by RNS | Oct 21, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Paul L Dawson, Fighting Napoleon at Home (Frontline, 2023)
Historical wars were seldom as popular as later ‘patriots’ would have you believe. All wars have dissenters, some against the war on principle, some who are opportunists furthering their causes. When wars coincide with economic and political crises at home, that dissent can turn revolutionary. If you follow Paul Dawson’s thesis on unrest in Britain during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, you will see how close Britain came to an epoch-changing revolution.
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Dawson sets up a dichotomy between Loyalists and Radical reformers that came into political conflict during the American Revolution. Many of the Radicals in that war continued their opposition into the Napoleonic Wars via the French Revolution. Loyalists, such as Edmund Burke, were vehemently opposed to events in France, inspiring actions against reformers. Undaunted, notes Dawson, the reformers established Jacobin clubs, particularly in the new urban, industrial centres. As they grew in popularity and became a perceived threat to the establishment, these clubs were soon infiltrated by Loyalist spies. Loyalists formed groups too, then came government oppression under the guise of fighting sedition. Free speech was curtailed along with the free press, and with the power of the judiciary against them, there was little the reformers could do. Loyalists also hounded reformer Thomas Paine out of the country, burning him in effigy. Dawson follows the career of noted Radical Henry Redhead Yorke who operated mostly out of Sheffield. Yorke would later recant, but before then the Loyalists saw him as a clear threat along with other Radicals. When the reformers were linked to a French-backed revolution in Ireland and armed rebellion in England, the government acted by rounding up Radicals on charges of high treason.
In 1795, loyalists formed volunteer military units to ‘aid magistrates in clamping down on radical societies’, according to Dawson. This came at a time of high unemployment and food shortages, leading to riots. The government introduced the 1795 Gagging Acts as retribution. Subsequent treason trials resulted in a split amongst reformers, leaving a hard core of Radicals. They formed the United Englishmen, a secretive group with radical links to France and the United Irishmen movement. But French inaction in 1796 failed to incite an English revolution. A new wave of repression followed in 1798 in response to alarms over revolutionary fervour in England.
Dawson moves onto Luddism, a movement inspired by the ban on Trade Unions in 1799 along with a ban on reform societies while famine again swept the country. Machine breaking began in 1799 too, then it erupted in 1811 – this is covered in more detail in Dawson’s companion volume, The Battle Against the Luddites (Pen & Sword, 2023). Widespread food riots occurred in 1800, and alarmingly, the Volunteer Corps in Sheffield refused to put down that town’s unrest. Disease accompanied famine and a full scale revolution seemed on the cards. Dawson notes the unpopularity of the war with France in 1801, the same year that the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act expired, and protests intensified into planning for a revolution. Magistrates broke up seditious meetings and made arrests, often with military support. Hopes of widespread revolution faded, however, with falling food prices and no immediate expectation of French support.
Dawson switches to the Despard Coup amidst rising tensions in Ireland and England in 1802. Plans were laid to seize the Tower of London and overthrow the government with the aid of disaffected soldiers, but it never happened. In a show trial, Despard and others were sentenced to death on flimsy evidence. That did not end radical activism but dampened latent enthusiasm for revolution. War broke out with France again in 1803 and protests continued with the possibility of a French landing. Despite a new famine, however, support for the war increased. Dawson concludes by arguing that the French wars were matched on the home front by competing ideologies, a battle for the soul of the nation, that set the scene for a hundred years of working class struggle.
Paul Dawson has written a strident account of political unrest that will surprise many readers fed on a diet of unwavering British opposition to France. Dawson bases his narrative firmly in the primary sources and his thesis is clearly mapped out, though he seems to give too much credit to the accounts of spies who had much to gain from exaggerating the threat posed by Radicals. Without digging too deeply into Dawson’s argument, be prepared for a by-the-book Marxist interpretation, pitching the working class against the ruling elites. That sometimes drifts into polemic, with Dawson outraged at the reaction to political demands we now take for granted and his habit of making historical comparisons with modern events. This book is also somewhat mistitled, with most of the action taking place before the wars against Napoleon. Nevertheless, in exposing the dark underbelly of British politics, Dawson makes an interesting and useful contribution to the history of this important period.
by RNS | Oct 7, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Robert Lyman, A War of Empires (Osprey, 2021)
The notion that the Burma campaign in World War II is forgotten has long been dispelled by a series of recent histories. It remains, however, a complex episode and difficult to unravel, with all its competing narratives across a wide range of players. Robert Lyman’s engaging and lucid A War of Empires is therefore a welcome addition to the Burma library.
Lyman is quick to point out that the army that defeated the Japanese in Burma was Indian not British, although the latter played their full part. It was certainly the hubristic British that neglected this portion of their empire when the Japanese army came calling in December 1941. Lyman calls this a ‘dereliction of duty’ for allowing the catastrophe that ensued as the Japanese cut the defending forces to ribbons all the way to the Indian border.
Enter Major General William ‘Bill’ Slim who took command of a Corps then 14 Army, preventing retreat from becoming a disgrace, then built up the Anglo-Indian forces physically and morally so that they could stop, turn, and then defeat the Japanese. They achieved this by reeling the Japanese into a rather foolhardy attack centred on Imphal, repulsed them, then launched a counter-offensive that drove the Japanese back down through Burma in 1945. Along the way, Lyman discusses the regeneration of the Indian army; the problems of command among the Allied commanders, bringing the Chinese and Americans into this equation; the nationalist aspirations of many Burmese and Indians duped into complicity with the Japanese; the long-range, behind the lines efforts of Orde Wingate’s Chindits; the crucial appointment of Louis Mountbatten as Allied Supreme Commander; the stunning stand of the Anglo-Indians at Kohima ridge; the conflict amongst the Japanese command as their fortunes turned; and Slim’s brilliant final campaign against the stubborn and fanatical Japanese resistance. And those are just the highlights in a comprehensive account.
Lyman sums up the Burma campaign in his closing chapter. He castigates the Japanese empire for its cruelty and wantonness in Burma, while arguing that independence from Britain was already in the future, though his evidence for this feels a bit soft. Lyman also argues that the Burma campaign was the birth of Indian independence in which the Indian army played a pivotal role – he concludes that this was an Indian victory won by an Indian army. Countering the usual argument that Burma was a sideshow, Lyman stresses the importance of the Burma campaign for the defeat of Japan.
A War of Empires is an outstanding military history of the Burma campaign. Lyman skilfully untangles the complex web of narratives overlaying what was anything but a straightforward fight. He also artfully balances the action on the ground with the wider competing political interests of Britain, India, China, Japan, and the United States. However, Lyman is not so much Anglo-centric as Slim-centric, though here too he points out Slim’s good fortune at key moments and notes the contributions of others who paved the way to victory. It is Slim’s story, however, that pulls all Lyman’s threads together. Lyman’s concluding analysis is provocative, and some might disagree with aspects of it, but few could argue against Lyman’s elevation of India into the spotlight. All in all, this is an excellent read and a splendid starting point for any student of World War II in the Far East.
by RNS | Sep 13, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Mark Stille, Japanese Combined Fleet 1941-42 (Osprey, 2023)
When Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, they revealed to an astonished world Japan’s naval supremacy in the Pacific. But a tide that came in fast, went out just as quickly when, within six months of that infamous day, the US Navy extracted its revenge at Midway. In this, the first of Osprey’s Fleet series, Mark Stille surveys the Imperial Japanese Navy in its prime.
Stille begins with the rapid rise of the Imperial Japanese Navy and its strategic considerations for a potential future war with the United States in the Pacific. At the heart of that lay the concept of winning a decisive battle based around capital ships, though Stille notes that this never happened in WWII. When war appeared inevitable, the Japanese opted for neutralising the US Navy. That meant a devastating blow at Pearl Harbor with the subsequent capture of Midway Island acting as a lure to bring the Americans into a decisive battle. Unfortunately for the Japanese, their plan backfired.
A survey of the major ships in the IJN follows, including their aircraft carriers, battleships, heavy and light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. Stille then examines Japanese weaponry, including their far superior torpedoes, before moving onto how the IJN fought: their organisation, command and control, doctrine, intelligence and deception, logistics and facilities, and their shipbuilding capability that proved inadequate when competing with the industrial might of the United States. All that settled, Stille sets out to sea, considering the IJN in combat, including the Pearl Harbor raid and combined fleet operations in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. But then came the defeats, first at Coral Sea then the disaster at Midway; the IJN’s superiority was over. Stille argues that the IJN was tactically better than their opponents but made crucial errors, the biggest of which was their failure to understand the all-encompassing nature of modern warfare for which they were ultimately unprepared.
Mark Stille has written an excellent introduction to the IJN in the early engagements of World War II. He covers all the bases in his descriptions of what this fleet was and how it worked, and his overall analysis will have you diving into his Further Reading list to find out more. Stille is ably supported by Osprey’s usual high quality colour illustrations. If you are looking for a starting point into understanding the Imperial Japanese Navy, Stille’s book will do the job and then some. For Osprey, this is an excellent opening volume for a promising new series
by RNS | Sep 8, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Paolo Morisi, Steel Centurions, (Helion & Company, 2023)
(Reviewed by Dom Sore)
The latest book on my extensive Italian army reading list is Paolo Morisi’s Steel Centurions, which looks at the Italian armoured formations of World War II. Beginning with the initial thoughts within the Regio Esercito after the introduction of tanks and ending around the surrender of the Italian Government on 8 September 1943, this is a story of hidebound thinking, lack of preparation, and logistical nightmares. Morisi conducts an in-depth analysis of the armoured formations, how they came about, where they were deployed, and how they performed, all presented chronologically in a softback 439 page book, consisting of ten chapters, five appendices and a bibliography.
This book is heavy on detail and analysis but written in an accessible manner. The failings of the Regio Esercito are laid bare, but at no point does the author fall into the ‘lions led by donkeys’ trap or imply they were all just rubbish. There is balance in the writing that highlights where those failings lay: the lack of preparation, the unsuitability of the armour and the economy, and tactical and strategic errors. But Morisi also gives credit where it is due: the improvement brought about by training, the esprit de corps in the face of overwhelming odds, and what they managed to do even in the face of their failings. You will also learn most of what you might need to know about where the armour fought and how it performed.
There are some editing issues in the book that stand out but don’t detract from; it looks like ‘Has’ has been used in place of ‘As’ in some parts, which hints at a cut-and-paste error, and there is also the strange appearance of the word “irrupted”. Four maps are included, but they are not enough to help position the forces, especially in the open desert of North Africa where deployments are often difficult to visualise. An index would have been useful too. However, the bibliography is extensive, so I can forgive a missing index.
Morisi’s book pulls no punches in exposing the failings of the Italian armour of World War II, but he also gives them credit when they do well. You will learn a lot from this book particularly with regards to Rommel and his performance even if that isn’t what the book is about. A few more maps would be nice but that doesn’t take anything away from the book. If you have any interest in North Africa during World War II, then this book is a must have. Buy it, you won’t be disappointed.
by RNS | Aug 30, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Paul Dawson, The Battle Against the Luddites (Pen & Sword, 2023)
I have been called a Luddite, someone who cannot accept technological progress and would rather break the machine than adopt it. It is quite a common insult, but it doesn’t mean historically what most people think it does. Paul Dawson’s latest book surveys the Luddites and paints a far different picture than most would expect. They were not reactionary thugs, but revolutionaries, or perhaps counter-revolutionaries, seeking to find their place in the industrial revolution sweeping England during the Napoleonic Wars.
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Dawson opens in 1803 with Britain divided along class and religious grounds. Luddism’s epicentre lay in the woollen industry in Yorkshire, which was transforming from a cottage industry to a factory system based on machines. From the late 18th Century, the Luddites smashed machines and terrorised the emerging capitalist class in unrest that extended to rural areas as the Enclosure system took hold. These protests, Dawson argues, were underpinned by Jacobin ideology and non-conformist religion. An emerging social and economic crisis in the 1790s, capped by a terrible harvest in 1799, led to the nascent working class becoming organised, causing fears of a French-style revolution amongst the ruling class. Luddites, according to Dawson, were part of this broader class struggle. In 1802, they burned mills and formed illegal trade unions. The Tory government, argues Dawson, backed capital over labour, however, using threats of force and prison to make their case. The Whigs, on the other hand, often sided with the workers. All this was set against an economy struggling through the often unpopular Napoleonic wars. Peace petitions to the government failed though, prompting increased working class resistance through violence.
We move forward to Nottingham in 1811 with targeted attacks on machine owners and general unrest. Then came the loss of American trade, making matters worse through increased unemployment and inflation. More violence erupted in 1812, some of it armed and organised with military precision. Disturbances spread into Lancashire. Then came food riots. A thoroughly alarmed Government deployed Dragoons to quell the violence by using violence, but the Luddite outbreak evolved into a revolutionary movement, argues Dawson, with many believing that the French would assist. The government reacted by mustering an army near Manchester that embarked on a wave of ‘military pacification’. Nevertheless, the assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, in May 1812, met with open celebrations in Luddite supporting territories. Throughout the summer, the Luddites conducted raids to collect arms. The Government responded with repressive tactics on the ground while adopting legislation designed to support coercion while alleviating some of the economic conditions underlying the Luddite cause. The government’s carrot and stick tactics weakened the Luddites, and the movement was all but routed by November 1812. Show trials then executions followed in 1813 literally killing Luddite support. The Luddites may have been defeated, notes Dawson, but Luddism was not as resurgent violence in 1816 and 1817 demonstrated. Dawson concludes by reinserting the Luddites into the broader class struggle against those exploiting the emerging working class in a time of severe disruption.
The Battle Against the Luddites is a misleading title for this book, which focuses primarily on the rise and fall of the Luddites with government action a necessary but secondary part of the story. Dawson’s quite orthodox Marxist interpretation of the Luddites might also be questioned, particularly when he makes comparisons to the Miners’ strikes of the 1980s, though he just about steers clear of allowing his argument to become a polemic. Neither of those issues make this a bad book, however. Dawson’s detailed narrative is a valuable contribution to the literature on the Luddites. Moreover, Dawson’s inclusion of contemporary quotes adds to our understanding of this highly influential movement for the foundations of the English working class. After reading this, you certainly could not dismiss the Luddites as just machine breaking thugs.
by RNS | Aug 21, 2023 | Beating Tsundoku
Daniel Marston, The American Revolution 1774-83 (Osprey, 2023)
Some might argue that the most important event in modern western history was the successful American Revolution fought against the British between 1774 and 1783. And while there were many reasons for the American victory, winning the armed conflict was the central factor. Daniel Marston’s volume in Osprey’s Essential Histories series focuses on that war, which looks familiar to European eyes but somehow different.
Marston leads with an introductory narrative of the events leading to war. He follows that with an analysis of the competing military systems along with military innovations such as mixed infantry and cavalry units and an increase in irregular warfare. Otherwise, the war mostly conformed to orthodox European tactics. Marston highlights British military problems, which were many despite the reputation of their field army, with logistics arguably the greatest issue for a war fought 3,000 miles away. For their part, the Americans started with just militia forces and had to raise an army and train them, but they were operating on home ground, giving them a distinct advantage. Then, when the French entered the war on the American side, they brought an efficient and effective force to bear. That proved decisive.
Marston returns to his narrative with the shot heard round the world at Lexington and the battles that followed in 1775. The author then adopts a broader view of the war, surveying naval and land operations at the strategic level, though again following the chronological narrative with the major battles included and ending at Yorktown. Marston pauses briefly to consider some of the main political, social, and economic impacts of the war before examining how the war ended and its global ramifications.
This is a well-structured military history that sketches out the main lines of the narrative of the Revolution while moving smoothly between the different theatres of war. That isn’t easy given the different nature of the war between the northern region and the South. Marston also succeeds admirably in placing the war in the global context, particularly highlighting the problems the French created for the British across its empire. As ever, Osprey supports Marston with excellent graphics, maps, and illustrations. This is a useful introduction to the American Revolution for military and general history readers.
