Charles Carton - Going to the Wars, Historia(2)(1), ebook, pdf

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GOING TO THE WARS
During the 1640s, tens of thousands of young British men set off for the Civil
Wars full of that innocent enthusiasm with which so many before and since
have welcomed the prospect of battle. Few had much idea of the reality of
war. Brought up in a relatively peaceful society, they were totally unprepared
for the military discipline, the physical exhaustion, the divided loyalties, the
emotional strain, the loneliness, and, above all, the violence of combat.
Going to the Wars
studies the British Civil Wars as a military experience. It
is not a traditional campaign history, a political history of the war, or an
analysis of weapons, organization, supply or tactics. Rather it explains how
men prepared for combat, how they campaigned, fought battles and
endured sieges. Others also endured the horrors of war, and the book pays
special attention to those often excluded from a military panorama: women,
children and prisoners of war.
Combining extensive research in primary sources with the work of the new
military historians such as John Keegan and Richard Holmes, Charles
Carlton provides a fresh look at the event once described by G.M. Trevelyan
as the most important happening in our history.
Charles Carlton
is Professor of History at North Carolina State University.
His many publications include
Royal Mistresses
(1990),
William Laud:
1573–1645
(1987),
Royal Childhoods
(1986), and
Charles I
(1983). For
five years he was a part-time soldier in Britain’s Territorial Army, serving as
an officer in the Welch Regiment, the Special Air Services Regiment, and the
Intelligence Corps.
‘A fascinating and brilliant book…the real value of this book is the insights
it gives us into what it was like to be involved, both as a soldier and as a
civilian…a complete and detailed view of the horror of civil war…There are
lots of gems in this remarkable book.’
Literary Review
‘A remarkable book, full of stories, emotions and terrible scenes recorded
with a grim common sense…This is the most revealing and memorable
book about its period since Christopher Hill’s
The World Turned Upside
Down.
I commend it not only to anyone interested in the century but to
anyone interested in the nature of war and the nature of human beings.’
The Scotsman
‘A rather astonishing book, which enters upon the field with an exhilarating
mixture of assurance and diffidence. Carlton takes us systematically and
excitingly through the life and labours of the men who joined the war…The
evidence laid before us is enormous: letters, poems, songs, newspaper
reports are all drawn on. No doubt of it: Carlton’s prodigious labours have
given us a three-dimensional picture, reality rather than learned
abstraction.’
Independent on Sunday
‘Charles Carlton’s exhilarating survey of the British civil wars, 1638 to
1651, overflows with amazing facts…A totally absorbing book, which
details daily life during this vital time in our history in a way that has not
been bettered…Here is, as near to truth, our violent history as it affects the
lowest and highest in the land told in splendid abundance.’
City Recorder
‘This splendidly researched book tells us what the British Civil Wars were
really like…We are unlikely to get closer to the front line than the pages of
this book.’
Manchester Evening News
GOING TO THE WARS
The Experience of the British Civil Wars
1638–1651
Charles Carlton
London and New York
To the memory of my father, Colonel Charles
Hope Carlton, M.C., Royal Army Medical
Corps, who as a surgeon in two world wars knew
only too well the actuality of battle,
and
to my children, and their posterity,
in the hope that they may never know the
reality of what I am trying to describe.
First published 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Paperback edition first published 1994
© 1992, 1994 Charles Carlton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Carlton, Charles
Going to the Wars: The Experience of the
British Civil Wars, 1638–1651
I. Title
941.06
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Carlton, Charles
Going to the Wars—The Experience of the British Civil Wars,
1638–1651/Charles Carlton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Great Britain—History—Civil War, 1642–1649. 2. Great
Britain—History—Charles I, 1625–1649. 3. Great Britain—History
—Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660. I. Title.
DA415.C3 1992
941.06–dc20 92–295
ISBN 0-203-42558-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-73382-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-10391-6 (Print Edition)
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