyone interested in this period of British history do worse than read this wonderful historian.
A very good review from http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34480
